In The Grip of Ronniemania
The deal was set in stone, and yet so much could go wrong - dreadfully so. The historical reputation of a feeble-minded, former "B" movie actor named Ronald Reagan depended on the Election Day victory of the idiotic son of the man who had for eight years served as the Gipper's loyal vice-president. The archives of his two terms of office were scheduled - by law - to be made public for scholarly research on January 20, 2001, the twelfth anniversary of the end of his presidency. Fortunately, although Al Gore actually won the election, an ideologically perverted Supreme Court would install the fortunate son as commander-in-chief. When George W. Bush finally took the oath of office (an oath he would violate tens of thousands of times in the next seven years) his very first act was to sign an executive order that sealed indefinitely the papers of not only the Reagan administration, but those of his father's as well - curiously omitting the papers of William Jefferson Clinton at the same time. The fix was in. The truth about Reagan's reign of error would be hidden from history's harsh glare. The American people would be able to - for the time being, at least - stupidly slumber on under their self-imposed delusion of all the wonderful things Ronnie had meant to the country he had all-but-destroyed
`
Now it can be told: We, the people got screwed by Ronald Reagan.
.
The time has come for us to take a deep breath and explore the psychological meaning and implications of what can only be described as America's sick, dysfunctional love affair with this racist, inarticulate and utterly clueless man. Why his archives have been hidden from posterity is perfectly clear. When the truth is finally revealed about the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by this "amiable dunce" and his VP, the both of them will be hurled permanently - mercilessly - onto history's trash bin. The hideous truth of the matter is that the damage that this dirty old bastard did to our beloved nation is so immense, it will never be accurately gaged. It is - quite literally - beyond estimation.
.
That the blame for the near-destruction America's social infrastructure can be laid directly at the feet (now thankfully pointed eternally skyward) of Ronald Reagan, only a fool would deny (as so many fools on the right continue to do). Through the use of an absolutely Orwellian propaganda machine which was later mastered to near-perfection by Karl Rove, he was able to convince a huge segment of the electorate that what was so right about America was, in fact, very, very wrong. It was while he slept in the Oval Office that the word, "Liberal", once an honored and respected term, became an expletive. It was during his presidency that the rape of the middle class in this country began. It has been going on, unabated, for over a quarter of a century now.
.
They called him "the great communicator". So useful would the skills he learned as a third-rate Hollywood actor turn out to be, he was somehow able to lull the American people into believing that the programs brought into being a half a century before by the Roosevelt administration (programs that virtually created a middle class that hadn't even existed prior to FDR) were in reality a bad thing. Government wasn't the answer to our problem, he told us, government was the problem. At a time when the population of this country was fast approaching a quarter of a billion, he told us that he was going to solve all of our woes by cutting back on public services, shrinking the size of the federal government - and the American people actually thought that this was just a swell idea! After nearly twenty-seven years of voodoo, Reaganomics (which were aided and abetted by Bill Clinton - don't you dare deny it), the America that you and I grew up in is as dead as a door nail. That "shining city on a hill" is a mirage; it's a dream. Wake up. Wake up. WAKE THE FUCK UP.
.
The people swallowed Reagan's act from the moment he announced his candidacy - or at least white people did. African Americans were never able to trust this man and for damned good reason. They were never able to forget the fact that it was his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that brought him into the spotlight of national politics during the long ago, futile campaign of Barry Goldwater. Indeed, the big kick off of Reagan's 1980 race would be in the small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, a putrid, rat hole of a place whose only claim to fame was the murder there of three civil rights workers seventeen years earlier. He was merely pandering - sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly - to America's irrational racial fears and hatreds. His message in Philadelphia that day (meant to be subliminal but, in reality, disturbingly clear) was that in a Reagan administration, Jim Crow would get the red carpet treatment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Why do you think it is that whenever people of color are polled with respect to the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan, his numbers are in the single digits? Are these people just ignorant? Or might their bitterness be based on a terrible truth? Quite possibly it might have a little something to do with the fact that black people in America suffered terribly under Reagan. Call it a hunch on my part.
.
What always amazed me more than anything else was how the American people - the white ones - fell for that whole, sham Ronnie persona. Why were they not able to see through it? It was all an act! HE WAS A AN ACTOR, FOR PETE'S SAKE!! Didn't they see the transparency? The stagecraft? No administration had ever used television so effectively to distort reality than this one had. No administration would surpass it in it's ability to "catapult the propaganda" until the second Bush administration a generation later. Reagan's career as a screen actor was pretty much kaput by the mid sixties. His very last film, made in 1964 and called "The Killers" (which contained an interesting scene of him beating the bleeding mortal shit out of poor little Angie Dickinson) barely registered with the public. He had come to the point in his life where he needed to make a major career change. Within two years he would be the Governor of California; fourteen years after that he was living in the Executive Mansion. From being a perfectly mediocre actor to being the president of the United States of America....I'm not makin' this stuff up!
