THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR’S GREAT INFLUENCE

[Draggingtree]

THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR’S GREAT INFLUENCE

REVIEW: ‘THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE: THE FALL OF NIXON AND THE RISE OF REAGAN’

Though America has had quite a few great presidents, iconic presidents are much rarer. Icons appear only in hindsight and are created in a very specific fashion. First, one party will hail the president as great, while the other claims he has wrecked the country. Then the opposing faction realizes the president wasn’t that bad, and reckons with his policies and broader influence, changing its own policies in the process. And finally, both parties fight to claim the president as their own, that they are his true heirs.

 

So, who makes the cut? Washington, Jefferson, Jackson (maybe), Lincoln (definitely), both Roosevelts, and … Reagan. Deceased barely a decade, he is already in the second stage of iconographic development. Liberal Democrats, who despised him and everything he stood for, are reckoning with Reagan and his legacy. Bill Clinton made “the era of big government is over” his cri de coeur, reformed welfare, and deregulated Wall Street. Barack Obama called Reagan a “transformational president.” And Rick Perlstein has written The Invisible Bridge. http://freebeacon.com/culture/the-great-communicators-great-influence/