Written by: Gary Gershman
Gary Gershman is an associate professor of history and legal studies in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences.
As some Americans celebrate President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday, others are asking what we are celebrating. Republicans hail Reagan as the standard bearer for the modern conservative movement, but many Democrats see him as the bogeyman.
People’s perception of what happened in American history is often as important as what actually took place. Thanksgiving, the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln — to name a few — are significant symbols, which have been infused with mythology to serve important functions in shaping American history and how we understand it. It is those perceptions that help shape Americans’ attitudes toward current and future crises.
Myth and nostalgia, part truth, part fiction, give us simplified versions of the past, which we remember. Ronald Reagan is one of those myths. Like many American myths, Ronald Reagan was a fusion of reality and fantasy, of history and Hollywood. He was a man who supported the New Deal and voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt four times, yet became the icon of conservative ideals. He blended many things and wasn’t the man who either Republicans or Democrats claim he was. Though he helped fuel the rise of conservatism in America, he wasn’t a conservative by today’s standards. He often abandoned the very principles he championed.
The Reagan myth blossomed in 1980. Reagan won the 1980 Republican nomination for president, despite considerable opposition by the Republican establishment. At the convention he unified the party. During his campaign, Reagan said, “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
Throughout the 1980 campaign, and at the start of his administration, Reagan focused on lowering taxes, which culminated in large tax cuts in 1981. However, he failed to reduce spending, forcing him to raise taxes numerous times during the rest of his tenure. In another campaign promise, Reagan vowed to shrink the size of government. For example, he called for the elimination of two Cabinet agencies (Energy and Education). Not only did they remain, but he added one (Veterans Affairs) and increased the defense budget. The result was a deficit that more than doubled, an increase in the size of federal government and a rise in the number of federal employees. All of this occurred despite the fact that Reagan is remembered for emphasizing what are the hallmarks of the modern conservative movement — smaller government, mistrust in Washington and tax cuts.
The myth of Reagan emphasizes his popularity. However, Reagan’s two administrations were also marked by Democratic gains in the Congress. The 1982 midterm elections resulted in the Republicans’ loss of two dozen seats in the House. Just four years later in 1986, the Democrats regained control of the Senate.
Historians describe Reagan as both pragmatic and practical. While he espoused a conservative philosophy he was not an ideologue. He was willing to compromise his core philosophy and ideology. As biographer Richard Reeves noted, he changed American politics making big government the enemy while simultaneously using it to get what he wanted. The country bought into the Reagan rhetoric. Politics shifted to the right, forcing liberals and Democrats onto the defensive.
Since his presidency, the myth of Reagan has overpowered the reality of Reagan. Most Americans look back at the 1980s with nostalgia, forgetting the problems that arose during
his eight years in office. Events such as Iran-Contra, the death of 241 Marines in Lebanon, and the burgeoning deficit fall to the wayside.
President Reagan is the classic example of how nostalgia often drives American history. Nostalgia focuses on the positives while ignoring the negatives. It looks fondly back at a time when “things were better.” It assumes that, by following the same patterns and philosophy, we can return to such a time. In the 1920s we looked achingly to the 1890s. In the 21st century, we look back to the time of Reagan and the 1980s, focusing on the positives and the myth, forgetting that not all was good.
The problem is nostalgia can be destructive. America of 2011 is not the America of 1980. By focusing too hard on the past, one struggles to deal with present problems, often confronting it in a misguided way, opening the door for greater difficulties.
In the end, even Ronald Reagan was not Ronald Reagan. Over 20 years, after leaving office, he has become a symbol, albeit an important symbol. The myth is important because it projects values and political ideas that drive America. Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday serves as an important historical lesson in the power of myth and how it can overwhelm reality, sometimes, to our detriment.