.
It is said that he was bitter toward the film industry for its not having recognized his talent. He could not understand why he was never even nominated for an Academy Award! If you've ever seen even one of his films, you'll laugh out loud over the absurdity of that last sentence. Truth be told, Reagan couldn't act himself out of a brown burlap sack. If you've never seen one of his films, by all means rent one! You'll understand what I mean. All politicians are bad actors and Reagan was no exception. But while he might have been perfectly awful by Hollywood standards, he was actually pretty damned good by Washington standards. So good was he, in fact, that he was able to cheerfully lead his likewise cheerful country down the path of ultimate ruin.
.
Honestly, folks, I really wish I was makin' this up.
.
When he died on June 5, 2004, like with the death of Richard Nixon ten years before, the gushing tributes - especially out of the mouths of those who should have known better - can only be described as sickening. Reagan was not a very good friend to the American people. In fact, to the average, working class person, he was their worst nightmare. My greatest fear is that it will take at least a century or more for us to finally figure out what has been blatantly obvious to anyone who has bothered to pay attention all these years: Ronald Reagan planted the seeds of America's destruction and George W. Bush harvested the crop. We should all expect and demand that the next president sign an executive order making the Reagan papers public.
.
One can only hope that the entire truth about the Reagan White House will eventually see the light of day. It's easy to imagine the Bush Mob working overtime, long into the night, their shredders going at full blast, obliterating the hidden details of all the documented crimes that we know were committed by Reagan and Bush 41. I can just see Dubya's sycophantic henchmen in the House, trying to sneak a provision into some future budget, making it legal for a president to destroy government archives - that's assuming he hasn't just ignored the law by attaching one of his "signing statements" to it. He's been known to do that sort of thing, you know.
.
One of the more encouraging signs of late is that the American people are starting to wake up to the realization that sending a corrupt, disgusting, half-witted little piece of shit like Bush to the White House was the worst electoral mistake in American history. And yet these same, silly Americans still retain a maudlin, nostalgic, almost retarded affection for Ronald Reagan. As I have stated on this very site before, everything that Bush has done to you, Reagan tried to do to you - and would have done to you had he had control of all three branches of government. Reagan was, essentially, a mask with a twinkle in its eye and a fine Irish smile. Remove that mask and you have the twisted, hideous smirk of George W. Bush.
.
That's the real face of the Reagan Revolution.
.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
.
SUGGESTED READING:
Sleepwalking Through History
by Haynes Johnson
.
The Acting President
By Bob Schieffer
For more recent postings on this French-loving, latte swirling, Apple pie-hating site, please go to the following link:
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
I TELLS YA, THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW!!!
Shh! They're working on that....
.
The time has come for us to take a deep breath and explore the psychological meaning and implications of what can only be described as America's sick, dysfunctional love affair with this racist, inarticulate and utterly clueless man. Why his archives have been hidden from posterity is perfectly clear. When the truth is finally revealed about the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by this "amiable dunce" and his VP, the both of them will be hurled permanently - mercilessly - onto history's trash bin. The hideous truth of the matter is that the damage that this dirty old bastard did to our beloved nation is so immense, it will never be accurately gaged. It is - quite literally - beyond estimation.
.
That the blame for the near-destruction America's social infrastructure can be laid directly at the feet (now thankfully pointed eternally skyward) of Ronald Reagan, only a fool would deny (as so many fools on the right continue to do). Through the use of an absolutely Orwellian propaganda machine which was later mastered to near-perfection by Karl Rove, he was able to convince a huge segment of the electorate that what was so right about America was, in fact, very, very wrong. It was while he slept in the Oval Office that the word, "Liberal", once an honored and respected term, became an expletive. It was during his presidency that the rape of the middle class in this country began. It has been going on, unabated, for over a quarter of a century now.
.
They called him "the great communicator". So useful would the skills he learned as a third-rate Hollywood actor turn out to be, he was somehow able to lull the American people into believing that the programs brought into being a half a century before by the Roosevelt administration (programs that virtually created a middle class that hadn't even existed prior to FDR) were in reality a bad thing. Government wasn't the answer to our problem, he told us, government was the problem. At a time when the population of this country was fast approaching a quarter of a billion, he told us that he was going to solve all of our woes by cutting back on public services, shrinking the size of the federal government - and the American people actually thought that this was just a swell idea! After nearly twenty-seven years of voodoo, Reaganomics (which were aided and abetted by Bill Clinton - don't you dare deny it), the America that you and I grew up in is as dead as a door nail. That "shining city on a hill" is a mirage; it's a dream. Wake up. Wake up. WAKE THE FUCK UP.
