The Presidency by Hugh Sidey: When a Fed Was a Friend

There is no precise time recorded when a majority of Americans looked up and decided that their Government had ceased to be a friend and helper and had become a hindrance. The best guess is that it occurred long before the November election, when it was finally and firmly established by the political process.

Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address was the loudest statement yet by the aggrieved. The No. 1 victim stood before the nation proclaiming avuncular outrage over the federal family he had just inherited. Government is the problem.

It is not that simple, and Reagan knows it. The Sixth Fleet...