by Con Fusion

Created on: May 24, 2008

Ronald Reagan: The Country's Long-Lost Father

It didn't take long to notice this man was loved. The foyer of the Ronald Reagan Library shone with the brilliance of a hero as signatures of every president were displayed in highly polished bronze, the largest of which was Reagan's. It was obvious that this man had been greatly respected by his followers and throughout the entire library it was impossible to find a dissenting piece. After a complete walk through Reagan's library I began to understand why people felt, and still feel, the way they did, and still do, about this man. This library was Ronald Reagan, and Ronald Reagan, was the paternal leader the United States had always wanted.

At the time Reagan was elected the country was in a depressed condition economically, but more importantly, emotionally. People had not seen a unifying, trustworthy, and respected leader since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Thomas and Baas 56). President after president had come up short offering too many promises with too little success. Reagan built his presidency on traditional American values that had been absent in the previous administrations. These values were dreams that the people wanted in a president and Reagan was able to act accordingly. The American value myths were then fulfilled not by Reagan, by the imaginations of the citizens themselves (White 715).
Yet history would like to claim the Reagan years had a darker side, contrary to what the library and Reagan loyalists would like to admit. Although Reagan acted the best performance in his life, there are reasons he has been critically co-nicknamed "The Teflon President" (Spragens 578). His faults have been widespread in much of what was pursued from disinterest in the management of government (Herrnson 811), to the unrealistic economic policies he pushed (Schmertz, Datlof, and Ugrinsky 779-787). It is a wonder that I never saw a hint of these weaknesses in the entire Ronald Reagan library. If reality has any weight in the assessment of Reagan's legacy, it is that things were not as rosy as his "Morning in America" might suggest.

After passing through the glorified entrance to the Reagan Library I entered several rooms I would not expect to see in a presidential library. The rooms held countless mannequins dressed in the fashion of Nancy Reagan. I was puzzled. Why? What was the significance of all these expensive outfits? Re-visiting these questions the answer became clear; Nancy Reagan was the supporting

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