Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th and unquestionably greatest President of the United States, is dead. He was 93.
Beloved by friend and foe alike, Reagan (also known as “Dutch,” “The Gipper,” “The Great Communicator,” and “Bilbo”) had a simple touch and enormous vision. Despite poll numbers that show his approval ratings lower than Bill Clinton’s and (on average) George H. W. Bush’s, he was without doubt the most popular President of this or any era.
Reagan preached a simple, easy message: Smaller government, less taxes. He delivered on the latter, and if the result was higher deficits, it was because of Reagan’s higher calling. While managing the economy into better, prouder times, he also singlehandedly caused the downfall of the Soviet Union, freed the American hostages from Tehran, and gave Americans something to believe in again, and this was the secret to his enormous popularity.
His accomplishments as President are almost too gigantic to be listed in a single obituary. Where does one begin? From his invention of the personal computer in 1980, to his bold assassination of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 (critics said the President shouldn’t be going under cover on daring one-man missions, but Reagan proved them wrong), to his sledge-hammering of the Berlin Wall in 1988, Reagan’s enormous popularity cut through the partisanship that mars contemporary politics and offered an example of heroism, patriotism, and humility that made even the most unrepentant and dirty liberal stand up and salute.
Born in 1911, Reagan made his mark in World War II, where as an enormously popular six star general he led he Normandy invasion, the North African campaign, and the war in the Pacific. Returning home in 1945, he resumed his acting career and went on to win 4 Oscars (Best Actor (twice), Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director). His finest roles included Rick from “Casablanca,” Moses from “The 10 Commandments,” and Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone With the Wind.” He was enormously popular.
Eschewing his still-thriving Hollywood career for politics in the 60’s, Reagan was swept into the State House in California by an unprecedented unanimous vote in the 1966 election. As governor he was enormously popular. He created America’s first public school system, discovered gold near Sutter’s Mill, freed the slaves, and prevented as many as 35 earthquakes. He was elected President in 1980, once again unanimously.
Reagan always stayed above the scandals that typically plague modern administrations, largely because of his enormous popularity. When, towards the end of his Presidency, the Soviet Union unconditionally surrendered, President Mikhail Gorbachev famously said, “Even behind my Iron Curtain, he (Reagan) is more loved than me. Thus, I give up.”
Today, long after his career came to end, Reagan remains enormously popular. He will be remembered forever as a founding father, brilliant actor, pioneering scientist, devoted family man, amusing magician, noted author, hilarious stand-up comic, dazzling mathematician, gifted professional athlete, world-renowned chef, heroic soldier, medal-winning figure skater, useful home appliance, trusty steed, super sleuth, handy repairman, daring crimefighter, and groundbreaking choreographer.
But most of all, he was Ronald Wilson Reagan, simple, proud, and enormously popualr American. He will be missed. Dear god, he will be missed.
Fanny Roborat
61 comments
Dee
June 7, 2004 at 1:32 pm
1Adam–thank you. Just thank you.
tony
June 7, 2004 at 1:54 pm
2no wonder i love him!
Cara
June 7, 2004 at 2:23 pm
3The best things about Reagan’s demise are that federal employees and those who follow the fed calendar will get a day off, and that it didn’t happen in October. Though that defiitely means Osama will be produced then–say, about October 10.
Meanwhile, yours is the best memorial I’ve seen. R.I.P. Ronnie, in that big ketchup patch in the sky, tended by welfare queens who’ve been waiting to thank you.
tim
June 7, 2004 at 2:35 pm
4“pioneering scientist”…must be his enormous contribution to the field of chimpanzee behavior.
UncleBob
June 7, 2004 at 2:39 pm
5I wish the dude eternal peace.
Just don’t ask me to join in some funeral pageant that turns into a Reaganomic Revivalist movement. ‘Cause I lived through that shit once, and once was enough.
Murray
June 7, 2004 at 3:35 pm
6I sure agree with Dee, it’s about time some one sets the record straight. Well… at least you got his name right.
I’d say that invading Granada should be his lasting epithet.
Granada did nothing, and posed no threat. The students that we were supposed to rescue had no idea that they were in danger, and the Cubans who were building an airport didn’t know that they were supposed to threaten the students. If they had, during the 3 days it took for the US marines to find the students, the Cuban’s could have taken them hostage and then what? We came surprisingly close to loosing a war against a couple of hundred shovel wielding Cubans.
