The Reagan Inversion

IT'S EASY to understand the appeal Reaganism held for the nation a year and a half ago. Its call was a seductive one with which many could sympathize. Let's recreate America by resuscitating the traditional ideals and dreams of the country. Let's allow men once again to be the captains of their own fates, and through their ambition, revive the republic.

The vision carries an unmistakably romantic hue; it conjures up an image of a time when there were only men and the frontier, when people's ambitions awaited realization on a new and untainted continent. It recalls that long period of history--some say it has yet to end--when America meant the land of dreams for millions here and abroad. The means toward the fulfillment of this vision. Reagan and his followers contend, also he in a return to history in a return to the limited governments of the past.

But if the last year carries any lesson at all, it is that Reaganism means the betrayal of dreams. Indeed, it means the betrayal of some of the elemental ideals of the republic. It means a repudiation of what is noble in the American tradition of government, and its replacement with meanness, injustice, parochialism, and even a measure of insanity. It means, at root, privileges for a few over equity for all. Claiming to offer the nation a grand dream, this Administration has instead delivered a dreadful reality.

The American dream is many things, of which few parts stand out. They include the right to a safe existence, the right to work, the right to legal and social justice, and a livable environment. Yet in its sweeping effort to "limit" and redefine government, to revitalize the economy and to restore our might and world position, the Administration has seriously undermined those time-honored national hopes.

Promising a return to prosperity through the removal of government from the now deified marketplace, this Administration has helped unemployment climb to almost 10 percent--a staggering figure, higher than any other since the Great Depression. The White House seems shamefully cavalier about the fact that unemployment--brought on by its tight-money policies and refusal to initiate any job programs--aggravates social rights and threatens the fragile network that unites the country.

Those hardest hit by unemployment--the lower-middle and lower classes and minorities--have received another clear message of betrayal. The cancellation of billions of dollars worth of social programs to alleviate suffering and give deprived groups a chance for betterment dramatizes the government slack of interest in making America a land of opportunity for those who most need it. The cuts and impending cuts in educational aid have turned the age-old ideal of economic betterment and class mobility into a wisp of myth.

As if danger and unrest at home were not enough for our leaders to cultivate, they have embarked on a military buildup and foreign policy which will turn the U.S. into more of an arsenal that it now is, and which is already destabilizing a volatile world. "Limited government" somehow means unlimited defense spending. The endless spending of billions of dollars on soon-to-be obsolete nuclear hardware bleeds the economy and accelerates an already frenetic arms race. By contrast, conventional forces and supplies are either neglected or supplemented by overly-sophisticated and insufficiently reliable material.

Moreover, the Administration's ongoing quest for a global alliance against the Soviet threat adds significantly to the instability of a fractured world. Straited by a narrow, dualistic vision of world events, the government ignores pressing and unique problems indigenous to different regions. The U.S. sells AWACs to a nation that has declared undying hatred of a close American ally, a conviction that America is only a purveyor of arms, and a desire for friendship with the Soviet Union. It sends a stream of arms into a region traumatized by civil war, in the hope of propping up repressive, but nominally pro-American regimes.

The Administration's campaign against the environment has been more blatant. Its legislation to gut the acts protecting the nation's air and water, its attempts to secure exploitation of the country's lands, its fondness of strip mining, its unwillingness to do anything about the ravages of acid rain--all point to a repudiation of 75 years of governmental protection of the American natural heritage.

Finally, this Administration has demonstrated beyond a doubt its lack of interest in questions of legal and social justice. The Justice Department itself has not initiated a single case worthy of the front page of the major dailies. The major corporations now breathe easily, satisfied with the knowledge that this government won't spend its time busting trusts. And the dubious legal records of a number of Cabinet members make it questionable whether white-collar crime will receive the attention it recently did. As for attempts to foster equality, the Administration's willingness to confer highly beneficial tax-free status on racist institutions like Bob Jones University, serves as a fitting emblem of the government's mind-set.

Supporters and critics alike have referred to the event of the last year as "The Reagan Revolution." We think it might be better termed "The Reagan Inversion." The country has witnessed a decisive turn away from what was noble and time-honored in American government.

Of course, America must be defended. It may regain its prosperity and exercise productive power in the world. Nor will social spending alone cure the nation's ills.

But these dreams will not come true as long as the nation is run by men who pejoratively call food stamps a "Puerto Rican" program. Nor will a President who has cut himself off almost entirely from the nation achieve these aims.

We must all figure this program of greed and reaction at every turn. Only by raising voices of protest against all injustice and malevolence and misguidedness will the nation return to its true ideals. At the polls in November and through the mounting criticism of the Administration, we can revive those American dreams worth fulfilling, and awaken from the bastard dream of Reaganism.