Yes – it was thirty years ago tonight (30 years ago! I still can’t believe it!) that Reagan gave his "Star Wars speech.
I was a grad student in Optics, and as I watched it, my jaw dropped. this guy must know something I don’t, I thought, because it sounded insane. I now know what he knew, and it still sounds insane. But in the aftermath of the speech, I started gathering articles, books, and government reports, trying to make some sense out of it.
We’re still living with the aftereffects. I admit that some programs I’ve worked on over the years were funded by the SDIO or the MDA, but that doesn’t mean the program ever seemed like a good idea to me. It’s become an article of faith on the right that pursuing this drove the Soviet Union into bankrupcy, but , as far as I can tell, that’s all it is – an article of faith. I’ve never seen anyone actually try to make a case for it.
I think there’s definitely a point to pursuing anti-missle defenses. Indeed, there were such programs before the speech. But to base our nationalal defense policy on such a broad, expensive, unproven technology defies belief.
The Right is very faith based, and not just when it comes to religion. It’s about believing what you want to believe or are told to believe, regardless of the facts or logic. If the Right wants to believe that Star Wars bankrupted the USSR and that Star wars can work, then it must be true. That’s a central part of the Right mindset; reality itself must give way before faith, will and dogma.