THE REAGAN SACRED COW
By Gregory Kay
(Originally published about 20 years ago: Updated version, 2023)
Sometimes – well, to be honest, usually – it’s the best-intentioned people that really set me off. Inevitably, I suppose, since I’ve little patience with Orwellian double-think, less for those practicing it, and none for the ones who should know better: namely White Nationalists, Southerners among us in particular, who worship Ronald Reagan as… as one of them referred to him… “a Godsend.” I’ve got news for these folks; God sends a lot of things, including plague, flood, fire…and tyranny.
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Reagan was a likable guy, no question about it: classy, charismatic, usually doing his lines with great aplomb. However, that goes with the territory of a trained, career showman. Remember, an actor is one who makes a living playing convincing parts as a thing he’s not. Around here we call that a BS artist (usually a hawker making some sales pitch), and no doubt Ronald Wilson Reagan was good at it. Not only did he play his part as “a conservative,” but, despite creeping Alzheimer’s, recited the lines his handlers gave him very well. People tend to forget that he was neither a conservative nor writing the script.
For those of you frothing at the mouth right now because you liked the things he said, let’s step back and take a look at what he and that administration actually did – before, during, and after his tenure as President of the United States...