Did Ronald Reagan ever "connect" with anyone on this board?

[11 Bravo]

Years after the senile old fart went to his well-deserved dirt nap, Repugs still extol his virtues and trumpet his alleged "connection" to the American people. Well, I'm an American, and I found Reagan to be a half-bright schmuck who was able to hide behind an amiable facade as he purposefully tried to destroy the social safety net, while systematically fucking the middle class. And don't even get me started on his non-feasance in office with regard to the scourge of HIV/AIDS. At a time when he could have made a real difference, Reagan turned his back in order to please his wing-nut base. How's Hell working out for ya, Ronnie?

[ulysses]

no.

[SharonAnn]

44. No. I thought he seemed amiable but dumb. And with dangerous ideas.

[undeterred]

1. No. They showed "Bedtime for Bonzo" on election night at the college

where I was working and it seemed totally appropriate.

[Tesla]

2. I got into so many arguments!!

Trickle down was sooooo smart.

[WilliamPitt]

3. My eulogy for Reagan.

http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1293

[11 Bravo]

7. I had not seen that before. Beautifully said!

[phantom power]

12. They called him The Great Communicator. But you're right. He was the Great Mythmaker.

[Lisa]

13. and something from cartoonist Kirk Anderson as well

[Cha]

23. Thanks~ that pretty much sums

up ol' ketshup head.

[omega minimo]

43. That's pretty good

Actually it's fuckin brilliant.

Why is DU the place to come and be another version of W Pitt? That message could be a DU primer for most of the bullshit we're dealing with.................. esp. for the "Past Six Years" crowd. This is Year 26 of Reaganism. htttp://www.thomhartmann.com

Ronald Reagan was and is entirely contemptible.

[Arugula Latte]

4. I have Reagan to thank for one thing -- He made me into a staunch liberal at age 14.

Good gawd, I couldn't believe the country (including my own parents) was too stupid to see through that asshole. Luckily my parents later renounced their Republican years, but still...

Also, that myth about Ronnie being the Great Communicator always made my jaw drop. He couldn't get through ANYTHING without it being scripted. He'd hem and haw. He was a HORRIBLE speaker.

That administration was an early example of the up-is-down and black-is-white world of the corporate/Repuke/mainstream media collusion altering reality.

[Straight Shooter]

5. He lost me at hello. n/t

[devilgrrl]

6. No, his myth was just another creation of the "librul media"

I thought he was a assclown.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

8. Nope, my father clued me into what a phony Ronnie was long before

he ran for President. Apparently during the "Red" scare during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950's is when Ronnie apparently became a Republican. He was a lickspittle, nothing more, nothing less.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Nope. I'm allergic to reactionary, drooling, idiots.

[Bucky]

10. I never got it with him.

Unless by "it" you mean a big whoppin' headache.

[Lisa]

11. A Ronnie story from my "hippie chick" friend ...

Many years ago, when she was in elementary school, she won an award in her science class, and the prize was a chance to meet You Know Who on a scheduled trip to her town. Well, she says she doesn't remember much about him -- not that he was unpleasant to her or anything, just that she didn't find him at all interesting or remarkable. And she certainly isn't an elitist -- quite the opposite, a very positive, friendly person who rarely has a negative word for anybody (hey, she even manages to find nice things to say about me!) so that in itself constitutes a criticism.

The thing is, poor ol' Ronnie would probably faint if he'd ever seen her as she is today -- a flagrantly-unmarried mom with a nose ring, who wears tie-dyed cloths and is a left-wing activist. He'd have been scared to pat her on the head again, in case she bit him.

Her eldest daughter wanted to name the cat they got from the animal shelter "Dubya", but she vetoed it on the grounds that it would be too humiliating for the cat.


Ever since we found out about Nancy Reagan's habit of getting the White House photographer to follow him around 24/7 to document his every step for posterity -- and what's more, that she saved ALL the pics -- her family and I have been planning to infiltrate the Reagan library and obtain a copy of the incriminating pic of her being patted on the head by Ronnie.

