A Tribute To Ronald Reagan

From the Spring 2011 issue of The Prairie Progressive, Iowa's oldest
progressive
newsletter, available only in hard copy for $12/yr. to PP, Box 1945,
Iowa City
52244.  Co-editors
of The Prairie Progressive are
Jeff Cox and Dave Leshtz.

In this article, Prairiedog offers a nuanced reflection on two presidential visits to Iowa – LBJ in 1969 and Ronald Reagan in 1992. 


[In honor of Ronald Reagan’s recently-celebrated 100th birthday, the Prairie Progressive reprints this tribute first published in our Fall 1992 issue.]

It was a lot more fun in 1969.

But, then again, many things were a lot more fun in ’69,’ even traveling to West Branch to see a former president of the United States. Ronald Reagan’s August 8 visit to the Herbert Hoover Library took me back 23 years, when Lyndon Baines made a similar trip to the Heartland (although we didn’t call it that in those days).

I had been one of those who cheered with triumph when LBJ announced in March of ’68 that he would not run for reelection. Watching his address to the nation on tv, it seemed to many of us that our being jeered and pelted with eggs and rocks during countless demonstrations and marches had finally paid off. Johnson was acknowledging that our protests – and Eugene McCarthy’s 42% in the New Hampshire primary – had, in effect, scared a sitting president out of politics.

The war in Vietnam continued, but by the spring of 1969, LBJ was out of the headlines and back at the ranch. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare for his visit to West Branch. Although this would be a rare public appearance for LBJ, the Hoover hype-machine hadn’t yet cranked up to its current output of daily press releases (New Acquisition for Museum!…Washington Bureaucrat to Speak!…Hooverball Star Injured!). LBJ, it was said, was visiting West Branch simply to get some ideas for his own presidential library.

Some friends and I drove out in an old blue-green Rambler to see the man who had been our symbol of American brutality and governmental arrogance. A glimpse of the Devil – from a safe distance – would be good for the soul.

Leisurely approaching the outskirts of West Branch, we were unprepared for the sudden appearance of dozens of Highway Patrol cars – an unnerving reminder that even a deposed Devil has a lot of power.  The show of state force quieted our laughter, but we parked and walked the final quarter-mile with a kind of grim satisfaction. Yes, our humble efforts had contributed to the humbling of this notorious warmonger.  When he stepped out of the limo and waved his Stetson at the crowd, Johnson looked exactly like what he was: a wealthy, tanned, relaxed ex-superstar who no longer had to listen to chants and catcalls wherever he went (Hey, hey, LBJ, who many kids did you kill today?).

We stood and gawked at this cheerful man who had perfected the art of stealing and buying elections. A man whose only ideology was the accumulation of power. A man whose pride, ego, and misguided stubbornness caused irrevocable damage to America.

This is what I was thinking as the Hill Country Texan glad-handed and back-slapped the eager Iowans who pressed toward him. And yet, on that cloudy day in Cedar County, I felt the hate drain out of me. Here was LBJ himself, smiling and benign, gracing us with his charm, honoring us with his presence in our state. The sudden surge of benevolence and forgiveness surprised me as I, too, pressed toward him.

No such benevolence and forgiveness hit me as Ronald Reagan gave his homage to Hoover. His contribution to the ruination of America had been far more reckless and cruel than Johnson’s. And here he was, gazing fondly at the flag-carrying boy and girl scouts who marched before us in their starched khaki uniforms.

It was a wonderful only-in-America sight: the hero of Free Enterprise matched with the puffed-up economic developers of West Branch. The little town has marketed its former president as shamelessly as Dyersville has packaged and sold its Field of Dreams. Who better than Reagan – the premiere huckster and pitchman for the American Dream – to help sell the re-invented image of a failed president? Who better than Reagan – a man who will shill for anyone, from General Electric to the Japanese government, if the price is right – to give a home speech written for him by the captains of the Hoover industry?  The Music Man had come to River City.

Reagan presided over the U.S. as it became a debtor nation. He abetted the victimization of thousands of Nicaraguans and Salvadorans. He allowed hundreds of thousands of Americans to become homeless. While the percentage of children living in poverty rose to one in five, Reagan was consulting an astrologist. Yet there he stood – the Teflon President – unscarred by the havoc he had wreaked, never having experienced the vilification that LBJ suffered for his sins. He was no more conscious of the pain caused by his administration than he was of the sweat-drenched, near-fainting children who held their flags in the sun until a Hoover official whisked them into the air-conditioned library.

This day in West Branch, the hate did not drain out of me. LBJ paid a price for his hubris and intransigence. Reagan never has. He is truly unforgiven.

— Prairie Dog

Pearl
Buttons and Plug-Uglies – marking the centenary of an Iowa labor
dispute known to history as the Labor War of Muscatine and womens key
role in the strike – by Janet Weaver

Faith, Freedom and Reasonable Force – by Marty Ryan

Celebrating 40 years of HELP in Eastern Iowa – by Cathy Bolkcom