{"id":7763,"date":"2013-04-26T09:11:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T13:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=7763"},"modified":"2013-04-26T09:11:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T13:11:22","slug":"the-right-ronald-reagan-and-the-rest-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2013\/04\/26\/the-right-ronald-reagan-and-the-rest-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Right, Ronald Reagan and the Rest of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Cutting a deal with the Evil Empire? Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev from Wikipedia.<\/p><\/div>\n

Way back in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Moscow still led a vast Evil Empire, a particular and apparently intractable problem began to emerge in international diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Reagan, a staunch anti-communist from his early days as an actor and governor of California, began to let on that he thought negotiating with the Russians was more or less a non-starter.\u00a0\u00a0 He just didn’t trust them.<\/p>\n

He started describing the Soviet Union as “an evil empire” and portrayed the Cold War as “the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.”\u00a0 Not a whole lot of room there for middle grounds or deal-making.<\/p>\n

He also started cracking jokes like this one, in 1984:\u00a0 “My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever.\u00a0 We begin bombing in five minutes.”<\/p>\n

That’s a tough opening for a dialogue, right?<\/p>\n

The dilemma here is that when you reach the point that you no longer trust your opponent — no longer have any respect or sense of comity — it is very difficult indeed to talk, to listen, and to reach some kind of workable accord.<\/p>\n

I recount this story because it seems that a very similar problem has emerged with America’s far right, particularly with those on the far right who\u00a0 have real political power in Washington.<\/p>\n

It’s not necessarily that their ideas are bad ones.\u00a0 Some of their policies may be exactly what the country needs.<\/p>\n

No, the problem is that many on the right have clearly reached the conclusion that the rest of us — moderates, liberals, independent journalists, anyone who isn’t on “their” ideological team — simply can’t be trusted or reasoned with.<\/p>\n

The distrust is so high that even ideas that conservatives invented and once embraced — background checks for gun purchasers, cap-and-trade policies to curb pollution, an individual insurance mandate, and so on — are discredited if anyone else endorses them.<\/p>\n

I was reminded of this dilemma after the background check bill failed in Congress earlier this month.\u00a0 Local conservative activist Ray Scollin from Saranac Lake<\/a> wrote a thoughtful op-ed for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that 90% of Americans supported the basic idea in the bill, and acknowledged that the bill was co-sponsored by a Republican, and drew support from four out of the 45 GOP Senators.<\/p>\n

But then he came to the real issue at hand:\u00a0 lack of trust.\u00a0 “In the end, this bill failed because we lack trust and we are unable to reach meaningful compromise,” Scollin argued.<\/p>\n

“There cannot be hidden clauses or a lack of understanding on the subject you are attempting to legislate. In this situation, leadership could not provide the trust or the meaningful compromise.”<\/p>\n

I think Scollin has it mostly wrong on the second part of his claim.\u00a0 I think by any reasonable measure the background check bill represented “compromise.”<\/p>\n

It certainly didn’t go as far as most gun control advocates would have preferred; nor was it exactly what the pro-gun lobby would have written if they controlled Congress.\u00a0 That’s what middle grounds usually look like.<\/p>\n

But Scollin is spot on when he talks about the lack of trust.\u00a0 A similar sentiment was expressed by conservatives posting on this blog, who said they support the idea of background checks but lacked faith in the people pushing the legislation.<\/p>\n

“I have no problem with the concept of background checks \u2013 it’s already the law in many states,” wrote Original Larry.<\/p>\n

“That said, I absolutely do not trust anti-gun activists. Their actions, especially in NY, make me deeply suspicious of their motives. Why would I trust people who do not keep their word and who deliberately spread misinformation in pursuit of their agenda? I’ll continue to oppose additional gun control legislation until I see signs that I can trust those who propose it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s understandable why conservatives feel that moderates and liberals aren’t credible negotiating partners.<\/p>\n

From Alex Jones to Glen Beck to Orson Scott Card to Rush Limbaugh, there is a wide and growing call on the right for a kind of moratorium on any dealings with the “other” or the “false” America.<\/p>\n

There is an increasingly “mainstream” argument the US government itself is a rogue entity, preparing to confiscate all guns, and operating “false flag” terrorist actions in order to rationalize gun control.<\/p>\n

This isn’t merely the stuff of AM talk radio rants.\u00a0 Republicans recently held a House subcommittee hearing to air worries that the Department of Homeland Security is “hoarding” ammunition.<\/p>\n

“What are they doing with it?” asked subcommittee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, echoing concerns on the right that our government might be actively preparing for some kind of military confrontation against its own citizens.<\/p>\n

The problem posed by these arguments, of course, is pretty simple.<\/p>\n

What do you do when a sizable percentage of the population — and the political base of the Republican Party — doesn’t think the rest of the country is trustworthy enough to have a conversation with?<\/p>\n

How do you run a democracy when one significant faction won’t even sign off on deals that they agree with because they feel that the “other side” must be doing something nefarious behind the scenes?<\/p>\n

What kind of compromise is possible if Republican lawmakers are automatically discredited — Marco Rubio on immigration, John McCain on gun rights, Rob Portman on gay rights — if they express any willingness to compromise or talk?<\/p>\n

During the 2012 political campaign, Newt Gingrich was excoriated by conservatives for cutting a PR video with Nancy Pelosi urging the development of cleaner energy.<\/p>\n

How do you come back from a political place where expressing any kind of shared interest with the opposition is political suicide — even when you agree with their ideas?\u00a0<\/em> I think the answer lies with Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n

After years of militant, aggressive and confrontational rhetoric, Reagan saw an opening with Mikhail Gorbachev and he was nimble enough to change course.<\/p>\n

After 1985, Reagan held four summits with the Soviet Union, signing wide-reaching arms agreements, and ushering in the peaceful end of the Cold War. He won big concessions during those talks, but also gave ground and showed flexibility.<\/p>\n

When he made his final trip to Moscow as president, Reagan was asked if he still viewed the Soviet Union as an Evil Empire.\u00a0 “No,” he replied.\u00a0 “I was talking about another time, another era.”<\/p>\n

It’s time for the right to make a similar pivot in their thinking about the rest of us.\u00a0 Time for conservative leaders to demand that their community — often described as the “real” America — accept some kind of detente with everybody else.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear about one thing.\u00a0 I think the idea that moderates or the left in America ever warranted the level of distrust and hostility felt by many on the right is ludicrous.<\/p>\n

There is no credible evidence that Barack Obama or the Democrats ever indulged in secret agendas of the kind that now enjoy widespread play from talk radio to Fox News.<\/p>\n

Which should make it even easier for Republican leaders to talk to their membership, their base, about the need to rebuild some level of trust and dialogue and, yes, even deal-making.<\/p>\n

Clearly, the left and the right in America disagree profoundly and deeply on important issues — that’s healthy and normal.\u00a0 But the idea that one side in this debate is made up of evil, conspiratorial black-hat villains has to stop.<\/p>\n

If Reagan could talk to the Russians about nuclear bombs and the Berlin wall, surely the modern conservative movement can find a way to talk to Democrats about background checks and immigration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Moscow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7765,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763\/revisions\/7765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}