It was an ill wind named Reagan that blew into Washington after the fiasco presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Carter’s fate was sealed after he caved into pressure from David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger and allowed the hapless Shah of Iran to enter the U.S.–this despite being warned that to do so could well (and did) lead to the taking of U.S. hostages in Tehran.
Odds are that Ronald Reagan will not live up to the post-mortem media billing as one of the great presidents of our time.
Chances are slim indeed that several months from now if you ask, few will be able to say where they were when Reagan croaked.
Like Richard Nixon, Reagan most likely will be remembered more as an eccentric rather than great president.
Honest historians will portray Reagan as a virtual corporate figurehead of a President: a man who paid more attention to astrology than the bible, sold lethal weapons of mass destruction to a sworn enemy, namely the Islamic Republic of Iran and gave the proceeds to sponsor an illegal war, not as the Reagan revisonists in the media would have us believe, “to free U.S. hostages.”
Indeed, despite the accolades from the entrenched Wasthington media hacks, Reagan presided over one of the most corrupt administration in U.S. history.
Next to Nixon’s Watergate gang, Reagan’s junta ranked second in the number of officials indicted and convicted.
Reagan was a cold-hearted cold warrior who proudly took school lunches from kids and labelled ketchup a vegetable in order to shovel more money to the Pentagon.
Far from an inspiring leader, he was a true kook who took a bullet from another kook. He will best be remembered as someone who endured public spats with his kids and hated big government, except when it came to benefiting the super rich.
And yes, Ronnie loved Nancy: despite the fact that Kitty Kelly said he was the recipient of blow jobs during his recovery from John Hinckley assasination attempt. And kudos to USA Today for showing that revealing picture of a Nancy dancing and clearly entranced with Old Blue Eyes as Ronnie taps Frank on the shoulder.
I was in bed half-assedly listening to NPR and reading when a solemn female voice came on to announce the Gipper, “One of our most popular presidents…” was no more.
My thoughts turned to the Republican National Convention in Houston in the summer of 1992. In ’92 I was the Managing Editor of the Independent Florida Flambeau and we took a car full of student writers to the convention, the highlight of which was a clearly testy Ronald Reagan coming to the podium to chew out the delegates for showing America the true face of the hateful Republican Party.
Reagan was no doubt annoyed that the preceding speaker, his former speech writer Pat Buchanan, had not only scared the shit out of the American public with his nutty declaraation of a “Culture War”–but also had spoke past his alloted time and bumped the Gipper from Prime Time.
And now comes Wayne Barrett in a recent issue of the Village Voice with an incredbile, nay credible story of how in 2000 political operative Roger Stone plotted to take over Ross Perot’s Reform Party by recruiting Buchanan to run for the nomination.
According to Barrett the diabolical Stone apparently kept Buchanan from campaigning by spreading rumors (by putting flyers which read, ‘Ask Pat about the kid’ under the doors of reporters), undenied by Buchanan, that Pat was paying child support to a former college-era lover who had his love child.
As Pat Buchanan might say if it was any other Reaganite who was the subject of such a delicious story, “Lucky the old man didn’t live to hear about this.”
The Gipper is Dead.
Long Live Pat’s Kid.
JACK McCARTHY lives in Tallahassee Florida. He can be reached at: jackm32301@yahoo.com
