Unlike Father, Unlike Son

In a recent interview for the BBC, Ron Reagan, Jr, son of the late President, admonished political conservatives in America for making his father "a fetish object for the far right."

"Who else are they going to remember that way? Richard Nixon? I don't think so. Warren Harding? Maybe. But he is a fetish object for the far right, he's sort of the rubber bustier of the far right -- you know, they all have to go and touch him, as it were."

Warren Harding? The man who once told his confidants that he never should have been elected, that he was never right for the job? Oh, no, Junior. History has been far kinder to Nixon, if those born after his time can believe that.

Let us suppose that his is a fair assessment. Back home in Cincinnati, the Cross County Highway was renamed the "Ronald Reagan Highway," for no apparent good reason, and the guy wasn't even dead yet. Washington National Airport was renamed "Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport." This might have been to honor his firing en masse of the air traffic controllers who went on strike during his administration, but we doubt it. There have also been proposals to erect a Reagan Memorial on the National Mall, and to put his image on a twenty-dollar bill (in which case, say goodbye to the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, President Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson). Given all that and more, it might be worth reminding Junior, that it is only because of any such tribute to his late father, that he continues to be interviewed about him, or damn near anything, for that matter. Rather ironic, don't you think?

Or don't you?