The New Webster Collegiate defines “myth” as: “a story in pre-literate societies dealing with supernatural beings or heroes.” A contemporary example can be seen in the effort the GOP is making to create a myth of Ronald Reagan. They are making him hero by naming a major public site in every state after him, and they are well on the way to naming something – anything – in every one of America’s 3,054 counties. In addition, they seek to have him thought of as “a supernatural being” by requiring that Republican candidates mention that amiable gentleman at least twice in all debates – and, that about half of those mentions include Jesus in the same breath.

It took a century for George Washington to reach the rarefied air of national worship – and Lincoln still fails that test in large swaths of old Dixie. But Reagan has reached it in two decades because of this coordinated, massive promotional effort. While this campaign is one of political advantage, there is also a wounded ego involved. After all, the Republicans have not had a president of consequence since Lincoln a century and a half ago. (Teddy Roosevelt was a RINO – Republican in Name Only, and detested by the mainline party.)

Truth belies this Reagan flummery. According to local sage Lucius Flatley, his record was poor at best and a tragedy at worst. Nor was he popular. When he left office, polls consistently put him below most 20th century presidents – some that included Jimmy Carter. Only 14 percent of Americans thought he deserved the credit for ending the Cold War (Gorbachev was at 60 percent). He widened class differences in the U.S. more rapidly than at any time since the Gilded Age of Newport mansions. He increased not only the size of the federal debt, (as Dick Cheney said, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter”), but also the size of government. He increased the number of federal employees by 61,000 (Clinton reduced them by 373,000).

Perhaps his most noxious accomplishment was his “trickle down” taxes. Disguised as Social Security “reform,” he pushed through one of the largest tax increases in history – chiefly on the back of working people.

In foreign affairs as well, his administration was a disaster. Major foreign initiatives and actions were left to minor staffers – notably a couple of freewheeling military aides. One Marine lieutenant colonel achieved enough notoriety to earn him a subsequent TV career as he single-handedly traded arms to Iran for support of death squads in Central America. When the Iran/Contra scandal broke, Reagan admitted to personally “being out of the loop.”

He may not have been (as his son speculated) in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but he certainly was no intellectual. Fortunately, being less than bright was not a handicap in his version of the presidency. Reagan had available the finest advisers and experts in the world, and he was superb at stagecraft – lines, movements, timing, sincerity and delivery. Hollywood skills, plus great advisers, can more than compensate for a vacuous mind.

Good natured, polite, courteous, warm hearted, a practiced bon vivant and entertainer, he was known by intimates as “an amiable dunce.” One biographer, chosen by Reagan personally to follow him around for an “authorized” biography, called him “an apparent airhead” and “stunningly ignorant.” Either superstitious or wife-whipped, he scheduled speeches and travel based on predictions of his wife’s California soothsayer. This sorcery so outraged his chief of staff, Don Regan, that he confronted Mrs. R directly – whereupon she had him fired, via a note from Reagan delivered by a staffer.

He often mixed fantasy with reality. He said he had a “verbal” message from the pope praising his support of right-wing killing squads in Central America – which was vigorously denied by the Vatican. He bragged of liberating concentration camps, when in fact he sat out World War II in Hollywood. These claims were real to him – the product of his imagination and a lifetime of make-believe. In his mind, fact married imagination. When he got his ranch, he lived his movie cowboy persona – complete with his own horse.

In fact, the Reagan Myth is a fabrication. As his supernatural companion in myth, what would Jesus think?

Devil’s Dictionary ?Quote of the Week

Democratic Party: A political party which has persevered and prospered for over two centuries without ever having had any principles to betray.

Rodney Quinn, who lives in Gorham, is a former Maine secretary of state. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.