HOLY CRAP! ANTHONY LEWIS IS ALIVE???

Taranto, in discussing yesterday's State of the Union Address, wakes repressed memories of a long-forgotten commie-symp loser in Fyodor's poor old brain.

We liked the first part of the speech, on foreign policy, a lot. One highlight was this subtle nod to Ronald Reagan:

America rejects the false comfort of isolationism. We are the nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire.

You have to be of a certain age to appreciate this fully. On March 8, 1983, President Reagan gave a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, in which he observed:

"In your discussion of the nuclear-freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride--the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and labeling both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire.''

Liberal bed-wetters nearly drowned. Here's what New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis wrote the next day:

If there is anything that should be illegitimate in the American system, it is such use of sectarian religiosity to sell a political program. And this was done not by some fringe figure, but by the President of the United States. Yet I wonder how many people, reading about the speech or seeing bits on television, really noticed its outrageous character. Our political sensibilities have become so degraded.

Primitive: that is the only word for it. We laugh at stage representations of William Jennings Bryan, who used religion to argue against everything from the gold standard to Darwinian theory. The Ronald Reagan who spoke in Orlando could easily call it a sin to teach evolution.

But it is not funny. What is the world to think when the greatest of powers is led by a man who applies to the most difficult human problem a simplistic theology--one in fact rejected by most theologians? . . .

One may regard the Soviet system as a vicious tyranny and still understand that it has not been solely responsible for the nuclear arms race.

Today, the president of the United States can refer to the Soviet Union as an evil empire, and it's not controversial in the slightest. If Tony Lewis weren't still alive, he'd be turning in his grave.

I had to double check. Yep. I guess it was just his enthusiasms that died.