Reagan was a monster.

THE REAGAN LEGACY by Rick Perlstein (Originally in Salon)


<snip>

Reagan first came to public prominence as a political figure in the early '60s. The movie actor, hard on his luck, had become a kind of roving motivational speaker for General Electric. More and more, however, as he became more and more conservative, his talks focused on politics. Much of Reagan's stomping ground of Southern California had converted itself into a kind of McCarthyite petri dish, breeding paranoid patio dads and housewives by the thousands, each one eager and ready to find Reds beneath, beside and on top of every bed.

On any given weekend, interested citizens in Orange County could watch showings of films like "Communism on the Map" -- a geopolitical melodrama in which blood- or pink-colored ink leached over country after country, sparing only Spain, Switzerland and the United States (which was covered by a giant question mark) -- or find a study group assiduously poring over the organizational structure of what J. Edgar Hoover laughably called a "state within a state" -- the almost nonexistent Communist Party.

Reagan soon became one of the hottest tickets on the anti-Communist lecture circuit -- where sunny optimism was not the order of the day. "We have 10 years," he would say in just about every speech. "Not 10 years to make up our mind." (He was referring to the choice as to whether to embrace the Republican right or the march of communism, among whose avatars he numbered, in a famous 1960 letter to Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy.) But "10 years to win or lose -- by 1970 the world will be all slave or all free."

Remember this: The hellfire never left him, and the hellfire ended up making the world a more dangerous place. As a candidate for elective office, even as president, his handlers always cleaned him up for popular consumption, but the same strange holdovers from the McCarthyite fever dreams continued to pop up in his discourse. One of his favorites was an invented quote of Lenin, popularized by the founder of the John Birch Society, to the effect that after the Reds took over Eastern Europe, they would "organize the hordes of Asia," as Reagan said in a 1975 interview, they would move on to Latin America and "then the United States, the last bastion of capitalism, fall into their outstretched hands like overripe fruit."

Overripe words, yes, but also very characteristic of Reagan. It is a quirk of American culture that each generation of nonconservatives sees the right-wingers of its own generation as the scary ones, then chooses to remember the right-wingers of the last generation as sort of cuddly. In 1964, observers horrified by Barry Goldwater pined for the sensible Robert Taft, the conservative leader of the 1950s. When Reagan was president, liberals spoke fondly of sweet old Goldwater.

Nowadays, as we grapple with the malevolence of President Bush, it's Reagan we remember as the sensible one. At the risk of speaking ill of the dead, let memory at least acknowledge that there was much about Reagan that was not so sensible.

<more>

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/perlsteins-greatest-hits-5-miscasting-reagan-optimistic

While W is even more monstrous, nobody wants to have a beer with him, not any more.

Reagan was a true liar, convincing as any in American politics and better than even Nixon.

from: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x503712

Are the Sandinista terrorists on the Texas border yet? Rhetoric to haunt Freeepers.

Given ther current lies leading to war, an examination of past lies is in order. Please contribute past rhetoric that parallels the current propaganda effort.

One of my favorite whoppers is that the tiny nation of Nicaragua was an invasion threat to Texas. Reagan and George Bush deprived the nation and the world of sleep with rhetorical worries that the terrorist cabal controlling the government of Nicaraggua had to be militarily overthrown to prevent the invasion of Texas. REagan said Nicaragua, "is establishing a base camp for Cuban-Soviet aggression on the North American mainland."

Here is a speech quote of Ronald Reagan, the beloved former liar-in-chief:

"Believe me, the liberals in Washington know what's at stake in this election. They know that this may well be their last chance to steer American politics way over to the left. They know that if we Republicans do well this November it's going to permanently alter the political landscape. ...."

"You see, on holding down taxes and spending, on appointing tough judges, on keeping up our defenses and dealing firmly with the Soviets, the liberal Democrat leadership knows the fundamental differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are beginning to sink in with the average voter. Take another issue that's come to the fore recently, an issue where partisan politics shouldn't even play a role. All of you know that a Communist government has taken over in Nicaragua. In addition to engaging in widespread repression of human rights, this government is establishing a base camp for Cuban-Soviet aggression on the North American mainland. But today there are about 20,000 freedom fighters who need our help in restoring democracy to that country. And a few weeks ago we won a crucial vote in the House of Representatives that will help them to do just that.is establishing a base camp for Cuban-Soviet aggression on the North American mainland.

