"How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life"

That's the title of a book by one Peter Robinson: former White House speechwriter, and one of the sizeable crowd riding the Reagan gravy train.

To quote from the Publishers Weekly review—

Robinson's self-help/memoir/Reagan hagiography is an All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten for right-wingers. The former White House speechwriter… illuminates 10 life lessons in a love letter to the Gipper ("How," Robinson asks, "did such a nice guy get to be President?"). By looking at both the historical (supply-side economics, the Cold War, Iran-contra) and the personal (Reagan's beliefs, his relationship with his family), Robinson unearths maxims such as "Do your work" and "Say your prayers."

The real Reagan has been cleansed from the mainstream narrative.

The reality of his nasty domestic policies: war on the poor—and union workers. The start of a drastic redistribution of wealth upward that has by now all but finished off the working and middle classes.

And there was Reagan's foreign policy, including support of killers in Nicaragua—policy carried out by subverting the Constitution in the Iran-Contra end-run around Congress.

Facts that I want to get to in more detail, over the coming months.

But following Robinson's lead for now: some personal remarks about the feelings Reagan "inspires" in me.

Because Ronald Reagan certainly changed life for me—and the non-elite part of the country—and in ways not as lucrative as they have been for Mr. Robinson.

Before Reagan, I usually had minimum wage jobs—and lived perfectly well on them. In those days, it was common wisdom that rent should not be more than 25% of income; because the relationship between income and cost of living was realistic, it was not that hard to rent a nice enough place on minimum wage.

Along with changing all rules and reasonable expectations, Reaganomics fueled the real estate speculation and city neighborhood gentrification that killed "25% for rent."

Reaganism brought a multi-faceted attack on labor—including policies like raising tax rates for the bottom and taxing unemployment checks.

Thirty years later, with positions scarce and employers holding all the cards: I, like so many of those still employed, work in conditions constantly being made more unreasonable. And I'm one of the "lucky ones": my excessive workload keeps getting increased, but at least the pay has not been cut.

For me, a really telling thing about life before and after:
pre-Reagan, I never would have dreamed of buying lottery tickets.

In the years since hitting some numbers became the only way out, I sometimes throw away a couple of bucks, in search of feeling some hope for a few hours.

That chipping away at hope is the most insidious product of Reaganism.

The mainstreaming of what was once considered wacko Bircher ideology has been subverting our institutions for decades. And its use of hatred as a tactic of political control has had particularly painful effects lately.

I can remember being the age at which Christina Green was murdered.

As long ago as age nine was for me, I vividly remember my own idealism then: believing in the goodness of America, writing heartfelt entries for civics essay contests, and all that kind of thing.

Reagan's pitch that "government is the problem" has functioned as a form of terrorism, indoctrinating much of the public and poisoning our politics over the last thirty years. It has brought us this far into the rollback of the New Deal that Reagan's backers were always after.

Illinois Federal Art Project, 1937
Library of Congress

The poster is an optimistic reminder of an era when optimism was hard-earned.

Reagan is always touted as "a sunny optimist," but in his youth, families like his own gained hope in seeing they would get by, thanks to the government's helping hand.

Things gradually became better for so many; after the war prosperity grew, due to liberal policies like infrastructure spending and a progressive tax.

Post-war, things certainly went well for Reagan: well enough for him to become rich and turn on his past.

I grew up in a time when average families did fine on one income; prosperity for much of the populace was the legacy of the New Deal; and things were expected to continue becoming better, as a matter of course.

The long downward spiral began when Reagan's demonization of government was turned into conventional wisdom.

The chance of things improving in my lifetime feels less and less likely each day, and that's good reason for my resentment of the "sunny optimist" and his PR machine.

Along with the prospect of living wages, working in decent conditions, having a civilized society's access to health care and the possibility of retirement, "leisure time" is about as scarce as jet packs, monorails, or any other fruits of the glorious future predicted for us when I was growing up.

In Labor's Corner

Clever Sister found this story: the January 10 passing of Ben Yomen, 99-year old artist and long-time cartoonist on labor and social justice topics.

The artist's site has his story and some examples of his work, and there's a book in print: In Labor's Corner: Political Cartoons By Ben Yomen

A longtime series of Yomen's featured the quintessential Dixiecrat politician of the 1940s and beyond, "Congressman Dripp":
Styles of headgear change; the themes never do.