[immoderate]

14. Sure. He was great in "Desperate Journey" with Errol Flynn!

And as a young Goldwaterite, I saw him give "the Speech" and I thought that was pretty good. When I heard He was actually running for political office, I thought, "Ridiculous!"

--IMM

[melody]

15. He was a pre-fab anti-Kennedy president

They tossed him to the masses with the intent that they would worship him instead of admire
Kennedy. IMO, the only people who admire him now are the simpletons who didn't understand what
he represented in the first place.

[EFerrari]

16. Central America agrees with you.

They're still trying to find their dead in the wake of the Reagan trained, deployed and funded death squads.

[Lerkfish]

17. not me. I was against him since before he was elected. I was old enough to remember his

antics in california against protestors.

and I'm using the term "antics" loosely


I searched and found a link:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/08_reagan.shtml

[tjwash]

18. fuck no

[Bluerthanblue]

19. he was an actor- he knew how to play to his audience, and

did it pretty well-

His policies were crud though.

If * had his charisma, there would be no hope for us-
IMO

[Catherine Vincent]

20. I dig the son Ron Reagan Jr.

He's cool.

[Lisa]

24. yeah -- and Patti Davis, too

I loved her story about feeling all guilty for having swiped one of the White House bowling balls!

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. Jeeze, I had to suffer through his governorship when I lived in Calif. Connect with him?

Hell no! Then I moved to Texas and who did I get as Gov.? That lousy little pissant, GW! :banghead:

[libnnc]

22. Nope. He scared the crap outta my great grandmother

When he was first elected, she was so upset, she cried.

He made my Nonnie cry. Edit to add: of course, as I got older and learned how damaging his policies were (are still) I grew to hate him on an intellectual level. But he (and the Reagan Dems who elected him) still frightened my Nonnie. That, I'll never forgive.

Fuck him to infinity and back.

[illinoisprogressive]

25. I spent the 80s in a rage at Reagan...

[VP505]

26. Oh he sure connected

with me all right, connected with my anger when he fired all Air Traffic Controllers and I had the frustration of dealing with all the trainees he replaced them with!

[LSK]

27. yeah, he connected Republicans = Military Industrial Complex for me

[supernova]

28. The Magic of Ronald Reagan

was totally lost on me.

He was a no talent speaker with an obvious "aw shucks and jive" contrived act that simply revolted me. Then as now, it was the simpleton nostroms and complete lack of a coherent argument that totally left me cold. Ketchup as a vegetable? A Star Wars missile defense system?

It was too readily apparent to me that he wanted to sell looney right policies all the while giving a simple smile that most people misunderstood as someone they'd like to have a beer with.

Fuck that.

I wanted a person who has intelligence, grace, and is willing to debate and argue for what he believes is right. Jimmy Carter should have won that election.

[Blue_Tires]

29. I was a kid in those days

and i'm ashamed to say i loved him back then...(I of course knew nothing of politics then, and could not figure out why my parents hated him so much...) I was going to an uber-elitist upper crust school at the time, and my classmates probably colored my thoughts a little...I also loved the Alex P. Keaton character in "Family Ties" So i think I adopted some of his philosophies as well....

But hey, we all grow up...In the 80s I also idolized pro wrestlers, Dexter Manley, Jose Canseco, Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy, now we see how things change....

[Alexander]

30. Yes.

When he left office I was 5 years old, and had zero knowledge of parties, politics or even presidential elections.

So I figured whoever becomes president deserved to be there, and Reagan being president was as natural to me as George Washington's presidency. I missed all of the Bush/Dukakis race, so for a short time I thought Bush was supposed to be there, too.

Interestingly, once Bush got in, I started becoming somewhat politically aware - and became a die-hard Clinton supporter at the age of 9 when I was chosen to be Clinton for our school's mock debate.

Been a Democrat ever since I was 9, and never looked back.

[Solly Mack]

31. Fuck N to the O...just say No

[NewJeffCT]

32. never liked him - I hated Republics since I was 7 or 8

and I was in high school from the fall of 1981 through June of 1985, so I saw the beginnings of the Reagan Crime Regime.

