Reagan interlude
Yesterday I happened to be in the neighborhood of the Reagan Library, and so I visited it.
I’m not a fan of presidential libraries, although I’ve been to three now. I find them a bit boring, sorry to say. The Reagan Library has the advantage of being in a pleasant setting with views of the surrounding hills and low mountains, but it still seems to mostly rehash things I already know – and I’m not unusually knowledgeable about Reagan, although I’m certainly aware of the major events of his presidency (I was a young mother at the time, very busy and quite exhausted).
To me, the most interesting part of the Library – in addition to the view – was Reagan’s Air Force One. It looked colossal in a hanger-like setting, even though it’s really not all that large for an airplane. The inside was surprisingly Spartan: no beds (just some futon-like couches) and no showers. It had the unusual ability – unusual for the 1980s, that is – to be able to communicate from the air with any place on earth.
I found the experience of being at the Library to be sharply poignant and almost painful, because of the contrast between Reagan and who’s running the country today. Reagan’s idealism, his ability to express himself, and the faith he had in America seemed to be a relic of a very bygone age. Was it only forty-ish years ago that he was elected? It doesn’t seem as though forty years should have been long enough to have this country sink as far as it has, and yet that’s what’s happened. His message was faith in the possibility, or maybe even the probability, of America’s renewal, so I’ll try to believe in that.
I was so taken with certain quotes I found in the Library that I photographed a few. I hadn’t heard this one before; it’s quite early in Reagan’s career:
This one is from Thomas Jefferson:
They knew.
“America is less of a place than an idea …”
This is not a good statement. I’ll quote the late Lawrence Auster on the point:
“This brings us to yet another kind of reductionism we ought to beware of: the tendency to dilute our idea of America into a mere abstraction of freedom and human rights. Yes, America stands for, and is based on, certain universal political principles; but we must insist that America also happens to be a country. Surely the Founding Fathers saw no contradiction between being devoted as philosophers to universal principles of republicanism and the rights of man, and as patriots to a particular nation, a particular people. To ignore our national individuality—in an effort to make America seem instantly accessible to every person and culture on the planet—is to turn the country into the blank slate of which we spoke earlier, on which the social engineers and all the migrating masses of the world can write whatever they please. In other words, America needs to revive the original name and meaning of the Statue of Liberty (now quite forgotten): ‘Liberty Enlightening the World’—a shining example for other nations to achieve in their own lands and in their own ways what we have achieved here, not a simply a mindless invitation for the whole world to move here.”
Italics in original.
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/005123.html#spiritualflame
Paul Nachman:
Reagan was certainly aware that the US was also a place.
I find them a bit boring, sorry to say.
IMO, the buildings and the gewgaws within each can be deeded over to the county governments where they’re located to dispose of at their discretion. Then we pledge to never build another one. They could build a modular records center around Kansas City and transport the archival material there; a president leaves office, a new module is constructed.
This is not a good statement.
I tend to agree with you that the statement is not properly instructive.
What’s ironic is that came out of the mouth of Reagan, who was a piece of Americana. He spent most of his life as a migrant planted in Southern California, but he never broke faith with the town in northern Illinois where he grew up.
Reagan was a once in a lifetime President!
Although I wasn’t very political at the time I do remember how anti-Reagan the Left was. Their hatred for the man was a precursor of Bush Derangement Syndrome and, later, Trump Derangement Syndrome; only it wasn’t as mainstream as the hatred for Trump is today.
I remember a friend’s housemate had a bottle of champagne in their frig that was being saved for the day Reagan died. This housemate said it as a kind of joke; but, was sort of half serious about it. At the time I thought it was a rather strange and sick sense of humor. I never kept in touch so I don’t know if she actually opened it the day Reagan died.
Lastly, I remember Mondale’s concession speech when he lost to Reagan’s second election. Many of those who supported Mondale support him more as a way of getting rid of “Ronny Raygun” who they believed was going to start a war with the Soviets. Well, during Mondale’s concession speech when he mentioned Reagan’s name many in the crowd started booing. Mondale stopped his prepared remarks and put a stop to that basically saying that Reagan was our president and we should wish him well.
Remembering Reagan and some of his opponents makes me question where are the adults today?
I have never understood why the Left, who behave in a consistently childish manner, consider themselves the ” adults ” in anything they are involved in.
I’ve been to the Reagan library. Like you I found the plane interesting. And the section of the Berlin Wall. Very fitting there’s a decent chunk of it there.