The oily little man below is Thomas Dewey, whose platform Democrats once ran against, and won.

Some of these issues have changed. The "Isolationist" plank, in particular: Republicans had no trouble learning to love foreign adventures, once war was made safe for unlimited profiteering.

But there are also the evergreens, like "Bust Labor," and, bring back "Hooverism."

These and Yomen's other cartoons are still so timely.

And yet... after a thirty-year bludgeoning of American labor, it's not only clothing and graphic style that makes these start to resemble ancient artifacts.

The Road from Dixon, Illinois

... leads to Rockford.

The birthplace of Ronald Reagan is just an hour from the other town, some of whose residents were featured on the January 23 cover of the New York Times Sunday magazine.

Alec Soth/Magnum Photos, for The New York Times

Caption: To illustrate the human dimension of the economy, the photographer Alec Soth traveled to Rockford, Ill., where unemployment is high. Above: Sara Carlson, 29, a salesclerk, and Andrew Jury, 28, an assistant vice president at a bank.

I saw these photos via Bag News Notes, where Michael Shaw muses on the visual aims of the magazine, in focusing on

... a group of people who had jobs; how secure these workers thought their jobs were; and what the workers felt their prospects were of hanging onto those jobs.

An illustration of the human dimension of the economy?

These images convey a troubling uniformity in their Stepford-like lack of affect. Far from the condition of insecurity, a condition we'd be able to tell through some form of fresh expressiveness, the only emotion I can really discern in any noticeable degree here is guardedness or self-consciousness.

The results certainly look like there was a decision to go for shots of depressed workers in (largely) dead-end jobs.

This is a far from gritty—and crusading—WPA photography.

But today: the thought of championing the Common Man—never mind the poor—would be in unthinkably bad taste. Which seems to leave only the sleekness of this portraiture; possibly an effort at visually branding our era's Depression.

Shaw's post is followed by some interesting comments on the esthetic of these photos, versus the more human dimension that comes through the Times' audio clips of interviewees.

The audio does give a very different impression of these workers, who struck me as a pretty representative cross-section of employed America. Some like their jobs; some believe they will do better someday; all are believers in Positive Thinking.

For me, the familiarity of these workers and their situations came through the audio. Which demonstrated just what is missing from the photos: smiles, whether real or masks.

Because employers demand those smiles. And employees, whether true believers or putting on a show for those who watch, have been conditioned to wear the smiles.

From the "have a nice day" customer service routine, to the expectation that employees must at all times show they are happy campers, ready to Embrace Change: we had better be smiling.

In the words of Dee, the 55-year old assembly worker, "If you do your job... don't cause problems: you'll keep your job."

Thirty years of Reaganomics have seen to the destruction of unions; the looting of the domestic economy, along with any semblance of security for most of us.

And then: there's the article linked to the cover portraits, "The White House Looks For Work."

This is White House correspondent Peter Baker's long piece about Obama's economic team. Baker's "reporting" on the process of determining policy is focused on the personalities and rivalries of "brilliant" figures like Larry Summers and Peter Orszag.

Summers looms "larger-than-life," as these players do, in any proper DC narrative. The article's unstated corollary is that the masses outside this heady atmosphere— including the ever-growing ranks of the long-term unemployed—are abstractions.

The article did note one piece of chutzpah I hadn't seen before—

Across Lafayette Square from the White House is the headquarters of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Last spring, four massive banners were hung on its building spelling out "J-O-B-S," a message presumably visible from the third floor of the White House, where the president wakes up.

Baker continues, "By fall, the chamber and Obama were at war during a midterm campaign that ended with repudiation of the president's party."

Stuff happens; let us not mention Citizen's United and the Chamber's role in vacuuming up billionaires' secret campaign cash.

Baker: "Given Obama's actions lately, [Chamber president Thomas] Donohue said 'he's moving in a direction that shows he's figured it out.'"

There's no doubt Obama has "figured it out"; "it" somehow seems to spell something other than "J-O-B-S" for ordinary Americans.

But that's the larger story of the road from Dixon: the triumph of Reaganism.

With its bipartisan endorsement of the corporate takeover of this country.

