By Irene F. Starkehaus -
We recognize the despotism that the Progressive Movement has produced and we all nod our heads in agreement with my prosaicisms which do wonders for singing to the choir but nothing else. The problem with this kind of generalization is that it does little to improve the political climate other than ignite a week's worth of opposition posting from the internet's conservative blogosphere before we move on to the next outrage. The fact that there is a next outrage shows us that we are whistling in the wind and such reality promotes despair within the ranks of conservative reformers ~tangled web - part one.
This week we celebrate the 26th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's perhaps most famous speech at Brandenburg Gate in what was then West Berlin, Germany. For those of us who are old enough to remember that stirring address, it's good that we take the time to explain to those who are young the relevance of the era that we refer to as the Cold War.
The Cold War – a term coined by George Orwell in 1945 in reference to the dawning of the nuclear age. The term was adopted by US presidential advisor Bernard Baruch in 1947 to express the beginning of the never ending conflict between the US and the Soviet Union that was a "peace that is no peace."
We well remember Ronald Reagan – the man who used the job as president to do whatever he could to free future generations from the grips of Soviet aggression. Sadly, Soviet aggression is now the least of our children's worries. They have their own bogeymen with which to contend. They go to school and perform safety drills to protect them from homegrown terrorists and other likeminded whack jobs with perhaps a tad less futility than huddling under one's desk to protect oneself from the imminent nuclear holocaust, but the truth is that, in the grand scheme of things, we have just supplemented one evil empire with another.
It also bears mentioning to future generations that we can't simply brush away "crazy" with strongly worded condemnations. If Reagan had managed to do nothing else during his tenure as president, his example of how to negotiate peace through strength would be enough to place him as one of America's top ten presidents. The moment when Reagan challenged the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall is still one of those bright and hopeful moments in American history.
Having said that, after 26 years of unchecked veneration regarding Reagan's Brandenburg Speech, it is time to reflect on that history, understand the context of the events that followed and place them into proper perspective. Before I begin, I want it understood that I never voted for Ronald Reagan. I didn't because I was too young. (Perhaps if I had lived in Chicago at the time…? But I suppose that only works for Democrats) My first presidential vote was cast for George Bush the Elder and I voted for him because with as much youthful naivety as I could sustain, I trusted that when George Bush ran on Ronald Reagan's coattails it was because he had come to believe in Reagan's philosophies the way I had.
I was not yet jaded enough to understand that George Bush the Elder ran his election off of Ronald Reagan's reputation as a diehard conservative because that was the best way to win the presidency. I am cynical enough now to deduce that, from Bush's perspective, voters had to be misinformed because they were simply too stupid to understand what they really wanted. Isn't this still a favorite refrain from the hymnal of the GOPs ruling class some thirty years after Reagan's presidency?
I bring up Bush's misappropriation of Reagan's legacy because Ronald Reagan gave conservative voters many valuable gifts…not the least of which was a treasure trove of methods for articulating traditional American values. He taught us how to explain what makes conservatism and the free market so great. Prior to Reagan, conservatism seemed complex and inaccessible to the average voter. President Reagan's thorough understanding of the subject matter paired with his own humble beginnings made him fluent in the philosophy that conservatism works best in the hands of average American citizens. His fluency allowed him to translate very easily...fearlessly to people who would never have considered themselves Republicans.
Now, it goes without saying that Reagan was not a perfect man. He was fond, for instance, of Hollywood-izing his explanations for stony-cold world evils which were and are very real threats to the American way of life. Through the strength of his personal charisma, he often found ways to make his happily-ever-afters come true in an era where the American people were maxed out on Cold War drama. He did this through the sheer force of his personality, but in retrospect, the Hollywood-izing of the Cold War – as useful as the tactic was at the time – actually plays no small part in the evolution of progressivism in America today.
Let's start with an understanding of how American conservatives fall victim to liberalism through our own mismanaged loyalty to well-articulated conservative values. This point must never be forgotten. Reagan taught conservatives the language of conservatism but he hardly did so in a vacuum. While he was teaching us, he was also demonstrating to the ruling class Republicans the words that voters want to hear. Conservatives as a voting bloc have yet to figure out how to reconcile the values that a candidate declares on the stump to what his intentions are once he gets swept into office on a conservative platform. Let us be clear. Reagan's words have been pilfered by the RINOs on multiple occasions for the sole purpose of gaining power when they have no intention of following through on their election promises.
Fairytales get America into trouble every time they're tried.
Let's be brave now while facing America's obsession with fairytales and go a step further by examining Reagan's Brandenburg speech for what it truly represents. As beautiful of a moment as it was when Ronald Reagan gave his speech at Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987…
…the actual moment that Berliners tore down the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 was an enormous act of form over substance that would never have been accepted as the end of Iron Curtain politics had we not been conditioned to trust in happily-ever-afters. I love the idea that a symbol for tyranny can fall away and bring about the tangible end of tyranny as much as the next guy, but it doesn't work that way in real life… only in Disney films. The Berlin Wall scene matched America's wildest dreams with eerie perfection and that should have been the dead giveaway. The moment that the MSM began droning on about the collapse of communism, I knew right then and there that this was surely one of the best theatrical performances ever given for an audience…especially for an audience that was already starved for an end to the Cold War which is the scene that Ronald Reagan set throughout his presidency. Many years later, we can recognize that the Cold War wasn't really over and won't ever be over completely.
I want to redirect on this point for just a moment. Drama was a tool that Ronald Reagan used to get things done and that turns out to be unfortunate, but Ronald Reagan was absolutely right when he communicated his mission statement which was to cripple communism and free the world of the threat of Soviet domination. Administrations that come into power with no goals in mind generally drift aimlessly for four to eight years and drag the whole country with them, so Reagan's big dream in and of itself was not a bad thing. You know the old saying, "If you can't say it then you can't do it." My critique is with the buy-in to the dramatic fantasy that we had actually achieved the goal so perfectly because when we gave ourselves over to that narrative, we broke Ronald Reagan's number one rule when dealing with communists. Trust but verify. We sort of skipped that part because the MSM told us we could.
Different from the MSMs melodramatic assertion at the time, Communism was not defeated over the course of twenty-four hours on the day that one wall came tumbling down, and the Communist Party –Russian or otherwise – was not in shambles. Communism merely removed a conspicuous metaphor for oppression that gave the freedom-loving West a focal point in its resistance to all things big government. They replaced an obvious symbol for persecution with a methodical takeover of American culture. Very smart strategy if you don't mind me saying so.
It wasn't so hard to push America toward the slippery slope once the Berlin Wall was gone. With the Cold War now meta-quasi-pseudo-sorta-over-ish, what could there be to fear if our values moved slightly to the Left of center? Communism was dead and Reagan had killed it and wasn't that what conservatives were hoping for? So it was obviously time to relax and moderate our own political philosophies by moving closer to the left and this would make for a more balanced system of governance, right? In the spirit of compromise, couldn't we (meaning conservatives) all learn to wiggle a little on our core principles?
The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts ~ CS Lewis
Wiggling on our principles. Getting along. Compromising. And so we will conclude this discussion for today and pick it up in our next installment:
Googlegate…oh, what a tangled web – part three
