Reviewing Reagan: The Life, by historian H.W. Brands, USA Today White House reporter Gregory Korte recited tired anti-Reagan cliches favored by liberals as he complained about “some notable omissions” in the book.
In his piece which appeared in the “Life” section of Thursday’s newspaper, Korte regretted that “Brands makes no mention of Reagan’s 1980 ‘states rights’ speech in Philadelphia, Miss., just miles from the site where civil rights workers were killed by Southern segregationists just 16 years before.” And, Korte rued, “Also missing: Any mention of the apocryphal ‘welfare queens,’ the epidemic in homelessness during his presidency, or hot-microphone threats to start bombing Russia in five minutes.”
As if homelessness was unique to the Reagan years, there weren’t any “welfare queens” and the “threat” was not an obvious joke with no dire implications.
“‘The Life’ looks beyond the politics to uncover the real Ronald Reagan,” read the headline in the July 9 newspaper over the article posted back on June 27 under a different headline. Both versions began with the view of those hostile to the 40th President:
“Ronald Reagan’s detractors have long portrayed him as an empty suit — a charming B-list actor who became the ‘Great Communicator’ by delivering other people’s lines without much substance of his own.”
Korte contended “it's only been after his death” that “historians and biographers have begun to understand that Reagan’s detached management style was more a matter of hyper-focus than neglect.” Of course, those outside of the liberal media and academia understood that long before Reagan died.
Late in the review of the book by the professor at the University of Texas, Korte lamented:
There are some notable omissions. Brands makes no mention of Reagan’s 1980 “states rights” speech in Philadelphia, Miss., just miles from the site where civil rights workers were killed by Southern segregationists just 16 years before. Critics say Reagan cynically used that speech as a racial wedge to convert the once-solid Democratic south to a new Reagan coalition of white Republican voters. Whether that was the intent, the effect was to redraw the electoral map for at least the next four decades.
Also missing: Any mention of the apocryphal “welfare queens,” the epidemic in homelessness during his presidency, or hot-microphone threats to start bombing Russia in five minutes. (That happened in 1984 as Reagan was recording his weekly radio address.)
