Ronald Reagan, as we all know, single-handedly defeated communism – and what better way to commemorate that fact than putting his face on US currency? That's what Patrick McHenry, one of the more red-meat Republicans in Congress, believes.
"President Reagan is indisputably one of the most transformative presidents of the 20th century," McHenry wrote to his Congressional colleagues. "Like President Roosevelt on the dime and President Kennedy on the half dollar, President Reagan deserves a place of honour on our nation's currency."
McHenry wants Congress to put Reagan's face on the $50 bill, replacing that of the 18th president Ulysses S Grant. Because, what did Grant ever do? Apart from win the civil war for the North and so save the union. And end Reconstruction. And defend African Americans and native American civil rights. And sign the treaty of Washington. But apart from that, what? Did he conquer Grenada? No. Did he star in Bedtime for Bonzo? No.
"I'm very upset," Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar told the Los Angeles Times. "I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S Grant accomplished."
The enthusiasm for Reagan is in part because 2011 is the 100th anniversary of his birth, as well as longing for the certainties of the Reagan era for conservatives.
Still, if it convinced a few Tea Party types to have more confidence in the US dollar rather than buying gold via Glenn Beck's commercials, then, well, so what?
