Iowa Progressives and the Reagan Centennial
by Paul DeatonWhen Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act near the Statue of Liberty in 1986, the new law required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status and granted amnesty to some 3 million undocumented residents of the United States. Reagan said, “the legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans.” Fans of the conservative president are not likely to be talking about that as the February 6th 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth approaches.
Reagan's views on immigration were pragmatic. American businesses required labor (in some cases fruit was literally rotting on trees for lack of workers), employers should be held accountable for ensuring eligibility to work of their employees, and Reagan believed there was a limit to how many immigrants, who sought to come to the United States for economic reasons, could be accepted.
If Reagan granted amnesty to millions, he also sought to bring illegal immigration to an end and ultimately his was a failed policy. Yes, the Gipper didn't make it into the end zone on this one. Undocumented residents in the United States recently numbered more than 12 million, although that number has receded with our declining economy.
In the Book, Reagan, In His Own Hand, he wrote what many of us believe, “…it makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?”
Last June, former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson opined about what Reagan would do in the current immigration debate. He said, “Reagan would have inclined toward reforms like those President George W. Bush proposed in 2006. Under these proposals, illegal immigrants who wished to remain in this country permanently would have received a long but explicit path to citizenship. Those who wished instead to return eventually to their countries of origin would have received the right to register as guest workers. Virtually all illegal immigrants would thus have been dealt with generously. Reagan would have found such a resolution satisfying.”
Here's my point. Ronald Reagan holds an imagined allure as he pretended to be something he was not. There is scarcely a mention of immigration in Reagan's autobiography or in his published letters. There is no mention of immigration in his presidential diary as edited by Douglas Brinkley. For liberals or conservatives to conjure a Reagan who is consistent with our views today is more about us than it may be about the former president.
During the run up to the June primaries last summer, 15 Republicans filed nominating papers to challenge incumbent Democrats Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack and Leonard Boswell in the midterm elections. Almost every one of them, to varying degrees, esteemed Reagan, spoke of American exceptionalism and wanted to be tough on immigration. What they did was take the present and try to make it resemble their image of Reagan, making him out to be something he wasn't, and that's the problem.
If progressives seek to advance our agenda, then regardless of the misinformation thrown out by politicians who have fallen under the spell of media bias like last spring's 15 Republican challengers, we have to be grounded in the truth.
We should not succumb to the temptation to re-invent the past to support our current views. Many fans of Ronald Reagan are wont to do this and this rhetorical exercise retards our ability to deal with current problems, as it did the 111th Congress. It delays resolution of issues vital to society, like economic security, energy policy, human rights and everything else that is important to us all.
The saintly glow from Reagan hagiography reflects on a city whose shining light has dimmed. In the light of day, society in Reagan's wake is revealed for its barrenness. It is a society reduced to a commons being exploited for private good, working Iowans fending for themselves and the wealthy getting richer with each passing day.
Reagan was no saint, and the more we frame his legacy in its harsh realities, the better it serves a progressive agenda. Happy birthday Mr. President, some of us won't be missing you hardly at all. ~Paul Deaton is a native Iowan living in rural Johnson County and weekend editor of Blog for Iowa. E-mail Paul Deaton
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