... and comes recklessly close to writing another balanced, well-documented history of the Reagan presidency, or to attempting a critique of Reagan's Chicago School Voodoo economics. We already have such histories, most notably Sean Wilentz's "Age of Reagan", and besides, Bunch is a journalist, not a historian. And we already have "reality" as the plainest critique of "trickle down" fantasizing. What Will Bunch does best is a steely-eyed diatribe, a righteous denunciation of the calculated distortions, the outright lies and willful amnesia, the "Hollywood" engineering of history by right-wing pundits and their wealthy supporters. At his most indignant, Bunch is thrilling to read ... unless, of course, the reader happens to be one of the dupes of Reaganite mythification. Fortunately, just the name Grover Norquist, or the postcard memory of visiting the Reagan Library, is enough to bring author Bunch back "on point". His subject is not Reagan per se but the dire aftermath of Reagan's presidency, especially as its real impact became obvious during eight years of inflexible orthodox "Reaganism" under George W.
Central to Bunch's outrage is his perception that Ronald Reagan wasn't really much of a Reaganite. That's Wilentz's conclusion also, and the message of the earlier book "Ronald Reagan and the Triumph of American Conservatism" by historian Jules Tygiel. Though Reagan preached his minimal-government anti-tax sermons with polished consistency, the "facts' show that he never accomplished what he professed. (Thank goodness! It could have been worse!) His first catastrophic tax redistribution of 1981 was followed by sundry tax increases, all warranted by realities on the ground. He never effectively made any effort to reduce the size of government; in fact, the federal government grew during his administration, though not nearly as fast as the Cost of that government, as revealed by the stubborn lugubrious fact of the crushing deficits he left as a legacy. Bunch joins hands with most sensible historians in applauding Reagan's occasional pragmatism and especially his sincere, humane, idealistic commitment to Peace, to a world free of the fear of nuclear havoc. Like Wilentz, Bunch gives Reagan all honor for his rejection of hard-line Cold War intransigence of the neo-con stamp, and for his willingness to recognize the same commitment as his own in negotiations with Gorbachev over nuclear reductions. In short, Reagan's contribution to "ending the Cold War" was largely his ability to compromise, to jettison ideology when ideology had become blind.
Bunch also derides the mythic exaggerations by later Party propagandists of Reagan's popularity with the American people during his two terms. The notion that Reagan brought pride and optimism back to America, after the turmoil of the 60s and the `malaise' of the 70s, is essential to electioneering Reaganism. That it's a partial truth at best is simply an inconvenience for the right-wing pundits... precisely what Reagan himself inadvertanty expressed in his famous misquotation of John Adams: "Facts are stupid things..." He corrected himself, of course: Facts are stubborn things. But Will Bunch has found the corollary: Myths are stubborn things.
What truly fuels Will Bunch's indignation is his perception that the mythic Reagan has ousted the real Reagan from public awareness, and that Reaganism has corrupted the democratic process in America. The "legacy" has become a curse. "Image" has replaced the essential democratic notion of the "informed electorate." Alas, we've all seen that happening, haven't we, honestly? But Bunch is not himself another ranter from the left-side bleachers. He shows his mettle by his willingness to admit something many of "us" have tried to ignore: that Barack Obama may well be closer to Ronald Reagan, at least in style and perhaps in substance, than we ever hoped or feared. Now there, my friends, is a scary thought! Why, that should be enough to induce the most idolatrous Reaganite to wade through the 200 pages of Bunch's tirade, just for the irony!
Just as the death of Ronald Reagan in 2004 brought forth a plethora of worshipful hagiographies and self-serving memoirs, the collapse of the Reaganite Republican consensus in 2008 has opened the book shelves for substantial re-evaluations and snarky debunkings of "the Myth". Will Bunch has written a book that's a little of both. There IS an urgent need in America for a regenerative pragmatism and eschewing of ideologies. There IS a need for the instinctive humanism of Ronald Reagan, of the sort that recognized that "collateral damage" - the slaying of civilians, torture, etc. - was in itself terrorism. Instead, I fear, as Bunch does, the lie-machine will grind on for at least the next decade; today, in fact, I read in my morning paper that a new "Reagan" application is being marketed for iPhones. Beware of believing your own deceptions, Reaganites! Remember what became of the USSR when Gorbachev started preaching `glasnost'! Facts get more stubborn as time passes, and I can promise that historians will inevitably "tear down this myth" and replace it with a horse laugh.
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