Posted on 06/10/2004 5:53:19 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Weepy Reagan Tribute-Free Zone
June 9, 2004
BY NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST "That's it. While I'm sorry Reagan is dead -- though at 93, we saw that coming, didn't we? -- I'm going nuts with the tributes. It's as if he was a 16-year-old couple who drove into a tree, with the candles and the floral tributes and such.
We've become a culture of babies, where every death is Princess Diana's. It's enough to sour you on the departed. Over the years, I nudged closer to a grudging respect for Reagan, but this overkill is sending me back toward being the person who had a "REAGAN SUCKS'' button on his bulletin board. I've been having these wicked 1980s flashbacks. About the 25th time I saw "Ronald Wilson Reagan'' in another somber tribute, I found myself thinking "Ronald Wilson Reagan ... each name has six letters ... 6-6-6 ... the Mark of the Beast.'' That thought is 20 years old; we used to think stuff like that. It was a wild exaggeration, of course, to view Reagan as the Master of Evil. But this adorationfest is a wild exaggeration, too"
Nope. What's happening here is that the media bashed Reagan personally, derided his motives, bashed his policies, predicted gloomy results from them, and, as history has unfolded, there has been a slow but sure mental trek on the part of the American people toward an understanding of Ronald Reagan which doesn't fit the media's portrayal.
What the people of this country are experiencing is much more the emotion one would feel for a falsely imprisoned man, quite possibly for some the feelings are more like the son or daughter whose father died before they could tell him how much they loved him. As individuals, the great majority of us couldn't tell him how much we appreciated him, and we got no help from our media, for whom this task would have been much easier.
Contrast indeed.
On June 6, and in response to a NY Slimes article, I posted ...
"....... the American voting public will be thinking of the '80's, and "Gippers" presidency. They will remember how positive Reagan was, how positive we all became, and how the world was changed.
Then they will look at John Kerry, and how negative he is. How opposite of Ronald Reagan, Kerry and the Dims actually are. The choice will be clear"
Each day that goes by, I am more convinced, the Dims will give more evidence to the American public, of their extreme negativism, and hatred.
They (the majority of the voting public) will compare that hatred, and animosity to the way GWB has conducted himself, and many will remember Ronald Wilson Reagan.
The choice will be clear.
People who hate Ronnie Reagan are in for a bad week . Also the flags will be at half staff for 30 days, that is sure to put a hurt on them.
Neil Steinberg
Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid.
Heinrich Heine
He has obviously not thought the death of President Ronald Reagan through.
Peggy Noonan predicted they were all gonna blow by Friday.
She overestimated their amount of self-discipline.
I guess we have to, from time to time, see this sort of thing from our adversaries. What truly disgusting comments. This is why my wife and I homeschool. Despicable.
Won't be a lot of sniffles when YOU go toes up, Neil.
The mainstream media always believed Reagan to be an "amiable dunce"; the Far Left believed he was Satan himself, manifested as a cold, callous, mass-murderer of HIV-positive victims, the homeless, and the starving elderly. Abroad, he was ridiculed as "Rambo" Reagan, a John-Wayne wannabe cowboy who was nothing but a washed-up, 2nd-rate "Bedtime for Bonzo" actor. You could look it up.
This is what they still believe, in their heart of hearts. But today, the cynical, calculating pragmatic politicians who still believe they are viable candidates who will be in charge again someday will not say that.
And that is a tremendous, and unopposed, opportunity for President Bush to reassert himself tomorrow, and every day thereafter, as the logical, and legitimate successor to the Reagan Revolution. Standing up for fledgling democracies, staying the course in the face of foreign ridicule, and most imporatantly, years down the road being ultimately validated by the vanquished Left without opposition.
The Democrats made a decision after licking their wounds from the 2002 elections that the post-9/11 gloves were coming off, and they were going to go after President Bush in 2004. Dean jumped to the front, did his "I Have a Scream" speech, and was replaced by Kerry. Kerry tried to modulate to the middle, and has now outsmarted himself by staking out essentially the same future position on Iraq (get the UN involved) that Bush has already beaten him to the punch.
Bush's "Stay the Course against Evil" Reagan Tribute Speech happens tomorrow. Everybody will gather around him in bipartisan, mournful unity - much as they did around President Clinton when the Nation mourned OKC. The Iraq sovereignty transfer occurs 30 June, with the 15-0 UN Security Council endorsement. Of course, the bad guys over there still keep doing bad guy things to the fledgling democracy - and Bush is right there, staying the course. Kerry is left out in the cold, harping for the 75th consecutive day about prison scandals, and how we should be more humane to Al Qaeda terrorists in captivity.
Game. Set. Match.
These same people had no problem at all with weeks of over-coverge and adoration of JFK Jr., who died at 40 with no other accomplishment than being the handsome son of a Prez who served only 1,000 days. And the amazing year of non-stop tributes to Diana, lovely and young at death but certainly not a world leader beyond her token charities. I was ready to scream at the sainthood they attributed to both of these people, but liberals seemed to enjoy every moment. Now with true greatness and leadership and longevity being honored, they want it all over in a day or two, max.
Eff Neil Steinberg.
And what overkill was it, over that elitist fruitcake that accomplished absolutely nothing who's last act of stupidity was to fly his plane into a large body of water after being warned not to fly? Didn't we bury that clown for 8-9 days?
Oh, that's right...his last name was Kennedy...not Reagan...
"Libs are starting to crack."
Peggy Noonan predicted this.
My thoughts exactly. And where was all this conern about overblown media coverage when JFK Jr. died? And that's a guy who never held a single public office of any kind, and was famous only because of his family.
"Secondly, they are trying to imply that Bush hasn't made an effort to get along and place the blame on HIM for the vitriol in Washington, when it is obvious that it is the democrats who have, from DAY ONE done nothing but criticize and obstruct."
This is right on the money. You hear all the time how GW has failed to change the tone in DC, implying that it's his fault. And yet, George Bush just keeps on smiling, doing his job, loving his wife, loving America and Americans. God gives him the grace to accept what cannot be changed which, in this case, is the vitriolic hatred of those for whom power is the only goal.
I thought he was going to kill us all, kill old people and children, lock up us minorities, yadda friggin yadda.
Heck, instead, all he did was save this Country, and the world as a bonus.
Ouch baby, very ouch, to the liberals.
FReegards...MUD
I remember my grandmother crying because Reagan won. She'd been caught in the mindset so common here in Kentucky...."I'll vote Democrat because I always have, my daddy did, and his daddy did..."
Because of the way she acted about the election of Reagan, even at my young age I began to watch his actions....and he became one of my all time heroes.
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