And the ease with which what's left of the working class has been conditioned to keep their mouth shuts.

And if they go to the polls: their willingness to vote for the people who will harm them the most.

Bringing Good Things To Life?

State of the Union:

Unimaginable wealth for the few.

For the rest, something like Dickensian conditions—just with added technology. Which allows the bosses to constantly demand more of those whose jobs have not yet been exported.

Jack Welch's global war on workers led to rocketing share prices, which made him the "Most Admired CEO of the Century."


WPA poster, as revised by Micah Ian Wright
Propaganda Remix Project

Welch was followed at GE by this guy.

In the bipartisan corporate ideology of the last thirty years: Immelt's experience in demonstrating that ordinary Americans are too soft if they expect to earn a living wage and work under reasonable conditions makes him eminently qualified to fill us in on "Competitiveness."

If one company were to be singled out for doing the most to ruin this country, GE would be my pick.

There's the whole web of military, media, and financial industry involvement.

Reagan's political career was a creation of GE.

Someday, perhaps someone will combine it all into a Pynchonesque tale.

That would have to be a lot funnier than actually living with the product of it all.

1985: The Reagan Show (Series 2)

Quotes from The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s;
Paul Slansky, 1989.

On January 20, 1985—

Not content to have his inauguration televised, President Reagan's aides inject him into the Super Bowl coin toss. The live feed linking him to Stanford is open ten minutes before he goes on the air, enabling satellite dish owners to spy on the leader of the free world as he:

• Practices the coin flip three times—"It is heads.... It is tails"—so he's prepared for all possibilities.
• Reveals a really neat idea a friend of his had—"Frank Sinatra had a recommendation, instead of tossing the coin, what would have been a lot better. You'd have had me outdoors throwing out the ball. I would have thrown it—a little artwork of maybe a ball going across a map—and out there, one of them catching a ball, as if it's gone all the way across the United States. How about that?"
• Stands immobile, almost deflated, as the minutes tick by, as if he doesn't quite exist when the camera's not on.

Finally, he gets his cue and—suddenly animated—he flips the coin. "It is tails!" he announces, adding some banality about how all the players should do their best. The network cuts away and, somewhat forlornly, he resumes the less satisfying non-televised portion of his life.

1/21 With the inaugural parade cancelled due to extreme cold, several high school bands perform for the Reagans at an indoor arena, where Nancy forgets to introduce her "roommate," then overreacts to this omission in Edvard Munch-like horror.

January 20, 1981: Under New Management

I was very glad to see today that the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's inauguration was a big news story. And it was refreshing to open windows throughout the work day and see the current Doodle.

But today also marks a day thirty years ago, when the country turned from the long liberal consensus to let "a smiling fellow" sell his Gubmint=Bad line.

"Foolish House":
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1909.
Photographer: Frank H. Nowell
University of Washington Digital Collections

Some quotes from The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s; Paul Slansky, 1989—for January 20, 1981—

Just before 9 A.M. Michael Deaver, stunned that the President-elect is still sleeping, enters his bedroom to remind him that he's "going to be inaugurated." Says Reagan, "Does that mean I have to get up?"

At noon, promising an "era of national renewal" Ronald Wilson Reagan becomes the oldest man to take the oath of office as President of the United States. As he completes his speech, the 52 hostages held in Teheran for 444 days begin their journey home.

Later, President Reagan visits Tip O'Neill's office, where the House Speaker shows him a desk that was used by Grover Cleveland. Reagan claims to have portrayed him in a movie. O'Neill points out that Reagan in fact played Grover Cleveland Alexander, the baseball player, not Grover Cleveland, the President.

Flashback: from the book's introduction—

"What kind of governor would you be?"
"I don't know. I've never played a governor."
- Ronald Reagan answering a reporter's query during his 1966 campaign for the California statehouse

Since 1966, Reagan has indeed had lots of on-camera experience, performing on an executive mansion set.

He immediately sets the standards for his two terms in the highest office in the land.

The grasp of issues and attention to policy—

1/21 At his first Cabinet meeting, President Reagan is asked if he intends to issue an expected Executive Order on cost-cutting. He shrugs. Then, noticing Budget Director David Stockman nodding emphatically. he adds, "I have a smiling fellow at the end of the table who tells me we do."

