Toward the Functional Center

By Hugh Sidey

Is the world better off now than when Ronald Reagan took over the White House a year ago? All sorts of tensions and crises say the answer is no. Is the nation? Not according to the statistics. Have most people improved their lives? Probably not by any arithmetical measurement. But are we less worse off than we might have been with the alternative to Reagan? The answer is yes.

It is on that slender and slippery ledge that Reagan's presidency now sustains itself. Everything is relative. A choice between Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln we did not have. What might it have been like with unchecked Government spending, along with the inflation, interest rates and taxes of old? Nobody can be sure, but it sounds even more calamitous than the economic troubles that face us now. Judging by some recent polls, that is just what most people have concluded. While they do not think much of the President's programs, they still like the guy, and they want to give his ideas more of a test before making a final judgment. George Gallup found that a huge majority of those he questioned felt a curious kind of satisfaction with life in the U.S. And nine out of ten gave a hearty endorsement to some of those conservative nostrums like "More emphasis on traditional family ties" and "More respect for authority." The man we got for President still has a vigorous yearning for those principles, but his presidency is losing its original shape because a lot of theories have been abandoned as they crashed upon the rock of reality. That may be our best hope.

As we look out over the political landscape, the mighty oaks of budget cuts and tax relief are still standing. But almost every other idea that Reagan planted has been pruned or modified. Since he is going to have mammoth deficits, Reagan has muted his horror at unbalanced books. He may be ready to raise some taxes, even though a few weeks ago, he claimed he was set against the notion.

His reluctance to talk with the Soviets about arms limitation dissolved when Leonid Brezhnev began to win the propaganda war. Reagan championed linkage in East-West relations until he judged that some collective acts hurt America's allies more than the adversary. Thus he continued talks on arms reduction in Europe even as he blamed the Soviets for masterminding the repression in Poland. Reagan unlinked much of his world.

He bowed to the realities of power and denied Taiwan advanced jets lest the sale upset mainland China. Reagan never much liked the idea of nuclear missiles hidden in the desert, but after confused attempts to find other ways to base the new MX, the President is growing tolerant of the protective shelters.

Reagan thought he could help old friends by adjusting the tax rules against racial discrimination; the gale of protest cleared his mind and he belatedly reversed himself. His opposition to the draft was forgotten when it came time to renew registration for 18-year-old males and he needed to look tough in a skeptical world.

It seems unlikely that Reagan will be able to abolish the Departments of Education and Energy as he wanted to do. More budget cutting is dubious. Refinement of some of the earlier program changes in order to aid the truly hurt will surely be demanded--and accepted.

The Ronald Reagan of 1982 may smile and wave much as the 1981 version did, but this President is becoming something else--a moderate. Public response has a molding influence on men of both left and right who occupy the Oval Office, inexorably nudging them toward the functional center.

Ronald Reagan has kept purpose high, preserved hope and humor, ignited debate. That is not an inconsiderable contribution. But his chances for earning greater tribute lie not in being true to his old radical-right self, but in learning to live in the middle, where his principles of economic restraint at home and military authority abroad can be hammered and fitted and made to work in the world as it is.

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