Taste
At the peril of igniting a flamewar, I have this to say: lay off the Gipper.
I don't direct this at fools like Kos or Ted Rall who are beyond help or reason. I mean the bands of partisans who are wearing metaphorical sackcloth and ashes and beating their breasts over the death of a 93-year old citizen of the republic who, at the end of the day, was just a citizen. To hear FOX news tell it, Reagan single-handedly tore down the Iron Curtain, shit bullets, and invited Marines to dine nightly at the White House, all the while restoring America to greatness. While there's something to that, after a while it all seems rather indecent.
We have had a weeklong period of mourning with the same 24-hour news coverage afforded Laci Peterson, OJ, and a semen-streaked blue dress, capped off by a federal holiday (ironic, considering the cost and who it's for), and now keepers of the flame want Reagan's name or countenance on the Pentagon, the Mall (now, not 25 years from now), the $10, the $20, the 50-cent piece, and the dime. Isn't it enough that an airport and the largest Federal building in Washington (again, in a Churchillian grumble, i-rony) bear the guy's name?
While Reagan was the father of modern conservatism, and while (yes, yes) modern conservatives are perhaps underrepresented in memorials, I offer two thoughts. First, modern liberal Presidents outnumber conservatives about ten to one, with the other great modern conservative being dim star Richard Nixon. Therefore it's fitting that there are memorials to Wilson, Kennedy and Roosevelt (a three-termer, let's not forget) on our currency or the Mall. Moreover, the 25-year moratorium on memorials for Presidents is in place to ensure that history remembers well the man the monuments stand for. Can you imagine if the Mall were littered with the Garfield Memorial, the Taft Memorial, and the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Wishing Fountain? The bills currently in Congress to replace Hamilton on the $10 and Jackson on the $20 are particularly laughable. Replace the father of American Finance? The father of American popular democracy? Please. Of course, a flag-burning amendment has once again made it out of Senate committee, so I can't take any of this too seriously.
[*Initiate snark sequence*] Where is the mad rush to place memorials to LBJ in every corner of the country? His was the last state funeral (if I'm not mistaken), and he was the closest Democratic cousin to Reagan in terms of legacy and impact. [*Ending snark sequence*]
I just wish Reagan's partisans could have a sense of perspective, of restraint. Reagan wasn't a king, and he definitely wasn't superman, and a week-long national spasm of grief and plaudits followed by a mad rush to erect statues assuring future generations of his greatness seems, well, kind of crass.
[wik] All this being said, I will never forget the sight of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the United States' enemy for most of the last century, paying his respects to Ronald Reagan in the Congressional Rotunda.
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Reagan is the right's
Reagan is the right's figurehead. And like the best of figureheads he's been mute for a decade so all manner of words, ideas, and thoughts can put in his mouth without fear of his refuting them. The race to name a creek or rec-center in all 3000 of our nation's counties would have embarrassed him.
The man's dead so there's no point in piling on but I for one am sick of all the mewling hagiographies. He was a real and complex person. His motivations weren't always clear. He could give the most wondrous and marvelous speeches. His presidency was highly controversial. His subordinates engaged in felonious activities that gave material aid and comfort to one of the current axes of evil. He was right about the Wall and the Soviet Union. However, his policies of fighting the Cold War in this hemisphere led to shameful alliances with mass murderers. He wasn't particularly religious and wasn't personally fond of the religious right. Although he may have accelerated the pace, he did little to end the Cold War. He just happened to preside at the time of its inevitable implosion. He and his wife likely had the closest marriage in recent presidential memory. He and his kids were not close for much of their adult lives.
All the omniscient talking heads and mindless repitition of career highlights overlook the reality of Ronald Wilson Reagan and thus do the late gentleman a disservice.
[Note to Johno, while we're on the irony train: National Airport was renamed Reagan National Airport. One of his first official acts was to fire many thousands of striking air traffic controllers. Legacy. Yeah.]
This is just too good to
This is just too good to resist. Now if only I didn't have to drive soon.
[url=http://www.thestranger.com/current/grab_bag.html]http://www.thestranger…]
I liken the masses who turned
I liken the masses who turned out to view his coffin to the masses who show up at crime scenes out of morbid curiosity, but carrying flowers so they won't look like the assholes that they are.
If you truly felt some "deep" connection to ol' Ronnie - donate some money to an Alzheimer's charity. Don't just stand there waving to the camera.
All I can say is that I left
All I can say is that I left for work at 10am. I just need to go 5 blocks to the library to drop off some overdue books. I nearly smacked into 2 motorcades. Honestly, do they have to blare the sirens that loud?
At first, I thought that it was an unusally busy morning for Georgetown's trauma center, and then I realized it's all those peeps in Gtown making it up to the Cathedral. Sheesh, even the airplane noise from the incoming red eye flights this weekend didn't stir me from my sleep the way a nice loud wailing siren will.
The only thrill was seeing into the blackened windows for my ex-boyfriend, the Federal agent. [he's such a hottie in custom made suits] He also taught me how to count he number of targets in a car when the windows are blacked out. I'm surprised how easy it is if you know what you're doing. Plus they were all riding with windows down today. Stupid. If they're going to do that, they should just take the fucking 3X bus up Wisconsin. They come every 10 minutes and don't pull cops off of other duties.
Seriously, I have no comment on Reagan. I realized I was was a really small child when he was president and I barely understood my parents fighting about money during the recession in '82, let alone feel strongly about all the other things happening in the world at that time. May his soul rest in peace and let God be his judge.
J:
J:
Thanks for the HTML lesson. Details noted.
Assuming I don't screw up and lose it, I have a work in progress in another window on the Reagan meta-issue which will be posted shortly. In essence, it will be read by anyone who sees both it and your post as "Uh, like Johno sez..."