When did Reagan stop being Ray-Gun?

Ronald Reagan, Sean Wilentz Salon Books

A fascinating article, and a subject that really hits home for me. In my youth I was an unabashed Reagan supporter. I still think fondly of the day in 1984 when I went to the post office, registered for Selective Service, then went and voted for Reagan for President. I spent my college years supporting Reagan and all that he was about. I really believed in his talk about a shrinking government, New Federalism etc.

And that talk inspired me to vote for Bush the First in 88. And I still think that was a good idea then, he really was the right man to be President when the first Gulf War happened. But his downfall was the economic impact of the war and lack of a decent domestic agenda. And of course when the Dark Lord called Lee Atwater (the original Sith Lord to Karl Rove's pale Darth Vader) back to hell, George's fate was sealed.

The attempts by the Bush administration to paint Clinton's Arkansas as a wasteland were what really sealed the deal for me, coupled with the rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party. So I started going Independent. And I think a great number of 'Reagan Democrats' did the same thing in the Clinton years. Americans want to believe in a "Big Idea", and Reagan, and by extension Reaganism, captured that.

Unfortunately along with the love of the Big Idea there is a meanness in the American body politic, a willingness to believe the worst about our politicians. And that spirit has been captured by the Talk Radio-Fox News-NeoCon pack. It is the same spirit that elected Nixon twice. And it is the same spirit that the Republican party operators have proven unusually adept at handling. From the infamous Neshoba County Fair in 1980 where Reagan announced his candidacy accompanied by no small amount of veiled white fear and racism, thru Willie Horton to Karl Rove.

I can only hope that Obama's talk of Hope and Change can turn the corner, and get America back on a track of following the Big Idea and Spirit so we can improve our country, but not at the expense of others.