Our marines were wandering aimlessly because they didn’t have maps.
I know this for a fact because my father-in-law was a cartographer with the navy at the time. They were given the orders to produce maps of Granada RIGHT NOW! They worked day and night, but back in ‘83 maps were made by hand using huge copper plates. No computers. They didn’t have time. So the Marines used Holiday Inn maps. Guess what? They weren’t very accurate. So, 3 days of wandering around looking for a medical school.
BUT it took our minds off the 243 dead marines in Lebanon, and we got to have a War President and hero.
AND Americans ate it up.
Nothing changes
aaron
June 7, 2004 at 3:48 pm
7I’ll never forget the way he kicked the shit out of Mr. T all the way to beejeesus and back in Rocky III.
He was a great man. Or men.
AlexH
June 7, 2004 at 4:10 pm
8Long time reader, first time poster. I saw a snippet of Fox News’ hagiography last night, and it was pretty much the same as yours (except, of course, being dead serious). My wife got nauseated after about 5 minutes–we don’t watch too much TV, and she didn’t believe me when I told her that Fox News is a mouthpiece for the neocons.
Steve
June 7, 2004 at 4:49 pm
9Dead Time for Bonzo
Pat R.
June 7, 2004 at 5:15 pm
10He was a wacky, wacky president, with a lively sense of humor. I will never forget his hilarious way of shrinking government by hiring more federal employees (except for those pesky air traffic controllers — ho ho, didn’t they get a surprise?), or his good-natured method of promoting democracy by attempting to overthrow legitimately-elected governments, invading teeny islands, and providing weapons of mass destruction to belligerant despots. And who in their right mind would doubt his deep respect for his fellow human beings, feelings that compelled him to travel to Europe to lay a wreath in honor of fallen Waffen-SS soldiers. And then there was his way of providing an example of thrift and sound financial reasoning by a canny combination of deficit spending and tripling the national debt.
There’s more, far, far more. But it’s time for me to step aside, wipe the appreciative tears from my eyes, and let someone else pay their respects.
tess
June 7, 2004 at 6:01 pm
11i grew up during the reagon administration. and all i can say is that a man who presided over an era of bad power suits, heavy bangs, madonna in fishnet stockings, and the rise of donald trump as the epitome of taste was surely the greatest man in the whole history of the western world! oh, and all the stuff in foreign countries, hate crimes against asians not being prosecuted because it was okay that they were seen as japanese, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Bob
June 7, 2004 at 6:24 pm
12You forgot the polio vaccine. But that’s OK; I’m pretty sure Hannity mentioned it.
And I think that closing federal offices on Friday is a fitting tribute. When government’s not working, I think of Ronald Reagan.
Linkmeister
June 7, 2004 at 8:30 pm
13Forget polio; he discovered that if you just wished away AIDS it would disappear, thereby saving countless millions of people excessive worry and early death.
Anonymous
June 7, 2004 at 8:32 pm
14He single-handedly busted up that “evil cabal” of air traffic controllers too, with just a Louisville slugger and a tin of Bryl-Cream.
Fantasy Football
June 7, 2004 at 9:07 pm
15Ronald Reagan reminded me of my late grandpa…he also liked jellybeans
Walter
June 7, 2004 at 9:22 pm
16Thank God I thought to look at your blog… After listening to people talk, and the news, and the pundits, I though I’d been teleported to bizarro U.S.A.
Anonymous
June 7, 2004 at 9:22 pm
17Wow…the man’s dead and you guys are still bitter. Sheesh.
Like Clinton, Reagan did some things well and some things poorly.
Next you’ll be complaining about how Eisenhower’s presidency caused the recession of 2000 - 2003.
Murray
June 7, 2004 at 10:16 pm
18You mean the 2001 till now recession. Of course that one was Clinton’s fault. We are SO lucky that we have such a steady hand on the economic till now. Just because W has turned record surpluses to record deficits, is nothing compared to the benefit of having the uber wealthy become the obscenely wealthy.
I’ll bet a year’s wages that the Right will not be as fawning on Clinton as the Left is on Reagan. Let’s see if Fox treats Clinton’s eulogy the way that NPR has whitewashed Reagan’s.
One benefit.
My wife is a federal employee. She gets Friday off to celebrate, oops, sorry, mourn the death of RR. Ironic isn’t it? The people that Reagan despised most, federal bureaucrats, who were the problem not the solution, can now do nothing, and get paid, in his name.
Jason
June 7, 2004 at 10:32 pm
19Thank you Gipper, and thank you Adam.
Anonymous
June 7, 2004 at 11:40 pm
20Like I said, bitter, bitter, small people.
Also, it is possible to see the good both Reagan and Clinton did; praising Reagan does not lessen Clinton nor does it imply praise for GWB.
The recession started here in Q1 2000–that’s when the massive layoffs began; hiring began late Q4 2003. Perhaps your region was spared a little, but most economists (lib & conservative) peg it to early 2000 or sooner. For the record, I don’t think Clinton caused the recession–hyperinflated stock market is a better cause.
historyenne
June 8, 2004 at 12:25 am
21The point is not that Reagan was horrible, just that he was not as wonderful as the media is saying. Instead of fawning over him or vilifying him, it would be nice if we could just discuss his legacy, the good and the bad.
adam
June 8, 2004 at 1:26 am
22historienne has decoded me.
Annonymous Guy: I wouldn’t dream of accusing Reagan of being responsible for the recession. The most I would say on that front is this: Today’s neocons treat Reagan’s most lamentable failure as a success, and that’s dangerous. I’m talking about Reaganomics, and how its theory differed so horribly from its practice.
Reagan preached smaller government and lower taxes. Unfortunately, he only managed to GET lower taxes, and the federal government’s budget ballooned during his administration. My guess is that he simply couldn’t force Congress to make the necessary cuts, nor did he have a plan to do so. To make matters worse, the right was under the delusion that cutting social programs could make up the difference. This delusion persisted well into the 90’s and beyond, and it’s always been wrong: The so-called “frivolous giveaways” have always been a tiny part of the budget, and gutting them was never able to make up for even modest tax cuts.
In Reagan’s perfect world, the government’s size would have been reduced radically, and thus there’d be less need for high taxes. Reagan was well aware that the plan didn’t quite work out. The movement he inspired never quite GOT this point, which has led to the current “deficits don’t matter” attitude. The error has become the theory, and the Gipper is often used (somewhat unjustly) to shield these economic nimrods from blame.
So no, I’m not bitter over Reagan - he wasn’t a great President in my estimation, but far from the worst. But every time I’ve criticized his policies in the past decade, there’s always been someone there to chide me for picking on a sick man. Now I’m being chided for picking on our honored dead. But what I’m actually bitter about is the chiders themselves, and this ceaseless and ridiculous tidal wave of memorializing that has reinforced the years-long campaign to distort and rewrite Reagan’s actual presidency.
With every lie that’s being told about Reagan in the media this week (and there have been plenty - check Eschaton for a fair sample), Reagan isn’t really being honored. He’s being used.
Pat R.
June 8, 2004 at 3:51 am
23Hey, anonymous boy — You’re the one who brought up Clinton. No one here even alluded to him before you mentioned his name.
But now that you’ve introduced a Reagan/Clinton comparison, Reagan was a man of middling intelligence at best (see http://slate.msn.com/id/2101842/), where Clinton (like him or not) is a smart, sharp individual, able to reason, analyze and stay awake during cabinet meetings. Like Reagan, Clinton is a politician, not a saint, and a man with some serious character flaws, but unlike Reagan he did not preside over an administration of deep, systematic, wide-ranging corruption. Reagan surrouded himself with people looking to take advantage of where they were, and it quickly became obvious to anyone paying attention to more than Reagan’s charming persona. And he paid lip-service to respect for the law and the principles of democracy — he and his people had no qualms about ignoring the law whenever it suited them, in ways that resulted in great suffering (for instance, among the poor and among those suffering from AIDS) and, in Nicaragua, great loss of life at the hands of U.S. funded death-squads given to indiscriminate slaughter of civilians.
There is plenty of reason to want some balance in the middle of the current drive to canonize Reagan, and balance is a good thing.
But what do you care? You swing by and call names, without the courage to leave your own name. A pretty pathetic way to foment dialogue and build up credibility.
Anonymous
June 8, 2004 at 4:12 am
24Point taken, Adam.
My main point was, and is, that this man is not even buried yet; ease up.
When you die, I’m guessing you’d want us to remember your achievements and good points, rather than carp about the things you did wrong during your life.
I just think you’ve crossed the line from satire to smugness with this one.
