Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it.Now, the first thing to say about this is that the Illinois senator was ill-advised in his remarks. Actually, he was dumb--something that the former president of the Harvard Law Review is not known for. He should have realized that mentioning Ronald Reagan without heaping scorn or ridicule on him--if not linking him with George W. Bush and/or the Devil, would leave him open for exactly the kind of attacks he has had to endure this week.
I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.
But, you know something? Obama was right. I'm no fan of Reagan--until the latest occupant of the Oval Office, he was in my estimation the worst President in history, because he did evil effectively, unlike, say, James Buchanan or Millard Filmore. That being said, Reagan's accession did change the direction that America moved in. Very much for the worse, but it changed. And Republicans were a party of ideas at a time when we liberals and Democrats generally were pretty well played out. The ideas turned out to be as wrong-headed as we said they were, but they were out there at a period in history when our side had only bromides to answer with.
Being accurate isn't going to get Obama off the hook, much less win more support from Democrats for his remarks. But the truth of his observation ought to be noted.
There is one other inaccuracy in the Senator's comments that should be pointed out, too: Republicans were a party of ideas earlier than he said. Once they got power, in 1994, the ideas were replaced by policies, as is usually the case. A lesson for Democrats.
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