The tough talk... when he remembers his lines—

1/27 Welcoming the hostages home, President Reagan puts the world on notice that the US will deal with any such future incidents quite severely. "Our policy," he declares, "will be one of swift and effective retribution." When the band strikes up "Hail to the Chief," Reagan puts his hand over his heart. "Oh!" he says. "I thought this was the national anthem."

And, as celluloid Hero needs a Villain to play opposite: at his first press conference on 1/29, Reagan establishes his diplomatic stance toward the Soviet Union—

"Their goal must be the promotion of world revolution and a one-world Socialist or Communist state.... They reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat, in order to attain that."

Naturally, members of his administration quickly set the ethical tone for their own tenures.

On his first full day [1/21] on the job as National Security Adviser, Richard Allen receives $1000 and a pair of Seiko watches from Japanese journalists as a tip for arranging an interview with Nancy Reagan.

What It's Always About

... Stopping the rabble's demands for rights,
as workers and citizens:

Caption:

From Oklahoma farm (April 1938) to strike leader in California. Cotton strike
(Nov. 1938).
He displays his union membership book.
"Vote No on No. 1" refers to proposed anti-picketing law which was later defeated by California electorate.

Kern County, California.

Photographer: Dorothea Lange
Library of Congress FSA/OWI Archive

John Nichols connects Martin Luther King's role in labor struggles—and 1968 assassination during his trip in support of striking workers—to the current attack on public employees:

The sanitation workers of Memphis had experienced not just racial discrimination but the disregard and disrespect that is so often directed at those who perform essential public services.

No one should miss the fact that AFSCME, the union that they joined and the union with which King worked so closely, is now under attack by right-wingers who would have us believe that public workers are to blame for the problems that occur when policymakers blow the budget on tax cuts for the rich, bailouts for big banks and military adventures abroad.

HTML Mencken's post on continued right-wing response to the Tucson shootings has a particularly good comment from Bilo—

Essentially, what the rageified Teahad and noise machine are saying is, This guy was just a nut, and all the violent & assassin-y language we've been using didn't cause it, so the prudent thing to do is for us to keep doing it until you can PROVE it has done it.

Except, well, it already has (Universalist Church.)

And in many ways, it's similar to their corporate masters' attitudes towards product safety, carcinogens, pollution, etc etc: Until you can PROVE, I mean, really, really, really PROVE that, how about we just keep doing what we want for another generation or three?

January 1981: Unleash The Wretched Excess

Or, "Reagan Is Shah"...

Performance flyer, 1980 campaign season.

Ladies Against Women (LAW),
San Francisco.


Image and story (More below)***



Some quotes from Paul Slansky; The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s, 1989.

January 12, 1980—

TV PREMIERE: Dynasty. With Dallas firmly entrenched at the top of the Nielsen ratings, ABC premieres its own prime time soap—produced by schlockmeister Aaron (Charlie's Angels) Spelling—about a rich multi-generational oil family, the Carringtons of Denver, who share the Ewings' idiosyncrasy of all living in the same house. Unlike the critically underappreciated Dallas—which, thanks largely to Larry Hagman's hilarious portrayal of J.R., can also be enjoyed as a satire of corporate America—Dynasty is merely a celebration of wealth, a campy wallow in which the absurd plots and inane dialogue are incidental to the garish fashions. It becomes a huge hit.

Starting January 17—

The most expensive inaugural celebration in American history—an $11 million, four-day parade of white ties, limousines and mink that prompts Reagan partisan Barry Goldwater to complain about such an "ostentatious" display "at a time when most people can't hack it"—gets underway in Washington.

The festivities climax in an inauguration Gore Vidal will call "a long and beautiful commercial to Adolfo, Blass, Saint Laurent, Galanos, de la Renta, and Halston." (Needs library access, but article is here.)

*** I happen to have one of these flyers; couldn't get a good overall scan, but my copy includes a bit missing from the image above:



Californians knew only too well what to expect from Reagan. Still, according to all citations I find, his first public use of "Evil Empire" was in a March 8, 1983 speech to the National Association of Evangelicals.

"Star Wars" came a bit later, and was not his term; it caught on after the March 23, 1983 missiles in space proposal (Strategic Defense Initiative/SDI).

