Ronald Reagan, RIP

He was the first President I can remember, as I was a little young for Carter. I'm a little taken aback by some of the despairing among progressives that news of his death, at 93, will somehow spur Bush and the GOP in this election. A man died. I wouldn't look at it politically.

I'm not surprised that Republicans venerate this man, who was a little dim, but smiled a lot and made people laugh. His legacy to my generation, however, is not the fall of Communism, or Reaganomics, or his personality. It's the fact that it took seven long years for him to say the word "AIDS," after thousands of people had already died, and hundreds of thousands more were infected. It's debatable whether there would be the global plague there is today if Reagan had shown some leadership on this issue. Surely millions of lives would have been saved, and that's a conservative number. Apparently, the news media is deciding to honor Reagan's legacy by also not mentioning the word "AIDS" during their hundreds of hours of tribute coverage. Flip on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, whatever, and you'll hear "it's morning in America," "There you go again," the "golden years" of the 80s, and the end of the Cold War (as if the Russians didn't fall on their on sword). I seem to remember AIDS in there as well.

In addition, let's not forget Iran-Contra (which every supporter is quick to point out occurred unbeknownst to the President), and massive deficits, and an utter contempt for the poor. With Reagan it was all about the packaging, no matter what he was selling. But in the end, this was a frail old man dying of a mysterious disease called Alzheimer's, which (quite ironically) might have also been prevented if a sitting President showed leadership on a medical issue (in this case, stem cell research, for which Nancy Reagan herself has raised funds and lobbied furiously). That's another thing that should be remembered amongst all the talk of this man's life and work.