Last edited Thu Aug 15, 2013, 04:01 AM - Edit history (2)
She'd started out almost immediately after the election, "credited" (either sourced to her or or staff) with remarks about how it'd be nice if the Carters moved out early so she could get a head start on redecorating the White House. During the campaign, she got a LOT of attention, most of it negative, especially as compared to the plain-wrap couple from Plains GA.
No. Not Nancy. She had her champagne tastes and expensive Adolfo suits and other designer wear that became her signature. She had the trappings of Hollywood and their exclusive ranch tucked away in the mountains above elegant Santa Barbara CA in her aura. She had this closed, cold, unapproachable demeanor. "How was your Christmas, Mrs. Reagan?" the press would ask from the distance at which they were corralled, in the few weeks before Inauguration Day. "Very nice." "Christmas presents?" "Yes. Nice presents" - uttered as she was closing the door in front of her and shutting them out physically as well as emotionally. Then when they were in the White House, WHILE the economy was going south, she wanted to re-do the White House china collection. She picked this ultra luxe "Reagan Red" plate design with gold leaf and a wide red border, looked like it belonged in some palace - while more and more people were losing their jobs and turning to public assistance. Ooooh, fancy new dishes for her and her well-heeled, fancy-assed crowd while more and more of the people couldn't afford enough food. The perceived insensitivity was just TREMENDOUS - at a time when the economy wasn't good and growing worse. Never mind that, as she pointed out, it was all donated (yeah, we know. Just more of your rich pals stepping in, your majesty). It GREATLY furthered the notion that was developing toward the reagans that they were this imperious, royalist, elitist cabal of "Millionaires on Parade" while the country suffered and the people went broke. And she quickly became regarded as the new Marie Antoinette. And a cold fish Marie Antoinette at that. She even wore a little pillbox-type hat on Inauguration Day that was a red wreath, that sat on her head like a little crown - a detail that didn't go unnoticed by many of us. She was off-putting to say the least!
So lyn nofziger and david gergen and a few others handling and manipulating media and imaging for the reagans (THAT was a HUGE and very critically-important division in the reagan machinery - that later begat what we now know as Pox Noise) decided she needed a public relations makeover. Give her a cause, they said! Send her out there on a mission to save the people, save the children, and make her seem warmer and more caring. Gotta Humanize Nancy! Soften up the Queen for the people! So they hit upon the "Just Say No" thing - anti drug campaign. And by Jove they sent her out there on these press and publicity junkets, where she'd actually have to say more than two or three words to the press and (ewww! hold your nose, dearie and just get through it) have to shake hands with the great unwashed, and hobknob with the riff-raff, and make it look as though she cared about them. And to some extent, it worked. People did warm up to her a little bit, after awhile. Not all of us were won over, though. It seemed pretty easy to see through, for some of us anyway. As her husband presided over the "Millionaires on Parade" business and let the corporate marauder types and the tycoons and the vultures run amok, and take as many restrictions and regulations away so the foxes could be put in charge of guarding the henhouses. That's when regulations started falling like the many-lifted jawlines and jowls of her fancy Bel Air and Beverly Hills and showbiz friends who'd always show up at your average Old Hollywood-preferred event. That's when mergers and acquisitions were suddenly America's favorite new indoor sport. That's when most of this "...and the rich get richer" shit that we're all presently suffering under got started. It's in full flower now, but its seeds were planted and carefully nurtured during the reagan years.
And the "Just Say No" campaign took hold and begat all kinds of strict new laws and enforcement crack-downs from sea to shining sea. MORE people were imprisoned. MORE people were imprisoned for longer terms because, well, we were all becoming inundated with the sloganeering of "ALL DRUGS ARE BAAAAAAAAAAAD!" Nothing ever said about alcohol, of course. But "DRUGS BAAAAAAAAAAAD" and "DRUGGIES BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!" became one of the anthems of the reagan years. So you had this disproportional emphasis on throwing 'em in the slammer, up the enforcement, up the penalties. There was more interest in rehab, of course, but only rich people and celebs could afford that. Betty Ford had begun that one, but she genuinely had the common touch, and was empathetic and a very sympathetic figure, and on her watch, alcohol and substance-abuse recovery was something that appeared to be, and was, applicable across class lines. But during the reagan era, it was the perceived riff-raff that took it in the shorts. That kindness and rehab wasn't open to them. It was "throw 'em in the slammer" for them.
On edit (besides correcting grammar and syntax stuff) - And hmmmm... I wonder if just maybe somebody in that crowd was far-sighted enough, or strategically shrewd enough, to put two and two together and realize that the more people you threw in the slammer, the more felons you'd create which would mean a whole lot more people would NOT be able to vote anymore. Useful handicap for them to have if they're considered of the type of voter who would vote against them. I heard Randi Rhodes expound upon this today, and it hit me like a thunderclap!!! Her point was to tie in the lopsided numbers of African Americans who are incarcerated for felonies. And as convicted felons, guess what other penalty is imposed? They lose their right to vote. Gee... for a Machiavellian political operative who'll grab - or attempt to initiate - ANY advantage possible for a successful election result, that seems like an awfully slick and sneaky way to further reduce the pool of potential Democratic voters. I wouldn't put it past some of 'em! Remember this is the Party of kkkarl rove!
Be that as it may...
All because Nancy needed the kind of facelift that only the public relations doctors (NOT the plastic surgeons) provided.
Damn those were awful days. AWFUL. That's where all the shit began. All the shit we're dealing with now - got started during the reagan years. It felt like a hostage hold. And the press was lap-dog-ish. They'd persecuted and piled on Jimmy Carter. They worshipped and adored the reagans - well, mainly ronnie. Queen Nancy we put up with because she came along with him - in effect she had the Presidential "I'm with Stupid" t-shirt. It got extended by one term of reagan junior (bush 1), but Clinton came into the picture and showed him the door, so we had a break. Then it came roaring back with bush 2. bush 2 was the REAL reagan junior.
Sadly enough, most if not all of our present ills got started during the reagan era. NEVER was I so happy to see a regime change. That was the first time we started becoming accustomed to OUR message not getting through. They rode and handled the press like so many horses in reagan's Santa Barbara ranch corrals.
Just a REALLY SHITTY time in America. One from which we have yet to recover. And too many of us had to suffer because Nancy needed a public relations remake.
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