So, it may just be that the Ladies were unusually prescient.

Their printer's bug was only too correct:










Of course, with the level of right-wing lunacy ramped up over the last three decades: except for the correct spelling, these look like routine teabagger messages—

Soothing Fantasies

The tales do seem to soothe the tellers.

Though it just may be the size of their paychecks that has a sedating effect; that would explain how they never hear the drivel emerging from their own mouths.

It must have been frustrating for the media—

One minute: loving up the manly new House of Representatives of Real America.

Suddenly: Congress interruptus.

On the other hand, they were presented with a gory atrocity that's served as their broadcast lead, for the last five days.

And—best of all media worlds—they've had the chance to exploit a gruesome story, while beating up on Democrats. Because, "both sides are as bad."

As if more than one side was guilty of anything remotely comparable to Fox's encouraging their brownshirts to intimidate Democrats. Or making outright calls to to armed violence.

Pre-health care vote threats against Dems were "isolated local incidents"; it's hard to even find a comprehensive list. And searching brings up mainly right-wing sites, offering the predictable combination of Democrats made The People furious with their socialist death panels, and, the violence was by Democrats.

From last March, there's TPM's map of incidents prior to the vote, and this rundown of some stories.

The count here, 42 reported incidents, comes inside the AP's current spin—

... Many lawmakers, especially Democrats, felt the 2009-2010 debate over health care sometimes got out of hand. It began with emotional town hall meetings in the summer of 2009, when some critics warned of government "death panels."

Giffords, 40, was among lawmakers who reported 42 threats or acts or vandalism in the first three months of 2010, a big increase over the previous year, law enforcement officers said. Nearly all the threats dealt with the massive health care bill that Giffords and other Democrats enacted over fierce Republican opposition.

And of right-wing terrorist attacks on targets other than Democratic politicians, over the last two years: a list of eighteen. Some thwarted; too many, with body counts.

With our non-stop hate media fueling this: we are superior to 1990s Rwanda in what way?

Gun control is Not On The Table.

In the aftermath of Saturday's massacre, Glock sales are booming—

... a deadly demonstration of the weapon's effectiveness has also fired up sales of handguns in Arizona and other states, according to federal law enforcement data.

"When something like this happens people get worried that the government is going to ban stuff," [gun dealer] Wolff said.

Some measures of just how debased a "national dialogue" is created by the media?

Conventional wisdom of the last thirty years: "... government is the problem."

An idealistic nine-year old girl interested in government, recently elected to her student council and eager to meet her elected congresswoman, is murdered.

A straight-talking public servant and law enforcement veteran—someone who once would have been the archetype of everything admirable—can be smeared by the noise machine, only to have the lies dutifully repeated by the mainstream.

The Right got away with their Wellstone funeral behavior; they know the media will always fall for their "Democrats are politicizing a tragedy" shrieks.

The expected bloggers and independent journalists are talking sense, as usual. But they have liberally-biased facts on their side.

Driftglass says it, in three pictures and a few precise words:

Responsible people leave neither loaded guns nor paranoid, eliminationist ideologies laying around for the mentally ill to play with.

The librul media has a story line, and mere facts will not interfere with sticking to it.

I can think of someone in the target audience: Clever Sister's co-worker, Ms. "I'm a liberal! I listen to NPR!"

Who, tomorrow morning, will no doubt be burbling about how terrible the Democrats are, to politicize this tragedy.

The Same Old Story

He was only a lone nut.

There is no obstacle to lone nuts arming themselves with weaponry for mass murder, including a 9-year old victim.

They've got the firepower.

And the will; the 24/7 hate broadcasting is beamed directly at them.

Palin, has quite literally been pinning targets on Democrats. Including Congresswoman Giffords, whose office was vandalized after her health care vote, and who tried calling out Palin for her inflammatory actions.

The "respectable" media pretends there are no connections among these things.

And gives the airwaves over to a combination of false equivalency and the Right's usual screeching that they are the victims.

The same old, sickening story, over and over.

Driftglass, as always, has this right.