Jerry
June 8, 2004 at 5:04 am
25“He’s being used.” Indeed. And always was.
That the cabal that ran him for governor and controlled him in that office, and, following that ’success’, ran him for president and controlled him in that office, did so is the purest evidence of the totally cynical and sociopathic nature of that group (largely the same folk that gave us the Yellow Rose.)
Not that Reagan did not always court the stroking hand, for instance his eager participation in the Hollywood Commie hunt and blacklistings. But during his governorship, Reagan was already displaying early signs of his disease. Who can ignore the blind and touchingly believing “If you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all,” or the wild departure from reality of “If there has to be a bloodbath, then let’s get it over with,” about a student demonstration at San Francisco State? Who can forget his pride as he announced his “simple solution to budget problems others have found so difficult,” i.e., cutting the budgets of all state functions by 10%?
But his popularity and manipulability was too valuable to certain interests to allow him a graceful retirement and he was ‘encouraged’ into the Presidency, throughout which he exhibited increasingly severe manifestations of Alheimer’s. That he was totally controlled was obvious to anyone watching. As long as he stayed on script, he was allowed to speak, but a press conference was declared over if he started to extemporize; I remember once he was actually physically removed by his handlers when he was trying to answer questions on his own. In situations where scripting was not possible, he was vague, wandering, forgetful, unfocused, had narcolyptic episodes, and confounded fact with fictions he remembered more clearly.
I saw this week one of his speechwriters trying to give Reagan credit for his staged eloquence. He said finally (paraphrasing)”Yes, I wrote the actual words, but the spirit was his.” (I think this was on NPR, whose sycophantic coverage this week, not just on the death of a former president, but of the whole “Reagan heritage,” gave the final lie to the idea that they are of the left.)
I used to loathe Reagan, but now largely feel sorry for him. Alzheimer’s is a terrible death, and some of it’s manifestations make life a living hell for the sufferer. He has paid any debts he may have gathered to himself.
I feel even sorrier for for a nation that chose a cuddly granpa with simple solutions over a statesman.
I wonder if I will feel sorry for the man with a brain damaged by a quarter-century of heavy drinking, and be able to reserve my hate for the men who now use him to advance their blind egocentric greed and who utterly disregard the welfare of the nation and it’s citizens.
Pat R.
June 8, 2004 at 7:06 am
26Well, which is it, Adam? Are you bitter or are you smug? (I just thought you
Pat R.
June 8, 2004 at 7:07 am
27…were a fine comic writer/commentator with a well-developed sense of irony. Silly me.)
Tribi
June 8, 2004 at 9:24 am
28I have been avoiding news and radio because it’s been mind-boggling. I heard one snippet of a funeral description and they said, “if you remember Kennedy’s funeral this will be the same…” And I thought it wasn’t fair that they’re stealing Jacqueline’s ideas to glorify someone who passed away peacefully fifteen years out of office. It’s so improper, it’s so not a week’s worth of headline and eulogies.
Great googly-moogly can you imagine what would happen if Bush Sr. kicked while Jr. was still in office?
Steve
June 8, 2004 at 9:42 am
29Bitter? You’re damned right I’m bitter and you’re damned right I have a right to be bitter. The man was unable to differentiate fact from fantasy (confusing movie roles he played for reality and simply making things up when it suited him) and was nothing much more than an empty headed corporate mouthpiece who came to believe the scripts he was given to repeat endlessly for General Electric and others. He once famously said that trees are the cause of pollution and dismissed the redwoods with “if you’ve seen one redwood you’ve seen them all”. Bitter? Hell yes. The man and his cockamamie “revolution” destroyed lives in Central America and further enriched the corrupt plutocrats who sustained him in office. As president of the Screen Actors Guild he finked out his fellow members to the FBI and the oh so ironically named House Unamerican Activities Committee.
Back in the 1970s I had the dubious honor of interviewing him twice when I was stringing for the Associated Press. He was an vacuous boob as Governor of California and he was a disaster as President.
While I wish suffering and death on no one, I’m not sorry he’s gone. I’m just sorry that he was here in the first place.
Zach
June 8, 2004 at 9:49 am
30It gets worse.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/08/news/economy/reagan_hamilton/index.htm ?cnn=yes
Yes, you are not dreaming. They want to put Reagan on the $10 bill or on the dime. Even NANCY wouldn’t let “Ronnie” replace FDR.
