He cites the ancient fable of the fox and hedgehog to explain the difference between Ronald Reagan and certain prominent contemporary Democrats: The hedgehog focuses on one big thing, the foxes run off in several directions at once. Jimmy Carter was a fox. Ronald Reagan was a hedgehog. "The 'one big thing' Reagan knew was the power and value of human freedom, which proved to be the defining principle of his worldview."
Mr. Reagan accelerated the arms race with the Soviet Union for two reasons - to build up American defenses against a lethal enemy and to destroy the Russian economy as it tried to keep up. The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was crucial to this strategy and Mikhail Gorbachev, no dummy he, understood that. He offered great concessions to President Reagan if he would give up SDI. But the president knew better.
"If we truly believe that our way of life is best," he asked, "aren't the Russians more likely to recognize that fact and modify their stand if we let their economy become unhinged, so the contrast is apparent?" It was a strategy that worked. The Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the rest is history.
New threats must be dealt with today, and the Democratic social-worker wing looks at Iraq and runs for the exits. The enemies of George W. Bush, like the enemies of Ronald Reagan, dismiss the president as a dunce (without even the qualification "amiable"). The Democratic wannabes look a lot like foxes, chasing one idea after another, desperately searching for the fatal mistake that can be portrayed as scandal. The president looks more and more like a hedgehog, focused on the worldview.
"A free Iraq, most everybody agrees, can transform the Middle East," writes Zell Miller. "There will be times when it looks like it's not worth it. But in the long stretch of history, it will be worth it."