.
The people swallowed Reagan's act from the moment he announced his candidacy - or at least white people did. African Americans were never able to trust this man and for damned good reason. They were never able to forget the fact that it was his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that brought him into the spotlight of national politics during the long ago, futile campaign of Barry Goldwater. Indeed, the big kick off of Reagan's 1980 race would be in the small town of Philadelphia, Mississippi, a putrid, rat hole of a place whose only claim to fame was the murder there of three civil rights workers seventeen years earlier. He was merely pandering - sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly - to America's irrational racial fears and hatreds. His message in Philadelphia that day (meant to be subliminal but, in reality, disturbingly clear) was that in a Reagan administration, Jim Crow would get the red carpet treatment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Why do you think it is that whenever people of color are polled with respect to the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan, his numbers are in the single digits? Are these people just ignorant? Or might their bitterness be based on a terrible truth? Quite possibly it might have a little something to do with the fact that black people in America suffered terribly under Reagan. Call it a hunch on my part.
.
What always amazed me more than anything else was how the American people - the white ones - fell for that whole, sham Ronnie persona. Why were they not able to see through it? It was all an act! HE WAS A AN ACTOR, FOR PETE'S SAKE!! Didn't they see the transparency? The stagecraft? No administration had ever used television so effectively to distort reality than this one had. No administration would surpass it in it's ability to "catapult the propaganda" until the second Bush administration a generation later. Reagan's career as a screen actor was pretty much kaput by the mid sixties. His very last film, made in 1964 and called "The Killers" (which contained an interesting scene of him beating the bleeding mortal shit out of poor little Angie Dickinson) barely registered with the public. He had come to the point in his life where he needed to make a major career change. Within two years he would be the Governor of California; fourteen years after that he was living in the Executive Mansion. From being a perfectly mediocre actor to being the president of the United States of America....I'm not makin' this stuff up!
.
It is said that he was bitter toward the film industry for its not having recognized his talent. He could not understand why he was never even nominated for an Academy Award! If you've ever seen even one of his films, you'll laugh out loud over the absurdity of that last sentence. Truth be told, Reagan couldn't act himself out of a brown burlap sack. If you've never seen one of his films, by all means rent one! You'll understand what I mean. All politicians are bad actors and Reagan was no exception. But while he might have been perfectly awful by Hollywood standards, he was actually pretty damned good by Washington standards. So good was he, in fact, that he was able to cheerfully lead his likewise cheerful country down the path of ultimate ruin.
.
Honestly, folks, I really wish I was makin' this up.
.
When he died on June 5, 2004, like with the death of Richard Nixon ten years before, the gushing tributes - especially out of the mouths of those who should have known better - can only be described as sickening. Reagan was not a very good friend to the American people. In fact, to the average, working class person, he was their worst nightmare. My greatest fear is that it will take at least a century or more for us to finally figure out what has been blatantly obvious to anyone who has bothered to pay attention all these years: Ronald Reagan planted the seeds of America's destruction and George W. Bush harvested the crop. We should all expect and demand that the next president sign an executive order making the Reagan papers public.
.
One can only hope that the entire truth about the Reagan White House will eventually see the light of day. It's easy to imagine the Bush Mob working overtime, long into the night, their shredders going at full blast, obliterating the hidden details of all the documented crimes that we know were committed by Reagan and Bush 41. I can just see Dubya's sycophantic henchmen in the House, trying to sneak a provision into some future budget, making it legal for a president to destroy government archives - that's assuming he hasn't just ignored the law by attaching one of his "signing statements" to it. He's been known to do that sort of thing, you know.
.
One of the more encouraging signs of late is that the American people are starting to wake up to the realization that sending a corrupt, disgusting, half-witted little piece of shit like Bush to the White House was the worst electoral mistake in American history. And yet these same, silly Americans still retain a maudlin, nostalgic, almost retarded affection for Ronald Reagan. As I have stated on this very site before, everything that Bush has done to you, Reagan tried to do to you - and would have done to you had he had control of all three branches of government. Reagan was, essentially, a mask with a twinkle in its eye and a fine Irish smile. Remove that mask and you have the twisted, hideous smirk of George W. Bush.
.
That's the real face of the Reagan Revolution.
.
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
.
