BuzzFlash Reviews
Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future (Hardcover)
By Will Bunch
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
Like all myths, the Reagan legend is built on faith not the facts. Bunch does a lacerating job of tearing down the "Reagan brand," which still has a powerful influence over the right wing drift that has characterized America since 1980 -- and that Obama is going to still confront as we try to steer the ship of state back to common sense policies.
Reagan was an actor who played his part while others built up an image of who he was that grew even stronger after his presidency, steamrolling any semblance of actual history.
Recently BuzzFlash wrote an article on how cities and states are now increasingly privatizing public property and services in order to fill large budget gaps. This is the legacy of the Reagan myth and right wing Grover Norquist-esque efforts to drown government and the public commons. We asked in that BuzzFlash analysis, "Did the Reagan Revolution actually win? Local and State Governments are Selling Off Public Property and Services."
So don't think that Obama's victory alone with shed us of the disastrous results of the "Reagan Crusaders." Myths can be pretty powerful and have staying power. Thankfully, Will Bunch is here to debunk the right wing PR construct that became a worship of Reagan.
"With help from a loving Beltway press corps, Republicans sold Reagan as the iconic American leader. From promotions like the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project and Operation Serenade, the GOP marketing machine worked to perfection. Will Bunch's long overdue book, Tear Down This Myth, pulls back the curtain and looks at Reagan, minus the branding. It's a sobering sight."-- Eric Boehlert, author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush
"Will Bunch's subtle account of Reagan's legacy carefully dismantles the image of conservative purism that has been painted over the real Ronald Reagan. But in tearing down the myth, Bunch also gives us a fascinating portrait of Reagan the pragmatist, able to compromise, to change his ground and to govern from the center as political winds shifted. This is a buried Reagan, hidden even at the time but still perceptible, in some ways, to those of us who fought him at the time. Tear Down This Myth is historical revisionism for which both Reagan's supporters and his opponents should be grateful."-- James K. Galbraith, author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too
"Tear Down This Myth is as feisty as it is fearless. In it, Will Bunch begins the process, long overdue, of deflating Ronald Reagan's overinflated reputation." -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
"Will Bunch's iconoclasm is deeply necessary. It is also splendidly entertaining. The myth that Ronald Reagan was loved by everybody all the time is one of the greatest PR swindles of the age. This is a must-read for all who cherish truth in history."-- Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
"Will Bunch's book couldn't come at a better time. Following an election that saw America reject Reaganism, Tear Down This Myth explores how that conservative ideology came to power and what was so destructive about it."-- David Sirota, author of The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington
From the publisher, Free Press.
Bunch reveals the truth about the Ronald Reagan legacy, including the following:
Despite the idolatry of the last fifteen years, Reagan's average popularity as president was only, well, average, lower than that of a half-dozen modern presidents. More important, while he was in office, a majority of Americans opposed most of his policies and by 1988 felt strongly that the nation was on the wrong track. Reagan's 1981 tax cut, weighted heavily toward the rich, did not cause the economic recovery of the 1980s. It was fueled instead by dropping oil prices, the normal business cycle, and the tight fiscal policies of the chairman of the Federal Reserve appointed by Jimmy Carter. Reagan's tax cut did, however, help usher in the deregulated modern era of CEO and Wall Street greed.
Most historians agree that Reagan's waste-ridden military buildup didn't actually "win the Cold War." And Reagan mythmakers ignore his real contributions -- his willingness to talk to his Soviet adversaries, his genuine desire to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the surprising role of a "liberal" Hollywood-produced TV movie.
George H. W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's rolling back of Reaganomics during the 1990s spurred a decade of peace and prosperity as well as the reactionary campaign to pump up the myth of Ronald Reagan and restore right-wing hegemony over Washington. This effort has led to war, bankrupt energy policies, and coming generations of debt.
With masterful insight, Bunch exposes this dangerous effort to reshape America's future by rewriting its past. As the Obama administration charts its course, he argues, it should do so unencumbered by the dead weight of misplaced and unearned reverence.
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