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Ronald Reagan before/after
The ghost of Ronald Reagan hangs over the Republican Party like a pale shroud.
Recently we have borne witness to a movement to compare up-and-coming Republican politicians to Ronald Reagan, and I am troubled by it.
It has gone on for awhile now, and had I done more research, I could pull a pantheon of Republican stars, both past and present to corroborate my claims. It is not difficult to do such things.
The last names to stick in my head under these comparisons is Bush the Junior and now Arnold Schwartzenegger with his recent denial of a gubentorial campaign in California.
Which, delving off the topic like a tourist on a main road in the West Bank after hearing a car back-fire, is a wise move. Attempting to be Governor of California at this point is like spending millions of dollars for a 4 year public flogging. For some its a thrill, but much of the population regards it with puritan distaste.
Now back to the matter at hand: Why would anyone in their right mind be comfortable with an association to such an inept Executive?
I loved Reagan when he was in office. At the time I was a naive' child, believing in his dictates for the economy and lauding his foreign policy manuvers. When he called Kaddafi a "flake", I cheered.
But as I grew older and wiser, the scales dropped from my eyes, and I beheld the greedy looting of our government and economy that occurred in those twelve years of dimwit Republican rule. Those dumb brutes had blood on their hands from all over the globe, and 'Supply-Side' as well as 'Trickle-Down' economics became code words for the fisting orgies the obscenly wealthy 1% gave to the rest of the country in those years.
As well I became aware of the secret sketchy deals in Columbia and Nicaragua. The shady going's that led to hearings that bore far more relevance than the illicit blow-job hearings of the Nineties.
Either Reagan was crudely inept, or a master of deceit. Such things should not proceed within the limits of your hedgemony otherwise. And neither are complimentary virtues with which to be compared.
The population knows the truth. We simply tolerate the comparisons as we sort through the pile of offal, searching for the least sullied whore to represent our interests here and abroad, wildly hoping that he will find the time to do so inbetween appeasing all of the PAC's and corporate interests that have fueled his rise to the top.
But the insult to our intelligence is plain. As if we would desire another amnesiatic, morally questionable, easily manipulated yet genial Cheif Executive.
The Republican party has good candidates worthy of the office among them, whose reputation is tarnished when they are hopelessly compared to the gray, withered, forgetful ghost of Ronald Regan.
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