Your eye posts mention you are in the L.A. area. Have you, or any of the readers ever been to the La Brea Tar Pits? I’m sort-of fascinated by them and have been in the area quite a few times, but I have never made it there. I still hope to go one day. I hear it’s odd that it’s just in the middle of L.A. One enters a typical, non-descript building off a typical, non-descript SoCal street and encounters a pool of tar and prehistoric animal skeletons.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I went there last time about 50 years ago. I don’t even remember a building, just the tar pits.
Apropos of Mondale (who was a decent man, BTW, compared to the present Dem clown posse), I remember the 1984 debate in which Reagan (then our oldest president) was asked whether he was concerned about his advancing age. He replied that he would “not make age an issue of this campaign; I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even Mondale laughed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJhCjMfRndk&ab_channel=DougWead
I visited the Reagan Library maybe 20 years ago and enjoyed the visit. I lived in S. California for 40+ years and never got around to visiting the La Brea pits.
The only thing I remember from the Reagan/Mondale debate is Mondale’s smile and the audience’s delighted laughter at Reagan’s verbal jujitsu.
I was a liberal then but never resented Reagan. Perhaps because I mostly agreed with him and found his demeanor agreeable.
“America is less of a place than an idea …”
“This is not a good statement.” Paul Nachman
Without the idea, the place has little value. The more fully the place embodies the idea, the more it stands as an example worthy of emulation by the rest of humanity. Tragically, humanity’s fallen nature all too often leads to its choosing… poorly.
The Reagan Library is the only one I’ve visited. As you mentioned, it’s on a beautiful knoll in the Simi Valley. Very picturesque and quite appropriate to Reagan’s time in California.
Air Force One, IMO, is the highlight of the whole experience. Like you, I Iwas surprised by how spartan it was. The comms equipment was the best of the time but looks outmoded in today’s high-tech world. They had INS, LORAN, and VHF/NDB navigation, but also carried a navigator to do celestial navigation as a backup. They still carry a navigator on Air Force One today. When all else fails, follow the stars. 🙂 Unlike some recent Presidents (Clinton/Obama/Trump) Reagan did not use the airplane for pleasure trips. It was barely as comfortable as a typical airliner of the time – meant to do the people’s business, not as a vehicle for pleasure trips, as it is today.
Rufus T Firefly, if you like the La Brea tar pits, in the Caribbean there’s a lake of tar, called the Pitch Lake. It’s an extension of the Orinoco oil belt in Venezuela, and is thought to be the largest deposit in the world. It’s in a town called La Brea, incidentally.
When you drive through the area, the dirt is black, a sand saturated with oxidized heavy oil. The asphalt was mined in the early part of the hydrocarbon age and used to pave roads in the Eastern US cities.
“America is less of a place than an idea …”
This sparks my memory of Biden ( & other leftists) trying to ignore the many riots where ANTIFA was violent. Trying to dismiss their existence, Biden said antifa was just an idea.
That was so obnoxious & deceitful. But of course, media ran with it. I couldn’t believe so many people are still ignorant of the truth.
A
(And they even believe Russia got Trump elected. )
Reagan was so prescient on so many things going back to the 60s, conversely name anyone of these bureaucrat biden kerry fauci mueller none of them is worth a plum nickel.
…oops, my phone edit is hard.
I wanted to add: That antifa “was just an idea” makes me worry that the left want to make the phrase mean the object is a joke.
So they can trivialize or dismiss anything they call “just an idea”.
Makes me nauseous, & sad.
“America is less of a place, than an idea … ”
This was a great statement, and very true.
The GREATNES of America is more the idea, than place – altho the USA is both.
My kids are Slovaks, and Americans – but I can never be a Slovak Slovak, tho I could, and might, become a Slovak citizen. (Dual citizenship is allowed, but restricted). (Since my kids have chosen to never live in America, their kids, my grandkids, cannot get automatic US citizenship.)
Everybody in the world could, in theory, become “Americans”. What made America great, and what America is losing, are those ideal ideas:
Personal Freedom combined with Individual Responsibility.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
One of the key truths about justice is that not everything that is unfair is unjust. Justice systems can only work on injustices, not unfairnesses.
Life is not fair.
I love America, and especially the American ideals.
That America is also a place is also quite important, and the electoral college reflects the idea that places, US states, have boundaries on the ground and those arbitrary boundaries are important.
