Ronald Reagan Roasts In Eternal Damnation While "Reaganism" Continues To Wreck America

[omega minimo]

“How can you govern iif you don’t believe in government? YOU CAN’T!!”
http://www.thomhartmann.com


“ ‘Success’ is not No Violence. Success is a level of violence where people feel comfortable going about their daily lives... and that’s what we’re trying to achieve.” -- GWBushco. May, 2007




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.

:rofl: :evilfrown:

Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy
Walter Williams
ISBN: 9780878401475 (0878401474)

"Williams says, correctly, that Reaganism's antigovermentalism and market fundamentalism contributed mightily to the decline in support for the public sphere. Whether, as Williams claims, a better informed public can lead us toward a better day is arguable. But it's an argument that needs to take place as we strive to revitalize representative democracy. This thought-provoking book is a must read for anyone who cares about the condition of American democracy." —Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government & the Press, Harvard University

"Williams has produced a 'big picture' book lamenting the decline of American democracy. Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy is an articulate critique of a number of trends affecting the capability and competence of American government and the manipulation of the public by the media and politicians. This book will stir passions and arguments and, ironically therefore, contribute to the health of American democracy." —Bert A. Rockman, director, School of Public Policy and Management, The Ohio State University

"Walt Williams' Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy is a sweeping study of the corrosive role of right-wing ideology on the capacity of the American nation to govern itself. Williams offers persuasive evidence that the right-wing onslaught has undermined both the capacity of citizens to hold government accountable and the ability of government agencies to carry out public programs. It should be read by political leaders, policy professionals, and citizens wanting relief from the steady drumbeat of propaganda from the think-tank right." —Bryan D. Jones, Donald R. Matthews Distinguished Professor of American Politics, University of Washington

This is a reasoned but passionate look at how Reaganism—the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan—has severely damaged representative democracy as created by the nation's founders. According to Williams, Reagan and his foremost disciple George W. Bush have created a plutocracy where the United States is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people but is ruled by the wealthiest individuals and corporate America. Refreshingly unafraid to point out that Reaganism's anti-government fundamentalism stands on feet of clay, Walter Williams asks that Americans move from their political apathy to pay attention to the politicians and the corporations lurking behind the power curtain to see the dangers they represent to the true essential of the American way of life.

Williams' most important contribution is his extended analysis of the central role the key institutions—the presidency, Congress, the federal agencies—must play for the U.S. government to be capable in both sustaining representative democracy and protecting the safety and economic security of the American people. A clear result of the weakened institutions has been the grossly inadequate homeland security effort following September 11, and the massive corporate fraud revealed by Enron and other large firms that robbed the nation of hundreds of billions of dollars in stock values and depleted the pension savings of millions of people. The initial destructive blow that damaged the institutions of governance can be traced to Ronald Reagan and his simplistic antigovernment philosophy that fostered rapacious business practices and personal greed. The book also takes the media to task, criticizing the dismal record of failing to investigate the political and corporate chicanery that has brought us to this pass.

Keenly argued and scrupulously documented, Walter Williams has written a stinging wake-up call to the dangers of the demise of representative democracy and the rise of plutocracy that American citizens can ignore only at their peril.

Walter Williams is professor emeritus at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington and a frequent contributor to the editorial pages of newspapers across the country. His most recent books are Mismanaging America and Honest Numbers and Democracy.

[hfojvt]

1. "Reaganomics worked.

This is the jewel in Rush's crown of bullsh*t. This is the big lie - the one he desperately needs the working class members of his audience to believe. If Reaganomics worked, Rush is a straight-talking champion of the little guy on a populist crusade to take the country back from those pointy-headed liberals who think they know what's good for everybody and are drunk with the power of sending out welfare checks.

If Reaganomics didn't work, Rush is the carnival clown hired to distract the crowd while paramedics carry the mangled bodies from a derailed roller coaster. He does a little juggling, pulls some flowers out of his hat, and when the crowd begins to get a little anxious about the rising body count, he starts shrieking hysterically that this never would have happened if it weren't for those (expletive deleted) liberal safety inspectors." "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot" p. 144

All of the Republicans were still talking Reaganomics in the debate as they all stress the desire, the need for more tax cuts. Even after two huge tax cuts for the wealthy (and many more which were further under the radar) and even with huge deficits, a war, which they promise not to end, to pay for (not to mention reconstruction) and social security and medicare financing problems as baby-boomers retire. Even with all that, they still are all talking about tax cuts!! It's Reagan's "bribe the voter" strategy which Republicans have used in every election since then.

[omega minimo]

2. Devolution Accompllished

"Rush is the carnival clown hired to distract the crowd while paramedics carry the mangled bodies from a derailed roller coaster."

I refused to listen to Limbaugh for decades, until Ed Shouts drove me away from our "progressive" radio station in the mornings (after they lost Hartmann) ....

Limbaugh's act is fascinating for it's self righteous insanity. Total Doublethink Up Is Down ill logic. If he's a carnival clown, the boss is Big Brother. He's a mouthpiece for how the believers are supposed to buy everything that Reaganism sells.

:thumbsdown:



:hi: hfojvt :spray: