Posted on 02/07/2023 12:15:59 PM PST by SJackson
On the 112th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, we commemorate his many monumental accomplishments as the greatest president of the past century. But it is also a good occasion for correcting the record regarding the persistent, never-ending efforts to obscure those accomplishments with misleading smears. One attack on Reagan that has grown in the telling over the years is the claim that he invented a wartime story about having been present at the liberation of the Nazi death camps. The problem: The actual evidence of Reagan saying this is vague, thirdhand, and contradicted on the record by people who were there. It is also inconsistent with Reagan’s own public accounts of how he first came to see the reality of the Holocaust on film.
The death-camps story is of fresh interest again because we now live in a golden age of fabulists in American politics, driven by the George Santos drama. Of course, there are all different types of falsehoods politicians tell, ranging from white lies dictated by convention, to invented histories, concealment of fact, and tall tales for the sheer mischievous thrill of putting on an audience. The most egregious and long-running fabulist of his own biography in American political history is Joe Biden. Unlike Reagan, however, when Biden has invented stories, it is almost always in public, leaving unambiguous evidence of what he said. Typically, the only factual disputes are about whether some fig leaf of support can be conjured for the stories he tells; nobody disputes that he told them. He tends to do this on camera — in front of crowds on the campaign trail, or in televised debates, interviews, or Senate hearings. It has happened so regularly in full public view that one need not scrape for examples from disputed private conversations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
A long but good read of a little discussed period of President Reagan's life.
later
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thank God for the godly and therefore great RR.
Can’t read. Not allowed yet I almost never link to NR and it’s the stat of the month
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Just ask Joe. I’m sure he was there.
Excuse me, but Santos is going to have to get in line behind the Fabulist in Chief. Biden tells more lies than the Devil himself. Biden is King of the Golden Age of Fabulists. Joe Biden: POTUS FOTUS.
I love Biden's latest, that he has the key to Amtrak trains and rides in the locomotive with the engineer.
Yeah, paywall... Thanks for the gist.
Disgusting that this clown tried to smear Reagan who served with honor, chased the communists out of the SAG, was a good governor, and great President who vastly improved the world.
Reminds me of stolen valor liar William Manchester slandering John Wayne with lies about Marines in a hospital booing him when he visited etc.
There is a class of disgusting writers who see someone admirable and works to trash them. Being unabashedly pro-American makes one an immediate target.
This author wasn’t making the accusation. As to the ones who did, I agree. Of course it’s completely ineffective, I doubt many here have heard this story before. It was nice to see the source of the claim explained though.
Wait a while, he’ll be talking about the time he drove the train. Maybe tonight.
BTW, I’m not sure it’s about trashing something admirable, simply trying to trash someone with opposing political views. Same way they praise fools with their own views.
I’m tracking. I was referring to the clown that originally started the lie this author was discussing the origins of.
Oh make no mistake, the more admirable a conservative is, the more they become a lightning rod for leftist scribblers to tear down. For them that “proves” America is a big fraud and fake.
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