"...I think you know I've mentioned in the past that Nicaragua is only a 2-day drive from the Texas border. And since I'm here now, I can explain: Don't mistake my reference to the Texas border. The Communist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua has made a lot of mistakes, but even they know better than to get themselves in a tangle with a bunch of Texans. Even with all the tanks and gunships from the Soviet Union, my guess is that the Sandinistas would make it about as far as the shopping center in Pecos before Roger Staubach came out of retirement -- -- teamed up with some off-duty Texas Rangers and the front four of the Dallas Cowboys, and pushed the Sandinistas down the river, out across the Gulf, and right back to Havana where they belong. Come to think of it, they don't even belong in Havana either, but don't get me started on that. But what's really at stake here is restoring our bipartisan consensus on national security issues. Believe me, you'll send that message to the liberals in Washington if you'll elect more Republican officeholders here in Texas. ..."

=========

Next, from:

President Ronald Reagan and Nicaragua
excerpted from the book "Lying for Empire, How to Commit War Crimes With A Straight Face"
by David Model - Common Courage Press, 2005

"Coolidge, a proponent of the interventionist interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, stated in an address to Congress in 1927 that:
I have the most conclusive evidence that arms and munitions in large quantities have been on special occasions.., shipped to the revolutionists in Nicaragua... I am sure it is not the desire of the United States to intervene in the internal affairs of Nicaragua or of any other Central American Republic. Nevertheless, it must be said, that we have a very definite and special interest in the maintenance of order and good government in Nicaragua at the present time .... The United States cannot, therefore, fail to view with deep concern any serious threat to stability and constitutional government in Nicaragua tending toward anarchy and jeopardizing American interests, especially if such a state of affairs is contributed or brought about by outside influence or by any foreign power. ..."

"The revolutionaries mentioned in the address were the Liberals, ... After negotiating with both the Liberals and Conservatives, Stimson achieved a peaceful settlement ... the agreement called for the stationing of American forces in Nicaragua to supervise the 1928 elections.
Sandino refused to sign the pact and denounced the U.S. for making Nicaragua an American protectorate. He organized an independent guerrilla force to wage war against the Nicaraguan government and the United States. American marines embarked on a six-year hunt for Sandino without success.
As American casualties increased in Nicaragua, the United States decided to withdraw the marines in 1933. ...."

======

Sound familiar? President Roosevelt said that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

Three years later, Somoza took over the presidency with the assistance of the National Guard, establishing an oppressive, right-wing family dynasty which would rule Nicaragua for 43 years. Such was the result of US intervention to secure democracy in Nicaragua!!

but the ideology. They ALL suck.

After the KAL 007 shoot-down, the Congress passed the largest military spending budget in its history. On Raygun's watch.

He blew it at Reykjavik, Iceland when the "evil empire" under Gorbachev offered to dismantle the entire Soviet nuclear arsenal if the US would do likewise. He refused to do it.

Genocide in Central America.

The list is pretty dismal.

I was a little too young to remember much of the eighties in political terms, but a friend of mine the other night said to me: "No one I've met yet has disagreed with me that Reagan was an excellent president" (paraphrase). I listed a few things that I knew such as Iran Contra and South American Death Squads, Lowering the tax burden on the very rich, etc... but, would love to see an actual list. The above poster's assertion that each generation sees the previous as sensible seems to be all too true.

James G. Watt.

(Ok, some here are young... so a bit more, google for the rest)

Secretary of the Interior under Reagan...

"Speaking before Congress, he once said, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns" while talking about forestry management and sustainability... i.e. saving the wilderness for future generations.

the inconvenience of air travel, blame St. Ronny for deregulation. When they complain about the 'crazy homeless lady' bugging them for change, blame Ronny. When they talk about 'traitors on the Democratic side', remind them of Iran-Contra.

I am a chef and have been one for 24 years. I remember in horror the stories from the mid eighties,
after Reagan privatized the Food inspection system.
Frank Purdue, that bastion of poultry, was on record firing his (yes his, not the government but HIS)
inspectors and hiring those who WOULD pass his chickens without question.
Reagan and his gang is responsible for the outbreak of food borne illness throughout the country.
Strong emphasis on Salmonella.
Every chicken on the planet is tainted because of his work.

