I Remember Ronnie

I'm going to stop reading blog comments for a few days. But before I go, I want to say that I am getting the distinct impression that a GREAT NUMBER of people who comment on blogs were in grade school during Reagan's presidency.

I am older. I remember Reagan.

I regret that most of what was written about Reagan in the press- especially in the alternative press- is not available on the Internet today (& if it's not on the Internet, it doesn't exist!).

It was a disgraceful 12 years for America- the years of Reagan and Bush-1.

I can't even begin to express the gratitude, relief- even joy- that I felt when finally it was over and Clinton won the election in 92.

And likewise the horrible sense of dread that descended when the 2000 election was stolen. How many of us commented, in the early days of Bush's first year, "We'll be at war by the end of his first term in office." It was so predictable when the old cast of characters began to take their places in positions of power.

Please don't rely on your fuzzy memories of a grandfatherly Reagan- a smiling, Cronkite-like man with a twinkle in his eye... calmly reading the scripts prepared for him by propagandists. The man on the television speaking to you in your living rooms WAS AN ACTOR!

If you feel the need to mourn, then mourn for the loss of the Reagan character you wanted to believe in. BUT KNOW THAT THIS CHARACTER WAS NOT REAL!

The administrations assembled at the White House during the Reagan/Bush-1 years were every bit as harmful to America as the current administration- but this was a time before the Internet, before endless cable news reporting... it was a very different time... when secrets were more easily kept out of mainstream discourse.

Don't fall for the lies or the revisionism about the Reagan Presidency.

The Reagan/Bush-1 administrations were not that different from the type of Republican leadership we have now. They're all the same breed of Republican; the lyrics may change, but the tune remains the same.

It is our willingness to believe in the myth of their "personable leaders" that enables this wing of the Republican party to ascend to power; and whenever these Republicans gain power, there is more poverty, greater suffering, and usually war.

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