A vague memory of Ronald Reagan playing a soldier in the Civil War came to mind when I glanced at rightwing commentator Jennifer Rubin's plea that her party should get beyond Ronald Reagan.
The unfailing reverence on the American right for Ronald Reagan is understandable. He was the only exemplar of modern conservatism to win the White House, and unlike liberal icons such as Roosevelt or Johnson or Obama, he presided over an economic boom and became beloved by voters not normally drawn to his party. No wonder that Reagan, long before his death in 2004, attained mythical status in the conservative movement and the Republican Party. But that myth has become a burden for the modern GOP. It has bound Reagan’s followers on the right to policies and positions that were time-specific. ...Rubin, WaPo
What's notable is that Reagan, himself, found it difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. He really did think, at one point, that he'd fought in WWII. But for an entire party to believe that...
And particularly a party in which so many of its contemporary members went to such lengths to avoid serving their country. Maybe Rubin can help us figure out why the contemporary Republican party has been finding it so difficult (or politically awkward) to separate truth from fiction. Seriously.
