I remember this news clip on the TV when I was a kid.
It was startling: why were they standing in a war zone, why were Americans upset and why was he so disrespectful?
I realized I was seeing something unscripted, and I never forgot that. That was the last time any crack showed in the tightening conservative narrative of American exceptionalism.
I wanted to believe things could be better, but I knew it wasn’t true, even then.
So did Reagan.
