You know there’s some kind of love interest between the national media and the state when the following things happen:
- A search on Yahoo! on the word “Regan” shows up every possible website associated with former President Ronald Reagan. (Google does not do this.)
- Every major news agency and website lists the memorialization of
Reagan at the top of its stories for a week. Not Iraq, not democracy, not elections, not terrorism even. - California, seeking to replicate the 1980s, elected a popular actor to its highest office.
By the way, you can send a condolence note to the Reagan family through the auspices of the Reagan Library.
Gotta love it! For some reason the transgressions of the Reagan years vanished down the memory-hole soon after he left office.
By the same trope, notice how few homosexuals and non-military minorities have anything good to say about the man. If you see a *gushing* eulogy for the man, just think ‘October Surprise’, ‘Iran-Contra’, ‘Morning Again in America’, the certainty of Nuclear Death in the ’80’s AND the Urban Legend of the Cadillac-driving welfare Queen.
Did Uncle Ronnie leave behind a ‘kinder and gentler’ America?
I didn’t think so…
(He only kicked over JFK’s legacy – “Ask not what your country can do for you, but how much you can skim off the top, while they’re scaring the h@ll out of you!”)
yes yes indeed. ‘democracy now’ pays special tribute this week with shows like:
–“Reagan Was the Butcher of My People:” Fr. Miguel D’Escoto Speaks From Nicaragua
and
–Ghost Wars: Reagan Armed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan
definitely worth checking out:
http://www.democracynow.org/static/flashback.shtml
(long live amy goodman!!)
Reagan, however one spells his name, was one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history. I think we tend to forget this because he was also one of the most blithely evil presidents in U.S. history.
Could you inlcude a link for sending condolences to the 20,000 Latin Americans murdered during Reagan’s Contra wars?
Btw, Reagan was a popular president for an entire two years of his presidency: 1984-1986. Look it up. Sadly, 1984 was an election year, of course.
Emptypockets, I looked it up, and it was interesting. According to Roper Center Presidential Job Approval Ratings (http://roperweb.ropercenter.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/hsrun.exe/roperweb/PresJobRatings40/PresJobRatings40.htx;start=HS_presapproval_home), Reagan’s ratings dropped into the low 40’s from April ’82 to August ’83, but otherwise he was consistently in the low 50’s to mid 60’s. That’s a popular president.
Clinton, though, scored higher overall, which isn’t how I remember it.
Also, Bush senior was more popular than either man for the first three years of his presidency. Then, in January of ’92, his ratings dipped below 50% for the first time. From that point until the election, he took a beating from Clinton, dropping at one point to under 30%.
For some perspective:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/Polls/reagan_ratings_poll_040607.html
Starting in 1986 (around Iran Contra) Reagan plunged from the mid-sixties to the mid-to-high forties. Not so hot for an incumbent, particularly one that had just averted nuclear war after a career of promising it. There was a nostalgic uptick at the end, around the time candidate Bush was Atwaterrorizing Dukakis with scorn being heaped upon Democrats by the fistful. Reagan wasn’t a president with broad-based popularity, but he did bring together a remarkable coalition of religious lunatics, white collar criminals and racist totalitarians that still holds to this day. He will be remembered.
That first 1986 should have been 1987. I’ll start hitting the “preview” button in the future.