|
Planet Reagan
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Monday 07 June 2004
Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
- e.e. cummings, "Buffalo Bill's Defunct"
Ronald Reagan is dead now, and everyone is being nice to him. In every aspect, this is appropriate. He was a husband and a father, a beloved member of a family, and he will be missed by those he was close to. His death was long, slow and agonizing because of the Alzheimer's Disease which ruined him, one drop of lucidity at a time. My grandmother died ten years ago almost to the day because of this disease, and this disease took ten years to do its dirty, filthy, wretched work on her.
The dignity and candor of Reagan's farewell letter to the American people was as magnificent a departure from public life as any that has been seen in our history, but the ugly truth of his illness was that he lived on, and on, and on. His family and friends watched as he faded from the world of the real, as the simple dignity afforded to all life collapsed like loose sand behind his ever more vacant eyes. Only those who have seen Alzheimer's Disease invade a mind can know the truth of this. It is a cursed way to die.
In this mourning space, however, there must be room made for the truth. Writer Edward Abbey once said, "The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads."
The truth is straightforward: Virtually every significant problem facing the American people today can be traced back to the policies and people that came from the Reagan administration. It is a laundry list of ills, woes and disasters that has all of us, once again, staring apocalypse in the eye.
How can this be? The television says Ronald Reagan was one of the most beloved Presidents of the 20th century. He won two national elections, the second by a margin so overwhelming that all future landslides will be judged by the high-water mark he achieved against Walter Mondale. How can a man so universally respected have played a hand in the evils which corrupt our days?
The answer lies in the reality of the corrupt society Abbey spoke of. Our corruption is the absolute triumph of image over reality, of flash over substance, of the pervasive need within most Americans to believe in a happy-face version of the nation they call home, and to spurn the reality of our estate as unpatriotic. Ronald Reagan was, and will always be, the undisputed heavyweight champion of salesmen in this regard.
Reagan was able, by virtue of his towering talents in this arena, to sell to the American people a flood of poisonous policies. He made Americans feel good about acting against their own best interests. He sold the American people a lemon, and they drive it to this day as if it was a Cadillac. It isn't the lies that kill us, but the myths, and Ronald Reagan was the greatest myth-maker we are ever likely to see.
Mainstream media journalism today is a shameful joke because of Reagan's deregulation policies. Once upon a time, the Fairness Doctrine ensured that the information we receive - information vital to the ability of the people to govern in the manner intended - came from a wide variety of sources and perspectives. Reagan's policies annihilated the Fairness Doctrine, opening the door for a few mega-corporations to gather journalism unto themselves. Today, Reagan's old bosses at General Electric own three of the most-watched news channels. This company profits from every war we fight, but somehow is trusted to tell the truths of war. Thus, the myths are sold to us.
The deregulation policies of Ronald Reagan did not just deliver journalism to these massive corporations, but handed virtually every facet of our lives into the hands of this privileged few. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all tainted because Reagan battered down every environmental regulation he came across so corporations could improve their bottom line. Our leaders are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the corporations that were made all-powerful by Reagan's deregulation craze. The Savings and Loan scandal of Reagan's time, which cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, is but one example of Reagan's decision that the foxes would be fine guards in the henhouse.
Ronald Reagan believed in small government, despite the fact that he grew government massively during his time. Social programs which protected the weakest of our citizens were gutted by Reagan's policies, delivering millions into despair. Reagan was able to do this by caricaturing the "welfare queen," who punched out babies by the barnload, who drove the flashy car bought with your tax dollars, who refused to work because she didn't have to. This was a vicious, racist lie, one result of which was the decimation of a generation by crack cocaine. The urban poor were left to rot because Ronald Reagan believed in 'self-sufficiency.'
Because Ronald Reagan could not be bothered to fund research into 'gay cancer,' the AIDS virus was allowed to carve out a comfortable home in America. The aftershocks from this callous disregard for people whose homosexuality was deemed evil by religious conservatives cannot be overstated. Beyond the graves of those who died from a disease which was allowed to burn unchecked, there are generations of Americans today living with the subconscious idea that sex equals death.
