Eugene Jarecki Thinking Quotations

I don't think Reagan is primarily funny, and I don't think he's primarily marvelous; he's complicated.

I think the film was sort of a rock in a storm for Wilton. For me, Wilton was, and is, a force in my coming of age. He opened my eyes to just how textured the thinking has to be about America now, about the grief that Americans feel, the desire for revenge, and not allowing myself to have any kind of distance from that, or ignore it - which is too often the mistake of those who do not - shall we say - concur with policy.

Reaganism as a political movement has enormous resources behind it and it seeks - through stagecraft and through a tremendous level of effort toward propaganda - to present an image of Reagan that is so much larger-than-life that it sort of blinds us all, and keeps us all in a warm, happy, nostalgic state, thinking of a man who can do no wrong.

Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called 'Why We Fight' that explored America's reasons for entering the war. Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it's crucial to ask the questions: 'Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?'

It was natural to see the struggle for dignity for black people in America as a sister struggle of the Jewish struggle. So growing up, it was always a part of my breakfast cereal to think of myself as someone who was part of a larger struggle.