TEAR DOWN THOSE PYRAMIDS

Was Ronald Reagan a great President? Well, following Vietnam, the oil shortages, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter, how good did you have to be? The nation was in a funk, economically and attitudinally. Just maintaining an even keel might be enough, in the eyes of many, to make you a great President. So yeah, Ronald Reagan might qualify as a great President.

But there were some negatives. On Ronald Reagan’s watch, the federal debt almost tripled, from $789 billion in 1981 to $2,191 billion in 1989, and in no year was there a budget surplus. The nation moved from being the world’s largest international creditor to being the largest international debtor. Unemployment reached 10.8 percent in the last months of 1982, almost two years into Reagan’s first term. The highest unemployment rate under Barrack Obama has been 10.6 percent, which basically was an inheritance from his predecessor.

Two hundred forty-one members of the U.S military died by Islamic suicide bomber in 1983 in Lebanon. Reagan responded by withdrawing the U.S. military from Lebanon, a wise move say some, cutting and running say others. In any event, the home-front political repercussions were few because Reagan promptly had the military beat the snot out of Grenada, a Caribbean powerhouse. Internationally, the withdrawal had a more detrimental result, helping to persuade a certain up-and-coming Islamic radical that the United States was something of a paper tiger.

In 1986, a murky arms for hostages deal involving Iran and aid to Central American anti-communist rebels raised questions about the extent to which Reagan was actually in control of his Administration.

But let’s be generous and say Reagan was a great President. He was certainly better than some who have gotten to the Oval Office. He made many of us feel good. He said pithy things. The problem is his present-day worshipers. They are prone to see the Reagan years as the nation’s apogee, a time when all was right with the world. They see the fall of Communism as a direct result of a Reagan pithy exhortation: “Tear Down This Wall.” They want current problems to be so easily solved.

The attitude was on display this weekend, the centennial of Reagan’s birth. The boys and girls at conservative media central, Fox News, could not just extol Reagan’s virtues. They had to go a step further and bash current political adversaries by contending that Ronnie would know how to solve current problems. The economy? The deficit? Ronnie would know what to do about them, never mind the mixed economic record of his eight years.

But perhaps the most ludicrous statements concerned the current turmoil in Egypt. Ronnie would know precisely what the nation’s policy should be. More important, he would be able to articulate that policy with rousing words of inspiration. The Fox News folks didn’t get around to speculating what those words might be, just that Ronnie would find them.

Ronnie not being here, however, perhaps he and his friends at Fox need some help. How about this: “Mr. Mubarak, Tear Down Those Pyramids.”