Wish I had a transcript of Clintonista Donna Brazille's live C-Span comments on Saturday (hours before Reagan passed away).
First she offered the (amazing) tribute that the Ronald Reagan she'd campaigned against in 1980 and 1984 turned out in her 1986 meeting with him to be a very nice guy who made her feel warm and welcome. IIRC there was even a mention of praying for him.
Then she slipped into a tirade that Reagan had also made it "a crime to be poor" and that he didn't "give" enough. Without directly saying it, Brazille made it clear that her real hatred of Reagan was that he stopped the welfare wagon of the previous decades, and "I hope those policies go to the grave with him."
One wonders how much her hatred of Ronald Reagan inspired Brazille to become more than she might otherwise have been. The irony.
Donna Brazile: So bright, yet so WRONG on every issue.
Somebody tell this writer that it's all HAT and no CATTLE not the other way around.
I was afraid of what might happen when Reagan got elected. For one thing I was an indoctrinated little liberal. And for another, I was a rebel and I didn't like this authoritarian father figure, I preferred the fuzzy-sweater favorite uncle figure that Jimmy Carter presented. Likke so many of us, my respect for RWR has only increased in my rear-view mirror.
"One wonders how much her hatred of Ronald Reagan inspired Brazille to become more than she might otherwise have been."
I'd say it was the opposite, that her hatred of Reagan, and even more so, his policies, has held her back. She actually seems pretty sharp, too bad she's on the wrong side of the argument.