I consider myself more of a Reagan fan than most. I actually disagree with Adam’s approach to the man who freed the peoples of Eastern Europe from Soviet tyranny. But REGARDLESS, they are going to boot Alexander Hamilton? No matter HOW much anyone could conceivably love the Gipper, for God’s sake, Hamilton! This is a man who bled with the colonists in the revolution (Reagan, on the other hand, worked in Hollywood producing army training films during WWII). He fought at Yorktown. He was a framer of the constitution. An author of the Federalist papers. He was the first secretary of the TREASURY!
If the Republicans boot Hamilton from the $10, we will have no choice but to place a statue in front of the capitol of Bill Clinton in a toga with sword extended Eastward on horseback, followed by one of Jimmy Carter fly-fishing in the reflecting pool on the mall.
Murray
June 8, 2004 at 10:01 am
31At least when Nixon died they talked about both his good and bad. As much as I disliked Tricky Dick, he was responsible for some of the best and strongest environmental regulations and policies.
But Reagan gets a pass, despite the fact that his legacy includes helping our enemy (Iran), in order to supply arms to terrorists (Contras), in defiance of a law that prohibited it (Bolin Amendment). They illegally set up a shadow government to funnel the money and keep things secret. The World Court found the US Guilty of war crimes in its mining of the Managua Harbor.
Reagan should have been impeached, but there is always that problem with America in that Democrats are gutless, while the Republicans are ruthless, and Americans being idiots let them get away with it. Congress didn’t have the stomach to get rid of a popular president near the end of his term.
Reagan also had a personal distaste for the poor (people going to bed hungry were on diets), and those welfare queens who drove Cadillacs. Yet he believed strongly in welfare for the wealthy.
OK. Perhaps I sound bitter. I agree with Adam and Pat that Reagan was nothing but a simple minded figure head run by evil genius puppet-masters.
My anger is not directed at RR. He really didn’t know what he was doing, or what others were doing in his name. I really disliked Nancy at the time, but you have to give it to her she was loyal and accepted the tremendous burden of caring for an Alzheimer’s patent. I would never have given her such long and painful sentence. She also acquits herself with her advocacy of stem cell research, which those who reign in Reagan’s name try to ban.
RR may rest in peace. Nancy is forgiven.
The evil puppet-masters are not. That is where my anger is directed, and they are doing their damage again using another simple minded figure head.
Ibid
June 8, 2004 at 10:04 am
32“Hi, I’m Ronald Reagan for Instant Karma. As the 40th President of the United States I stripped away all federal funds for Alzheimer’s research. But thanks to Instant Karma my brain slowly rotted away until I could no longer recognize my family or even speak. My wife sees to it that the GOP, my old stomping ground, suffers doubt about the moral correctness of their ‘no stem-cell research’ policies. By reminding them that the party’s biggest hero doesn’t even know that he was the president and the only hope for a cure comes from something they think is an absolute sin Instant Karma has helped to introduce a bit of gray into their black and white world. Thanks, Instant Karma!”
Cat
June 8, 2004 at 11:12 am
33I think I will spend my Friday off making a “mix tape” of favorites from my misspent youth: “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg,” “California Uber Alles,” the Dicks’ tribute to John Wayne (it’ll work, my friend), something from JFA…time to pull out the albums!
lovable liberal
June 8, 2004 at 11:53 am
34We are SO lucky that we have such a steady hand on the economic till now.
I think you meant in the … till.
SeanG
June 8, 2004 at 11:53 am
35at least y’all don’t live in DC where we are about to experience gridlock for the next few days thanks to the dead prez.
glad to see others get it - i was feeling a little overwhelmed by the 4 hours of casket viewing on tv - i will miss him so…
that mixtape sounds great!
Jerry
June 8, 2004 at 12:15 pm
36Ibid:
Can you source that info (Reagan cut funding for Alzheimers)? I’d be interested in being able to authoritatively pass that on. Thanks
adam
June 8, 2004 at 1:43 pm
37I actually disagree with Adam’s approach to the man who freed the peoples of Eastern Europe from Soviet tyranny.
I don’t mind that you disagree with my approach, but it’s overstatements like this that I dislike.
We Americans want singular heroes, and as such we’ve given Reagan the credit for winning the Cold War. I believe he deserves a portion of the credit, but not all of it, and perhaps not even the lion’s share.
