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Points of View
Rating Ronald Reagan as PresidentResults of Friedman's scale surprise Friedman.I never was a fan of Ronald Reagan. I can honestly say I never spent a dime on his body of film work that included such classics as Angels with Dirty Faces, Bedtime for Bonzo, Cowboy from Brooklyn, Girl from Jones Beach and She's Working Her Way through College.I could barely keep my lunch whenever the networks replayed hismaudlin scene as George Gipp. In the days before remote control, Reagan's appearances on screen as host of General Electric Theater prompted a Pavlovian response -- my rising immediately to change the channel.For me, he was a bad actor who followed an equally untalented George Murphy into politics. I never voted for him and wondered how anyone could embrace this Barry Goldwater wannabe, the champion of Star Wars (the anti-missile system, not the movie), the man of peace who laid a wreath before the graves of Waffen SS troops at Bitburg, Germany, and, lest we forget, the man who transformed a state system that once charged students $8.50 for a semester of college (my bill at Los Angeles Valley Junior College for spring 1956) into one of the most expensive, elitist programs in the country.And yet, Ronald Reagan's funeral sparked an outpouring of affectionand sympathy unseen in this country since John F. Kennedy. Americans of all backgrounds, all ages and from all walks of life kept coming to view Reagan's casket under the Capitol rotunda. And the notables, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani, former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. John McCain, and a grim-faced Mikhail Gorbachev who, just for a moment as he backed away from the casket, nodded as if to say, "Well done."Pundits struggled to understand these reactions and, reluctantly,conceded that maybe there was something more to the man who was our 40th president. After all, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he had spoken upagainst the red-baiting tactics of the House Un-American ActivitiesCommittee. Decades later, he bumbled and stumbled his way through the Iran-Contra mess, but managed to revive America's faith in its goals and values. The scope of his role in the disintegration of the "evil empire" will be debated by historians for years to come.Regardless, after eight years of Reagan, millions of Europeans sawthat the Iron Curtain was no more and Americans no longer had to deal with double-digit inflation and unemployment. Reagan exuded a sense of humor, charm and a boundless optimism. As an actor he fulfilled the ceremonial role of president at moments such as the Challenger disaster.And Reagan's death at 93, after suffering a decade from Alzheimer's,underscored the universal tragedy of individuals and families who must deal with diseases that destroy human dignity before they kill.With Reagan's death, the clamor raised by acolytes to rename buildings or recast coinage in his honor has sparked debate in and outside Congress. Most professional historians have lined up against such actions, noting that previous surveys among their peers resulted in Reagan being rated among the mediocre chief executives. (The Top 10 list usually included Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton.)Prompted by the transparent sarcasm and bias that accompanied such evaluations, I constructed my own scale of excellence and awarded points in various job responsibilities (e.g. 5 for outstanding, 3 average or mediocre, 1 poor.) Issues to ponder might include how anyone could hail Wilson, whofailed to protect miners at Ludlow, Colo., from company guards, whokept Eugene Debs in jail for preaching pacifism, who dragged his feet on women's suffrage and race riots in the summer of 1919, and who failed to compromise with his own party's leadership over the League of Nations covenant as he fantasized about a third run for the presidency in 1920. Similarly, how could anyone admire Andrew Jackson, slave owner, chief architect and beneficiary of the spoils system, and mastermind of the expulsion and massacre of Native Americans to the hell of Oklahoma?The list might be incomplete or redundant, but it would avoidintuitive responses.Drawing upon 37 years of teaching American history surveys, I came up with the following criteria:1. Length of service (William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor need not apply).2. Image as head of state ("Ruffles and Flourishes" illustrates howmuch the American people yearn for a king).3. Continuity of program (did the voters honor the outgoing president by electing his 300-pound successor?)4. Popularity while in office. (It was lonely in study hall Jan. 20,1953, when Dwight Eisenhower was inaugurated - just me, boycotting the inauguration, and three other fellows who didn't know there had been an election. Today everybody loves Truman, not the case when he left office.) 5. Expansion of American territory (Like it or not, it's one of thereasons in defense of Jefferson or James K. Polk).6. Increase in American prestige (Compare George W. Bush). 7. Increase in American power (not the same thing as prestige). 8. Honesty (as opposed to scandals, some of which ought to befootnoted as culpable in the Constitution).9. Commitment to and success of economic stability (whileacknowledging that the field of economics makes as much sense as the lyrics of "Yabba dabba Honeymoon").10. Intellectual prowess (50 years later I still wonder how anyonevoted for Eisenhower over Adlai Stevenson).11. Effective legislation enacted (FDR's first 100 days set a record,yet most people are unaware of the good done by Truman and Lyndon Johnson).12. Advancement of civil rights and human rights (ditto). 13. Effective foreign policy, peace.When I was through, I was surprised by a handful of the results. Clinton, William McKinley, and Eisenhower finished higher than I would have believed. Somehow, Richard Nixon and U.S. Grant evaded the nether reaches of Hell. Those levels were reserved for the likes of Fillmore, Van Buren, Herbert Hoover and the granddaddy of them all -- Warren Gamaliel Harding.The greats atop Mount Rushmore remain great. The Bushes, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter leave us marvelling that this republic has survived more than two centuries.And if you play the numbers game fairly, you may also be surprised by Ronald Reagan's rating."