Reagan Bunglers: Tribute to U.S. Patience

On balance, and barring the discovery of a secret deal with the Mafia or Uzbekistan, I think it fair to say that the news from Washington is mostly good. In the somewhat lurid lights of the Iranian arms deal, the President of the United States stands revealed as an amiable dotard, his principal White House advisers as a claque of self-regarding and not-so-amiable mediocrities. But the government doesn’t fall, the business of state goes on more or less as usual, and to the best of anyone’s knowledge the nation hasn’t espoused the Baptist religion or declared war on Australia.

It is testimony to the country’s wealth, as well as a tribute to its patience and sloth, that it can afford to tolerate the government of Ronald Reagan’s vaudeville troupe. Even now, less than a month after the first word of trouble in a Lebanese publication, the sequence of events is far from clear. What is clear is the comic tawdriness of the dramatis personae--Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, Robert C. McFarlane, Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, et al.

Given such a troupe of roadshow Machiavellis, it’s a wonder that the National Security Council didn’t invade Angola or blockade both coasts of Panama. Priding themselves on their righteousness, the would-be saviors of the free world allied the purity of their cause with a consortium of Levantine smugglers, thugs and confidence men; congratulating themselves on their shrewdness, they bargained in languages that none of them understood, and were cheated of money and hostages. Once discovered in their criminal charade, all present behaved in the dishonorable manner traditional among thieves. Those who could do so offered to incriminate their companions in return for immunity.

The media can’t afford to project on this dismal company the light of scorn and ridicule. Not because the mockery would be insulting to the principles, but because it would be insulting to the media. These are gentlemen whom the media have been obliged to take seriously. If they’re shown to be scoundrels and fools, what becomes of the media’s claims to have been keeping watch on the affairs of state?

For six years the media have been willing to accept the Reagan government at its own inflated estimation of itself, applauding the President’s smile, condoning his intervention in Central America, mistaking the military pageants in Libya and Grenada for coherent foreign policy, granting the patents of moral authority to the expressions of sleazy sentiment.

But for six years the Administration has been populated by comedians no less farcical than the remnant still in office. Who can forget the fanciful performances of Alexander Haig, James Watt, Anne Burford and Richard Allen? As of this writing, at least 111 officials appointed to the Administration have stumbled into criminal indictments or fallen under suspicion of ethical misconduct. The misadventure in the arms trade should come as no surprise.

Because the media don’t wish to recognize their own roles as straight men, they have no choice but to pretend that “the Iranian crisis” is a matter of grave significance. The solemnity of the voices on television and the earnestness of the newspaper editorials conceal the humor of the proceedings. Frightened by the spectacle of clownish incompetence, the media, like their friends in Congress, would prefer not to have to choose from among the only possible inferences that can be drawn from the available facts: (a) Reagan doesn’t govern the country and hasn’t been governing it for some time; (b) he’s an idiot; (c) he’s a bald-faced liar.

Rather than confront so bleak a choice, the media pester Reagan to tell them a convincing lie.

This may be as much as can be reasonably expected in the current state of the Republic. The strength of the system consists of its tolerance for human weakness, venality and error. The balance is struck by competing financial interests, by the freedoms of uninformed speech, by the markets in graft and the fickle indifference of the electorate, by the lack of talent for empire.

On watching Reagan’s bungling geopoliticians wander in and out of press conferences, taking or not taking whatever constitutional amendment will gain them another 20 minutes at the public trough, at least it’s reassuring to know that they didn’t choose to become airline pilots or water engineers or surgeons.