I wish you could have met my old friend Brian, my erstwhile partner. He reminds me so much of Reagan, and also of Clinton. The thing that you keep talking about, Reagan's belief in facts that just aren't true, isn't unique to Reagan, Brian did it, too. I'd try to argue him out of one of them, and I could refute every reason offered for the belief, and even get concessions on every argument, but he wouldn't budge. And of course, they aren't the only ones, some of the fellows we encounter on this thread are similar. I call it "believing your own bullshit," but that's not all of it. If one is told something that sounds useful, and is useful, one may believe it, without necessarily being delusional. Credulous is more the word I'd use.
That wouldn't explain Reagan's belief that he took part in events when he didn't, but oddly enough, Clinton has done that, too. Maybe it has something to do with the type of person who becomes president. Hemingway expressed it well, "Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?"
As for lying, well, of course. I'd expect him to lie if it was in the national interest, as he perceived it to be. All that stuff about not being able to hear, etc., was just fooling, and everyone knew it, he didn't intend to make anyone believe it.
As for being purely an actor, and the puppet of his handlers, there we do disagree. I think he was more of a politician than most, and his ideas and goals were less things he thought up on his own than most. But presidents are, by and large, the creatures of gigantic interest groups, it appears to me, called political parties. When you elect a president, you elect an interest group, which forms an administration. Reagan's was on a higher level than Carter's or Clinton's, and not so different from Bush's. When George W. is elected, they'll be back again. You don't complain about Bush or George W. being actors, but to be consistent, you should. |