St. Ronny didn't deregulate the airlines...that was Carter's signature. Seemed like a good idea at the time, I suppose, to somebody. But when you combine that with the breaking of the unions that Ronny did, you wind up with the terrible service and lack of oversight that we have today. All these years of corporate greed run wild I lay at the Republicans' door, however.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile.html.

Or how he turned thousands of mentally ill patients out into the streets.

He was among the lowest of the low.

Here's my prediction:Because of this evil moron and the others like him,before 2070 the world will

be all slave.Period.

to lead us out of the craziness of the Reagan era. Clinton didn't do it.

...as another poster here wrote last week, she's "tired of Democrats moving this country inches instead of yards." That's especially true when the Republicans whose terms surrounded those Democrats (Reagan beforehand and Dubya afterwards) both moved the country miles in the opposite direction.

We need a leader who will reverse that direction in a dramatic fashion, not just another "moderate" who will settle for moving another couple of inches over the next four or eight years. Because you can bet that such a "leader" will eventually be followed by another Republican who will continue the "miles to the right after inches to the left" progression.

And, believe me, it will take dramatic transformation to bring this country back to where it was even on 1/19/2001. "Moderation" and a determination to avoid "false hopes" won't do it this time, if the country is to survive.

He is one of the most evil to ever inhabit the WH. How anybody, especially a true Democrat, could ever (truly) think Reagan was ever anything but a criminal and the most hateful of all presidents (bush is coming up fast on his tail). He was absolutely the personification of "evil". And that wife of his, sheesh. Can we all just read a few facts about their time on the throne? Please people, this is verging on ridiculous. We've been roved.

antischrist. Even the fundies were against him.

In Awe of Thy Word
©2003 by G.A. Riplinger
Reproduced by permission

Preview of Chapter 13
The New Sleazzy Reading Bibles
(Summary of Chapter only)

<snip>

Former President Ronald Reagan defends the beautiful King James Bible and denounces the threadbare bibles woven by this generation. In his September 6, 1977 broadcast, as preserved in the audio series, Reagan in His Own Words, he criticizes attempts to "improve" the "authorized version, the one that came into being when the England of King James was scoured for translators and scholars. It was the time when the English language had reached its peak of richness and beauty." Reagan questions sleazy versions which,

"...boast that their bible is as readable as the daily paper...But do readers of the daily news find themselves moved to wonder, 'at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth'?"

"{D}rudges," he calls them, "horsing around with the sacred text," under the guise of trying to "make the Bible more readable and understandable" and "taking religion to the people"..."I can't help feeling we should instead be taking the people to religion and lifting them with the beauty of language that has outlived centuries...{I}t has already been gotten right"(series cited in Prophetic Observer, "Ronald Reagan On New Versions," Bethany, OK: Southwest Radio Church, Aug. 2003). The Boston Globe laments with Oxford's Alister McGrath,

"Our culture has been enriched by...the King James Bible. Sadly, we shall never see its equal - or even its like - again" (In the Beginning Details Bible's Imprint on English, by Diego Ribadeneira, July, 9, 2001, p. B11).

More:
http://www.chick.com/reading/books/284/0284_13.asp


And:

Chapter Eleven: Blueprint For Catholic America

I questioned Dr. Rivera about the briefings he received in the Vatican when he was a Jesuit priest. I asked him if he was briefed on how the Vatican planned to take over the United States. He told me his indoctrination went back to the time of the Pilgrims. Because of the knowledge of the Inquisition and the slaughter of Christians by the Roman Catholic system, the early immigrants in America began passing laws to keep Jesuits out of this country and to outlaw the mass...to protect themselves from a Vatican take-over. These were Christian communities deeply concerned about the whore of Revelation.

<snip>


U.S. News & World Report, Nov. 8, Page 15

Ronald Reagan's defense policy came under assault in late October from opposite directions: The threat of an intensified arms race by Russia's Leonid Brezhnev and a tilt toward antinuclear pacifism by the hierarchy of America's Roman Catholic Church.

Two days after a panel of U.S. Catholic bishops questioned the morality of nuclear weapons, Brezhnev said the Soviet Union must expand its arsenal even more. The U.S., he claimed, is threatening to "push the world into the flames of nuclear war."

