Who doesn't like Reagan? Some critics silent, others can't hide venom

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Monday, June 7, 2004

[JohnHuang2]

While some long-time critics of President Ronald Reagan stifled their inclination to criticize the dead, others launched the kind of venomous attacks that marked his long career in politics.

Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy said yesterday he regretted Reagan died without ever standing trial for 1986 air strikes he ordered that killed the Libyan president's adopted daughter and 36 other people.

Ronald Reagan ordered the April 15, 1986, air raid in response to a discotheque bombing in Berlin allegedly ordered by Khadafy that killed two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman and injured 229 people.

"I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children," Libya's official Jana news agency quoted Khadafy as saying.

Stateside, the verbal attacks were just as vicious.

Ed Weathers, a writer for the Memphis Flyer, had this to say: "Forgive me, but I am about to speak ill of the dead.

"In the coming months, the Republican propaganda machine will shift into high gear. Their goal: to turn Ronald Reagan into a saint. Just watch. First will come the coffin in the Capitol rotunda. Then there will be a proposal to put Reagan’s face on the dollar coin. Next will come a demand that his statue appear on the Washington Mall. And at the Republican Convention in September – oh, just wait. The highlight of that week will be a long, elegiac video of Saint Ronald, with moving music, snippets of favorite speeches, and the voiceover of, say, Charlton Heston. When the video ends, there will be heard the rapturous cheers of the faithful.

"Then George W. Bush will try to ride Ronald Reagan’s coffin back into the White House.

"For that reason, it is necessary now to speak ill of the dead.

"As president, Ronald Reagan was a mediocrity. He has left no legacy. He did not change the world in any significantly good way. His greatest achievement was to win a war with Grenada. He ran for president blaming Jimmy Carter for high gas prices and for letting Americans be taken hostage in Iran – both situations that no American president could have prevented.”

Trevor Royle of the Sunday Herald in Scotland offered this assessment: "Reagan remained an actor, not a doer.

"Perhaps because he saw himself as a patriot, a Forrest Gump before his time, he allied himself with the McCarthy faction and joined those Hollywood bigots who lined themselves up against anything that smacked of communism and the perils of the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War in the early 1950s," wrote Royle. "It was unworthy of him and unworthy of the country at the time, but it marked him and had he not entered politics he could have ended up a bad actor who chose bad politics."

David Swanson, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, wrote this for AlterNet.org: "Reagan is also the source of many of the relationships in Iran and Iraq that have troubled the United States since. Kevin Phillips' recent book "American Dynasty" does a good job of summarizing the strong evidence that Bill Casey and George H.W. Bush made a deal with the Iranians not to release the hostages until after the 1980 U.S. presidential election. This would mean that Reagan's election was illegal, that the trading during the Iran-Contra scandal had a precedent, that Reagan and G.H.W. Bush's buildup of Saddam Hussein's military was motivated in part by a desire to counter weaponry and money that the United States had given Iran in exchange for Reagan's election, that our media has completely fallen down on the job, and that we're all a bunch of suckers."

AlterNet.org also republished a short piece by David Corn of the Nation titled "66 Unflattering Things About Ronald Reagan."

Counterpunch.org published a piece by Phil Gasper called "Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004: Goodbye and Good Riddance."

"Ronald Reagan has finally died at age 93," Gasper wrote. "Predictably, politicians from both major parties have issued gushing tributes to this venal and vicious man, who was happy to slash workers' wages, see families thrown onto the street, support sadistic death squads and bomb other countries, if this was in the interests of the American ruling class."

Blogger Steve Gilliard, in a piece reprinted by the European Bellaciao.org, had this to say: "The hagiography started as soon as they announced Reagan's death. How he ended the Cold War, how he was a decisive leader, all this nonsense about Reagan which is just ridiculous.

"The British have a tradition: When someone dies, their newspaper obituary tells the truth. Americans like to say something kind about the dead, no matter how scummy they were," wrote Gilliard. "Even Nixon got a halo in death, where only Hunter Thompson reminded people of who exactly he was and how the honors given him were, well, wrong. This deification of Reagan began as soon as Clinton took office. There has been pressure to name everything but rest stop toilets after the man."

DemocraticUnderground.com seemed to regret not having enough time to come up with a suitable obituary for Reagan.

"If you're looking for stories about Ronald Reagan in this week's edition, he 'ended communication' a little too close to our deadline. Tune in next week for coverage of the fallout of St. Ronald's passing."

Axisoflogic.com published a commentary by Greg Palast, who wrote: "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."

And Joe Davidson, a columnist for BET.com, the website of Black Entertainment Television, wrote: "It's customary to say good things about the dead. Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court. He signed legislation for a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King. He thawed relations with the Soviet Union and signed a nuclear weapons treaty. He was warm and amiable and had a good sense of humor. He liked horses.

"Now let's talk about what he did to Black people."

Davidson went on to claim that "after taking office in 1981, Reagan began a sustained attack on the government's civil rights apparatus, opened an assault on affirmative action and social welfare programs, embraced the white racist leaders of then-apartheid South Africa and waged war on a tiny, Black Caribbean nation. So thorough was Reagan's attack on programs of importance to African Americans, that the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, an organization formed in the wake of Reagan’s attempt to neuter the official U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said he caused 'an across-the-board breakdown in the machinery constructed by six previous administrations to protect civil rights.'

"During his two terms in office, Reagan captured, solidified and came to personify America's move to the political right," he wrote. "His greatest legacy is as leader of that swing in the American political spectrum. That shift made 'liberal' a dirty word and Democrats cower. What had been conservative became moderate. What was moderate was pushed to the left wing. The shift was so pronounced and profound that Black America giddily embraced Bill Clinton despite his promotion of programs, criminal justice and welfare policies in particular, that would have been called racist and reactionary under Reagan."

