<snip>
He overdid the inspirational bit, restoring American pride. He ended up persuading his fellow Americans that they were better than other people, the last best hope on Earth, invincible because of their grace and talent. It was not far from there (and the slaughter his administration covertly financed in Central America) to the streets of Baghdad.
We shall not see his like again soon -- if ever. And many people think that is a good thing. He talked his fellow Americans into believing gigantic transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich was God's work. The rich, at least, believed him. The new underclass still sort of liked him. He ignored racial problems and AIDS research as beneath the attention of those of us living in a shining city on a hill.
Will he be remembered then as a great president, which is quite different than being a great man? Well, there is a well-financed cottage industry, centered at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, dedicated to getting Ronald Reagan onto Mount Rushmore, unless they find a higher hill. Some of Hoover's work, particularly books on Reagan's skills with words, are persuasive and useful revisionism. Some of the other stuff reads like romance novels of men and women who touched Reagan and were cured forever.
For now, at least until I finish my own book, I'll hold onto the Chou En-lai answer. Asked whether the French Revolution was a good or bad thing, Chou reputedly said: "It's too soon to tell."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=123&ncid=742&e=10&u=/ucrr/20040610/cm_ucrr/ronaldreaganapersonalgreatness
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