Posted on 06/08/2004 8:15:12 PM PDT by lasereye
Four and a half years ago, reviewing Edmund Morris' much-maligned Reagan biography, Dutch, I ended the piece by saying Ronald Reagan was the greatest U.S. president of the 20th century.
Well, who else?
Franklin Roosevelt is the only contender. But FDR worsened the financial collapse he inherited from Hoover by raising taxes, pursuing a tight money policy and failing to rescind the Smoot-Hawley trade tariffs. It took Reagan, with help from Paul Volcker, less than three years to get the economy booming after the Carter-era malaise. FDR deserves hero status for helping to save the world in the 1940s. Let us not forget that victory cost 250,000 American lives. Yet without a shot, Reagan won the 20th century's other great fight against tyranny. In so doing, he liberated hundreds of millions of people.
I'm sticking with my pick. Dutch was the best.
Following is the original review.
Critics flayed and skewered Dutch, the Edmund Morris biography of Ronald Reagan. I rather liked it. You could do much worse in your hunt for a good holiday book. Unlike standard biographies, this one reads like a prose version of a superbly rendered documentary, in the style of Ken Burns.
Many have carped about Morris' brave but odd literary technique: The writer "fictionalized" himself as an American-born citizen and contemporary of Reagan's. (He's actually Kenyan-born and 59 years old.) The idea was to put a "camera" on Reagan, then follow him as he grew up in rural Illinois, reached manhood in Des Moines (as a Chicago Cubs announcer) and attained fame in Hollywood. As for the Hollywood years, Morris tells us that Reagan was not a great actor--too stiff--but he was not as bad as Warren Beatty and Jane Fonda have made out. Dutch, by age 30, was Warner Bros.' top featured player, knocking on stardom's door. Who's the equivalent of Reagan today? Perhaps Pierce Brosnan.
The same critics who complain about the Morris technique whine that Morris tags Reagan as a middlebrow rube, an airhead and as intellectually incurious. Lighten up! It's called I-R-O-N-Y. Morris did this intentionally! His fictional narrator in the book is a rich, spoiled boy from Chicago, who finds himself in western Illinois, close enough to catch glimpses of young Reagan. The Morris character can't fathom how Dutch, son of an alcoholic skip-town father, is able to transcend his poverty and limitations time and again.
But isn't that precisely how snobs and intellectuals always saw Reagan? They could never figure the guy out. "This Reagan fellow...he's got those American boobs under his spell." Or after any Reagan triumph: "It must be Reagan luck!" Thus, the Morris technique, odd though it may be, is a brilliant way to convey snob cynicism toward Reagan--yet the author's neat literary trick is utterly missed by the critics. They attribute the foul sentiment to Morris. Indeed, by the book's second half, even the fictional Morris melts under Reagan's charm and conviction, as did we all.
The Great Communicator One Morris revelation that may surprise even the hard-core Reagan fan: Dutch was a superb writer. His short stories at Eureka College are of professional quality. He wrote most speeches he gave until 1980; after that, he often rewrote aides' drafts into his own words and rhythms. We advise that you have plenty of Kleenex handy when you read the poem he wrote on his last day as governor of California or his shocking 1994 letter to the American public announcing his Alzheimer's disease and withdrawal from public life.
Dutch has its flaws, as daring innovations often do. I had hoped Morris would get past the usual gripe about the Reagan-era budget deficits. Alas, he falls for the prevailing bonehead take--that Reagan's historic success at reviving the American economy is tainted by those record-high deficits.
Reagan fans often counter these criticisms by pointing out that the Democrats controlled the House, which submits the budgets. Or that Reagan-era deficits were as large as they were because higher defense spending was needed to refurbish the military after the neglect of the Carter years, as well as to bring down the Soviet Union--an event that is still paying dividends, not the least of which is today's U.S.-led Internet boom. Military upgrade is indeed a sufficient argument for the Reagan-era deficits.
American Wealth Doubles There is yet another argument. Most commentators, Morris included, miss it. The Reagan years added $1.4 trillion to the federal debt; that much is fact. But that figure is a teeny blip set against the spike in American asset values, a rise created by the tax-cut boom; i.e., a rise created by Dutch himself. When Reagan took office in 1981 the market value of all American assets--stocks, land, crops, houses, commercial buildings, capital equipment, cars, collectibles, precious metals, etc.--was about $16 trillion. When he left office in 1989, that number had doubled to $33 trillion. Consider this bump of $17 trillion next time The New York Times kvetches about the debt and proposes to wipe it out with a tax hike.