As well as this, on the media narrative established via the Sunday pundit shows:

... no mention of the fact that Right's interlocking political/media/religious keiretsu has been a massive paint-shaker for Crazy for as long as anyone can remember: when they need a few more votes or a few more dollars, they notch it up; when someone takes them up on their elimination rhetoric and blows up a federal building or flies a plane into an IRS office or murders a doctor, they dial it back a little and pretend they have no idea where anyone could have gotten such ideas.

If there were any interest in making connections, we might ask:
Who was it that, with his "most frightening words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'" schtick, kicked off three decades of continually escalating anti-government rhetoric?

Who was responsible for decimating mental health funding?

As well as doing his bit to prevent our having universal health care?

If those two basic services weren't kept in short supply, they just might be means of preventing persons showing disturbed behavior from turning into lone nuts.

A Day In History

Yesterday: January 6, 2011.

Was listening to Thom Hartmann commemorate the seventieth anniversary of FDR's "Four Freedoms" State of the Union address.

(YouTube here; transcript and audio here.)

Not that the anniversary was much noted—or would even be found via a casual search.

Going by the top "day in history" results, one of the most important events of a January 6th in the twentieth century was the 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

But, why would our corporate media want to promote this sort of thing—

...there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

Obama is the biggest socialist ever, yet FDR could go before Congress and say that

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples:

We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.

We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.

We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.

I have called for personal sacrifice. I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call.

A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I shall recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying today. No person should try, or be allowed, to get rich out of this program; and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.

And among the freedoms FDR would outline as human rights:

The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.

We have indeed moved on.

As highlighted by a reminder from Hartmann's engineer: that January 6 marks another anniversary—the 2001 congressional certification of Bush's "election."

In the hours I was listening to reminders of our history, the new, improved House was reading its edited version of the Constitution.

Well, at least it's not yet the David Barton re-write...

Though David Cole does suggest this version, as an honest reflection of contemporary conservatism.

Also off to a fine GOP start: illegal voting by representative skipping his swearing-in to attend a fundraiser.

Meanwhile, Clever Sister sent her latest find.

Could BROTHER HARRIS LOUISIANA ROOTMAN bring hope to our battered system of governance?

He does have quite the "Custom Case Work" menu.

Though, with choices like GET RID OF ENEMIES, or, DESTROY YOUR ENEMIES—Republicans hardly need guidance there, and go-along-to-get-along Dems would never dream of such appalling partisanship.

Personally, after a couple days of media swooning over Boehner, Issa, et. al: I'm ready to spring for the SHUT YOUR MOUTH OIL.

We're in a world of trouble, yet Brother Harris is so confident—could he have the answer we need?

HELP IS RIGHT HERE STOP SUFFERING AND START LIVING REAL GOOD .
ORDER YOUR LOUISIANA MOJO BAG TODAY I DON'T
CARE WHAT YOUR NEEDS ARE I'LL FIX IT. TODAY
I WILL MAKE A SPECIAL MOJO BAG JUST FOR THAT SPECIAL NEED.

Local News

Newspaper office. Tombstone, Arizona.
Russell Lee, 1940
Library of Congress FSA/OWI Archive
With local papers being killed off
(as happened in our town), Clever Sister often brings it up: thanks to the

homogenized national media fare—glorification of celebrities and all manifestations of corporate will—we're in danger of being in the dark, even about events very close to home. And the existence of local outlets for anything like whistleblowing is a questionable proposition in many places.

With the media's starstruck coverage of the manly Republican takeover of the House—and the gushing over bold moves to repeal "Obamacare"—I guess if you live in California and are in a Blue Shield plan, you might notice the latest attempt to jack up rates "as much as 59% for individuals."

And with one of Southern California's finest crooks finally getting his big national platform, this group of Californians is trying to get the word out.

For that matter: "Obamacare"..."government takeover"... "death panels"... A local story from Arizona, about more paragons—the Jan Brewer/Republican state legislature: a very real death panel.

There is no global climate change.

Only more local stories: birds dropping from the sky and fish washing up dead, at locations world-wide.

Reagan: A Primer

Ronnie lived in a world of make-believe.

He played dress-up every day.

One day, dress-up time came to an end.

But Ronnie did not feel sad.

Instead of playing dress-up, now he told stories.

[Source]

Ronnie liked telling stories.

He traveled to many places, telling stories to anyone who would listen.

