When Things Went Right: The Dawn of the Reagan-Bush Administration

Afterword Why Things Went Right

Afterword Why Things Went Right Looking back after thirty years with the perspective not allowed the nightly diarist, how might one say “things went right” in the United States under President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George Bush? The reasons I submit below characterize their entire tenure but were of particular value during their first two years in the White House. Optimism. Like Winston Churchill’s steely confidence in the worst days of World War II that Adolf Hitler would be defeated, Ronald Reagan’s sunny optimism during the long, rough economic troubles of – that his program would achieve sustained prosperity for the American people spurred his appointees, high and low, to keep plugging away at his agenda. The story he told on the first anniversary of his inauguration (“There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!”) was one he frequently repeated, for nothing better illuminated his outlook on life. Clarity of purpose. Reagan had only a few items on his agenda, but they were the right ones: a limited government, lower taxes, fewer regulations , and a strong and resolute national defense. He never wavered from these goals and never tired of stating them again and again until the American people knew what was in his heart and what he was determined to achieve. No one ever needed to take a poll into the Oval Office to determine what the President felt about a given issue. Boldness. Nothing better illustrated this trait than Reagan’s staunch belief that American might, resolution, and readiness would push “the evil empire” into the scrapheap. The acquisition of new missiles and aircraft , the drive toward a -ship Navy, the use of this revived force in selected cases (against Grenada in  and Libya in ), and his determination to achieve strategic missile defense persuaded the Kremlin that Reagan meant business. He was therefore able to reach agreements with 284 afterword the USSR to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons and reduce strategic systems, achievements that the muddle-headed proponents of a mere “nuclear freeze” never dared dream. Humor. Reagan was always ready with a quip, one that appeared to poke fun at himself but which in reality poked back at his detractors. The press, though scarcely on Reagan’s side, had to publish or show him making these cracks, because they were just plain funny. Once, in a press conference, a reporter told the President he always blamed the Democrats for national problems; didn’t he ever blame himself? Reagan swiftly said, yes, he did blame himself: “You see, I was once a Democrat.” Or the time he ran down the list of his accomplishments in office, paused, and then noted, “Not bad for someone who only works half-time.” Unfortunately , many conservatives, then and now, are too dour, viewing humor as trivializing serious matters, whereas in Reagan’s hands it was a devastatingly successful weapon. Willingness to work across the aisle. In our time, the political parties in Washington are so polarized they cannot imagine working with those they consider philosophically and morally repugnant. Republicans call Democrats “socialist”; Democrats call Republicans “fascist.” If mere physical proximity is deemed abhorrent, then sitting together to achieve compromises is out of the question. While patriots, they no longer have reverence for the Congress, for their individual houses, and much less for the United States government. These past touchstones of loyalty bound members and motivated them to work together. Games like golf or poker, and not a little alcohol, allowed members from different parties to get together on evenings and weekends and even to like each other. Today, when senators and representatives routinely fly home on Thursdays, they no longer have time, let alone the desire, to develop such friendships. Partisanship was not unknown in the s, and the Democrats’ attack on Reagan was unrelenting. The saw him (in the words of Washington fixer Clark Clifford) as “an amiable dunce,” and that was when they felt they should be respectful. But Reagan had a useful deafness when hit by questions from obnoxious reporters and by criticism from the loyal opposition. As he famously said of his relations with the Democratic speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, a fierce foe, “We’re friends after six o’clock.” why things went right 285 Willingness to compromise. Steadfast dedication to achieving his goals did not prevent Reagan from making adjustments and compromises along...