Today's thread on Reagan brought this to mind...

[misanthrope]

...in 1984, the Ronald Reagan visited Charlotte, N.C. while stumping for re-election. To a sea of cheering white faces he criticized Democrats for "busing that takes innocent children out of the neighborhood school and makes them pawns in a social experiment that nobody wants. And we've found out that it failed."

More confusing was that the national media, long derided by the right as horns of leftist propaganda, saw fit to let this die. Hardly surprising considering the scant attention Reagan received for kicking off his 1980 campaign by standing in Philadelphia, Miss. – where three civil rights workers were slain and the crime covered up and unpunished by the community less than 20 years before – and making a speech loaded with phrases like "states rights," widely known code words used in conjunction with white supremacy.

And to think people want to put this guy on our currency...

[Ardent15]

1. If Reagan wasn't a racist, at the very least he was an asshole who appealed to them

But keep in mind that Goldwater and Nixon especially did it before Reagan.

[misanthrope]

7. Yeah, but they haven't been deified like Reagan has plus...

...some of Goldwater's views would get him tossed out the GOP now for being too leftist. That's a big part of the Reagan legacy.

[bluestateguy]

2. While I believe busing was a flawed policy

It is also very clear to me that many politicians used the issue to stoke racial anxieties.

[BeatleBoot]

3. Bonzo goes to Bitburg

and lays a wreath on SS graves (by accident they claimed).

[Aristus]

6. "By accident". Because they're hoping people won't remember the actual event.

I remember. I was taking German class in my sophomore year in high school that year. The controversy about Bitburg and the SS graves came up several weeks BEFORE Reagan left for Germany. There was all kinds of talk about "Will he?" "If he.." well before he got to the cemetery. So no one can claim he did it by accident.

Reagan was a creep. I can't believe I fell for his "Morning In America" crap...

[misanthrope]

8. I think Shakespeare was a liar...

...when he wrote Marc Antony's lines in Julius Caesar that "the good men do is oft interred with the bones." Horseshit, it's the ugly truth that gets buried.

[BeatleBoot]

11. Shout that one loud and proud!

The cat was a prick.

[Solly Mack]

4. Reagan was a corrupt piece of shit.

I never thought him charismatic (and still don't 'get' why anyone did) but then I'm allergic to bullshit.

[misanthrope]

9. Because he gave people the pablum they craved...

...they wanted to turn off their brains and rely on slogans and stereotypes.

[Solly Mack]

10. Never been that hungry

[UTUSN]

5. K&R #4 n/t