Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review April 26, 2001 / 4 Iyar, 5761

George Will

George Will
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


What Would Reagan Say?


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- "Surtout, Messieurs, point de zele," said Talleyrand, expressing the sensibility of conservatism. His wisdom -- "Above all, gentlemen, no zeal" -- is unintelligible to some profoundly unconservative conservatives who advocate madly multiplying honors for Ronald Reagan.

How many ways are there to show misunderstanding of Reagan's spirit? Let us count the zealots' ways.

Not content with seeing Reagan's name attached to Washington's National Airport and to Washington's second (to the Pentagon) largest building and to an aircraft carrier, some people want -- seriously -- some sort of Reagan honor in all 3,141 American counties. But their immediate battle -- America's greatest battles: Saratoga, Gettysburg and the National Airport Metro Station -- is to get Congress to compel administrators of the Washington area subway to add Reagan's name to the sign at the airport station, which now reads: "National Airport."

Those ardent to add Reagan's name to that sign say they are not -- Heaven forfend! -- scoring ideological points, they are practicing compassionate conservatism. They tell of confused travelers who, because Reagan's name is not on the sign, have not realized that the airport is that big structure adjacent to the above-ground Metro station.

Please. Travelers too oblivious to know they are at an airport when large, clear signs say they are? They should be given those little plastic pilot wings that are issued to unaccompanied children and taken into protective custody. The conservatives want to get Congress to order Metro officials to spend several hundred thousand dollars to add Reagan's name to the station signs and all references to the station on maps. But usually it is liberals who, explaining the need for everyone to be supervised by liberals, assert or imply that the average American is dimwitted. Now come conservatives, asserting the need to help Americans who do not know when they are at a clearly marked airport. Besides, Reagan had a memorable thing or two to say about bossy federal institutions meddling in local affairs.

Advocates of Reagan idolatry want to worsen the increasing clutter on Washington's Mall by putting a Reagan memorial there. One of the world's greatest public places is becoming a manifestation of the entitlement mentality, contested ground for groups claiming they are entitled to have their achievements (e.g., World War II veterans) or beliefs (Reaganites) ratified in stone on the Mall. Fortunately, in 1986, Reagan signed a law stipulating that no individual will be honored on the Mall until 25 years after his or her death.

Political freedom implies freedom from political propaganda -- from being incessantly bombarded by government-imposed symbols and messages intended to shape public consciousness in conformity with a contemporary agenda. Such bombardment is unquestionably the aim of some Reaganite monument mongers. They have the mentality that led to the lunatic multiplication of Lenin portraits, busts and statues throughout the Evil Empire. Very different impulses, disconnected from immediate agendas, led to the building of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial, which were begun in 1848, 1915 and 1938 respectively, long after the men honored had receded from immediate partisan relevance.

Not content with turning the Mall into a battlefield for endless contention between ideological factions, they want to do the same to the currency. They advocate putting Reagan in place of Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. But Hamilton may already be the Founder least sufficiently honored with public memorials. More than any other Founder, he imagined America's future as an industrious, entrepreneurial nation of vigor, strength, prosperity, growth and social mobility -- that is, the America Reagan celebrated.

Reagan's misguided worshipers are guilty of "value subtraction." Economists used that concept to denote one of the miracles of Soviet communism: That system could take leather, cloth, rubber and thread and produce shoes worth less than the materials of which the shoes were made. Reagan's idolaters are achieving something similar by their mishandling of the elements of his significance, not least of all his modesty suited to the leader of a republic.

What would Reagan in his prime have made of the incontinent lust of a Washington-based coterie to celebrate him? That may be surmised from one of his favorite maxims: There are no limits to what can be accomplished if you do not care who gets the credit. In this, Reagan was Roman -- or at least like one Roman.

Although Cato had served the Roman Republic with distinction, no statue had been erected to him, and someone asked him why. His serene answer was that it was better to have that question asked than the question, Why have they erected a statue to Cato? No one asks such a question about Reagan, which in fact is a kind of monument to him.



Comment on JWR contributor George Will's column by clicking here.