The militarily disputed Ukraine – Russia border is highlighting again the issue of the importance of actual, on the ground borders.
Previously I’ve noted that Reagan Derangement Syndrome existed, even before C. Krauthammer coined it as Bush Derangement Syndrome. Along with TDS, it’s also been seen as Palin DS, and even before Reagan with Nixon Derangement Syndrome.
I thought it should be called Democrat Derangement Syndrome, but now think Democrat Delusion Syndrome could be more accurate and possible. Because “derangement” is so negative that polite Reps wouldn’t want to call the hysterical Dems that – but “deluded” implies that those Dems have some bad idea. They are deluded — and the bad idea might be explained as bad in comparison with a better idea.
Reagan thought his own worst political decision, mistake, was in signing the CA “no-fault divorce” law. My own doubly divorced father & mother were among the early divorcees before that law, with nasty court custody battles. Nasty custody battles are bad, but easy divorce causes lots of them so is also a bit bad. Less bad per instance, but far more instances. Arguably less or more bad – like most political issues with tradeoffs.
After Roger Waters left Pink Floyd, he made some worthwhile solo albums like Radio K.A.O.S (1987), with “Me or Him”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNCRNkd_pmw&list=OLAK5uy_koI10jUmXAaS4Dr1TJKWk8NW4l9cWbrv4
[Radio announcer:] “Do you really think Iranian terrorists
Would have taken Americans hostage
If Ronald Reagan were president?
Do you really think the Russians
Would have invaded Afghanistan
If Ronald Reagan were president?
Do you really think third-rate military
Dictators would laugh at America
And burn our flag in contempt
If Ronald Reagan were president?
[Concerned Citizen:] “Well, it might work!”
[Hostage:] “We as a group do most importantly
Want to beseech President Reagan
And our fellow Americans
To refrain from any form of military
Or violent means as an attempt
No matter how noble or heroic
To secure our freedom. ”
Early light Reagan DS (plus early F-speak “you fucked the whole thing up”, with F-speak now more normalized).
The next song, The Powers That Be is also pretty good, including “market forces”.
Because “the market” is more a definitional idea than a place. It means human beings buying and selling stuff, or not buying, peacefully and voluntarily.
With property rights that are enforced, with violence. Especially, but not exclusively, rich buyers – like Elon Musk!
“The Market” is as amoral as the humans buying and selling.
Three videos, vintage LA, is new to me! “Sunset Strip” & “Radio Waves”. I have the CD – why use YouTube? Sort of an unknown unknown. Fun balmy – bomby – bomb after they’ve pressed the Button in “Four Minutes” – and a tiny bit of UK Thatcher Derangement Syndrome. Last song & vid “The Tide is Turning” includes old cell phone in keep-away.
Without the idea, the place has little value.
I have news for you. People construct and maintain agreeable places to live without The Federalist Papers to study.
Tom Grey,
I agree with your words about the importance of America as an idea and as a place. Well stated!
I also REALLY like your suggestion of: Democrat Delusion Syndrome. That’s a great way to sum up all the Bush I and II, Trump, Romney, Ryan, Pence, Cheney, Palin, Quayle, Reagan, Ford… nonsense. It has almost nothing to do with the Republican politician or Republican policies. It’s all about some Democrats mental delusions.
I hope your term catches on.
Well neo,
Once again it looks like you are correct, and I am wrong. The La Brea Tar Pits appear to be outside with a museum building nearby. Doesn’t appear to be in a “typical neighborhood” at all. I did some google’ing to see images and, coincidentally, there was (is?) a recent design competition to remake the entire attraction.
I remember a friend who lives in SoCal telling me about the Pits being in a neighborhood building. I’ll have to ask him what he was referring to.
I visited the La Brea tar pits on a school excursion in, I guess second or third grade. That would have been around 1951 or ’52. I remember walking around an outdoor setting and seeing what appeared to be pools of water, but were (I was told) actually tar with water on top. This fooled animals into thinking they could wade out into a pond and drink, at which point they would sink into the tar and die.
The attached museum was notable for the sculpture of a saber-tooth tiger, the most memorable part of the entire visit.
I, too, remember it being in a residential setting. I have not been back since, so all those memories are suspect.
Aggie and F,
Your accounts, of course, are impossible. The only way oil gets on the ground or into water is from spilling accidents when humans transport it. Oil only exists miles under the Earth’s surface and man’s methods of extracting it creates ecological disasters and untold damage to the Earth.
😉