His arms buildup accelerated the decline of the Soviet Union’s flagging economy. True. But:
There are Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, who presided over actual battles in the Cold War. There are Presidents Ford and Carter who maintained our military readiness during peacetime. There is Poland’s Solidarity movement and Lech Walesa, all the courageous dissidents and dissident organizations. There’s Mikhail Gorbachev, who began a process from which there was no turning back.
And finally, there’s all the people who actually stood up and took their countries back from the dictators, violently and nonviolently, with guns, pens, and sledgehammers, at great personal risk, while we Westerners stood back and applauded.
So when you (and the media) say that Reagan was “the man who freed the peoples of Eastern Europe from Soviet tyranny,” it sounds terrific. But it’s a distortion which both dishonors all those who struggled and makes it hard for those of us who care about historical accuracy to laud Reagan’s considerable accomplishment.
Murray
June 8, 2004 at 2:50 pm
38No kidding. “Single handedly winning the cold war” is the one thing that fries me most. It’s like having a string of contractors take down an old imposing building. The last contractor shows up with golden hammers and platinum crow bars and the building collapses. Inspection shows massive termite damage that did most of the work.
Reagan spent us into a stupor trying to “out weapon” the Soviets. What the Right ignores is that military spending in the USSR did NOT increase at all during the 80’s. They knew that making the rubble bounce 100 times was no worse than 200 times. If 500 warheads could bring nuclear winter and destroy most of the life on earth, then 40,000 on each side was sort of overkill.
Communism has its own internal fatal flaw. It rewards sloth and penalizes initiative. If we had instead spent those billions on education, here and abroad, alleviating poverty, here and abroad, cleaning the environment here and abroad, the Soviet Union would still have collapsed, but the world would be a much better place.
I’d say that Gorbichov won the cold war. He freed his country and those in Eastern Europe.
Reagan’s winning the cold war is just more self-serving lies from the right.
Ras_Nesta
June 8, 2004 at 7:00 pm
39Reagan taught Republicans that you can lie right to the American people’s face and not be called on it.
On NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” today David Gergen was chuckling about what a “fabulist” St. Reagan was, discussing his “Trees pollute more than cars” and “40 taxes on a loaf of bread” lies.
In my dictionary, “fabulist” is a synonym for “liar”. Reagan invented the modern lying-ass conservative. (Between destroying my family’s farm financially by jacking interest rates to 21%, cutting deals with terrorists, taking naps, busting unions, watching hundreds of appointees get indicted, busting the treasury, and ignoring AIDS and apartheid.)
Fables are for entertaining children, Reagan’s lies were for political gain.
Marc
June 8, 2004 at 7:01 pm
40And let’s not forget that we came soooooo close to all becoming radioactive dust bunnies because of him. His (or his handlers) unquestioning belief in their plan to rid the world of Soviet Communism led them to disregard their own Soviet advisor’s warnings to not conduct one of the largest NATO excercises in history right after calling the Ruskies an Evil Empire.
Why? Because any good Russian General will tell you that that is what you do just before you INVADE. So the Soviet Military under Andropov (remember him?) started preparing to launch. That’s when Reagan started to cut back on the rhetoric. And the rest is (hidden) history.
Ahhh, the wonders of leaders with blind faith.
tess
June 8, 2004 at 7:25 pm
41i heard that one theory on why the soviet union fell was in part because some anonymous hacker broke into buggy and security-challenged software used for oil pipelines and caused a series of massive back-ups which helped decimate the economy.
of course, it was nothing compared to the day when reagan announced that the USSR was an “evil empire.” that just made everyone there feel bad and suddenly want change.
Brian C.B.
June 8, 2004 at 9:22 pm
42I think that Adam’s point was that one has to wonder about the sincerity of the Republican National Committee, Bush-Cheney ‘04, and much of the national media. If they truly believed the appraisal they’ve made of Reagan, they should be wondering why he didn’t pop up out of his casket yesterday morning, on schedule. Maybe make an appearance to Peggy Noonan. He’s got to squeeze in his Ascension before the Olympics, after all.
