Written by Barbara Friedland   

Actually, no. President Reagan never visited me and ministered Jewish penicillin.

However, that story is no more ersatz than the lore and false history swirling around the 40th President.

There has been a small outpouring of writers who are accurately chronicling the Reagan years. A whisper compared to the almost hysterical homage being paid to him.

Both in terms of the man and his actions, he was usually the opposite of what he proposed.

His true legacy runs counter to his professed beliefs.

Someone who claimed to support capitalism, albeit through supply economics and tax breaks for the wealthy, began the measures that would ultimately cripple and collapse the American economy.

He was a Commander in Chief who believed in a strong military, yet was responsible for financing and training the seminal Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. Once the Russians fled from Afghanistan, the obligation to fighting this and similar groups fell to our soldiers.

Reagan advocated a balanced budget, although he never presented one to the Congress.

Luckily, this President, like his successor, responsibly raised taxes when it was truly needed. He is, however, remembered as a chief executive bitterly opposed to tax increases.

Reagan said he believed in small government, yet increased the federal footprint. He also mocked the public sector, oft saying that one of the three most common lies is: “I am from the government and I’m here to help you.”

But he served in elected office for 16 years (including two terms as Governor of California) in addition to many years seeking same.

For someone who found his initial professional success in Hollywood, Reagan was anti- gay to the point that he allowed the AIDS virus to leap from a deadly, segregated problem to a disease of epidemic proportions.

He spoke movingly of family values, yet ignored his children and grandchildren.
Ronald Reagan has been semi deified by those opposed to government growth and intrusion. He is still presented as someone who sought to fight and contain the public sector.

And yet, he did not hate it enough to not run for elected office.