One White House official speculated that Brezhnev wanted to do more than assure his generals that Moscow will keep pace in the arms race. The aide said the Soviet chief also hoped to fuel the drive in the U.S. for a freeze on nuclear weapons.

Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger drew a direct link between American advocates of a freeze and Brezhnev's Kremlin speech. Stressing the Soviet leader's call for a stronger capability to wage war, Weinberger declared: "This would underline more than anything we could say the reasons for not entering into a freeze."

More:
http://www.chick.com/reading/books/153/153_11.asp


And:

Prayer in Schools: Would It Work?

Issue Date: November/December 1987

Note: This article appeared in the November/December 1987 issue of Battle Cry. Although the names in government have changed, the principles remain the same. We have made it available to encourage all Christians to think carefully about this vital issue.

<snip>

Ronald Reagan systematically populated the halls of government, including the Supreme Court, with Catholics. And these Catholics, including the outspoken Secretary of Education William Bennett, want prayer in schools.

One thing should be obvious. If Catholic organizations and government leaders so wholeheartedly support prayer in schools, they obviously feel that their children will not be subjected to a Protestant influence.

One has to conclude that they are confident they can control the outcome. Is this really what Christian parents want? Or is it possible that the idea of keeping the government out of religion, even though that has led to some obvious excesses, might be the only thing protecting our religious freedom?

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." That hasn't changed.

When the government sponsors religion, the religious groups that best know how to exercise political power will dominate. Learning how to do that effectively takes practice, and only one group really has centuries of political experience...the Roman Catholic Church.

More:
http://www.chick.com/bc/1987/schoolprayer.asp

i.e., Ronald = 6 letters
Wilson = 6 letters
Reagan = 6 letters

I don't recall the Chick comic tract but that might have had something like that in it.

but it's hard to find the ones from the 80's that are no longer in print or on the website. The one I read showed how Reagan had his inauguration with the washington monument, a "phallic symbol" evil obelisk, across from him-- and somehow this meant he was the antichrist.

I grew up in Calif during his reign. We are talking a mega piece of shit. All of a sudden, the mentally disabled and disturbed were all over the streets instead of in some type of state run day care setting. Guess who the fucking no good asshole attacked? Yep, those who in no way could defend themselves against him and his sick policies. I will NEVER forgive or forget what that neo-fascist bastard did to certain segments of society.

Fuck him...I hope he is rotting in hell.

He planted the seeds for the sour fruit we are now reaping with the moron in the White House.

I hope he is rotting some place very hot.

Follow this link to lists of atrocities committed by this evil administration.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=108x114276

Reagan admin changed the way unemployment numbers are reported to make a false reflection on the economy.
Since Reagan if you are not receiving unemployment benefits you are not considered unemployed.

homes in the middle of the night never to be seen again. Until the mass graves were finally found. Doubtful all were though.

KILLER, COWARD, CONMAN - GOOD RIDDANCE, RONNIE REAGAN; MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Sunday, June 6, 2004
by Greg Palast

You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.

Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.

In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis.

People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.

Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.

And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog ... then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.

I remember Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses, some of the "gifts" that flowed to the Reagans -- from hats to million-dollar homes -- from cronies well compensated with government loot. It used to be called bribery.

And all the while, Grandpa grinned, the grandfather who bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.

The New York Times today, in its canned obit, wrote that Reagan projected, "faith in small town America" and "old-time values." "Values" my ass. It was union busting and a declaration of war on the poor and anyone who couldn't buy designer dresses. It was the New Meanness, bringing starvation back to America so that every millionaire could get another million.

"Small town" values? From the movie star of the Pacific Palisades, the Malibu mogul? I want to throw up.

And all the while, in the White House basement, as his brain boiled away, his last conscious act was to condone a coup d'etat against our elected Congress. Reagan's Defense Secretary Casper the Ghost Weinberger with the crazed Colonel, Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini.

Reagan's boys called Jimmy Carter a weanie and a wuss although Carter wouldn't give an inch to the Ayatolla. Reagan, with that film-fantasy tough-guy con in front of cameras, went begging like a coward cockroach to Khomeini pleading on bended knee for the release of our hostages.

Ollie North flew into Iran with a birthday cake for the maniac mullah -- no kidding --in the shape of a key. The key to Ronnie's heart.

Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the "contras" - the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters.

I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, "The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disburse" ... and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper.

