Word: reaganism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...then, as now, Reagan Republicanism was different. It was a time when America believed it was above partisanship, when there were more urgent (and less difficult) preoccupations than campaign finance reform, when people did not hate each other for who they were or from where they came...
...part, this image of the '80s persists because I was too young to notice that the rich were getting richer while the poor lost out, that money that Reagan could have allocated to AIDS research or education was being diverted to a bloated defense budget. In part, too, this image persists because it was a simpler time: with the Cold War not yet won, the policy spotlight focused not on health care, affirmative action and gay rights, but on Star Wars...
Last Sunday, the New York Times published a report detailing the progress of President Reagan's Alzheimer's disease. At age 86, Reagan has become ghost-like. He speaks infrequently, uttering only short phrases. He nods back to passers-by, not knowing why they nodded to him in the first place. He plays golf, but cannot complete all 18 holes. He can still dress and feed himself, but sometimes wakes up at 2 a.m. looking for breakfast...
...sorting through the significance of President Reagan's steadily deteriorating condition, many focus on the fact that in less than ten years, the most powerful man in the world has become nearly helpless...
...however, and for our generation, President Reagan's deterioration is not only a reminder of the fragility of the human mind or of the tragedy of Alzheimer's. And it isn't so much about the presidency as it is about our childhoods. Never mind that Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter remain alive and well. They were and always will be before our time. For us, Ronald Reagan was more than a president. He was the first person we first saw in the Oval Office on the evening news--the American some of us first aspired...