Reply #4: Another Reagan legacy: perception supplants reality

[Martin Eden]

What the "Great Communicator" communicated were platitudes that made Americans feel better about themselves and their country. Well, not all Americans, but enough to account for the current fuss over his passing. Many people liked the man, but this popularity essentially blinded the public to the negative consequences of his policies.

Rather than go into those policies here, I call attention to how patriotism and the alleged promotion of American values provided cover for policies that tripled the national debt, increased the disparity between rich and poor, and supported tyrants and terrorists who killed thousands of innocent people in Latin America and elsewhere.

The most lasting legacy of the Reagan administration is how perception has supplanated reality -- a disconnect between how the public perceives our leaders and the true effects of their policies. A degree of disconnect has always been there, but Reagan's public persona and upbeat articulation of American values established an enduring and undeserving legitimacy for a conservative agenda that benefits a few at the top, fosters intolerance and backdoor racism among many who identify themselves as Christians, and implements a foreign policy that gives rise to anti-Americanism among third world populations that have been so adversely affected.

The vast majority of U.S. citizens were ill-served by Reagan's policies, and even less so by the current "conservative" administration. W. Bush is without a doubt part of the Reagan/Bush legacy. The effects of his policies are decidedly un-Christian, yet his biggest support comes from the Christian right. The erosion of Constitutional safeguards and the right wing assault on poltical dissent represent the gravest danger to American values since McCarthyism, yet those who proclaim their patriotism and proudly wave flags are the most vociferous enablers of that erosion.

Perception and reality are farther apart than ever. This is the most lasting legacy of the man for whom so many tears have just been shed, and because of whom so many tears and so much blood continues to be shed.