RIP

Ronald Reagan died a couple hours ago. To live with Alzheimer’s as long as he did is a fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Reagan was a fixture in my childhood and early adolescence. He had as much influence on my own liberal politics as anyone. Even at ten years old, I was afraid that Reagan would deliver the entire world into nuclear oblivion. It will be interesting to see whether the imminent onslaught of media tributes will give much attention to his early political life, when Reagan was a solid FDR Democrat. Someone else said Reagan’s political transformation mirrored a shift in the entire nation towards a more conservative worldview. I’m not so sure about that. The pendulum is always swinging back and forth in this country. Conservatives have certainly become increasingly conservative, but there still exists a vast middle ground in the body politic that seems willing to move slightly to the left or the right depending on which way the wind is blowing. Reagan was very good at reaching out to those people. Every president after Reagan has emulated (some more successfully than others) his style of communication. Reagan was the MTV of presidents, placing style over substance. And that tradition continues today.