Some important people, in important places, heard his stories and liked them.



The important people decided to help Ronnie.

They helped him and helped him, until he became Governor of the State of California.

Now, he could tell stories to everyone in California.

And his friends helped him go to other states, to tell more stories.

Ronnie went many states, and told many stories to many people, until he became President of all the states.

Now he was very happy, because he could tell stories to more people than ever.

Still, there were some things that made Ronnie unhappy.

Something that made him unhappy was called a Labor Union.

And the worst union of all was for people called Air Traffic Controllers.

Ronnie wanted to do something about the Air Traffic Controllers.

So, he took away their jobs — when their jobs were gone, there was no more union!

Ronnie had to fix many things that made him unhappy.

Spending money on some things, like mental hospitals, made him unhappy.

So Ronnie said, "I will take away the money, and then the mental hospitals will have to close!

And so they did.

When the mental hospitals closed, the people who lived in them had to go away.

Now they became Homeless People.

Ronnie was President for eight whole years. He had lots of time to fix many, many things that made him unhappy.

When he stopped being President, new Presidents wanted to fix things, too.

Republican Presidents wanted to fix things.

Democratic Presidents wanted to fix things.

Things called Social Safety Net, and, The American Middle Class.

By the time all the Presidents were through fixing things, even the kind old glassmaker's job had gone far, far away.

Yes, the glassmaker's job went all the way to China.

That Old, Familiar Feeling

This year, I'll be citing Paul Slansky's invaluable guide to eight years of Reagan & Co.: The Clothes Have No Emperor: A Chronicle of the American '80s (1989).

Read almost thirty years later, Slansky's introduction is indeed heavy on the déjà vu.

There's the familiar reaction to White House tenure of someone whose residing there was once unimaginable —

This book is a work of self-defense.

It is the response of one observer who realized that his perception of the truth - an actor is playing the President - was a distinctly unpopular one. An observer who saw his nation's history being fictionalized as it occurred - an actor is playing the President! - while the ratings race turned media "watchdogs" into accomplices, bit players in the hit TV show the Presidency had become. An observer whose very sanity was threatened by the ease with which illusion - an actor is playing the President! - was embraced as reality.

I did not find the President's ignorance charming. I was unwarmed by his genial headwaggling, unreassured by his stern frowns of manly purpose, uncheered by his hearty waves as he strolled to and from his limos and choppers and jets.

His smooth purr did not soothe me. His nostalgic fables about an America that never was did not inspire me. And his canned one-liners, perversely celebrated as "wit" ("If I'd gotten a hand like that in Hollywood, I never would have left") definitely did not amuse me.

... To me, the President was a pitchman who seemed not to exist when the camera light was off, a front man so personally invisible that he'd actually called his autobiography Where's the Rest of Me?, an aging star who'd spent way too much of his time watching his own movies, like Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.

There's the familiar compulsion to record what's really happening—

Astonished that so few seemed to share my vision, I was compelled to document it. Armed with scissors, file folders, yellow highlight pens and a bank of VCRs, I embarked on an eight-year quest, gathering evidence to prove my case: AN ACTOR IS PLAYING THE PRESIDENT!

I began reading four, then six, then eight papers a day (and five, then 10, then 20 magazines a week), seeking out the absurd and the outrageous, clipping and filing everything that confirmed my sense that standards were falling across the political, social and cultural landscapes. I became a media prospector, mining vast acres of ink in search of the perfect details and telling quotes that held the golden nuggets of truth. I began a video file, recording the evening newscasts - first one network, then two, then three - and dubbing the key soundbites onto meticulously logged master tapes. The events of the decade were like a surreal novel unfolding in the media, and I found myself scrambling to get it all down, compiling a memory for a nation that clearly didn't want one.

Ah yes: it brings me back to 2000, and the eight long years that followed...

But I had the Web for finding information. With so many online sources trying to get out the truth, plus my own compulsive urge to record the history, I printed and accumulated file drawers full of paper.

Then, as blogging came along in the years after 2000, I found more online writers who gave voice to my anger and frustration. The Bush administration launched—if not a thousand blogs—plenty; and plenty of talented writers who felt compelled to track what was happening each day.

