Reagan Grief Fatigue

[SoDesuKa]

Three days of mourning is about right, because people want to get back to their lives. If you have four days of mourning, it gets wearying. Five days of mourning and people are fed up with it. But the Republicans are stretching the Reagan thing into an unbearable six days.

By the time Bush gives his speech, people will be wondering why the Republicans are carrying on with this. Reagan has been out of public life for so long that some young voters don't even remember him. And the people who do remember him know he wasn't all that wonderful.

Bury the guy and be done with it. Don't drag it out.


Edit: typo

[BurtWorm]

1. The media will never get tired of it.

They adooooooooooooooooooooooooooore Reagan because most of them are airheads who associate the Gipper with their freewheeling college days. Covering Reagan's death is so much less labor intensive than covering boring shit like torture and occupation.

[salinen]

2. Is it too late to resuscitate

the old Gip?

[MadcityRock]

3. Tillman's brother should eulogize Reagan

I love what he said: "He's not 'with god'; he's just fucking dead."

[newyawker99]

26. Hi MadcityRock!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Kid_A]

4. We knew this was gonna be a big deal

but I didn't think it would be quite this big. You'd swear that every person in America voted for this guy, people had sex in his shadow to gurantee conception, the entire rest of the world adored him, every male baby born since 1980 is named Ronnie, women orgasm at the mere mention of his name and so do some men, he cured cancer, he could fly, he could shoot laser beams out of the tips of his fingers, not only are they putting his face on Mt. Rushmore but they're changing the other faces to look like his, Bible publishers have replaced the name "Jesus" with "Ronald Reagan", terrorists around the world have thrown down their weapons in grief and admiration, he shat solid gold and urinated ambrosia, and he could jumpo higher than Michael Jordan and throw faster than Nolan Ryan. If none of that were true, then I might say that the media is going a tad overboard...

[KittyWampus]

30. Funny, Thanks For The Laugh

:D

[RobinA]

5. It's Annoying

but it will be over soon. A week from now everybody will be saying "Reagan who?"

[quinnox]

6. I am getting tired of the pomp and circumstance

The GOP had to make the whole week an exercise in the deification of Ronald Reagan.

I mean, come on, this is getting ridiculous. Why don't they go ahead and name this a federal holiday for Reagan and then declare the month of June "Reagan remembrance" month, sheesh.

[Gin]

7. have they done anything but shoot themselves in the foot for 4 years?

RR all day every day for 7 days...and the world will be as disgusted as we are...life goes on for the rest of us but the thugs need a corpse to hang on to for support.

How pathetic!

[Catfight]

8. Turn off all your TV's and watch the ratings drop...then they'll drop

they whole reagan crap. It took a month to bury John Ritter..I was so sick of hearing about him I was screaming let them man die dammit!

[ChickMagic]

9. Nancy said she was relieved

She lost her husband a long time ago. I didn't vote for the guy nor did I particularly like him, but I am glad he's out of his misery. This whole GOP worship fest is making me ill.

[calimary]

10. Yes. Precisely. This will wind up being yet another of their precious

and carefully-crafted photo-ops that backfires.

Even the "faithful" will start to tire of it. I REALLY, TRULY think they're gonna hit critical mass on this, before the week is out, and people will start saying "ENOUGH, ALREADY!" Granted, many of us got there as of probably Sunday afternoon. But I think if they beat this to death til Friday, people WILL begin to tire of it.

Plus: I think the longer this drags on, the more a painful realization will dawn on people: a Look-how-far-we've-fallen realization. There will be inevitable comparisons between Reagan and bush, and the impression WILL be that "Reagan wouldn't have let things get this bad." Or "Ronnie woulda done Iraq the RIGHT way." Or "if this had happened in Reagan's day, he'd have fixed it by now." Or some such thing. Also. Reagan WAS "The Great Communicator," and 30 seconds of bush at the podium will be a PAINFUL reminder to Reagan's worshippers that they don't make 'em like him anymore.

Also, you're correct about there being people out there who don't remember him all that fondly. Which is why it's important for us to write a letter to the editor making that clear. You can bet the wingnuts of the world will be doing their own versions, telling us how much America wants to climb into that open grave and be buried with their dead "god." To counter-act this effect, revisit this, please:


PLEASE NOTE MY SIG LINE – TO CALL YOUR REPS, TOLL FREE!!!

OR, TRY (877) – 762 – 8762. It’ll get you there, too! (Thank you, DUer redqueen!)


Please note, here, The World's Greatest Lists of Media Contacts – updated May 5, 2004– in the following thread:

LINK:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1533796#


IF THEY THINK WE DON’T CARE, THEY WON’T, EITHER!

