In June 2004, I attended a 21st Century Democrats training. If I remember correctly, it was only a few days long, but very intensive… we stayed in dorms at American University, attended classes during the days and worked on hypothetical campaigns at night. One afternoon, as we were entering the cafeteria for lunch, we passed a TV set tuned to some cable news network and saw the BREAKING NEWS banner announcing the death of Ronald Reagan.
It was, to put it diplomatically, kind of a weird environment to be in when that news broke… not a lot of Reagan supporters in that crowd. Still, the man had just died. The next day, in one of the classes, the trainer weighed in with his own thoughts on Reagan – something along the lines of “may he rot in hell,” or something equally as jarring/inappropriate. Mixed reaction… some groans, some cheers, some nervous laughter. I didn’t have any reaction.
I’ve always regretted not saying something – or even just wincing – at the comment. I don’t want to be one of those people who hates instead of opposes… y’know, a Left-wing Freeper. Besides, if I was going to resort to political hatred, the target wouldn’t be Ronald Reagan, if for no other reason than the fact that he didn’t really seem like a hater himself. The whole non-hater thing will certainly face tougher tests than that one… can I honestly say I would wince if the same comment had been made about Ann Coulter?
Jesse Helms died early Friday morning (4th of July). I caught the news on CNN, and within the same sentence of the announcement of his death were the words “narrow-minded” and “bigot.” Yeah, obviously the words were preceded by qualifiers like “opponents often called him…” or “to his critics, he was…” Bob Dole was interviewed about Helms’ legacy, and gave a pretty tepid eulogy (apparently the Senate pages liked Helms because he took them for ice cream or something). The man had been a prominent U.S. Senator for 30 years, and that’s the legacy he left behind.
And he earned it. Hell, even Strom Thurmond and George Wallace tried to make amends for their segregationist views, and at least in the case of Wallace, it was likely sincere. Not Helms… he took pride in never compromising or changing his positions, as though the actual morality of the positions was secondary to his “principled” opposition.
There was the sort of question in the back of my mind… the appropriate test. Do I acknowledge these things about someone who just died? Is that different from the Reagan Burning in Hell comment that I wish I could retroactively denounce? At what point does a political position become interchangeable with personal morality?
I guess, like everything else, it all comes down to a gut-check moment. Four years later, I still wish I had reacted differently (well, reacted at all) to Reagan’s death. I haven’t reconsidered my views on his Presidency, and, if anything, I’ve become an even stauncher opponent of his ideology, but at least the man left a legacy worth defending. But Jesse Helms didn’t, and he’s paid greatly for it this week with lukewarm eulogies. Kind of a sad, but well-earned ending.
