Geov Parrish
Code Pink Alert & WorkingForChange.com
Posted on 06/08/2004 10:02:51 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Excuse me while I barf. I’m in no mood to join the joyful eulogies upon the passing of Ronald Reagan—remembrances that prove, once again, the staggering size of our country’s memory hole. I missed the 1960s. I grew up in Middle America, with Watergate, barely, and the benign buffoonery of Presidents Ford and Carter. When Reagan was elected president, it was an inexplicable, savage turn for a country that I’d never realized was capable of such things.
It’s not just that George W. Bush would have been impossible without Reagan. The presidency of Reagan himself was so bad, on so many levels, that as young adults a sizable number of us could only sputter in impotent rage, a rage summed up nicely by the Crucifucks song “Hinckley Had a Vision.” It simply made no sense that an entire country could be run by sinister thugs, all because its spokesperson was a washed-up actor with the professional training to deliver the most ridiculous, venal lies with a calming “Great Communicator” demeanor.
Great Communicator, my ass. Tens of thousands of us died of AIDS on his watch, and he never even once mentioned the word. He also refused to adequately fund AIDS research—a critical delay that, we now know, could have saved countless lives. We seem to have forgotten that now.
We’ve also forgotten the corruption—not just the Constitution-shredding outrage of the Iran-Contra scandal, but a modern record for the number of criminally indicted officials.
It was the Great Communicator whose era gave us the term, and scourge, of homelessness. It was Reagan who launched an illegal war in Nicaragua, Reagan who unleashed and praised Guatemala’s genocide and El Salvador’s death squads. Reagan whose tax cuts and funding choices launched a class war at home, a class war still being waged, successfully, by many of the same officials, 20 years later.
And excuse me, but Ronald Reagan did not end communism. Hundreds of thousands of courageous people, in Moscow and Gdansk and Prague and across the communist bloc, deserve the credit for risking their lives to bring down tyrannical governments, often with nothing more than the willingness to sacrifice their own bodies. They risked everything. Reagan risked nothing but an inadvertent record deficit it took a decade and a Democratic president to heal.
To honor Reagan as the triumphant Cold Warrior, without even mentioning the courage of all those ordinary people, is an insult of staggering proportions. Ronald Reagan had a historic meltdown of an empire happen during his tenure; he was no more responsible for it than George W. Bush was responsible for another, less positive cataclysm in 2001. Less, even. At least the CIA knew something like 9/11 was in the works. They had no idea the Iron Curtain would collapse.
Last week, I mourned the passing of David Dellinger, a contemporary of Reagan’s who exemplified, far better than Ronnie ever could, courage and integrity and compassion. Dellinger spent his adult life speaking truth to power; Reagan spent his making things up for an audience. One was an apostle of selfless love; the other presided over the Me Decade.
Not all of us spent that decade obsessing over our investments and stepping over the homeless. For much of my 20s, I helped organize protests of hundreds of thousands of people on the Mall and at the Pentagon and elsewhere in Washington, D.C. Most of us are still around. Most of us remember the profound sense of shock as we watched our country become a place we didn’t recognize, led by a genial, seemingly clueless man with an agenda that was on many levels simply evil.
Sound familiar? Forget the obituaries; I can hardly wait to unseat Ronald Reagan’s heir in November.
Which was really cool for those of us young adults of the time who were not impotent... ;0)
But I digress. He's still sputtering in impotent rage...
"The presidency of Reagan himself was so bad..."
Well, it must have been bad for him and his ilk. Deservedly so.
I left the Beautiful Great Northwest because it was being populated by turds like this guy, I just couldn't take it, and that was 25 years ago, (and they brought their little Gangs of crips and bloods with them as well, I still have fond memories of the crips or bloods, whichever, when they were introduced to our Oregon Loggers, just one more reason I had to leave town - they was a few gang members crippled and a bunch more bloody, eh eh)
Yeah ;0) I was a 14 year old longhaired metalhead, campaigning for Reagan by working the phone banks, doorbelling etc... But, ya know, I wasn't ummm "impotent" like this guy...
Right. Just like we'd have time travel and warp drives today, if only Evil Ronnie had thrown money at it. Absolute BS. Well over ninety percent of the advances in AIDS research are entirely due to the steady development of other technolgies that made further research possible in all sorts of areas.
This is like saying the jet airplane would have been invented in 1492 if only Queen Isabella had been willing to invest in the concept.
It is beyond my ability to comprehend how these scumbag leftists can actually say, and believe that Reagan was responsible for everything they say he is responsible for. There is no personal responsibility whatsoever. Yeah, he is responsible for all those poor AIDs victims deaths and all the rest. I will be glad when the haters rot, even though I shouldn't be.
It's an "alternative" rag. What did you expect?
Like I said elsewhere, the cockroaches are trying to outdo each other, scurrying to the top of the dung heap for their 15 minutes.
If it had been the Oregon of the old days - they would have given you a medal.
Silly, silly Mama! Don't you "get" it, yet? Reagan is "responsible" for the spread of AIDS in the '80s, because it happened while he was in office.
He's NOT responsible for the fall of the Soviet Empire, even though it happened while he was in office.
Keep this up... and: I'm gonna have to flunk you this semester in Liberal Logic 101. :)
Let me guess, the Seattle Weekly is an free entertainment newspaper filled with ads and trash like this that can't get printed elsewhere.
Per your comments on AIDS research:
Exactly. Where the heck is it written that it us up to the President of the United States to ensure that people don't kill themselves by spreading STD's?
You gotta wonder if the puny lefties really believe they can win hearts and minds through their spiteful and hateful propaganda.
Code Pink Alert & WorkingForChange.com
Pretty good attempt at recounting all the anti-Reagan lies we normally hear, but without the conviction. I don't believe this guy. He is resigned to the fact that hs isn't being listened to, because everything he has said is wrong. His opinions are superfluous, and he knows it.
Surely the writer lives in Seattle/Portland where the propaganda is so thick that victims like herself find solace in hatred, falsehood and invective. Unfortunately she/he (confused about which) would not recognize the resultant of 2 + 2. I strongly suggest this woman jump from the nearest bridge into rapidly moving traffic. Understand this - she is of no use in a civilized society. Please - do the world and yourself a kindness - end the abortion you have made of your life NOW! There is no redemption for a rotting carcass such as yours.
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