[kcvl]

You have that right! I stopped watching that crap when they started calling in as Republicans and lying their brains out. When I asked about it C-Span was less than nice. They can have it.

[Kitanis]

I already found venom in some of the more Pacifist's type discussion forums.. Touting him as a great Satan and evil man.

One even blaimed Reagan for the "mess" we are in now in Iraq even though he was out of office almost 14 years before the Iraqi Invasion. Its sad to see that some of the more liberal people in our nation listen to the Liberal rhetoric and take it as gospel.

[garandgal]

"Then George W. Bush will try to ride Ronald Reagan’s coffin back into the White House.

"For that reason, it is necessary now to speak ill of the dead.

"As president, Ronald Reagan was a mediocrity. He has left no legacy. He did not change the world in any significantly good way. His greatest achievement was to win a war with Grenada. He ran for president blaming Jimmy Carter for high gas prices and for letting Americans be taken hostage in Iran – both situations that no American president could have prevented.”

This would have been a most hideous example of vitriol if it were said while he was alive. Since he passed to a better place only Saturday, it shows a hatred and sheer ignorance that can only be described as stunning.

How galling it must be for this worthless piece of human debris, that probably 90% of Americans disagree with him. Hope he likes it hot.

[goldstategop]

You know... even Gorbachev loves Reagan more than some people born in this country do. How sad.

[kcvl]

Religion is the root of much evil.

It has to be said.

Here is what I believe: There is no god, there is no messiah, there are no prophets plugged in to some divine will. There are no saints or holy men. If there is a heaven or a hell or any other kind of afterlife, we can’t know anything about it while we’re in this life, so it’s useless to speculate and foolish to believe. Faith is an empty box. To believe in Christ is to believe in a rabbit’s foot. To believe in the Buddha is to believe that pro wrestling is real. To believe in Mohammed is to believe that the groundhog can predict spring. To believe that the Ten Commandments came from some god on a mountaintop is to believe that television psychics can talk to your dead grandmother. Allah, Jehovah and the Trinity are elves and Tinkerbells. They are no more than desperate hope given a name and anthropomorphic shape by the imaginations of frightened men.

It has to be said.

Religion is superstition. It is mankind crossing its fingers. Its sole functions are 1) to comfort and console those who cannot bear the suffering and death that are ultimately the lot of every human being, and 2) to offer meaning in a world where meaning can never be established. Religion, in other words, is a fortress of lies built to keep out the terrors of existence and nonexistence. For those in power, it is useful in still another way: Since time immemorial, the powerful have used religion to distract the oppressed, to encourage them to focus on the next world so that they will acquiesce to the injustices of this world. If you would have your slaves remain docile, teach them hymns.

This is not saying anything new, but it has to be said again.

ED WEATHERS

[Begin]

...blaming Jimmy Carter for high gas prices ... that no American president could have prevented

Says a lilliputian whose ideological brethren are blaming President Bush for the current price of gas.

[onyx]

These small people and their venomous
words mean nothing to me, and they're
so insignificant, that they cannot even
begin to tarnish President Reagan.
I have nothing but a contemptuous pity
for these people.
Their hatred will kill them... slowly but surely.

[kcvl]

David Swanson
is the Press Secretary for Kucinich Campaign Organization

[kcvl]

Phil Gasper is professor of philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University in California. He is a member of the National Writers Union and a frequent contributor to Socialist Worker and the International Socialist Review. He can be contacted at pgasper@ndnu.edu.

[onyx]

Why bother?
He's an A-hole deluxe.

[onyx]

Thanks for the link.
If I feel the need to vent,
I might write him a nasty note.
LOL!

[Free ThinkerNY]

Christ had a message that is lost on Ed Weathers and Joseph Stalin. The Comrade needs a Draino enema.

[Mo1]

Well it would seem Peggy got it wrong about them blowing up on Friday

They already started

Oh and nice touch from the guy at the the Memphis Flyer -- It's all Bush's fault

These people are pathetic and disgusting

The man just died ... have they no shame?

[KC_Conspirator]

He has left no legacy.

This ignorant grease spot of a man in Memphis is a also a liar. Reagan's legacy is a free Europe. Millions enjoy freedom because of him. The US also has had 25 years of economic expansion, which is another of his legacies. The last legacy is a reinvigorated GOP.

[onyx]

You are correct.
They have no shame.
They are the embodiment of arrogance and hatred.

[kcvl]

Stories by Joe Davidson

I Am Not a CIA Agent
Reporters who are mistaken for agents sometimes end up dead -- like Daniel Pearl. It is time the agency issued a no-exception rule that journalists will not be used as spies.
Posted on Apr 11, 2002

[kcvl]

May 21, 2003

Commentator Joe Davidson feels too much emphasis has been put on race in the case of Jayson Blair and The New York Times. Some claim Blair held onto his position for as long as he did because of affirmative action. Davidson insists that the so-called "good-ol'-boy" system of white privilege must be examined as well.

[Mo1]

They are the embodiment of arrogance and hatred.

And it will eat them alive

[kcvl]

Joe Davidson

Confederate symbols — including flags, statues and public facility names — denote slavery, segregation and White supremacy."


African Nations Back Reparations for Black Americans 10/29/2001
By Joe Davidson
Reparations for Black Americans are still on the table at the world conference on racism, despite U.S. and European efforts to derail it and talk of a U.S. Black-African split.


In Wake of Attacks, Spending Cuts May Hurt Blacks Most 10/24/2001
By Joe Davidson, BET.com Political Columnist
Federal programs that help Blacks may suffer as national security projects take priority.

[onyx]

Reparations?
Ah yes, he has an agenda.