I just finished reading Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future by Will Bunch and found it fascinating. If there ever was a Man Who Sold the World it was good ol’ Ronnie. The book does a good job presenting a balanced account of the life and presidency of Reagan from a liberal perspective. What that means is Will Bunch does take the time to explain the right’s perspective at the same time he is expressing his liberal perspective, so the reader gets a good understanding of the arguments being made by the right.

Bunch also does a great job at describing how the Right has attempted to use a distorted description of Reagan’s presidency, stressing only its actions that fit the Right’s current agenda. For example, Reagan’s tax cut of 1981 is constantly emphasized by right-wingers even today, while ignoring the several tax increases he signed into law each of the seven years remaining of his two terms. His “heroic” statements regarding foreign policy are equally stressed, while the cautious foreign policy he actually practiced are forgotten. It amusing for a man who never left the safety of Hollywood during World War II or even completely reading presidential briefings while in the Oval Office that Ronald Reagan is given credit for winning the Cold War over Russia.

(more…)