dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

CNN:

RNC asks to review “The Reagans.”  I am in substantial agreement with Congressman John Dingell.  I wish the Reagan AIDS record was so benign.  The man didn’t even mention AIDS publicly until 1987.  Does noone remember conservatives ranting about separating and tattooing HIV-positive citizens?  Surgeon-General Koop’s tied hands?  Nevertheless, equating Reagan’s statement about AIDS with sin does the man a disservice.  His physician, at one point [if I remember correctly], mentioned that Reagan thought AIDS was like measles, and would go away.  The man was not an especially effective idealogue; simply daft:



“Air pollution has been substantially controlled.”  [10/8/80]



“I don’t think I’ve said anything of the kind.” [10/9/80]



“Isn’t it substantially under control? I think it is.” [Time, 10/20/80]




Sometimes, dangerously daft:



“Those [nuclear weapons] that are carried in ships of one kind or another, or submersibles, you are dealing there with a conventional type of weapon or instrument, and those instruments can be intercepted.  They can be recalled.”
[5/13/82]



Just plain whacked:



“Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Keep the government poor and remain free.” [6/15/82]



Apparently, Holmes scholars have no knowledge of this quote.



“I would like to quote a few words by a very famous and celebrated orator, journalist, soldier, historian, and statesman. People have even said he might have made a great actor if he tried that.  Winston Churchill. He said, ‘The idea that a nation can tax itself into prosperity is one of the crudest delusions which has ever befuddled the human mind.’  Now, I don’t know how that quote happened to catch my eye ...” [3/9/82]



Once again, Churchill scholars [and Reagan’s speechwriters] were apparently stumped.



“John Marshall wasn’t even a lawyer.” [Pres. Debate, 3/13/80]



Chief Justice John Marshall received his law license in 1780.



“Well, I learned a lot. I went down [to Latin America] to find out from them and their views.  You’d be surprised.  They’re all individual countries.” [12/6/82]



Confidence-building, that.



“Incidentally, the first man who proposed the nuclear freeze was in February 21st, 1981, in Moscow ... Leonid Brezhnev.”  [12/10/82]



Try fellow Republican Mark Hatfield, Oregon, in 1979 as as amendment to SALT II.



“Mr Carter is acting as if he hasn’t been in charge for the past three and a half years; as if someone else was responsible for the largest deficit in American history.” [Campaign speech, 10/24/80]



Future pot calling kettle black.



I repeat a reference from that era, giving you the flavor of how Reagan was treated, and perceived:



“This president is treated by both the press and foreign leaders as if he were a child.  He earns praise for the ordinary, for what used to be expected. His occasional ability to retain facts is cited as a triumph when it should, in fact, be a routine occurrence ...” [Richard Cohen, Wash. Post, 6/2/83]



Even in his own party, Reagan’s talent for tall tales (embellished stories) drew ire.  Bob Packwood had a fit over the blatantly incorrect characterization of being able to buy an orange with food stamps, and pay for vodka with the change [you could only get 99 cents in coin as change from food stamps at the time].



I could go on and on, but I’ve got work to accomplish. The man was a wingnut.  To say he ended the Cold War is like saying the Goths or the Vandals alone ended the Roman Empire.  To say his tax cuts saved the American economy totally ignores the actions of the Fed ... Reagan’s tax cuts were in effect, when the ‘82 recession was crushing us.  Volcker in the Fed reduced interest rates late in that year, and correspondingly, the stock market took off.  The tax cuts were supposed to generate a wave of investment, that never occurred ... private investment went down by over a percentage point in the decade of the 80’s.



The RNC wants to raise a new political golden calf, it seems ... and they want us all to bow down.

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