I feel I must respond to the large “Welcome to Reagan Country” sign greeting motorists on the way into Hollister. While it is certainly understandable that Republicans are yearning for a positive role model to hold up before the people, and that they would choose for this purpose a past Republican icon who enjoyed great popularity, it is a travesty to celebrate the legacy of Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan used his homespun image and his comfort before the camera to very effectively reach out to the American people, and thus he was indeed well-liked by many. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, many people did not delve into the issues to assess President Reagan’s performance, being satisfied with a simple “I like him.” But the world is a harsher, more dangerous place today because of his presidency. And we are in peril of ignoring Santayana’s warning: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

First and foremost, Republicans credit President Reagan with ending the Cold War and bringing about the demise of the Soviet Union. This is a misguided judgment. What President Reagan did was engage the Soviets in an irresponsible and outrageously expensive nuclear arms race. The Soviet economy was not strong enough to withstand the financial burden, and this no doubt did speed the collapse of the Soviet Union. (But it was Mikhail Gorbachev who initiated political and economic reform in the Soviet Union, and refused to use troops to hold the country together.)

People assume that because “the Soviet threat” is no more, the world is a safer place. Ignorance is bliss. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it was replaced by 15 independent republics: many with vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons still on their land; many far less stable than the Soviet Union had been; some far less friendly to the United States; some willing to consider, at least, providing arms to border states that are downright hostile to us; and most unable to provide even the level of security surrounding their nuclear stockpiles that was provided by the Soviet Union. Furthermore, some countries that were formerly held in check by the Soviet Union are no longer really held in check by anyone. Additionally, there are several countries today in which warring factions have armed themselves with advanced weapons abandoned in their borders by the U.S. and the Soviet Union - Afghanistan is one of them.

The Reagan arms race also saddled the United States with a staggering national debt. President Reagan spent hundreds of billions of dollars each year on the military budget - defense contractors did swimmingly well, but the American people (well, actually their children and grandchildren) were saddled with an increase in the national debt that was far greater than the combined debts of the 200+ years of presidents who came before him. In fact, he nearly tripled the national debt during his eight years in office.

And he managed to do this while dramatically cutting federal spending on domestic programs that benefited Americans. He cut the funding for hospitalization of the mentally ill, for low-income housing, and for veterans’ benefits - all of which led to an increase in the homeless population. (Still today, about 25% of our homeless are veterans without adequate benefits, and a troubling number are mentally ill people without money for treatment.) He even tried to save money from the school lunch program by counting ketchup as a vegetable. This was the guy who turned selfishness into a virtue, telling Americans that they should feel good about cutting taxes and services.

Don’t even get me started on environmental issues. Suffice it to say that he dismissed the entire environmental movement, claiming that trees produce more air pollution than cars do. (I said at the time I’d be willing to shut myself in a garage with a live tree, if he’d do so with a running car. But I suppose that was unkind.)

Finally, the owner of the property the sign is on has praised Reagan because “he wasn’t listening to Congress or the Senate - he was listening to God.” As a teacher of American history, I was appalled to read that comment. Our founding fathers went to great pains to establish a government that would be composed of three separate branches, so that no executive would become too powerful. They vested the greatest trust in the Congress, and specifically in the House of Representatives, because it was closest to the people.

So President Reagan decided to back guerrilla fighters in Nicaragua (he misleadingly called them “freedom fighters” because they opposed a Soviet-friendly government that overthrew the dictator they were loyal to), and he simultaneously supported the government next door in El Salvador even though it sent out death squads to keep the population under control (because it was anti-Soviet). Congress eventually decided that U.S. support of the Contras must end, and passed a law forbidding it. President Reagan didn’t like this, and went behind Congress’s back to secretly and illegally fund the Contras with money raised by selling weapons to Iran (also secretly and illegally). There are audio tapes from the Oval Office on which Reagan says if the public gets wind of this “we’ll all hang.” This, I suppose, is “listening to God.” To hold up this behavior as somehow exemplary is a disgrace, and it is an affront to democracy as our founding fathers intended it.

Ronald Reagan appealed to the worst in people, he did lasting damage to the United States, and he left the world a more dangerous place. He should not be celebrated. I am happy to report, by the way, that while San Benito County did indeed vote for Ronald Reagan, we have voted for Democratic candidates for President in the last five elections. I do not believe the majority of county residents consider this “Reagan Country.”

Jeanie Wallace

Chair, San Benito County Democratic Party