Reality trumps nostalgia

In my quest to frame Reagan's legacy with some semblance of balance, I came across this Joe Conason piece, Reagan without sentimentality. I like it. He doesn't just rip the Gipper in a visceral reaction to being force fed Reagan eulogies. Instead, Conason calmly notes that:

138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations.

He concludes in what I think is as apt an epitaph as any:

So let the former president be remembered for his optimism, his achievements, and his love of country. But let his mistakes be remembered as well. Reagan deserves no less. The sentimental version doesn't do justice to him and his legacy, for better and worse.

It would be interesting if Americans had nearly the appetite for facts that they do for nostalgia. Maybe we are all facing down the question of what it means to be an American in these complicated times. Here I am, sitting in my living room writing, an American, gol durnit. Is that a happy accident of birth or a frame of mind? Physicist, Manuel García, Jr., examines the stream of American sub-consciousness in this way, while NYC writer Phil Rockstroh asks, America, How Did It Come To This?

In any case, warm fuzzys from the past can't touch car bomb after Iraqi car bomb.