The veneer of honor and respect painted across the legacy of Ronald Reagan is itself a myth of biblical proportions. The coverage proffered today of the Reagan legacy seldom mentions impropriety until the Iran/Contra scandal appears on the administration timeline. This sin of omission is vast. By the end of his term in office, some 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, indicted or investigated for misconduct and/or criminal activities.
Some of the names on this disgraceful roll-call: Oliver North, John Poindexter, Richard Secord, Casper Weinberger, Elliott Abrams, Robert C. McFarlane, Michael Deaver, E. Bob Wallach, James Watt, Alan D. Fiers, Clair George, Duane R. Clarridge, Anne Gorscuh Burford, Rita Lavelle, Richard Allen, Richard Beggs, Guy Flake, Louis Glutfrida, Edwin Gray, Max Hugel, Carlos Campbell, John Fedders, Arthur Hayes, J. Lynn Helms, Marjory Mecklenburg, Robert Nimmo, J. William Petro, Thomas C. Reed, Emanuel Savas, Charles Wick. Many of these names are lost to history, but more than a few of them are still with us today, 'rehabilitated' by the administration of George W. Bush.
Ronald Reagan actively supported the regimes of the worst people ever to walk the earth. Names like Marcos, Duarte, Rios Mont and Duvalier reek of blood and corruption, yet were embraced by the Reagan administration with passionate intensity. The ground of many nations is salted with the bones of those murdered by brutal rulers who called Reagan a friend. Who can forget his support of those in South Africa who believed apartheid was the proper way to run a civilized society?
One dictator in particular looms large across our landscape. Saddam Hussein was a creation of Ronald Reagan. The Reagan administration supported the Hussein regime despite his incredible record of atrocity. The Reagan administration gave Hussein intelligence information which helped the Iraqi military use their chemical weapons on the battlefield against Iran to great effect. The deadly bacterial agents sent to Iraq during the Reagan administration are a laundry list of horrors.
The Reagan administration sent an emissary named Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to shake Saddam Hussein's hand and assure him that, despite public American condemnation of the use of those chemical weapons, the Reagan administration still considered him a welcome friend and ally. This happened while the Reagan administration was selling weapons to Iran, a nation notorious for its support of international terrorism, in secret and in violation of scores of laws.
Another name on Ronald Reagan's roll call is that of Osama bin Laden. The Reagan administration believed it a bully idea to organize an army of Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. bin Laden became the spiritual leader of this action. Throughout the entirety of Reagan's term, bin Laden and his people were armed, funded and trained by the United States. Reagan helped teach Osama bin Laden the lesson he lives by today, that it is possible to bring a superpower to its knees. bin Laden believes this because he has done it once before, thanks to the dedicated help of Ronald Reagan.
In 1998, two American embassies in Africa were blasted into rubble by Osama bin Laden, who used the Semtex sent to Afghanistan by the Reagan administration to do the job. In 2001, Osama bin Laden thrust a dagger into the heart of the United States, using men who became skilled at the art of terrorism with the help of Ronald Reagan. Today, there are 827 American soldiers and over 10,000 civilians who have died in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a war that came to be because Reagan helped manufacture both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
How much of this can be truthfully laid at the feet of Ronald Reagan? It depends on who you ask. Those who worship Reagan see him as the man in charge, the man who defeated Soviet communism, the man whose vision and charisma made Americans feel good about themselves after Vietnam and the malaise of the 1970s. Those who despise Reagan see him as nothing more than a pitch-man for corporate raiders, the man who allowed greed to become a virtue, the man who smiled vapidly while allowing his officials to run the government for him.
In the final analysis, however, the legacy of Ronald Reagan - whether he had an active hand in its formulation, or was merely along for the ride - is beyond dispute. His famous question, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" is easy to answer. We are not better off than we were four years ago, or eight years ago, or twelve, or twenty. We are a badly damaged state, ruled today by a man who subsists off Reagan's most corrosive final gift to us all: It is the image that matters, and be damned to the truth.
==========
Lest We Forget
By Dean Blehert
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
An elephant never forgets, but this is personal, not political. We must
make that distinction or all our politicians would be institutionalized
for forgetting their promises.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
In his day he was called "Teflon" because nothing stuck to him; now even
memory turns slippery.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
Nancy went to his birthday party without him. Was he missed? Probably not
- so many people know how to "do" Ronald Reagan...
