What did Ronald Reagan have in common with "Mississippi Burning?"

[jobycom]

Just in case some people forget what an evil, racist bastard Ronald Reagan really was.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,399921,00.html

"Space doesn't permit a complete list of the Gipper's signals to angry white folks that Republicans prefer to ignore, so two incidents in which Lott was deeply involved will have to suffice. As a young congressman, Lott was among those who urged Reagan to deliver his first major campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in one of the 1960s' ugliest cases of racist violence. It was a ringing declaration of his support for "states' rights" — a code word for resistance to black advances clearly understood by white Southern voters."

For the record, Philadelphia, Mississippi has only one other claim to fame: it is the home town of Jerry Rice. Somehow, I don't think that was why Reagan chose to kick off his campaign in 1980 in Philadelphia. Reagan's message to the south was clear, and atrocious. He sided with the murderers, not with the victims, in this case. THAT'S how Reagan won the south from the Democrats, and that's when the South began to turn Republican.

As someone who grew up in the South, I can tell you that by 1980, the South had lost. People had begun to admit that we were wrong, and had begun to try to move on, and reconstruct the South without segregation. Reagan interrupted that healing process. He empowered those still bitter about having to change, and encouraged racism to remain. He told people that they were right to be be racist. It split the south, and is still splitting the south.

Reagan was an actor who knew how to develop a persona of a kindly old man, but he was evil to his filthy black heart. Just don't anyone forget that.

[indepat]

1. And not only has the Gipper been sanctified, he has been deified:

the Gipper's message(s) will long live in the hearts of many and Repukes will likely continue to have a political stranglehold in the old South for the foreseeable future.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. You mean he's NOT the greatest American EVER?

[swimmernsecretsea]

3. Life was his best acting job.

People tend to forget that. I have no idea why.
Everyone says he was "The Great Communicator," a clever media nickname that hasn't gone away. Reagan was really a hand puppet who was empty inside until he was filled up with someone elses' words. It may seem disrespectful to say this after he'd suffered from Alheimers' Disease and has recently passed away, but the bad legacy of his presidency is still with us. Don't let us forget that HIV began to spread through the population while he was in office. His malignant neglect of people in dire need was shameful and immoral.

[jobycom]

4. It's more disrespectful to his victims to not say it.

We don't say nice things against Idi Amin just because he's dead, why should we about Reagan?

If I were religious, I would have seen Reagan's disease as the ultimate ironic punishment from an offended diety. Reagan's common defense when he was in Iran/Contra was that he couldn't remember what he knew. Alzheimers was the perfect Hell for him to suffer, since he escaped prison.

His body count is as high as Bush's, so far. Hundreds of thousands were killed in Central America by the terrorists he supported. He makes UBL look like an amateur.

[bballny]

5. Reagan

reintiated racism in this country. As Roslyn Carter said"he makes you comfortable with your prejudices. Time forgot the welfare queen stories. I truly detest that man.

[jobycom]

6. I agree. I hated him. I despise Bush, but I don't think I personally hate

him the way I hated Reagan.

Reagan was the ultimate divider. He turned half the country against the other half. Until then, even jerks like Nixon gave up some of their partisanship when they became president. Nixon was a president first, a Republican second, and although most of what he did was tainted by his ideology, he did see that sometimes he had to do what was best for the nation, and not just his party. Bush, Sr and Clinton both saw that, too. That's part of why Clinton gets attacked around here so much--he wasn't willing to do like Reagan and screw the country to get his way.

Reagan patted the racists and conservatives on the back and attacked liberals at every speech. I always felt like he was attacking me personally, telling me that every value I believed in was the source of all the problems in the country. I had strong values, what I considered southern and Christian values, and he insulted me for every value I held.

I've never felt more like an American than the day I walked into my first voting booth and cast my first vote ever against him in 1984. It was my proudest moment as a citizen.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

7. Thank you for the reminder joby.

May Ronnie be smoking a turd in hell right now.