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more evidence of Reagan's cunning and determination
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Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
I've yet to see any of these articles discuss one of the more interesting legacies of Reagan. Namely, "Reagan Democrats" and the gradual political transformation of the South.
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On that one, Reagan is seen as the inheritor of Nixon's legacy.
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Originally posted by Hello
God forbid the man might have had competing goals of defeating the Soviet Union by expanding the military at a pace with which they could not compete, and of taking measures to reduce the threat of immediate and/or inadvertent nuclear holocaust. Lord knows that the two could never sit in a presidency together.
Strangely, which of the two would the writer advocate as being more important? Given the second, can one explain how Reagan would have obtained the cooperation of the Soviets without the first?
If the writer's point was that Reagan's achievements weren't as simple as they are sometimes set out, then its a good point. If his point is that he doesn't understand the numerous and complex demands on the presidency, because he believes each president can only have one overriding objective in foreign policy (i.e., bankrupting the Soviet Union in Reagan's case), then he did a great job explaining the point.
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I think his point was that Reagan's views and record are not captured by and fully consistent what his hagiographers say about him now. I don't think Chait was opposed to arms control treaties, but it kinda runs counter to a plan of bankrupting the Soviet Union.
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“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
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