Wanna Know Who Made Racism ''Acceptable Again'' in the good ol' USA?

[calimary]

62. I am SOOOOOO bookmarking this thread. Several different ways.

There's this ding-dong effort to rename every damn high school and interchange and airport and building and freeway and freeway overpass and every damn square of sidewalk and every fucking soda straw in America after ronald reagan.

If I had time on my hands, I'd be tempted to follow along after them and UNDO what they just did. I want my Simi Valley Freeway BACK! I want Washington National Airport BACK! I want that bastard's name WIPED OFF wherever it's blighted.

Just as "all roads lead to Rome," according to the cliche, then "all this shit leads to reagan." "All crimes lead to reagan." "All idiocy leads to reagan." "All racism leads to reagan." "All bigotry leads to reagan." "All extremism leads to reagan." "All cheapskate-ism leads to reagan." "All pennywise/pound-foolish leads to reagan." "All irrationality leads to reagan." "All inequality leads to reagan." "All sanctimoniousness leads to reagan." "All phony piety leads to reagan." "All intolerance leads to reagan." "All injustice leads to reagan." Certainly "all trickle-down leads to reagan."

Hmmmm.... I gotta work on this one. I KNOW there's a meme in there. Just gotta find the catchiest one. Has to be catchy so it's memorable. We need a new battle-cry.

But just consider for a moment. How many ills is our nation sick with now?
- Economic (trickle-down and the so-called "laffer curve" - ever read David Stockman's book - his former budget director who wound up exposing what a phonied-up canard it was - with his references to the "magic asterisk" and the "rosy scenario" they plugged in, instead, as they were trying, IN VAIN, to make the numbers work. And they couldn't. So they smoke-screened and snake-oiled through it and sold it like a bill o' goods and fooled EVERYBODY);
- Racial (this, just for one example. But - anybody remember the speech Nancy gave to a large gathering of fawning followers in Chicago, and happily noted "all these beautiful white faces" she saw in the crowd. AND lee atwater!!!!!! lee atwater!!!!!!!! Need I say more?);
- Religious extremism (the rise of jerry falwell's so-called "Moral Majority" and the "Christian" CONservatives, ralph reed's so-called "Christian Coalition);
- Tax-cuts-for-the-rich-and-everybody-else-can-just-pound-sand (one of the nicknames for his administration was "Millionaires on Parade&quot ;
- Sneaky-ass foreign policy that propped up all kinds of vile "right"-wingers overseas (but, but, but, they were anti-COMMIE so that made them somehow GOOD!!!!!!! - helllooooo arms-for-hostages and negotiating with terrorists and Iran-Contra!);
- Sneaky-ass closet advisors who held all the power and influence OFF-THE-BOOKS (they called his tycoon/millionaire-industrialist inner-circle the "Kitchen Cabinet" FULL of foxes just dying to get their hands on the henhouse guard-duty schedule);
- Anti-environment (helllllooooooooo james watt and justin "let's just save 100 acres of redwoods - for the kids" dart - one of reagan's most infamous "Kitchen Cabinet" members, btw);
- Phony military muscle-flexing (started with the bullshit "invasion" of Grenada);
- Amped up war on drugs (Nancy needed a PR makeover from her haughty, imperious cold-fish "Queen Nancy" image, America shoulda "just said no" to that) and all the extreme and demographically-lopsided incarceration levels we now see in our prisons;
- Poverty and screwing the social safety net (HE was the one who INITIATED the myth of the "welfare queen" and of course she was black);
- The rise of hate radio (broadcast deregulation started in the latter half of HIS administration;
- Wall Street out of control (financial deregulation started during HIS administration - let the foxes guard the henhouses! Gummnt BAAAAAD;
- Overall general hatred and institutional destruction of the gummnt ("get the gummnt OFF YER BACK" - that was one of his many catchy slogans, like this cutie-patootie: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'&quot ;

Shit.

Literally, every ill that is thoroughly sickening America that I can think of, just off the bat, EVERY SINGLE ONE, routes directly back to ronald reagan. He was the DREAM candidate of the far-wrong, that knew its policies and preferences were anathema to much of America but they wanted 'em ANYWAY, and they figured the secret to success was all in the PACKAGING. And how they might be able to sell America on it, thereby hoodwinking America into embracing it - because it just SOUNDED SO DAMN GOOD! He made it SOUND SOOOOOOoooooo good. So acceptable. So all-American! So patriotic! So Godly! So Bible-y! Every anti-social, greedy, hate-filled, chip-on-their-shoulder, self-entitled asshole found refuge under the magnanimously protective wing of ronald reagan. All the Great American Vermin flocked to him because he became their savior. He made it okay, even COOL and swagger-y and rootin' tootin' Wild West Dirty-Harry-meets-Captain-America-y ("Go Ahead, Make My Day" - THAT was one of his favorite quotes, too) to feel as they did. He made it okay. He made it glamorous! And Hollywood-y, even! And all red-blooded ALL-AMERICAN! Hell, he even played FOOTBALL in school!!!! Heroic WW2 veteran USA-USA-USA!!! (My ass. So he enlisted. So what? He stayed home where it was safe and wore his country's uniform making recruiting films.)

FUCKER. He was absolutely, unquestionably, beyond the shadow of ANY doubt the WORST thing that happened to this country in the entire length of the 20th Century. Worse than the Great Depression - because his policies revisited all that, reworked the understanding of it, and began systematically to tear down the safeguards instituted by FDR's New Deal (which reagan hated) that would only lead to MORE economic depressions. Worse than Pearl Harbor - because of the American adventurism, imperialism, interference in other nations' affairs and sovereignty, reckless exports of industrial and business piracy and assorted build-up-the-military muscle-flexing and the birth of the idea of "American Exceptionalism" that led directly to the multiple foreign policy messes WE face NOW. Including 9/11.

FUCKER. There aren't enough "fuck-you's" that can be said that cover what he deserves to have pelted on him. I want his name wiped off the face of the earth and buried. Where it belongs. Wrap it in the "stars 'n' bars".

I hate ronald reagan with the burning fire of a thousand suns. He bastardized love of country, and love of God. He WAS "the Great Satan." Wrapped in an adorable, amiable, harmless, disarming, and totally dear crooked smile and crinkly-eyed chuckling and the perfect, well-tested-for-effective-manipulation sloganeering, delivered with Busby Berkeley staging, red-white-&-blue backdrops, 100-foot-long American flags, dancing girls, baton twirlers, fireworks, marching-bands and other assorted phony-ass showbizmanship.

GOD I hate ronald reagan.