We vs. them

To know this president, watch his pronouns | Mindy Belz

Associated Press/Photo by Gerald Herbert

Presidential aide Dick Darman once said that to understand Ronald Reagan you had to realize he was neither a Republican nor a conservative. He was, Darman said, a populist. Consider some of the 40th president's better-known aphorisms:

"Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

In an era of Cold War and Great Society programs run amok, Reagan identified the bully as the state. In any "us vs. them" drama he tended to side with "us." He saw himself in the object of the sentence where most folks could also see themselves, taking hits from the subjects—be they communists, bureaucrats, or air traffic controllers.