There should be an acknowledgement that his policy in Eastern Europe–an enlargement of a Carter initiative–worked largely because his advisors overestimated the strength of the Soviets, but it worked. Balanced against that, he went along with another Carter program that was puffed up by Charlie Wilson, in Afghanistan. The best that can be said for him is that he was only the first of the last four presidents to get South Asia grossly wrong. In Lebanon, well, it’s still the signal victory of terrorists over American intervention in the Middle East, but he meant very well. He was irelevant. In Central America, where his proxies fought socialist forces to a draw, there’s not a single ruling government that today does not despise him. In Angola, his side ultimately lost, but Angola’s corrupt government is the best friend Chevron’s got.
For America, the worst thing he might have done is bequeath us men he probably wouldn’t like very much, now: Perle. Wolfowitz. Rumsfeld. Men who would apply his antagonism against a real threat to the safety of the United States (the Soviet Union) to a polity that would hardly rate it: Iraq. That’s not his fault.
Anonymous
June 8, 2004 at 10:35 pm
43One thing I’m surprised nobody’s picked up on is that in destroying ‘the Evil Empire,’ Reagan helped incubate and germinate the ‘Axis of Evil.’
Fishmael
June 8, 2004 at 11:07 pm
44Villify, villify, villify, without reservation. The people who demand “balance” are either hiding an agenda, or are out of touch (or timid). In my opinion, Reagan was one of the worst presidents ever, in part because his “charm” worked so well to mask the evil that was put forth in his name. I thank the universe that the Yellow Rose doesn’t have that charm. At the heart of his distructiveness, Reagan made “self-only values” seem socially valuable — a ruinous proposition for any people who deign to be civilized. We should be able to do much better than we are, if we worked together, instead of apart.
Out of “Adam’s list” I would merge the “handy home appliance” and the “trusty steed” — I see something dumb that gives pleasure … and vibrates.
Adam: a lexicographical(?) note. Most dictionaries still define “nimrod” as a “hunter”. (It’s from the bible.) American Heritage traces the use you have for it (”idiot”, more or less) to a 1930’s Bugs Bunny cartoon, were Bugs refers to Elmer Fudd as a “nimrod”. The change in meaning is now part of the history of language.
adam
June 8, 2004 at 11:34 pm
45Thanks, Fishmael. Ironically, I too looked it up a few months ago and was surprised to learn its Warner Bros. history.
The reason I was curious was that on my belated honeymoon this winter, we met the lovely Nimrod family. Knowing only Bugs’ definition and the fact that these people weren’t remotely Fuddesque (an extremely nice, bright family with full heads of hair and no noticeable speech impediments), I researched…
Jerry
June 9, 2004 at 3:52 am
46Since we’re carrying on undirected here (I’m ALL excited to see what is so special that Adam has for us!!!)here’s my auto-generated new topic: reconfiguring the dime and $10 bill.
First, the obverse of the dime should be reserved for our NEW hero, the Yellow Rose, self-acclaimed War President Extraordinaire, as in, “Buddy, can you spare a Junior?” Leave the ten spot alone, and create a bill with Yellow Rose and the Gipper on the face and the Neuroscience Center Building in Rockville, Maryland (that’s the National Institute of Mental Health headquarters) on the back. The denomination? $3, of course.
Pat R.
June 9, 2004 at 6:34 am
47For a strange shot of, er, I guess perspective would be the word, go to http://www.scrappleface.com/, a right wing ‘news satire’ site, and take a look at the comments for the June 5 entry Reagan obituary. Yowza!
lisa*
June 9, 2004 at 8:38 am
48Reagan was as phony as a Hollywood set; I said so in 1983, AZ Republic letters to the editor, and it cost my sister her job at the time when her employer found out.
My opinion is unchanged
Ibid
June 9, 2004 at 8:57 am
49Jerry:
Alas, I’m cursed with a long memory. When Reagan was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s I remember two big reactions. The first was “Well, duh!” The second was “How appropriate.” Reagan cut a lot of social and medical programs and seriously defunded many others including Alzheimer’s research.
So while I can find a few other references to his defunding Alzheimer’s research on the internet none of the ones that I’ve found would be considered adquate reference material for a serious discussion.
Sorry.
Skerlnik
June 9, 2004 at 12:06 pm
50Y’know, when I found out Ray-Gun had Alzheimer’s, suddenly the 80’s made a LOT more sense.
Camoflage parachute pants and checkered Vans? More vile deeds I blame Reagan for. We were ALL dressed like Alzheimer’s patients.
