Ronald Reagan has become a hero. Nowadays, even some Democrats praise him. During his tenure in the White House, however, this was not the case. It is easy to forget how regularly he was castigated for his purported incompetence.
To begin with he was an actor. His chief skill was allegedly pretending to be what he was not. Furthermore, as an actor, he did not write his own lines. People who had more smarts supplied the words. His knack was delivering them with conviction.
Then too he was lazy. He habitually got to the oval office late and left early. Since he did not know what he was doing, he delegated important decisions to those who did. He was a figurehead; not a hard worker or deep thinker.
And those crazy ideas of his; there were so many. Voodoo economics, for instance. Instead of paying the nation’s bills, he wanted to cut taxes. He also thought the federal government was too big. He, with a straight face, described this as a grave problem.
On the international scene, he was similarly unhinged. Instead of getting along with the Soviets, he wanted to confront them. He even proposed a mad scheme for anti-missile defense. Everyone knew this was unworkable and yet he persisted.
To cap things off, he told the Russians they must tear down the Berlin wall. Why was he baiting the bear? The Cold War was never going to end so why couldn’t he admit as much. International confrontations were a dead end. Besides, they were dangerous.
Despite this negative drumbeat, the American public gradually warmed to Reagan. He was genial. He was even funny. When a would-be assassin shot him, they sympathized with him. When the economy began to heat up, they applauded this achievement.
From the media, however, there were only sour grapes. He was dubbed the Teflon president. Why? Because none of the calumny hurled at him stuck. Not even the Iran-Contra debacle soiled his reputation. Too many of his initiatives worked out, irrespective of the criticism.
Fast forward to today. Donald Trump is anything but a Teflon president. Almost everything sticks to him. Has he been called a racist? Of course he has. But upon what basis is this charge made? Apparently he said some unpleasant things about Hispanic immigrants. Surely this was based on biology.
No wait. Aren’t millions of people fleeing from Central America because places like Honduras have become crime-infested hellholes? These respectable people simply seek protection. But please explain to me why only the good folks make the trip north. Don’t the bad ones join the caravans?
Then, when they get to the United States, babies are ripped from their mother’s arms. No wait. There has not been a single documented case of literal ripping. But why would this prevent opposition politicians from repeating a defamatory meme ad nauseum?
Then there was the Charlottesville business. The president opined that there were good people on both sides of the Confederate statue controversy. Did he, in this, mean to praise the KKK? Although he denied it, his motives were obvious. After all, anything said in favor of white southerners had to be racist.
The point is that the bias against Trump is so pervasive that anything he says or does is liable to be misconstrued. Reagan survived an unremitting onslaught of negative evaluations because he was amiable. He was a nice guy. In addition, most of his programs prospered.
Trump, on the other hand, is not so nice. He fights back. Where Reagan answered his detractors with a smile and a joke, Trump answers his with a barb and a counter-accusation. We are told that Trump’s language is offensive, but that of his enemies is plainly more so. He gets the blame because his approach is regarded as unpresidential.
Where is this headed? Reagan never got a particularly good press when in office. The end of the Cold War, however, was so spectacular that in retrospect it could not be denied. Trump, in contrast, is unlikely to be as victorious. He may therefore be destined for a longer exile in media purgatory.
Does this matter? I think not. The neo-Marxist bent of many journalists is a fact of modern history. It will not change. What counts for more is whether we, as a nation, overcome our infatuation with socialism. If we do, Trump’s capitalist successes will speak for themselves.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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