In Chaguitillo, all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway?

Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets.

In the deserted darkness of Chaguitillo, a TV blared. Weirdly, it was that third-rate gangster movie, "Brother Rat." Starring Ronald Reagan.

Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead.

Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance.

Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com

http://www.opednews.com/palast_060604_reagan.htm

Yeah, I was there, too. Student at UC Berkeley from 1968 to 1972 (on and off again).

When I first attended UC, the cost was $85 per quarter (not quarter hour!)

During Reagan's tenure as governor, the cost rose to over $300 per quarter!

"Please, Governor Reagan. We're losing many of our tenured professors. We need more money."

"Ya need more money? Sell your rare books collection."

I WILL speak ill of the dead!

ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE!

Yep...$85/a quarter for "fees", not tuition. That ASSHOLE Reagan was the bastard that brought tuition to the UC system. Before the SOB, higher education in Calif had basically been tuition-free.

Like I said before: Fuck him and I hope he is rotting in hell.

he was the slick package that contained the vile content-- Pappy Bush. All you have to do is look to the Iran-Contra affair to know that Pappy was running things in the white house, like Cheney is doing now. Reagan was just the third rate actor they had out there as a front. When you factor in the alzheimers, you see I'm right.

which is not to say Reagan wasn't evil on his own, just that by the time he was in office, other people were pulling his strings.

Reagan was too stupid to be a monster. IMHO. The puppet at the end of the strings just like GW.

Highly, highly doubtful. After all, mass murder is mass murder. Tough to give that one a quick psychological make-over. Neither of them are as "stupid" as what the media would have you believe - pathological, authoritarian, greedy, soulless shitbags destined for eternal HELL, absolutely. But so dense they don't "get it?" No way. And even at best, silence = consent.

They were/are too stupid to understand what they are doing is nothing mass murder. I believe they actually think they are/were doing what's best for "America". They are just too idiotic to know "America" isn't equivilent to "the Bush family wallet".

It was early in the evening, the polls had not even closed in the west. I had taken a nap after dinner and woke up about 9:00. My father, who was a particularly dense Republican and living with my wife and I at the time, gloated as he told me Reagan had won. I said it wasn't possible, they hadn't even closed the polls in California yet, he said it was already a done deal. A fucking tear rolled down my cheek - I kid you not.

Although I agree that the elder Bush was def the mover/shaker of his regime.

The corporate culture has since worked to de-fang the substance of that crucial era, trivialize it, dismiss it as an embarrassment. Certainly don't want any repeats of people taking a direct stand against the corporate/state nexus! ...why, that crazy shit is what one might expect to find in a DEMOCRACY.

Sadly, if you walked down the street and polled people randomly as to their thoughts re the details of the Counter Culture, you'd likely find that a majority of opinions fall in line with that establishment propaganda.

it helped solidify the grip of the Bush regime too. How many needless deaths? How much money stolen? It's incalculable.

They're such suckers for tall white males with barrel chests and firm voices. (In an alternate universe, they probably elected John Wayne president.)

Did Tweety ever meet the Saint? I'll bet he smelled real good.

They savor chauvinism, superficiality and violence.

Obese people driving huge SUVs to their giant McMansions to watch their big-screen HDTV sets while inhaling super-jumbo-size bags of Doritos. Welcome to America.

They do tend to be petty and small-minded, don't they?

The same monsters, and the real monster is not what they describe. They are the monsters.

What Reagan couldn't get people to vote for, is now just made into law. The same people who supported Reagan are still around and are still pushing the same agenda, but this time we don't get to vote about it.

Getting the unwary to recognize the same MO.

And thanks for keeping the truth in plain view.

People seem to forget the Bush family involvement in Reagan's "success", and the same behaviours and trends and goals.

"Odd" how those who preached flagrant energy consumption were and are working to monopolize the sources :/

In its entirety:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8476042566108039966&q=iran+contra+cover+up&total=57&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

or, louder volume, worse picture, and segmented:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2084972412802939354&q=iran+contra+cover+up&total=57&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

...before GE and the Military-Industrial Complex bought him.

Dan Moldea chronicles the connections in "Dark Victory: Reagan, MCA and the Mob."

The Corruption of Ronald Reagan

Or maybe Ronald Reagan, Jr. Airport.

but never had a clue.

And that is how his handlers wanted it!!