jmoiron.net

Inevitability rears its inevitably rearing head recently, in the form of exhaustion from overwork, the death of a terminally ill 93 year old ex-president, or in the form of an MPAA takedown notice.

I cheered when I heard that Ronald Reagan died at 4:09 a few days ago; not because someone was made to suffer, or that someone died, or even that I disagreed with his policy: I cheered because he was the turning point that led us to these times which I dispise so much. I cheered because I don't believe that he was a great world leader; I cheered because I remembered 45 of those 66 things to think about when flying into Ronald Reagan airport.

I told an ex-coworker today that I was sick of "this Reagan shit", and he promptly told me to die and blocked me, before dropping this: "He was a great world leader and deserves to be honored." I of course could rebut this statement, but does it even matter? Of all of the things he did that I hate, he did one thing that saved the world: he was able to get past his hardline-rhetoric, bite the bullet, and actually work with Gorbachev.

Christian told me the other day that "I was a lot like Tim; incredibly opinionated." The exception cited was that I was more readily to admit that I was wrong. I told him, jokingly, "I love admitting when I'm wrong. I so seldom get the chance to do it, that I take every opprotunity to heart and try to excel in it as best I can." Maybe I shouldn't have cheered so much this man's death who, despite our disagreements, was able to swallow his own bad medicine and go into talks?

Ronald Reagan called the Soviet's the "Evil Empire" as he was supplying Iraq and Iran with weapons to destroy eachother. He called them the Evil Empire, while our own (still not self admittedly an empire, but I'm confident that history will fix this mistake) supported oppresive regimes in Guatemala and El Salvador; regimes that were even killing white (gasp) people.

He tried to make ketchup a vegetable and cut federal programs for lunch money for under-privaledge kids. He lowered the income taxes on the highest tax bracket in the United States by something like 35% (actually I think it was more, but I'm willing to settle for 30%). In the 1980's, he spent as much money on the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) as George W. Bush, in all of his double speak rhetoric, spent on an actual war with actual results. Despite the quagmire, Afghanistan is ours to build our pipeline and westernize, and Saddam Hussein, who was bad, is no longer in power.

Reagan at the very least allowed and most likely encouraged the filtering of moneys through Iran to rebels in Nicaragua to overthrow the democratically elected Sandanista government. He also single handedly dismissed the results of their democratic election, at odds with several independent international comittee's and organizations. Had he gone in with Gorbachev earlier, we could have saved the $80 billion we spent on Star Wars.

But he eventually did; he did something that wouldn't have been done by Bush the senior (who was too much a part of the cold war intelligence game). His coaxed or coerced involvement in the talks that brought the worst war in history (remember, the war involved the slaughter of millions of vietnamese, hundreds of thousands of central and south americans, and the prolonged opression of millions of eastern europeans, not to mention the world itself was put to the brink of destruction) to a close are still commendable; to go from where he was to achieve what he did still deserves mention, even from this left wing nutbag.

So maybe I should ask myself, what would I do? If my principles turned out to be false, of Voodoo Economics really were the way to go, if supply side Jesus was an actual deity, would I be able to change? I can't say that, were I in his position, I'd be as loved as revered by people as he is today; I can say with some certainty that for 20 years after my presidency, it surely would not be in anyones advantage politically to align themselves with me. Would I be able to, however much I meant to spin it (as Reagan did), back down on my own beliefs for the sake of a greater good? Or, in the process of attempting to save everyone, would I save no one? In the process of leading by example and condemning the Russians, would I have weakened our defense enough to encourage an actual war by making it seem winnable? If I had signed the disarmament treaty with Gorbachev before starting Star Wars, would it have worked?

It seems pretty dubious that things would have turned out better had I been president, especially considering that for the first 2 years of his term I was not yet born. So I'm inclined to think that, maybe I should honor him. Maybe in the end things turned out well, that 10% unemployed, hyperinflation, a terrible economy and a worse popular vision of the future was worth having a president that could, if not admit he was wrong, at least change policy enough to make up for it.

But. But then I remember that partisan flagwaving and party zealotry is going to take this man and paint him as an unparalleled hero, as a "Great world leader who should be Honored" without the equally important passage about his mistakes, about the things we should learn not to do. I'm reminded of this largely because Grover Norquist is a self-aggrandizing conservative zealot who wants to replace Alexander Hamilton, the greatest asset this country ever had, on the Ten Dollar Bill.

Alexander Hamilton had faults, just like Reagan. His contemptuous attitude towards those he did not agree with, after all, led to his death. But the different is that Hamilton is the most under-rated genius that the 13 colonies ever produced.

Along with James Madison, Hamilton fathered the greatest legal document in the history of the world, the United States Constitution, which was completely unparalleled in its time. Hamilton went on to pen 52 of the 85 Federalist Papers, a collection of essays written with acumen that simply does not exist anymore, which can directly be attributed to the constitution's ratification.

His prescience is especially scary. Hamilton's understanding of markets and capitalism basically kept the system afloat for the first 30 years of its existence in the United States, and the systems that he put in place are in large part the reason why it has even survived to this day. (And as much as I am a socialist, I prefer capitalism to feudalism)

Hamilton also argued against the bill of rights, something that Gore Vidal has called "Man's greatest gift to mankind." His arguments against it, while in the short run would have been ruinous, have come to fruition in scarily accurate consequences. Hamilton (and other federalists) argued that any enumeration of rights would later give people in power an excuse to remove other rights not enumerated. Little did Jefferson know that this was so true that people would eventually use power to remove rights that were enumerated.

Because of his work in the treasury department and his enormous contributions to the start and success of this country, we have honored Hamilton on the Ten Dollar Bill. Benjamin Franklin, who is on the $100, is the only other non-president to reside on United States paper money (Sacagewea and Susan B. Anthony are among others who have been commemorated in coin) still in print.

No matter how much I believe what I've said, I see Norquist achieving his goals. I don't see how Reagan can be considered a greater president than Franklin D. Roosevelt, or a greater public servant than Alexander Hamilton, but I can see why people think he should be commemorated by U.S. currency. My answer is this: Put him on the penny. Lincoln already has the 5 dollar bill. By the time the revisionists reach Reagan and tear him to shreds, hopefully his coin will be out of circulation and he can avoid posthumous humiliation that would be admittedly a little undue given his single great achievement. Perhaps then, when there's more understanding of recent history, we can re-evaluate our position and make an informed decision. For now, I just can't forget that he comitted a greater act of theft than even 1.2 terabytes of movies: he stole the lives and dreams of 2 sub continents, and dishonored them in the process. And we live with this still.