Up

04/23/01: Causation can work ...
04/19/01: Exposing the 'myth' of racial profiling
04/16/01: The costs of moral exhibitionism
04/13/01: Liberalism: The thrill of being startled by the unanticipated?
04/10/01: Enduring Arthur Miller: Oh, the Humanities!
04/06/01: Reading China
03/30/01: The Senate's Comic Opera
03/26/01: A second decade of economic trouble?
03/22/01: McCainism, the McCarthyism of today's "progressives"
03/19/01: Skirting what the First Amendment says
03/16/01: The SAT's thankless task
03/12/01: Fending Off the Speech Police
03/08/01: Democrat turnabout?
03/05/01: Let us hope not!
03/01/01: Duck! Our racial and ethnic spoils system is spinning out of control
02/26/01: Common Sense and the Constitution
02/22/01: Brooklyn's Artsy Dodgers
02/20/01: Whose surplus is it, anyway?
02/16/01: A truly inclusive holiday
02/12/01: Within the realm of Bush's tax cut
02/08/01: A season spoiled
02/05/01: Keeping faith behind initiatives
02/01/01: Tall order for a few federal dollars
01/29/01: You ain't seen nothin' yet
01/26/01: 'Art' Unburdened by Excellence
01/22/01: The monkey that could mean the end
01/19/01: The real enemy in the drug war
01/15/01: Congress just isn't big enough
01/12/01: Clinton's mark
01/08/01: All that is jazz
01/04/01: Bush's picks reveal Right attitude
01/02/01: Prosperity in perspective
12/28/00: Soft landing in a spoiled nation
12/26/00: When laws replace common sense
12/21/00: Beware the 'Bipartisanship'
12/18/00: ... A Brief Moment
12/13/00: Judicial activism on trial
12/11/00: Truth optional
12/06/00: A Chastened Court
12/01/00: Counting on some slippery language
11/28/00: Florida's rogue court
11/27/00: This willful court
11/22/00: Ferocity gap
11/17/00: Slow-motion larceny
11/13/00: Gore, Hungry for Power
11/09/00: No, the System Worked
11/06/00: The case for Bush
11/03/00: The Framers' Electoral wisdom
10/30/00: Political astronomy
10/27/00: Candidates condescending
10/23/00: No Partners For Peace
10/20/00: Talking peace with thugs
10/11/00: A feast of retreats
10/10/00: .. And what's gotten into the Danes?
10/05/00: The Agony of Debate
10/02/00: Senate Canvas
09/28/00: Milosevic: Not Another Saddam
09/25/00: Blaming the Voters
09/22/00: Saying No to the Euro
09/18/00: Farewell, Mr. Moynihan
09/14/00: When 'Choice' Rules
09/12/00: Colombia Illusions
09/08/00: Will He Spend It All?
09/04/00: Back in the U.S.S.R.
08/31/00: Stonewalling School Reform
08/28/00: Uphill for a California Republican
08/24/00: Sauerkraut Ice Cream
08/21/00: The Partial-Birth Censors
08/18/00: A Party to Prosperity
08/14/00: The National Scold on the Stump
08/10/00: The Thinking Person's Choice
08/07/00: The GOP of Powell And Rice
08/03/00: Panic in the Gore Camp
07/27/00: . . . Both Radical and Reassuring
07/06/00: Harry Potter: A Wizard's Return
07/03/00: Recalling the Revolution
06/29/00: An Act of Judicial Infamy
06/26/00: Life, Liberty and ... the Pursuit of Foxes
06/21/00: Fumble on Prayer
06/19/00: The unified field theory of culture
06/15/00: Schools Beset by Lawyers And Shrinks
06/12/00: Missile Defense Charade
06/07/00: The Grandparent Dissent
06/05/00: Liberal Condescension
06/01/00: Great Awakenings
05/30/00: Suddenly Social Security
05/25/00: Forget Values, Let's Talk Virtues
05/22/00: AlGore the Hysteric
05/15/00: Majestic Avenue
05/11/00: Just How Irrational Is the Exuberance?
05/08/00: Home-Run Glut
05/04/00: A Lesson Plan for Gore
05/01/00: The Hijacking of the Primaries
04/28/00: The Raid in Little Havana
04/24/00: Tinkering Again
04/17/00: A Judgment Against Hate
04/13/00: Tech- Stock Joy Ride
04/10/00: What the bobos are buying
04/06/00: A must-read horror book
04/03/00: 'Improving' the Bill of Rights
03/30/00: Sleaze, The Sequel
03/27/00: How new 'rights' will destroy freedom
03/23/00: Death and the Liveliest Writing
03/20/00: Powell is Dubyah's best bet
03/16/00: Free to Be Politically Intense
03/13/00: Runnin', Gunnin' and Gambling
03/09/00: And Now Back to Republican Business
03/06/00: As the Clock Runs Out on Bradley
03/02/00: Island of Equal Protection
02/28/00: . . . The Right Response
02/24/00: Federal Swelling
02/22/00: Greenspan Tweaks
02/17/00: Crucial Carolina (and Montana and . . .)
02/10/00: McCain's Distortions
02/10/00: The Disciplining of Austria
02/07/00: Free to Speak, Free to Give
02/02/00: Conservatives in a Changing Market
01/31/00: America's true unity day
01/27/00: For the Voter Who Can't Be Bothered
01/25/00: The FBI and the golden age of child pornography
01/20/00: Scruples and Science
01/18/00: Bradley: Better for What Ails Us
01/13/00: O'Brian Rules the Waves
01/10/00: Patron of the boom
01/06/00: In Cactus Jack's Footsteps
01/03/00: The long year
12/31/99: A Stark Perspective On a Radical Century
12/20/99: Soldiers' Snapshots of the Hell They Created
12/16/99: Star-Crossed Banner
12/13/99: Hubert Humphrey Wannabe
12/09/99: Stupidity in Seattle
12/06/99: Bradley's most important vote
12/03/99: Boys will be boys --- or you can always drug 'em
12/01/99: Confidence in the Gore Camp
11/29/99: Busing's End
11/22/99: When We Enjoyed Politics
11/18/99: Ever the Global Gloomster
11/15/99: The Politics of Sanctimony
11/10/99: Risks of Restraining
11/08/99: Willie Brown Besieged
11/04/99: One-House Town
11/01/99: Crack and Cant
10/28/99: Tax Break for the Yachting Class
10/25/99: Ready for The Big Leagues?
10/21/99: Where honor and responsibility still exist
10/18/99: Is Free Speech Only for the Media?
10/14/99: A Beguiling Amateur
10/11/99: Money in Politics: Where's the Problem?
10/08/99: Soft Thinking On Soft Money

© 2000, Washington Post Writer's Group