[Peace Patriot]

33. I just learned about the 200,000 Mayan villagers who were slaughtered in Guatemala,

in the 1980s, with Reagan's direct complicity. I knew something had happened in Guatemala, but I had no idea of the scale. And I was not aware either of how directly Reagan was involved. The facts have been brought to light in the UN-sponsored Guatemalan "truth and reconciliation" process.

So I consider him to be one of the worst war criminals in the history of the world.

I'll tell you of a personal hit I got on Reagan, early on. This was before he was anybody. Just an actor on the political make. I helped organize a political forum at my college in the '60s, when George Murphy was running for Senator. Reagan was coming to speak on his behalf, and also for Goldwater. I guess it must have been 1964. I was a Democrat (still am) and a leftist, but the idea was to give the students information and access to candidates, in a non-partisan way. So, as an organizer, I got to meet Reagan and I introduced him to the rather large audience (for our school). As I sat on the stage behind him, watching him shuffle his 3 x 5 "talking point" cards, and give a rote speech, I had the most unusual and creepy feeling from this man. The word was "snake." There was something about him that sent an ice cold chill down my spine. I'm a very rational person, not given to weird and ghostly feelings. Experiences like that are extremely rare for me. And they stand out. I can still see it vividly, and feel it. Bear in mind that he was nobody to me. I didn't even know about his HUAC activities (ratting on his fellow and sister Hollywood film friends, to get them blacklisted, and make a name for himself as an "anti-communist" crusader). He hadn't run for office yet. He wasn't running for office when I met him. He was just a speaking on behalf of others, like any political circuit hack would do. And he was such a mediocre actor, I was not in the least impressed with meeting him. I didn't think he was a "star." He seemed second-rate in every way. There was no reason for me to have any feeling about him, pro or con--let alone such an overwhelming hit of evil from such an innocuous person. I didn't agree with his politics, but that was not what this was about. This was something quite different from disagreement.

A few years ago, someone gave me David Icke's book about the reptillian shape-shifters from Draco who are controlling the human race (or trying to)--his Illuminati conspiracy book ("The Biggest Secret"), and I laughed and laughed. That was the feeling exactly--that this person, Reagan, was an alien. An evil alien, in human skin.

I don't know what to make of it--except that he later most certainly committed horrendously evil acts. His political agenda was very destructive, but he also was complicit in terrible war crimes. Was I getting a hit from the future? Was I just sensing what a cold, calculating SOB he was, even then--who would go on to be the tool of war profiteers and corporate predators, with his winks and his nods and his "photogenic" smiles at torture and genocide. The death squads that he permitted to be trained at the School of the Americas, and the fascists that he actively funded and supported in Guatemala, burned children alive or gutted them before their parents; they raped and killed pregnant women; they slaughtered whole villages, one person at a time, so each would suffer the deaths of the others. There were murders in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and torture and other atrocities, as well, with Reagan's complicity. But what occurred in Guatemala boggles the mind. Reagan knew about it, and approved of it. Like the friends he betrayed in Hollywood, these were mere "commies" to him, not people. These poor people stood in the way of his pals' financial profit. As it turns out, they were not even very political villagers, just "suspected" of harboring leftist fighters. On mere suspicion, the entire village would be slaughtered, its animals slaughtered and its huts burnt to the ground.

Reason enough to feel a cold chill from someone, I guess, with that horror coming down the line. A little premonition.

Reagan belongs up there with Hitler and Goebbels, as far as I'm concerned. And with LBJ, Nixon and both Bushes. But I think it's dangerous to project "devils" or leathery-skinned aliens. We need to recognize the humanity of butchers and of loathesome politicians, politicians whom we hate. The capacity for evil is human. We all carry it with us. And we all bear some responsibility for it. While the Mayan villagers were being tortured and slaughtered, I was living only two states away, in California, and I was utterly oblivious to it. I did not know what my government was doing there, in my name.

Never again. It is my goal now to spread this information as well as I can, so that we never forget it. The Bushites have an intention to create more mayhem and suffering in Latin America, I believe. I hope I can do some tiny part of preventing that.

