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The Daily Signal
4 Liberal Myths
About Ronald Reagan Debunked
Lee Edwards
June 07, 2015
Presidential historian H. W. Brands’ new biography of Ronald Reagan and
his conclusion that modern American politics is best seen as “The Age
of Reagan” has aroused liberals to circulate once again the hoariest
myths about the man and his presidency, including the malicious charge
that Reagan was deliberately indifferent to the lot of
African-Americans and other minorities.
Liberal Myth No. 1: Reagan’s dangerously belligerent foreign policy had
little to do with the disintegration of Soviet Communism. Mikhail
Gorbachev was the leader most responsible for bringing the Cold War to
a non-nuclear conclusion.
Reality: In the 1970s, as presidential scholar Kiron Skinner has
written, Reagan formulated four key ideas about U.S.–Soviet relations
and the Cold War. One, discussion of Soviet expansionism around the
world had to precede any talk about arms control, not the reverse. Two,
America was an “exceptional” nation obligated to match deeds with words
in the promotion of freedom around the world. Three, because the Soviet
Union was an “abnormal” nation with no popular base of support, it was
prepared to foment global crises to maintain its control. Four, the
Soviet Union’s inefficient economy and inferior technology “could not
survive competition” with America. Once elected president, Reagan began
carrying out a multifaceted victory strategy based on these ideas.
Reagan ordered an across-the-board buildup of the defense
establishment, including land-based weapons, new ships, and new
medium-range missiles. He launched a psychological offensive, declaring
that the Soviets’ “evil empire” was headed for “the ash heap of
history.” He made SDI (the Strategic Defensive Initiative) the
cornerstone of the Reagan Doctrine and would not surrender it, even at
the Reykjavik summit. He strongly supported anti-Communist forces in
Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, and Cambodia.
He carried his crusade for freedom into the disintegrating Soviet
empire. Standing before Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in 1987, he directly
challenged the Kremlin, saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” A
little more than two years later, the wall came down and Communism in
Eastern and Central Europe collapsed. Lech Walesa, Nobel laureate and
founder of the Polish trade union Solidarity that confronted the
Communist regime, said of President Reagan, “We in Poland … owe him our
liberty.”
Democracy triumphed in the Cold War, Reagan wrote in his autobiography,
because it was a battle of ideas—“between one system that gave
preeminence to the state and another that gave preeminence to the
individual and freedom.” The Cold War ended in triumph for the idea of
freedom because of Ronald Reagan, not Mikhail Gorbachev, who as late as
1988 quoted the Communist Manifesto when asked his position on private
property.
Liberal Myth No. 2: The ’80s were a decade of greed that benefited only
the wealthy and overlooked the middle class.
Reality: Reagan inherited a dangerously weakened economy. High tax
rates had severely limited jobs and investment and brought in less than
expected government revenue. President Reagan reversed the process by
cutting personal tax rates and government regulations, stabilizing the
economy and encouraging entrepreneurs.
Following the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, unemployment in the
succeeding years fell an estimated 45 percent. During the ’80s, the
consumer price index rose only 17 percent, private domestic investment
grew 77 percent, and economic growth averaged 4.6 percent annually. The
real income of every stratum of Americans increased, and total tax
collections rose from $500 billion in 1980 to $1 trillion in 1990 (in
constant dollars).
At the same time, Reagan deregulated oil prices, making energy cheaper,
and launched U.S.-Canadian free trade, setting the stage for NAFTA (the
North American Free Trade Agreement). Perhaps most important of all, he
created IRAs (individual retirement accounts) and 401(k) programs,
giving birth to what has been called “the investor class.” New
industries arose in computing, software, communications, and the
Internet that streamlined and transformed the American economy.
Liberal Myth No. 3: The federal government continued to grow and expand
under Reagan, who callously tripled the national debt.
Reality: During the Reagan years, overall domestic spending did
increase, as the president battled with a Democratic House of
Representatives led by a fiercely partisan Speaker Tip O’Neill.
Spending on education, social services, medicine, and food almost
doubled. However, federal outlays on regional development, commerce,
and housing credit decreased by about 22 percent. And the size of the
federal civilian workforce declined by about 5 percent, because of
conservative managers such as Donald Devine, described by The
Washington Post as “Reagan’s terrible swift sword of the civil
service.” The annual federal deficit as a share of GDP fell
significantly from 6.3 percent in 1983 to 2.9 percent in 1989. As
Reagan left office, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) projected
that “deficits were on a path to fall to about 1 percent of GDP” by
1993.
The near tripling of the national debt was mostly due to Reagan’s
defense spending. In President Carter’s last budget, America spent just
under $160 billion on national defense. In 1988, the Reagan
administration spent $304 billion, including more than twice as much on
military hardware. During his years in office, Reagan expended a total
of $1.72 trillion on national defense, an unprecedented amount that he
stoutly defended.
Challenged in a cabinet meeting that he “couldn’t spend all of this
money on the military” and that it would look bad to boost spending on
guns while cutting the butter, Reagan replied: “Look, I am the
president of the United States, the commander-in-chief. My primary
responsibility is the security of the United States. … If we don’t have
security, we’ll have no need for social programs.”
The essential question was, “What price peace?” Was it worth $1.72
trillion to build up America’s defenses so that Reagan could end the
Cold War at the bargaining table and not on the battlefield? Most
Americans would not hesitate to emphatically answer, “Yes!”
If we examine the economic report cards of postwar presidents from
Truman through Reagan, according to Harvard economist Robert Barro,
Reagan easily finishes first. Using the change each year in inflation,
unemployment, interest rates, and growth in gross national product,
Reagan ranks first. He engineered the largest reduction in the misery
index (inflation plus unemployment) in history—50 percent. The 1980s,
says economist Richard B. McKenzie, were, up to then, “the most
prosperous decade in American history.”
Liberal Myth No. 4: Reagan was a cynical, calculating politician who
used “states’ rights” to win the 1980 election and paid little
attention to African-Americans as president.
Reality: The African-American columnist Joseph Perkins has calculated
that black unemployment fell from 19.5 percent in 1983 to 11.4 percent
in 1989. The income of black-owned businesses rose almost one-third
between 1982 and 1987. The black middle class grew from 3.6 million to
4.8 million during the Reagan years, while the cash income of black
households (adjusted for inflation) rose by 12 percent. By contrast,
the median income of black households fell by 2.2 percent during the
Obama years from 2010 to 2013.
Throughout the ’70s, Reagan exhorted fellow Republicans to address the
party’s failure to attract black voters. At the 1977 Conservative
Political Action Conference, he said, “We [Republicans] believe in
treating all Americans as individuals and not as stereotypes or voting
blocs.” Speaking to the Urban League in August 1980, after having won
the GOP’s presidential nomination, Reagan said, “I am committed to the
protection and enforcement of the civil rights of black Americans . . .
into every phase of the programs I will propose.”
While marking Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday in 1983, President
Reagan drew an arresting parallel between the first Republican
president and the man Americans were honoring that day. “Abraham
Lincoln freed the black man,” he noted. “In many ways, Dr. King freed
the white man. … Where others—white and black—preached hatred, he
taught the principles of love and nonviolence.”
Who better than Ronald Reagan to have the last word about which is the
myth and which is the reality about his commitment to civil rights?
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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