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Maybe the Gipper was the greatest president of the 20th century

Posted by B. Daniel Blatt at 12:10 am - February 7, 2010.
Filed under: American History, Great Americans, Great Men, Noble Republicans, Ronald Reagan

I frequently refer to Ronald Reagan as the greatest president of the second half of the Twentieth Century in large measure because of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s masterful preparation for and leadership during World War II.  Perhaps, because of his Angophilia, perhaps for other reasons, FDR forged a particularly strong bond with the greatest man of the last century, Winston Churchill.   (For whatever reason that relationship served our nation–and Western Civilization–extraordinarily well.)

Their friendship and his commitment to that alliance–even before Pearl Harbor (recall that the Atlantic Charter was drafted nearly four full months before we entered the war)–helped keep the bond between our two nations strong, allowing us to win the war, after overcoming many obstacles and numerous setbacks early in the war

So, despite the failure of FDR’s economic policies to end the Great Depression, I consider him the greatest president of the last century for helping save civilization from Nazism.

Over at Big Government, Burt Folsom offers a different view.  That History professor gives the laurels to the Gipper:  ”Reagan, by contrast [to FDR & Woodrow Wilson], won the Cold War and also revived the American economy from decades of abuse. He was successful both at home and abroad.“

Folsom contends there were three parts to the Gipper’s genius: his vision, his character and his teachabilty:  ”We have to believe in something and we have force of character, but we also have to be ready to modify.”

Read the whole thing and let me know:  who is right, that historian on this blogger?  Like the Gipper, I am willing to modify my views when circumstances call for a change.

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9 Comments

  1. To Daniel…. After reading Burt Folsom’s article, I have to agree with him….. how can anybody, especially someone like me who has 1st hand experience, not agree with Mr. Folsom’s assessment? I’ll never regret becoming a registered Republican and what’s funny, is I owe it all to our 39th president. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only thing he ever did while in office to better my life….I’m not kidding, 1977-80 sucked, and I defy anyone that was around then to say else wise. So it’s with much heart felt thanks I again say , Happy Birthday to the greatest president of the 20th century, #40…Ronald Reagan.

    Comment by Spartann — February 7, 2010 @ 12:44 am - February 7, 2010

  2. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but yum.

    Whats with all the hot Republicans all of a sudden? Shock, Rubio, Brown, Duffy and now Kinzinger.

    It’s rather quite distracting!

    And Happy Birthday Ronnie! Yes, you are the greatest pres of the 20th century. Ronald Reagan would not have made the American people dependent on a low-return, government-run ponzi scheme for their retirement. He would not have rounded up the Japanese. The Depression would not have lasted anywhere near as long ahd the government gotten out of the way of the American people instead of trying to control them, he would never have instituted the command and control policies that FDR did, and he would not have tried to pack the courts…but then again, after the Great War, the country was very reluctant to involve itself in the affairs of others, and Regan would have been very unlikely to countenance standing idly by as Hitler marched across Europe, so one must wonder if he would have even been able to get elected at the time. One can only imagine how differently things would have turned out.

    God bless Nancy!

    Comment by American Elephant — February 7, 2010 @ 2:52 am - February 7, 2010

  3. So, despite the failure of FDR’s economic policies to end the Great Depression, I consider him the greatest president of the last century for helping save civilization from Nazism.

    Really? You mean like this failure? Note the crater just after 1937, that’s where the new Conservative Coalition managed to get portions of the New Deal repealed. Also note a very similar pattern in the unemployment rate, and in real GDP.

    Also note that FDR won in 1936, after four years of ‘failed’ economic policy. Did he rig the vote? Use the army to mount a coup? No, he won fairly and extremely convincingly because the people liked his economic policies because they could see they were working.

    I know you hater government interference, but it would probably help your case if you didn’t lie about it.

    Comment by Serenity — February 7, 2010 @ 6:28 am - February 7, 2010

  4. I could get you to change your mind about that, if you had any intellectual honesty whatsoever, that is. Ronald Reagan was actually a terrorist-coddling lefty:

    Another important measure we have developed in our overall strategy is applying the rule of law to terrorists. Terrorists are criminals. They commit criminal actions like murder, kidnapping, and arson, and countries have laws to punish criminals. So a major element of our strategy has been to delegitimize terrorists, to get society to see them for what they are — criminals — and to use democracy’s most potent tool, the rule of law against them.

    Wow, wow, wow. Charging terrorists in courts? What a wimp, huh? There was also that security-compromising convention against torture he signed that stated there are no extraordinary circumstances to justify the practice. Talk about snuggling up with the enemy!

    Comment by Levi — February 7, 2010 @ 8:35 am - February 7, 2010

  5. Even though TANO hasn’t weighed in again, I would like to address her comments. I for one have asked GP to remove her but in thinking it over keeping her comments do make me realize what the “other side” is all about.

    Comment by PatriotMom — February 7, 2010 @ 9:00 am - February 7, 2010

  6. Levi – even the greatest aren’t infallible.

    You might recall that Reagan’s response to, say, a terrorist attack in Germany was met not with criminal charges but with some well placed bombs delivered by the Air Force.

    Comment by SoCalRobert — February 7, 2010 @ 2:14 pm - February 7, 2010

  7. Diffrent men for different periods of the 20th century. While my political leanings are far more with Reagan than FDR, I’d have to say that both were great for their times and I doubt either would have succeeded as well if their periods were reversed. I recently read something about why Obama’s stimulus isn’t working for jobs. It’s a relic from FDR’s time when the bulk of the working class did manual-type labor which is not the case today. Come to think of it, most of the Left’s ideas on fiscal matters are relics of FDR’s time.

    Comment by John — February 7, 2010 @ 4:19 pm - February 7, 2010

  8. Yeah, I especially like Reagan’s cut & run decision in Lebanon, and most of all his increasing government spending to record levels. Time to scrub away the myths. Reagan was a superb communicator and a good leader. He did not end communism in Europe (that was many decades in the making) and he was anything but a true fiscal conservative. He did great things for the spirit and morale of America after the Carter disaster, and that was probably his most impressive achievement. Lebanon, Iran-Contra, ballooning deficits – they are big parts of the Reagan legacy.

    Comment by richard — February 7, 2010 @ 10:40 pm - February 7, 2010

  9. and most of all his increasing government spending to record levels.

    I know you’re an ignorant lib, but really, this is 1st grade stuff…CONGRESS writes the budgets, not the president, and the congresses who wrote all that spending into law were DEMOCRATS. All Reagan can do is veto them, and he often did.

    Please take remedial civics.

    Comment by American Elephant — February 7, 2010 @ 11:30 pm - February 7, 2010

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