Can you imagine a chief executive officer who would refuse to issue $1 of debt in the knowledge that $12 would come back in asset value? Such a CEO would be a shortsighted fool, deserving of a swift kick out the door. Reagan, no fool, never liked deficits but was not unduly troubled by them, either. He pondered his priorities and took out the loan. Then he shattered the Soviet Union and created the conditions for a doubling of American asset value in eight years. For that, Ronald Reagan is the best president of this century. Likewise, for all its flaws, Dutch is a fresh look at this great man.
Rich Karlgaard is publisher of Forbes magazine.
Yea, the guy that interred an entire race of people, while confiscating their property. Wow, what a hero?
Tell that to the tens of millions of Eastern Euopeans he turned over to Stalin, a tyrant as bad as Hitler.
FDR was not a great president. He led the country in a time of war and we were victorious...but that in itself does not make him great or a hreo. In fact, when you consider his disastorous socialiistic/marxistic policies of the New Deal, his creation of a governance that drifted further and further away from the Constitutional model, his sell-out at the end of World War II...then by my standards, he ranks with one of the worst presidents...and I say this as the son of a World War II combat vet who fought through that war and has now passed on, but who taught me the Real Deal about the New Deal.
Reagan was not only the greatest President of the 20th Century, he ranks right up there next to George Washington in my estimation as the sedonc best President of all time.
Calvin Coolidge deserves to be 2nd after Reagan. IMO, the most underrated President of all time. He was truly a great President.
roosevelt was the worst
a contender (but not chanmpion) was coolidge
cut taxes, awesome economic growth
no wars
no new stupid government programs
How much better can it be than that?
1. George Washington.
2-3. Ronald Reagan or Abraham Lincoln or vice versa.
4. Thomas Jefferson.
5. Theodore Roosevelt.
6. Calvin Coolidge.
The worst?
1. Franklin Roosevelt.
2. Bill Clinton.
3. Lyndon Johnson.
4. Jimmy Carter.
Carter??
2 great things
appointed volker to the fed
got the airline and truckers deregulation bill passed.
Ok- he only did 2 million stupid things.
Helped Reagan enormously.
no thank you to FDR for the bomb?
My sentiments exactly, re Coolidge.
Having gotten married and bought my first house under Carter, living through the misery index he was responsible for...I personally keep him in that spot on the bad list.
The farm bill and free drugs to seniors is over the top and disgusting.
I'll still campaign for him in the fall but I still think he advanced socialism in the U.S.
In the end, he hasn't stood up against big government. That's a disappointment.
The farm bill and free drugs to seniors is over the top and disgusting.
I'll still campaign for him in the fall but I still think he advanced socialism in the U.S.
In the end, he hasn't stood up against big government. That's a disappointment.
Another vote for Silent Cal here. A visit to his home in Plymouth Notch should be on the itinerary of every American interested in history. Grover Cleveland was another outstanding President who is largely under-rated. McKinley and Rutherford B. Hayes had their moments, too. A lot of those quiet, late 19th Century Presidents were excellent stewards of the government.
don't forget trying to pack the Supreme Court because they wouldn't die fast enough. Can you imagine how they would have written the history book if a Republican tried that?
FDR is absolutely near the bottom of the list.
People apparently looked to him to save them (which populations are apt to do, unfortunately) and he only made things worse. His economic intrusions and interventions allowed the 'depression' to stick around for a while like a bad houseguest. He probably indirectly caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands through his socialistic agenda.
FDR, LBJ, Wilson, and Nixon (flame on!) are the worst four presidents of the 20th century and all are on the list for top 10 worst ever. What those four did paved the way for the government monstrosity we have today. It is only through the actions of Reagan (greatest President of the last 150 years) and a select few others that we've been 'allowed' to retain the freedoms that we have.
Clinton, objectively, really wasn't all that bad in his policies. He's scum personally and his wife is a demon of the lowest order; however, Slick Willy wasn't able to enact a lot of the agenda he wanted to because of a (at the time) strong Republican Congress. Therefore, his Presidency really wasn't all that traumatic for the nation. But I think that it's the villainification of the most recently hated Presidents which vaults him to the top of many peoples' lists.
Kerry has definitely got what it takes to set the precedent for the worst Presidents of the 21st century. The waffling ability, the Marxist policies, and the willingness to be guided by such a corrupt and depraved organization as the UN will hypothetically set him in a league of his own where he may very well pass FDR and LBJ as one of the greatest villains of American history.
...and he was impeached.
read later bump
a couple of smart moves doesn't negate a disasterous 12 years.
he helped Reagan enormously by being so bad.
No, Volker helped and the era of deregulation helped. I am not defended Carter- but he deserves credit on those 2 counts.
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