Proud to be an Emotional Duplicitous Liberal

I don't know if you could call me a liberal, but if I were, I would say that one cool perk of liberalism is that you get to be a sap. Reagan's funeral yesterday, I thought, was beautiful. I loved all the heads of state, (Gorbachev looked exactly the same) Thatcher's speech, George H.W. Bush's authenticity. Maybe because it brought me back to my childhood/adolescence.

The two coasts - in a way uniting our country: the formal Washington setting with the natural west coast setting. (I wonder if that was Nancy and Ronald's intention? Did they do all this out of vanity? Hard to believe - they must have done it for us). And son Ron, who clearly inherets some of the dearness, sweetness that his father had, yet stating his own words, critical of the current President, delivered with that "serenity to the core" which Pat Buchanan described RR as having.

And all this about a man I still disagree with. In comparison to the current administration, of course, he's a lot better (or different). But I remember being scared when Reagan was president, because he had a selective ignorance, a soma overdose. He convinced himself of truths that never occured. He joked with no guilt that hard work did not interest him. But you knew too, that he really believed everything he said. In our household, the Reagan years felt sort of like playing darts with a happy drunk (yeegad! watch where you're throwing that thing!). He looked cheerful, sure, but we were freaking out (why isn't this guy more concerned!?!?).

And what's great about being a liberal sap, if I am a liberal, is that I get to cry at Jimmy Carter's funeral. Naa-na-Ne-naa-nahh: I get to be proud of this other former President, who was decent to the core. Perhaps the most decent of any president in my lifetime (considering that is Nixon on I would say yes, THE most decent). And he DIDN'T have a selective memory -- he was incredibly smart, but never condescending. And the most gracious ex-President you could imagine, an example others may want to model more closely (Did you hear that Mr. Clinton?).

Anyway, I just wonder if the right-wingers will allow themselves to mourn Carter like me and others mourned Reagan. If they don't it is their loss. Hopefully, there'll be some time before we find out.