[ElementaryPenguin]

11. People I talk to are WAAAAAY sick of it!!

Most can see right through BushCo's transparent attempt to make political gain out of it Ronnie's passing - and think the media are waaaay overrating Reagan as a president! There isn't enough here for Bushler to ride to another presidential selection - THAT much I am confident of!! RayGun was indeed also a rightwing scripted president like AWOL - but he could deliver a damn good speech - and at least he never started a major war, nor instituted the use of torture.

:puke:

[Suspicious]

14. "and at least he never"

"...instituted the use of torture."

Certain people (specifically, Nicaraguans) might take exception to that particular statement.

In the words of a survivor of a raid in Jinotega province, which borders on Honduras:

"Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her chest and took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles cut off, and their eyes poked out They were killed by slitting their throats and pulling the tongue out through the slit."

Americas Watch, the human-rights organization, concluded that "the contras systematically engage in violent abuses ... so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war."
In November 1984, the Nicaraguan government announced that since 1981 the contras had assassinated 910 state officials and killed 8,000 civilians.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Nicaragua_KH.html

more here: http://www.rotten.com/library/history/political-scandal/iran-contra/

[BeFree]

24. Thanks, suspicious

What a gruesome ordeal the RR era was for some. I guess I should consider myself lucky, eh? Afterall, all I have to do is put up with this weeks fun-e-ral.

"Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight"... some RR era music for your dancing pleasure

[qanda]

32. And I think those who suffered with AIDS in the 80's would disagree also

eom

[Suspicious]

33. Very true.

I thought about this after I posted, but by the time I came back, you had added it. :)

[arwalden]

12. I Keep Expecting A Reagan "Coffin-Cam" Website...

to appear for those that are TRULY into, and cannot get enough of, the over-the-top grieving and Reagan idolatry.

-- Allen

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Allen, you're sick. Sick, do you hear me?

That's what I like about you.

I'll help spread the rumor about the coffin cam.

[Raster]

22. OMG!!!

www.reagancoffincam.com

[Jackpine Radical]

27. Crap I fell for it.

A spinoff on my own post, no less.

But check this one out...

www.ronnierotting.com

[Raster]

31. heh heh heh...

[jokerman93]

13. My ears are bleeding

My ears are bleeding from listening to the testimonials of people honoring Reagan great service to America. Heard a guy in NPR this morning saying how Reagan stopped America from becoming a communist country.

Ronald Reagan. The Gipper. An amazing father and husband. A visionary President. A Contra, a freedom fighter, and a great American...

Reagan also prevented an alien invasion from Zeta Retucli didn't he?

[Jackpine Radical]

16. I thought it was from Andromeda

and that he (or maybe Nancy) got the Plieideans to help us.

[Walt Starr]

17. In this case, three days is going to be toooooooo long

and it's all because they immediately announced a 7 day ogiastic greif fest.

I know Reagan cheerleaders who are already saying, "Enough is enough! The man was great, but let's bury him and move on!"

The mushy middle will know squarely who to blame for the pre-empted Soaps come the eulogy on Friday.

[West Coast Democrat]

18. I haven't watched even 60 seconds of coverage since it happened

If I feel like watching TV, there are plenty of non-news channels to watch.

[goobergunch]

19. I concur.

Congress is taking the entire week off for this - instead of actually doing the business (the Senate was supposed to finish the FY 2005 Defense Authorization bill this week) they were elected to do.

I was two years old when Reagan's second term ended. But from what I know about him, he's not even close to the deity that the media is making him out to be.

[hippiegranny]

20. dare we say it? they are "politicizing" the death

of someone for their own gain. and the media is showing it's ass once again as the essential tool for the right wing. i hope you are all correct that the public will see through it, but remember how easily it can be manipulated, like a hormonal adolenscent watching a hallmark commercial or "love story."

[Blue_Roses]

21. Thank-you!

My thoughts exactly. Enough is enough. They are milking this to the bone...

[politicaljunkie3]

23. Unfortunately....

...there were so many people wanting to see Reagan's body, that they are extending the viewing in CA.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&u=/ap/20040608/ap_on_re_us/ronald_reagan_15&printer=1

[yardwork]

25. Like everything that BushCo does, this will likely backfire.

My ten year old (who has Republican leanings - I think some folks are just born that way, honestly), said to me, "Reagan must have been a really great president, considering all the fuss that's being made."

This gave me the perfect opportunity to say, "Well, as a matter of fact..."

It will happen nationwide, I predict. People get sick of hearing about what a saint somebody is, and they are more receptive to hearing the opposite view. The take-away memory will be, "Reagan was a likeable old guy who is waaaay overrated as a president, which was a long time ago anyway. Yawn. Who's that ugly guy spluttering on CNN?"

This will not be helpful to BushCo.

[shanti]

28. i can dig it

because friday is a DAY OFF WORK!! thanks raygun! lololol!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

29. Don't forget Poppy Bush's memorial parachute jump

wouldn't want to forget that he bailed on his crewmates and let them crash and burn!