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
What was it he said about the dead storm troopers? That they, like those
they killed, were victims? Was that a remembering or a forgetting?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He said Americans should be proud of being American. Was that a
remembering or a forgetting?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He used to know a great many things by rote - that is, by heart, such as
movie scripts, the speech he took on tour - who knows how much else he was
or seemed to be was memorized, is now forgotten or comes back only in
random bits?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He's forgotten about sending arms to Iran for hostages - if he ever knew.
If he ever knew, he's forgotten he knew. He does not at this time recall.
He may have been an honest man. If not, he is becoming one.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
Nancy is taking good care of him. If he were still President, probably we
wouldn't be told. Would we notice?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He used to be a spokesman for General Electric: "Progress is our most
important product!" - can you still say that? Come on...Progress...?
Progress...?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He is - has always been - such an easy target. Now he's a sitting duck.
It's not sporting to say these things. He suffers from a disease. It could
happen to anyone. It could start at the top of our nation and trickle down
to the rest of us.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
It's not so bad: He can still play golf with Hope. And now even his own
children speak well of him.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He is loved and hated for wanting to shrink government, for failing to
shrink government, for forgetting the poor, for remembering the rich, etc.
He is loathed and adored for saying it is not evil for a person or nation
to prosper and be strong. Now here's the odd thing: Nearly everyone hates
or loves Ronald Reagan for something he said or is said to have said, and
everyone is certain that somehow events have justified this love or
hatred, but hardly anyone remembers (or ever knew) just what Reagan did or
what came of it or how much of what has happened since came of it. Today's
newspapers are already a gray blur. Tell me, who are these candidates
really? Even our pain becomes unreal the moment our President feels it.
What is the difference between such knowing and forgetting?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
He proved that an actor playing the role of a political leader is
impossible to distinguish from a political leader. Is this something we
should remember or forget?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
His baiting the Evil Empire and his "Star Wars" plan were so stupid that
maybe they ended the Cold War. Lebanon, Libya, Grenada... His idiotic
economics brought us huge economic expansion - or was it ruin? Or was that
because of the liberal congress? O listen, I can't think with such stuff.
I remember only "Doonesbury" and that full forelock awaft on helicopter
wash that drowns out his smiling voice.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
Does he still have a full head of hair? Does Nancy tint it? Does he
stammer more now, quaver, jowls shaking? Can he still grin that grin? Is
there anything he must forget to be able to grin that grin? Is he cheerful
about forgetting? Can he joke about it? Isn't Ronald Reagan a pretty good
guy? Nicer than Nixon, anyway?
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
Even as we speak Ronald Reagan is forgetting things. There is so MUCH to
forget! He has just this moment forgotten "Where's the rest of me?" and
now he's forgotten preferring to be in Philadelphia...and there goes
"There you go again!" But there is more - so much more to forget.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
We, too, are alive but forgetting things. "Surveys show that 60% of those
under 18 don't know..." - that we fought in Vietnam, that we didn't win in
Vietnam, who Roosevelt was or Truman or Ike (Does anyone remember Gerald
Ford?) - and one-year-olds have forgotten almost everything, though some
have remembered how to grin that grin.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
And us? With each new miracle drug, we forget all the earlier miracle
drugs that are now called evil drugs. We all know that things have always
been the way things are and so must always be so.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things. If we can forget fast
enough, we will, at last, be able to live in the eternal present, having
no past nor future - 100% guilt-free, without plans, budgets, debts or
regrets. Someone will take care of us - maybe the Government, for hasn't
the Government always taken care of the People? Ronald Reagan, of course,
preached self-reliance, but Ronald Reagan probably isn't allowed to go for
a walk alone now lest he get confused - all those Pacific Palisades
mansions look pretty much alike.
Ronald Reagan is alive but forgetting things.
Soon we will forget Ronald Reagan. It is said that what we forget we must
repeat. We will forget Vietnam (he helped us) and have to do it again. We
will forget the Holocaust and have to do it again. We will forget slavery
and have to do it again. We will forget religious intolerance and racism
and ignorance and greed and cruelty and have to do them again. We will
forget ourselves and have to do them again. We will even forget forgetting
and have to forget again. And so we will have to do Ronald Reagan again.
He will die and be forgotten, but when we need him, once again Ronald
Reagan will be alive for us, forgetting things.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
