Why did so many people love Ronald Reagan?  It certainly wasn’t because they all agreed with him.  In fact, polls taken early in the Reagan administration showed that the president’s policies were decidedly controversial.  Even within the Republican Party there were doubters, especially on economic policy.  His own vice president, George H.W. Bush, was one of the doubters.

And yet he was loved and admired - not by all, to be sure, but by enough to create a legacy that places him in the front ranks of American presidents.  It seems to me that there are reasons for this, and that today’s Republican Party might reflect on those reasons, for it often seems to have forgotten them:

1.  Reagan was seen as positive.  Yes, he could be harshly critical of developments in the country that he didn’t like, but, in the end, it was “morning in America.”  No American president ever achieved greatness simply by opposing things or telling us that tomorrow will be terrible.  Carter tried that.  Recall what happened.

2.  He actually believed in ideas.  I recall that people would sometimes say, during the Reagan administration, that “I don’t agree with him on some issues, but at least he believes in something.”  Americans admire someone with a clear, practical agenda.  The best presidents are remembered for doing one or two large things.  They’re never remembered for not doing something.

Ronald Reagan came to office telling us what he was going to do, and he then proceeded to do it.  One of the great dangers facing today’s Republican Party is the lack of a clear vision, a defined agenda.  Republicans may rejoice in the strength of the opposition to the Democratic health-care plan, but they have provided no alternative, and may pay heavily for that down the line, especially if Democrats get their act together and pass a plan.

3.  He never hated.  Even Tip O’Neill, the highly partisan Democratic speaker of the House, described Reagan as “a beautiful man.”  Hatred always fails.  When Reagan attacked, he often did it with a twinkle in his eye, as when he described California’s governor, Jerry Brown, as “Governor Moonbeam.”  I’m becoming uneasy at some of the rhetoric coming from some people on our side these days.  It always backfires.  They should recall the Reagan example.

4.  He had a set of priorities.  Again, the lack of a clear agenda - like 1994’s “contract with America” - is hurting the party today.  Reagan understood what was important.  At the top of his list was, clearly, national defense and the need to win the Cold War.  And Reagan understood, as Barack Obama does not, that a president must pick and choose a few priorities carefully.  He cannot take on everything.  Does anyone remember Abraham Lincoln’s agricultural policy?  What about FDR’s view of the postal service?  Jimmy Carter personally allocated time on the White House tennis court.  I doubt if Reagan ever thought about it.

5.  He knew how to speak to people.  He was called “the great communicator.”  Obama was called pretty much the same thing during the campaign, but no more.  Reagan could communicate to the average American while in office, not just while running for office.  The same was true of FDR.  Obama, by contrast, seems to have lost his tongue.  And Republican spokesmen, while adequate, seem to lack that personal connection that’s critical in politics. 

6.  He understood the importance of building confidence.  This is one of those qualities that can’t be measured, but Reagan had it.  The American people had a sense that, after everything was considered, he would do what was right for the country.  Whether he did or not is for history to decide, but Americans placed their faith in him.  Americans today clearly are not placing their faith in the Republican Party, and any faith they had in Obama is fading.  Confidence must be built.  Neither party is doing it.

7.  He understood the playing field.  All great presidents understand that American politics is played between the 40-yard lines.  We are not an extremist country, or a a country that follow rigid ideologies.  We’re a problem-solving country.  FDR knew how to distance himself from the nut groups of the left.  Reagan kept a certain distance from the certifiables on the right.  (William F. Buckley Jr., a critical figure in building the modern conservative movement, remarked that he spent a good bit of time keeping extremists away.)  Harry Truman showed the fringes the door, as did Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

Contrary to the charges made by his critics, Reagan never embraced extremism.  The great mass of Americans felt comfortable with him.

Study Ronald Reagan.  He wasn’t perfect.  You don’t have to agree with everything he believed.  But, as Peggy Noonan said, he knew how to be president.  I hope he left an instruction book in his desk drawer.

from Urgent Agenda (www.urgentagenda.com) 

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