Reagan Stumbles and Can’t Recover--a Sad Spectacle

Those of us who are depressed at the political decline of Ronald Reagan oughtn’t scold those who are delighted.

They--Michael Kinsley and Arthur Schlesinger Jr., plus any number of other Democrats who are still afraid to show their pleasure in public--have been convinced for years that Reagan has been getting away with a massive scam, and they’re bursting with joy that his failings are being found out. His affliction is their vindication.

Who among us, the depressed, would be any different if an object of our distrust were unmasked? But there is still every reason to be depressed about what is happening to President Reagan. On one level we’re watching a sad process of aging and decay. Two years ago this was a pro at the top of his form. Now the moxie is gone. The President has stumbled on a stone in the road, and isn’t able to recover his footing.

As scandals go, the Iran mess isn’t much --no Cabinet officers on the take, no presidential obstruction of justice, no black-bag jobs or assassination plots. The Administration did wrong, but in defensible causes. It went soft, changed policies on arms sales to Iran, and tried to conceal the fact. But it did so to save American lives. It violated the spirit of a since-changed law forbidding aid to the contras (the letter of the law is still not clear) in order to stop the spread of communism in the hemisphere.

A leader with vitality could defend his aims, admit his errors, replace those responsible and carry on with his agenda. But Reagan seems befuddled by what is happening to him, and apparently does not have any further agenda. Unless he can somehow rally, which will be difficult with the same old group of advisers around, we’re likely to witness two years of executive reeling--a sad spectacle.

But this is worse because Reagan has been such a special President--the father figure who seemed to make adversity go away. When Reagan arrived, Americans were riddled with self-doubt. Jimmy Carter said--and much of the country’s political and intellectual elite believed--that “inexorable forces of history” made it impossible for any President to govern effectively, for our “post-industrial economy” to escape zero-sum internal rivalry, and for the United States to get its way in international affairs.

Reagan did not repeal the forces of history, but he did restore the country’s belief in itself and in the fundamental goodness of its values. Whatever one thinks about the merits of his tax, budget and defense policies, he proved that we didn’t need constitutional changes or a parliamentary system for a President to get his program enacted.

Kinsley and others contend that Reagan only did the easy things with his vaunted leadership talents. I disagree. Along with Paul Volcker, he broke inflation and the divisive psychology that went with it. Reagan got workers to agree to wage restraints and still vote for him--not an easy thing to do.

In 1980 it was widely believed that all that America could do in the face of foreign adversaries was cut a deal, never prevail. Grenada and Libya were easy operations, but they worked. If Reagan wants an arms deal with the Soviets, he can still get a better one than SALT II. Chalk that up to the Strategic Defense Initiative.

More important than specific policies, Reagan’s personality bespoke optimism and all-American good-guyness, and his success was a validation of American character. Reagan had “magic” that seemed to guarantee the success of almost any enterprise that he undertook. Even in policy disasters like Lebanon the magic worked to limit the damage to Reagan personally.

That was a problem as well as a gift. The magic was blinding. Now that it’s worn off, his flaws are easier to see. Hubris may be one. Reagan may have come to believe in his own magic, turning legendary unconcern for details into near-recklessness.

Of all Reagan’s acts of carelessness, the crowning one was his casual agreement to the 1985 job swap between Chief of Staff James A. Baker III and Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan. The biggest administrative decision of the second term seems to have been made in a matter of minutes.

Out with Baker went a pattern of hiring strong, smart, sometimes difficult deputies (David Stockman, Richard Darman, Edward Rollins), of paying close attention to detail, of willingness to buck Reagan’s instincts (especially on tax cuts and defense budgets) and the ability to get along with Congress. In came a pattern of never questioning the President (“let Reagan be Reagan”) and of hiring weak, compliant subordinates who never questioned Regan.

Besides character flaws, there were management flaws. Harvard professor Roger Porter, a former White House aide, observes that foreign policy never was subjected to “point exercises,” thorough, systematic debate and recasting of policy directives.

Then, too, Porter says, foreign policy was carried out in “the great oral tradition” of fleeting conversations in hallways rather than rigorous preparation of written options. To him, it’s entirely plausible that Regan and former national-security adviser Robert C. McFarlane can have conflicting accounts of how Iran arms sales got approved, and that there is no document around to sustain either account.

Unblinded by Reagan magic, one can see policy flaws, too. This Administration has cared not at all about blacks, and has contributed to an upsurge in racial prejudice. Its economic achievements have been very Republican--controlling inflation, shifting wealth to the wealthy. What it hasn’t done is produce a trickle-down effect: investment, R&D;, productivity increases, greater competitiveness and higher take-home pay. Up to now, workers and the middle class have ignored all this. That won’t last. And in foreign policy Reagan restored American strength but could not figure out what to use it for. The good news is that since Reagan’s magic has evaporated, we’ll have no bad arms-control deals or an invasion of Nicaragua.

Reagan’s decline restores the reality principle. He has been a good leader, a political genius, and he was on the right track for his time. He hasn’t perpetrated a scam, as his laughing detractors claim. But he is, after all, an ordinary mortal in need of criticism. It’s good to know that, but the truth still hurts.