Is that a shrub in your pocket...
or are you just a corporate profiteer?
Monday, June 07, 2004
Drugstore, Truck-Drivin' Man Now, don't get me wrong here. I wouldn't wish the decline and death brought about by Alzheimer's disease on any family. What I can't
understand is how the hell the media can canonize Ronnie Reagan. I suppose he was likeable (I never really cared for him, but compared to the idiot we have as president now, I guess Ronnie really stands out). But what was Reagan really all about?
Let's see. He aligned himself with the McCarthy faction in the 1950's, and sold out his Hollywood colleagues. He was fiercely opposed to the organization of the lettuce pickers by the United Farm Workers (led by Cesar Chavez), and the ensuing produce boycotts.
Candidate Reagan, Bill Casey, and the first Bush cut a deal with the Iranians to not release the hostages until after the 1980 election.
After he took office in 1981, Reagan began to attack the government's civil rights apparatus. He opened an assault on affirmative action and social welfare programs, embraced white racist leaders of then-apartheid South Africa (he tried to get Nelson Mandela's African National Congress declared a terrorist organization) and waged war on the tiny, Black Caribbean nation of Grenada. The Citizens Commission on Civil Rights (formed as a response to Reagan's attempt to neuter the official U.S. Commission on Civil Rights) said he caused 'an across-the-board breakdown in the machinery constructed by six previous administrations to protect civil rights.'
Reagan wanted to support a group of Nicaraguan rebels known as contras, but the US Congress refused to provide funding. No problem. Reagan sold arms to his old pals the Iranians and diverted the proceeds to the contras. Never mind that this violated all kinds of laws and executive orders.
Now that the Iranians were armed, Reagan needed somebody to keep them busy. So, he and Bush the first sent Donnie Dumsfeld over to Iraq to build up a guy by the name of Saddam Hussein.
Reagan provided arms and training to a bunch of Afghani rebels led by another fella named Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviets.
Reagan's complete lack of action on AIDS helped to change the disease from a gathering epidemic to a global pandemic. It was mostly black folks and gay folks and IV drug users who were dying, so who really cared anyway?
In fact, Reagan championed the 'blame the victim' approach. Homeless? That's because you want to be. Got AIDS? Eh, it's your own damn fault. Poor? That's 'cuz you're lazy. Or stupid. Or both.
Reagan stood for "smaller government," which, as we all know, is a euphemism for huge deficits, tax cuts for the wealthy, huge spending increases on military projects that benefit corporations but don't do anything to help out the poor saps on the front lines, and enormous cuts in education, programs to help the poor, children (he had ketchup declared a vegetable for the purposes of school lunches), and sick people who can't afford insurance.
Reagan loaded the National Labor Relations Board with his anti-union cronies, and fired the Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike for more humane (and safer, for the flying public) working conditions. Shortly afterward, a strike by Greyhound bus drivers was crushed, leading to hard times for organized labor (aka, people working for a living and trying to get insurance, send their kids to school, keep a roof over their heads, and put food on the table).
Oh, there's more, but you won't hear any of it during this week's Ronfest activities. They're toting his corpse across the country so people can come and look at it, then carting him back to California to plant him. Because Reagan is dead, I guarantee Bush will get a boost in the polls (I bet they tried to get Nancy to keep him on ice for a few more months, but she told them to take a fucking hike: "How do you like my stem cells now, asshole!"), and we'll soon be seeing the Reagan dime, Reagan statues, Reagan national parks, you name it.
As for me, yeah, I hate to see any human being suffer. But if you want to feel sorry for somebody, feel sorry for all the people who needn't have died from AIDS, or who have to choose between medicine and food, or whose moms, dads, brothers and sisters won't be coming home from Iraq (not alive, anyway). Reagan? He was the beginning of a downward spiral for this country. The best thing I can say about him is that he was better than Bush.
posted by pjs 8:28 AM
Comments:
Post a Comment
