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When former president Ronald Reagan died, I couldn't
help but be amused and astounded by the nonsensical mythology
cooked up by the Republicans about the man. What does such
neurotic self-deception say about us as a people, at least about
the voters?
One of the great peculiarities of American politics is the stark contrast between the intellects of the persons in the two political parties. Democrat presidents have been generally brilliant men: a nuclear scientist, a Rhodes scholar, a university president. By contrast, the Republicans have pretty much been dopes, intellectual dwarves. Reagan was one of those, a dunce; perhaps even dumber than George W. Bush (as hard as that is to believe). Why do American voters pick Republican dullards, twits and dimwits? Even more troubling than his lack of intelligence, Reagan was delusional. He may not have actually been insane, but he habitually confused his delusions with reality. He often couldn't separate reality from the movies. Once he referred to his experience as a World War II fighter pilot. It never really happened. It was just a movie part. Fraud and falsehood were so fundamental to Reagan that he believed his own lies. He was an even bigger liar than George W. Bush, but not about such profound things. Republican presidents are addicted to killing people. Almost every Republican starting with Lincoln had a war, always one which could have been and should have been prevented. Reagan proved America's great might by invading a tiny island, Granada, and slaughtering countless helpless persons. And Granada didn't even have oil to payoff his big business sponsors. Every Republican president starting with Lincoln has occupied foreign nations. Reagan occupied Lebanon and made puppets out of Central American republics leading to the Iran-Contra scandal which made an archetype of a petty thug, Oliver North. Every Republican president starting with Lincoln has subsidized the rich at the expense of the poor. All of them have been reverse Robin Hood, stealing from the poor to benefit the wealthy. While George W. Bush has been far better (or worse) at it than Reagan was, Reagan's insane "trickle-down" economics was based on the principal of the rich getting the benefits. It's the exact opposite of what really helps an economy. Reagan led to gigantic inflation, an explosion in homelessness and drug abuse, a stock market crash, huge deficits that weren't corrected until a Democrat, Bill Clinton, came into office and the first trillion dollar federal budget. Reagan's cruelty and severity went well beyond slaughtering the innocent and bankrupting the poor. His policies led to the geometric expansion of the AIDS tragedy. Countless thousands of persons at home and abroad have died because he prevented research and funding. In his "morality," AIDS meant queers and all good Republicans know that homosexuals deserve to die. Reagan was the real start of the police-state. His most hurtful act was the appointment of an extremist villain, Antonin Scalia, to the Supreme Court and the elevation of the almost equally Fascist William Renquist as Chief Justice. These are two truly evil men. Ronald Reagan has been praised as the Great Communicator. What he really was, was the Great Con-Man! He was an actor. Actors are, by definition, liars, phonies, fakes. Reagan read scripts fed to him by big business and by the "defense- industrial complex." He wanted to spend trillions on a scheme called "star Wars" where our bullet would shoot down their bullet in mid-air and similar nonsense. Historically Republican presidents have focused on hurting people and things while Democrat presidents have focused on helping people and things; on building instead of destroying. Consider the so-called Indian Wars where a string of Republican presidents slaughtered the native peoples and stole their land. Reagan was in that mold. Social Security which had been devised by the Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt over rabid Republican opposition, was on the verge of bankruptcy under Reagan. He smiled, waved, told lies and wondered what was going on. With a few rare, but significant, exceptions such as Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb, Kennedy's decision to stand fast during the Cuban missile crisis and Andrew Johnson's efforts to mend the worst wounds of Lincoln's Civil War, American presidents have been second-rate men at best. It's just as well because the majority from Lincoln onward have been Republicans, 18 out of 27, that's two thirds. Who could forget such political giants as Chester Arthur, Benjamin Harrison or William McKinley? The real puzzle is why the American voters have chosen men who are so lacking in character. I think it's a weakness in our national psyche. The Puritans and subsequent Christian crazies were an infection, a kind of disease of severe and vicious cruelty. The Christian oppression taught the lie that it's desirable to hurt people, or, more accurately, that it's a "sin" to have pleasure, comfort or ease. In that mentality, helping others was a weakness, an evil. Consider Bill Clinton, no great straits as a president, but his blemish in America is a blow-job. The bizarre American bias rates the blow-job over the billions of dollars or lives. What, you've never had a blow-job? Do you feel that guilty about it that it's an obsession? Nobody could really like Mrs. Reagan. She was and is overbearing, obnoxious and controlling. By the same token, one must admire her as a wife and woman. She was loyal and faithful to her husband, protecting him and apparently ruling the country while he was nuts. She had the good sense to support stem-cell research and other progressive measures. Nobody can be happy at the death of Ronald Reagan. He was old and sick, a mental case, but all the absurd mythology is misplaced. If you want to admire someone, let it be the long suffering, faithful wife. Admire and praise her for being that rarest of things, a good wife. Just under 25% of the eligible electorate voted for George W. Bush. Almost nobody wanted him. What happened? For starters, half the people didn't and don't vote. That's not their failing. It's the failing of politics and of politicians. Is it any wonder that the minorities feel left out by a system which give the presidential chair to persons like George Bush, Ronald Reagan or Chester Arthur? When fools are in office, who do you figure put them there? "Saying is one thing, doing another. You are welcome to use or republish
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