From Beyond the Grave, Reagan Continues to Wreak His Damage
I have spoken often here about the similarities between the great depression and the economic disaster of 2008, and how they both were products of the same self-serving Republican economic cant. I call it cant rather than mistaken ideology, because as we all know now, no one ever believed these nonsensical theories; they were simply self-serving justifications for what the Republicans and their rich masters intended to do anyway.
Well, none of that has changed, but today I want to talk about a great difference between what happened in the 1920's and the calamity that Ronald Reagan unleashed during his Presidency, and which has culminated in thirty short years in reducing much of the country to third world status. For, there is a major difference between the Coolidge and Harding years and what Reagan visited upon us.
From the founding of this country (well, since the beginning of mankind, unfortunately) we have had to suffer characters of unmitigated greed and unrestrained self-interest. But even at the highest manifestations of their power, there was some sort of basic agreement about what was in the interests of us all. Through good times and bad, we as a people all contributed to build schools, hospitals, roads, parks and all the other necessities of a decent society. And even such economic savages as Jay Gould or Henry Fricke were still involved in building functional industries that created the American economic dominance that lasted throughout the twentieth century.
All of that changed with Reagan. And here, I want to talk about the Reagan who was constantly promoted as not just a political leader, but as a moral light in the darkness, a deeply religious man guiding us all to the right way to live. It was this Reagan that taught so many people that the two hundred years that Americans had spent building this country, with each generation having a better life than the one before, was enough. It was Reagan and his perverse sense of decency that licensed the rich among us to simply cash in the chips- to decide to take the profits and run. It was Reagan who taught them that they owed nothing to the generations who had created their world, and that they owed nothing to the generations who come after. So, in thirty years, they have effectively sold off the business, stripped the country of every shred of value they could pocket, deposited the proceeds abroad, and are now in the process of leaving the rest of us to sink into desperate poverty.
Reagan- this is the man the Republicans have chosen to raise to the level of sainthood, in a desperate effort to erase the truth. This is why even the miserable corruption and misuse of government power of the Bush administration are not enough to supplant Reagan as the true avatar of the destruction of our country. His Presidency set us all on the course to oblivion, and we must not ever let people forget this, if for no other reason than that it is the truth, and the truth is all there is to set us free.
Comments
Reagan the best?!? Just another reason to never vote republican.
The worst legacy of RR is that government is the problem, government is the evil.
I don't know what young people think of government, or if they even care, but I do know they will find progress in society won't happen without the rule of law (government) and that as citizens we must use government to achieve progress and not let government use us as sheep being led to slaughter. It's a given that politicians are full of BS, but it's our job to stop that BS. A big job considering how deep we have allowed politicians to dig the hole. Change in government means changing the power holders in government. Vote! We get the leadership we deserve (vote for).
It's all important to note that the more their trickle-down economics are proved to be a colossal failure, the more they adopt religion as their guiding principle.
Repubilcans have always been a holier-than-thou bunch, but damn, nowadays that's their whole campaign!
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.U6zr-LHyT_g
Eventually people are going to realize that they are constantly asked to sacrifice to benefit the corporate world, but the corporations recognize no shred of responsibility going the other way. I like to compare this to having a girlfriend or boyfriend who demands exclusivity from you but insists for themselves on the right to date whoever they want. People who fall for that are called fools, and the people who fall for the lying blandishments of the rich are fools too. And when people discover that they have been made into fools, they are very angry.
I believe along with the guy who wrote this article that the possibility of a vicious revenge taken against the rich is far more likely than people realize. Either they will give up a very large part of their power and wealth, as the English monarchy did over the centuries, or they will end up like the French monarchy- wiped out by the millions who suddenly realized that they owed them nothing.