Sunday, July 2, 2017

Just as They Misjudged Reagan They Misjudge Trump



"There is nothing new under the Sun"

That quote from the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, is credited to King Solomon.

Not quite so pithy -- but in proof -- I offer this brief historical reminder. That all the current anti-Trump talk has been heard before.

When, in March 1983, Reagan described the Soviet Union as "an evil empire," the liberal media and the professorial class's reaction was little short of hysterical. Writes William Rusher in July's Claremont Review of Books...

Henry Steele Commager, then a professor of history at Amherst, condemned Reagan's speech as "the worst presidential speech in American history, and I've read them all." Hendrik Hertzberg, later editor of The New Republic, protested that "words like that frighten the American public and antagonize the Soviets. What good is that?" Time's Strobe Talbott, later President Clinton's deputy secretary of state, made the same objection: "When a chief of state talks that way, he roils Soviet insecurities." George W. Ball, undersecretary of state in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, sounded a somber warning: "Mr. President, you have set us on a dark and ominous course. For God's sake, let us refix our compass before it is too late." 

They were wrong then. History -- including the testimony of the soon to be (alas, temporarily) liberated denizen's of Soviet system -- testified to that endlessly.

Read Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipeligo if you doubt it.

Reagan was "a fool,"  "an ignoramus," "a danger."  He was "senile." He was "mad." He needed to be removed from office.

But in fact he was none of those things. What he was, without doubt, was the most effective leader this nation had had since the end of WWII.

He was right. They -- the media and the 'always know betters' -- were wrong.

Yes, it was that clear.  History tells us so.

And the people were right too, because they -- the common man -- understood.  And thus Reagan aimed his thoughts to them. Spoke in a language they understood. Just as does President Trump today.


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