Have you heard about the attempt to replace Franklin Roosevelt with Ronald Reagan on our dime? Some 89 conservative co-sponsors of the “Ronald Reagan Dime Act” say that anger over CBS’s docudrama about the Reagans pushed them to introduce the bill. Liberal congressman Jim McGovern (D, MA) is countering with a bill to keep FDR on the coin. (Fortunately, he has gathered 106 co-sponsors so far.)
McGovern argues that changing the dime is the wrong way to honor Reagan (who already has National Airport named after him, a major federal building in Washington and schools, roads and bridges around the country). He also points out that FDR’s face is on the dime because of a specific and special connection to the coin. Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes, which funded the research that resulted in the polio vaccine which ended the scourge of the 20th century. (The disability community, it’s worth noting, is outraged by this conservative gambit and plans to fight hard if the Republicans schedule the bill for the floor.)
The fact that the high priest of anti-tax activism, Grover Norquist, is involved in this fight–as chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project–imbues the coin toss with a distinct ideological flavor. After all, Norquist once said that he wanted “to shrink government in half to the point where we can drown it in the bathtub.” Roosevelt, on the other hand, believed government could be a force for good. McGovern argues that Norquist and his fellow traveling conservatives are using this fight as part of their battle plan to diminish, dismantle, and eventually drown Roosevelt’s New Deal legacy in its entirety. (Co-sponsors of the Reagan dime bill include the top pitbulls of the GOP, including Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader Tom Delay, House Whip Roy Blunt and Rules Committee Chair David Dreier.)
But Norquist, Delay and their ilk may have met their match in a surprising adversary: Nancy Reagan. Her recent statement opposing the renaming effort may hopefully squash the bill’s momentum. She is right to speak out–after all, unlike some of these rabid conservatives she retains a historical memory of her husband’s four votes for FDR–Reagan often cited as the inspiration of his public life and the greatest president of the 20th century. She may also remember that it was Reagan who made possible the FDR Memorial in Washington.
But, as of now, Mrs. Reagan’s statement hasn’t discouraged the true believers who continue to push for the Reagan dime. According to one close observer of the fight, they are now arguing that Mrs. Reagan’s comments show just how classy she is–that is, it would be untoward for her to publicly support replacing FDR on the dime, so it’s up to others to take the lead in the fight. Even more preposterously, some of the bill’s co-sponsors argue that when President Reagan was shot, the bullet was “flattened to the size of a dime,” which is why it’s appropriate to change the dime, rather than, say, the penny or the nickel.
Reagan’s death is likely to let loose an enormous effort to rename everything, perhaps including the country, but, for now, let’s keep Roosevelt’s image on the dime and fight the dismantling of what’s left of the New Deal.
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To Take Action:
1) Let your elected reps know that you expect them to sign on to the McGovern bill. Click here for contact info for your legislators.
2) Send letters to the editor of your local paper and make calls to your local talk-radio program showing support for keeping FDR on the dime. Click here for contact info for media in your area.