SUGGESTED READING:
Sleepwalking Through History
by Haynes Johnson
.
The Acting President
By Bob Schieffer
For more recent postings on this French-loving, latte swirling, Apple pie-hating site, please go to the following link:
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
I TELLS YA, THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW!!!
Shh! They're working on that....
posted by Tom Degan @ 5:05 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Tom, thank you, thank you, thank you! I have never - either then or now - been able to understand why so many people thought this old fool was so wonderful.
When he finally died, I though I was going to be sick from the worshipful respect paid him. And for what? He simply raped the country and prepared it for Dubya. One fool begets another.
Hi Tom, not sure what happened, but it is me, Charles, who wrote the nasty Reagan comment - not anonymous
At least Reagan had (albiet severly misguided what he thought were) "principles".
Dumb Dubya has none.
No doubt about it Dubya was our nations most destructive national nightmare president.
He has no peers in ths distinction
Rick Lippin
Well written Tom!
Ronnie also incited hatred for the US when he sent Marines to Lebanon, and asserted American influence in Islamic countries in the Middle East.
We know how that turned out.
Since then, we can document how the Re-fuck-it-ups have constantly led this once great nation into unconstitutional wars again and again.
Only fools keep buying the lies.
Tom, please keep speaking truth to their lies.
Tom,
Right on the money, again! My Father always said "Never underestimate the collective stupidity of the Americam Farmer". I believe that could be easily expanded to include the Americam populace as a whole.
Not only that, But if you look up all the movies that "Ronnie Ray Gun" stared (or tried to) in, you will find one called "Bedtime For Bonzo" in which he gets upstaged by a Chimpanzee!
What happened afterwards, is that Jerry Lewis was wandering around after a drinking binge with Dean Martin, and saw the ape!
Well, Jerry had put away a LOT of hooch! So much in fact that the ape actually looked good!! (seems like it was a female ape! Nobody knew at the time), and the two of them did things that I cannot describe, and find hard to consider!
Genetics, being what it is, and a place where some really scary shit can happen, this unholy union bore fruit! The result of which was given a nickname that rhymed with his mother's: "GONZO"!!!!!
THINK about it! (Oh alright! Think a little about it!) Look at those pictures of Gonzales that Keith Olbermann always showed whenever Gonzo was the topic of discussion! How can that be anything besides the cursed progeny of Jerry Lewis and some sort of simian ape!
Since the only ape around at the time was Bonzo, and Jerry Lewis was known to get kinda freaky with his rat pack pals, and happened to be in town at the time, there can only be one answer!
Because of the conditions of his birth, only George W. (sharing the same intelligence of a simian ape) was chosen to be little Gonzo's lifetime playmate, and a strong friendship was formed which led to the mind-numbing clusterfuck that is The Bush Administration!
Reagan had incipient Alzheimer's during the last 4 yr. of his reign. Nancy and whatsisname covered for him. He slept through most of his meetings. When he said he couldnt remember what was said about Iran-Contra, he really couldn't remember. He and Nancy wanted to be 'The Elite'. The Bushes are convinced they ARE 'The Elite'. The simple-minded fools, who supported and support these wannabee monarchists, can't get it through their thick skulls that the Reagans and the Bushes despise the average person. Neither one would lift a finger to help John Q. Public. Their records tell the tale. The proof is in the pudding. Sadly, this speaks as much about the superficiality of the sheeple as it does about Ron and George I&II.
an observation DEAD-ON the money tom. and yup, it definitly is scarry to see the reactions as the candidates line up to see who is the tallest surrogat ronnie.
so how did the masses fall for it and do we still? because we all lead 2 lives. the one we present consciously. and the shadow. put a little light on that shadow and what we find is a twisted demonic desire lurking in the depths of the heartless land for someone or something to kick the shit otta everything we fear and hate. including our fear. a desire that matches exactly what we get. and we sit in our mansions watching the movie un-fold right before our eyes on our big screen tv and wonder why. then we go to our churches and bow down to our god who is our god only because he fits our image and proclaim our innocence and abhoration of such madness.
by "we all" i mean everyone. including those of us who see the movie and recognize the plot for what it is. especially us. probably even moreso. why? because there is enough consciousness still present to at least recognize the plot for what it is. we just won't cop to our own part in it. the role we're playing. in that role, we're the star. its not the ronnies or the ronnie wannabes or the mostly unconscious masses robotically playing out their conditioning. its because we think we do not cast a shadow. one cannot be parental and blameless at the same time. we think we are powerless. mere gnats on an out of control demon's ass along for a ride against our will. oh really?
There you go again !
Post a Comment
<< Home