"I hope Kenny Rogers is in good health" - Witty Reagan Commentary

[Maddy McCall]

This witty commentary on the Reagan Revolution was written by Scott McLemee: Edited to add link: http://mclemee.com/id4.html

7 June

Somebody once said: "I always hope that Kenny Rogers is in good health, because when he dies they're gonna play his songs on the radio all day long." And in much that spirit of loathing at the prospect of the inevitable forced march through certain memories -- a public celebration of things better off buried in an unmarked spot, on a moonless night -- I have, for some years now, dreaded the news of Ronald Reagan's passing.

This morning, a thought came to mind -- the aftermath of digesting as much of last night's Sixty Minutes as we could stand. (Switched it off halfway through; the gorge becoming buoyant at hearing they were about to do a segment on the man's irrepressible sense of humor.) To whit: Let nobody say that liberalism has a monopoly on the therapeutic conception of politics. "He changed America by making us feel good about ourselves."

What a vacuously privatized notion of leadership (let alone of politics or the common good). Jimmy Carter got no end of grief for having read Christopher Lasch and coming forth with that bit about the nation's "malaise." But the candidate who "lifted" that malaise did so only by giving the culture of narcissism a happy pill.

Or as Steven Shapiro puts it at his always-interesting site The Pinocchio Theory, the Great Communicator "created an ugly social and cultural climate in America, one that is still with us today: a climate of cynicism, greed, selfishness, bigotry, frat-boy self-congratulatory boorishness, and blame-the-victim disdain for 'losers' and the weak, all buttressed by a willfully ignorant, proudly vapid, feel-good-at-all-costs Pollyanna-ism."

That about covers it. Could be worse, I guess. How is Kenny Rogers feeling, these days?

[LittleApple81]

1. Thanks. good one. n/t

[Snellius]

2. Brilliant! Ronald Reagan's mean-spirited mirth

Yes, let's not forget that Ronald Reagan's captivating humor was often sarcastic and belligerently provocative. Reagan liked to piss his enemies off as much as he loved to make his friends laugh at their expense. Underneath that supposed good-natured charm was the mean-spirited hatred that inspired Gingrich, Cheney, Delay, and the anti-Clinton cultural crusade.

Some choice Reagan "wit":

As governor of California when confronted by a hippie, he joked "He had hair like Tarzan, acted like Jane and smelled like Cheetah."

His comment on the hackneyed slogan "make love not war" was "they don't look like they are capable of doing either."

LOL!

I'll pass over the cute little ridicules about "welfare queens in their welfare Cadillacs" or the ever-clever little jab "if you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."

What a joke!

[Maddy McCall]

3. You're pissing me off all over again.

Yes, that welfare queen/cadillac comment created a myth that is still in existence. It is amazing how misinformation will prevail over fact when the messenger appears to be credible to the people who want to believe him.