Blogs provided even more stuff for me to print and save, what with their astute commentaries and links to even more sources of information.

I still spend far too much time trying to clear my living space of the volume of paper left over from those years. But, I finally put a lot of the 2004-2008 material to use when, just before Obama's inauguration, I started writing about life in an office full of right-wingers during Bush's second term.

Slansky ends his 1989 introduction with a prediction—

Yes, The President Reagan Show is off the air now, but a similar entertainment - Dan Quayle's Playhouse - is waiting in the wings. As we head into the '90s, the powers that be are working overtime - with the complicity, once again, of segments of the media that surely know better - to lull us into thinking that our Vice President is "growing" into his office and will soon be ready for bigger things.

Do not assume that this lightweight can never be elected to the White House. Back in the '60s, we knew the very notion of "President Reagan" was preposterous.

If he was wrong about Quayle in particular, he was of course correct about the general principle at work.

And certainly correct about who could be "electable"; or, eligible for insertion into office—especially with a little nudge from the extra-electoral help always available to Republicans.

2012 looms, and considering the dizzying speed at which the "how low can we go?" standard keeps dropping... The easy marketing target that is a segment of our low voting population... How good the Republicans are at foisting their creations on the country...

Coming Attractions

Another tawdry sort of amusement is on its way, as the teabaggers entering Congress put the true face of the Republican Party on view.

And, non-believing as I am, this year is on the long list of reasons for believing that God does exist—
and is Republican:

February 6, 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of St. Ronald Reagan.

It will divert attention from the antics of those teabagging heirs to Reaganism; after all, the propaganda machine has been working on this year's rollout for a long, long time.

The show starts today; from the Reagan Foundation/Library—

Make sure to watch this year's 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade, which will include a float honoring the life of and legacy of one of America's heroes, President Ronald Reagan. This is the first ever presidential-themed float to participate in the annual parade. Entered on behalf of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the float theme showcases the official parade theme, "Building Dreams, Friendships and Memories." President Reagan’s life and legacy inspired freedom, and contributed to lasting change across our country and around the world.

With the sleek visuals that will be fed to broadcast media, I'm bracing myself for Morning in America, He Won the Cold War, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Throughout this year, I plan to revisit as much as I can of the reality of the Reagan years.

In trying to research aspects of that period, I'm finding that it has to be done pretty much the old-fashioned way: by going to books.

If I know of a specific newspaper or magazine piece from the time, I can look for that, but the material is not always available to a general reader (I do have access to Lexis).

Also, there are recent pieces online from expected sources; a search of "Reagan worst president" yields Robert Parry. Parry's piece at least comes up before the inevitable RW link to the glorious Reagan record, versus that of the horrid Dem presidents.

But general surfing for anything critical—or for just about any topic added to Reagan's name—is another story.

The usual result: page after page of book titles in the ever-growing Reagan hagiography; material by Reagan-dedicated foundations; and all manner of propaganda by the wing-nut welfare network. Just as intended: this is what the general public—or someone too young to remember the guy—will most easily find online.

So, there are those musty old books to consult.

A situation which, Clever Sister points out, could change fast.

In libraries all over, Decision Makers are getting rid of print, claiming that "everything is online." This, as CS says, may mean a window of opportunity being quickly lost.

Material online now that's from the pre-Internet '80s is haphazard and often inaccessible to the general public. With the Reagan brand so valuable to the Right, rewriting history online is a well-funded breeze; there are open questions of how well the print record of the time will survive, and if anyone will make an effort to effectively digitize it.

Also from CS, on hearing "February birthday":

"So: they're adding him to Presidents' Day?"

I hadn't even thought of that.

She's right, of course; another sign that God is Republican.

It won't take long, and—need I mention—it will be bipartisan.

And so begins my Year of Ranting Reaganly.

I do expect a lot to be written this year about the real Reagan, as independent journalists and liberal bloggers have an outlet that didn't exist in the '80s.

And there's this from over a year ago; Dr. Krugman should have a very busy year of trying to set the economic record straight.

Was cockroach racing really that big in the '30s? I suspect advertiser exaggeration, in the service of drumming up customers.

We know that by the '80s, Ronald Reagan could be sold to the portion of America that bothers to vote.

And once Reagan was sold, it was clear that anything could be.