When you write a progressive book and it's ignored by the New York Times -- as happens all the time -- there's not really much you can do about it. That's the great thing about Daily Kos -- in a true media democracy, there's always a chance to correct the record. Or add to it, which is what I'm here to do tonight. Earlier today, there was an excellent front page review by Susan G of rwo recent books by mainstream journalists seeking to revise the much-mythologized legend of Ronald Reagan. For reasons unknown, she left out the third Reagan myth book, the one written by a mainstream journalist who's also been writing diaries here since 2005 and took part in Netroots Nation. That would be me, and my book Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future."
I could tell you what's unique about "Tear Down This Myth," that despite the worthy competition my book is the only one that chronicles the toxic impact of the Ronald Reagan myth on today's politics, and spells out the role of Grover Norquist and the other right-wing propagandists who rewrote the history of the 1980s to create a 21st century of needless militarism and more giveaways for the wealthy. But I'd rather let others tell you about "Tear Down This Myth," to finish the conversation about Reagan books that was started here today.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
When Reagan left politics for good in 1989, his legion of defenders began to wage an aggressive, legacy-burnishing effort that sought to establish him as one of the greatest men ever to occupy the White House. This conservative "myth-making machine" - writes Philadelphia Daily News senior writer Will Bunch in Tear Down This Myth - has worked relentlessly to transform Reagan into the "new Abraham Lincoln" of the Republican Party, a national savior and a political hero all in one.
Bunch's book is a lively, overdue, and slashing rejoinder to the lengthening list of pro-Reagan hagiographies that have appeared over the last decade. Tear Down This Myth reveals that the right's lionization of Reagan is part of a far-reaching campaign to build up Reagan's image for posterity's sake. Reagan's supporters envisioned, for example, that his death would be an opportunity to create "a legacy-building event," in the words of one former aide; upon that death in 2004, they used the weeklong funeral observance to showcase to the nation that Reagan was "a man who won the Cold War" and revived "America's faith in itself."
The hero-making has moved in other directions as well. Supporters have tried to add Reagan's face to Mount Rushmore, while congressional Republicans backed the bill that renamed the former Washington National Airport "Reagan National." Admirers have sought to put Reagan's face on the dime. In California, Bunch reports, there is a Ronald Reagan Freeway near Reagan's presidential library in Simi Valley. The state also now has Ronald Reagan elementary schools, a Ronald Reagan Park, Ronald Reagan government office buildings - even a Ronald Reagan Community Center.
Bunch has crafted an intelligent and relentlessly anti-Reagan polemic that succeeds in taking Reagan's presidency down several pegs. Admirers have applauded Reagan for consistently sticking to his anti-big-government convictions, but Bunch shows that Reagan's actual record is much more complicated than conservatives like to admit.
And here's one more, from Booklist:
The Ronald Reagan who won the cold war, cut taxes, shrank the government, saved the economy, and was the most beloved president since FDR is a myth, Bunch says. The cold war fizzled out primarily because of Soviet economic collapse. Reagan cut taxes just once, in 1991, and thereafter raised them yearly. He vastly expanded the government and burdened the economy with enormous deficits. Moreover, his approval ratings were just average, reflecting his divisiveness as a political figure. Bunch also shows that however tough-talking, Reagan was a negotiator who achieved nuclear arms reductions by talking with Soviet leader Gorbachev and got into the Iran-Contra mess because he wouldn’t send combat troops abroad. In practice, especially of foreign policy, he was a pragmatist, not an ideologue. The truculent jingoist of the myth was concocted after Alzheimer’s silenced the man and the would-be juggernaut launched by the GOP’s 1994 election triumph crashed and burned before a Democratic president who shrank government and the deficit, balanced the budget, and even racked up surpluses. Bunch names the leading, venal mythmakers and shames the myth exploiters, too. Anyone interested in America’s immediate future should read this book. --Ray Olson
Now, the record is complete. Since its publication earlier this year, "Tear Down This Myth" has been the No. 1 Reagan book in sales (despite minimal reviews) and I am so grateful for all the follow Kossacks who have purchased it already...thank you. I hope the rest of you can give it a look. We've seen in 2009 that even the repudiation of modern conservativism at the ballot box has not slain the Reagan myth. The best solutuion is simply the truth.