---------------------------

One other thing about 1964. I voted for the "peace candidate"--LBJ. Two million people slaughtered in Southeast Asia, before it was over.

Lesson: Beware of Democrats bearing peace.

[Matsubara]

34. I found Reagan to be personally likeable, unlike Bush who is a horrible person...

Although I thought he was basically a decent guy who had bought into a whole ideological bill of goods that he didn't really understand.

He produced two good liberal kids (and one bitter little repuke who never got enough of Daddy's love) who would tell you the exact same thing. He was very generous in his personal life, to the point of sending a $1000 check to a poor pensioner who had sent him a letter.

That being said, he was one of the worst presidents we have ever had, with one of the most corrupt White House staffs ever - until Bush, and Bush Jr.

I'm in the camp that believes that he was largely a figurehead after the 1980 assassination attempt, and that Bush Sr. was a lot more in charge than people realize.


But just finding someone personally likeable doesn't mean you detest their policies any less.

Bush is a destestable person with detestable policies - the whole package.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

35. There's a dude at work who thinks that Reagan was the man...

He has this stupid issue of Time from a few weeks ago with him on the front with a tear sliding down his cheek. I swear, I'm going barf if I hear him spout how wonderful he is again.
Duckie

[TwilightGardener]

36. No--all image, nothing else--another GOP marketing job.

[JerseygirlCT]

37. Yeah, you about sum it up. Don't forget Iran-Contra, too

I never could stand the guy. Ever.

[cally]

38. Sort of....I saw his appeal

I didn't agree with him but he gave a great speech. I was in college and we would study his speeches to figure out what motivated the American people. I think he was a great communicator but his policies were horrible.

[electron_blue]

39. Never connected to me. I was pretty appalled about his presidency from beginning to end

and almost comatose after Bush 1 got in. To me, Reagan seemed to be already experiencing significant senility/Alzheimer's effects at the time.

[racaulk]

40. Yes, when he told Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." Otherwise, no, not at all. n/t

[triguy46]

41. Not even in the same dimension...

He never, ever, said, did, acted, in any way that made me feel that he was not a tool.

[omega minimo]

42. Creep

Politics, Any Way You Slice It
http://www.res.com/magazine/articles/politicsanywayyousliceit_2004-09-27.html

Words: Jesse Ashlock

"One of the more revealing anecdotes about modern political oratory comes from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, neurologist Oliver Sachs' 1987 collection of tales from the frontlines of clinical psychology. Sachs recalls watching a speech by the late President Reagan with patients in an aphasia ward and being astonished when they roared with laughter. Why did they laugh at Reagan? Aphasiacs compensate for their inability to comprehend language by becoming highly attuned to subtleties of diction and manner -- so much so, Sachs concluded, that "one cannot lie to an aphasiac." Though they could not understand the president's speech -- because they could not understand it -- they could read all "the grimaces, the histrionisms, the false gestures and, above all, the false tones and cadences of the voice." Their natural response to such grotesquerie was hilarity."


Too bad so much of the American public fell for the act.


"The magic of political cut-and-mix filmmaking is that it allows the rest of us "normals" to see and hear as aphasiacs do, to discover the humor in politicians' rhetorical attempts to manipulate and conceal. And if the basis of comedy is truth, as so many of its practitioners have attested, then these techniques also provide us an awareness of precisely those facts and circumstances which politicians' speechifying tries to obscure. As an artistic strategy, this is nothing new. The practice of recontextualizing dominant cultural iconography as a means of questioning mainstream institutional society's assertions and assumptions goes back at least as far as the Dadaists. The Situationist International further formalized the idea, dubbing it "detournement," while the culture jammers applied it systematically to the airwaves and mass media. The practice isn't even especially new to the screen, as '60s experimental filmmakers like Bruce Conner employed assemblage to address the political landscape of their time. But the explosion of cheap and easy digital technologies has spawned a new, larger generation of splicers and slicers who gleefully appropriate and subvert footage of talking heads and heads of state, often using the fluid delivery system of the Internet to disseminate their work."


So why is Bushco still wearing their invisible robe?