Jerry
June 10, 2004 at 12:45 am
51Thanks, Ibid
It was such a perfect karmic irony, I wanted to be able to quote a source. Now it just goes out a rumor. I don’t doubt that it is true, he was whacking chunks out of every worthwhile program and research.
issue 2
June 10, 2004 at 12:54 am
52Um, wow, what can you say about a man who’s administration tried to list ketchup as a vegetable for the school lunch program??? At least Nixon can be remembered for his foreign policy programs. May the Reagan/Bush years really be gone after the next election!!!!!
G-Man
June 10, 2004 at 4:53 pm
53Question: Is the use of asbestos outlawed in the U.S.? (stay with me here). Answer: No. If, like me, you thought it was, then I suggest you read “An Air That Kills”, about Libby Montana, W.R. Grace, and how our country’s move toward asbestos safety went into the ditch with the help of Reagan and his ittle known group of hand-picked industrialists called the Grace Commission (named for the commission chair and CEO of W.R. Grace).
Fact: In 2002, CRAYOLA and two other U.S. makers were using asbestos in crayons. Bet you think that’s impossible, right? Learn in the book how Reagan’s legacy for putting corporate profits above public safety has been handed over to Dubya and his No Balance Sheet Left Behind initiatives.
Thanks Ron, for getting government out of our hair and asbestos back into our lives.
Murray
June 10, 2004 at 8:13 pm
542nd Question.
Aren’t you glad that we switched to the metric system back in ‘81 so that the painful transition period was almost 25 years ago?
Huh?
Oh that’s right, Nancy hated the metric system and would spend most of her time with foreign dignitaries arguing about how foolish it was and made sure that the presidential initiative set into motion by Carter was reversed when Reagan was sworn in.
So once again,
alone in the world we have a system that makes sense only to Reagan.
How many ounces in a gallon?
uh….
How many inches in 2.5 miles?
uh….
My car when I was young had a 327 Cubic inch engine, my car now had a 2.2 liter engine. How much bigger was the old car?
uh…
This wrench is too small, hand me the one bigger than a 13/16.
uh…
Charles
June 11, 2004 at 7:21 pm
55When Reagan came to Washington as President, he learned that the Dee Cee residents who were receiving monthly welfare checks, cashed their checks at the Treasury Department because the Dee Cee government is, truly, a branch of the federal government, and their checks were drawn on the Treasury Department.
Well, Rotten Reagan didn’t like seeing those poor folks standing in long lines a day or two each month, so Rotten Reagan caused to have stopped the ability of those poor folks to have their checks cashed at the Treasury Department. That was the beginning of the very lucrative check-cashing business in Dee Cee.
Also, once when some members of Congress were debating how much help to provide the poor students of this country for their lunches, Rotten Reagan said that ketchup should be considered the second vegetable in the students’lunches.
In other words, if a kid wanted ketchup to go on their hot dogs, it meant that they would only get one vegetable.
I wish I could ask Rotten Reagan’s wife if she thought that her mate would want to change some of the choices he made as president, after he got his gift of that disease.
Walt
June 15, 2004 at 12:19 pm
56Hello to all:
I’ve read most the Reagan comments, and they say that conservatives are ruthless. As former president Reagan used to say, “well, there you go again.”
Phuk You
June 16, 2004 at 12:37 pm
57You people have no shame. Really. I agree with what Walt said. Have SOME decency. Really
brian
June 16, 2004 at 12:40 pm
58Whah !! I blame Reagan for every problem !! Whah !!
michael
June 16, 2004 at 10:01 pm
59way late comment, but;
Adam wrote way back:
Reagan preached smaller government and lower taxes. Unfortunately, he only managed to GET lower taxes…
Actually, he got less revenue, but for most Americans, as Fred at Slacktivist points out, he didn’t in the end lower their taxes at all and probably raised them.
It seems as if the hagiographical orgy has spent itself now, thanks be to god…though apparently flags will remain at half-staff for the remainder of the century.
Brian/Walt (same guy I’m sure): exactly how “decent” is it to turn the merciful passing of an extremely sick 93-year-old into some sort of alleged tragedy, and tell lie upon lie about him, for political gain?
m
allene freimuth
June 21, 2004 at 5:35 pm
60Ho long should of President Reagan?
Dan Lynch
November 9, 2005 at 6:17 pm
61Are you fucking nuts-what is it that you have been smoking-maybe some of the dope from the trade that the Reagon Admin participated in to fund his illegal and immoral activities in Cenral America and the Middle East.