66 Things

[gridlore]

If the continuing deification of Ronald Reagan is making you as sick as it is making me, here are a few reminders of what really happened in the Reagan era.

List found in zyxwvut's journal



An antidote to false memories, selective memory, and post-mortem enshrinement.
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David Corn: 66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald Reagan

David Corn, in his blog; a rpt. of an article he published in the Nation in 1998 (June 6, 2004):

The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott Abrams, lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics, budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks, redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.

Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, "homeless by choice," Manuel Noriega, falling wages, the HUD scandal, air raids on Libya, "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa, United States Information Agency, blacklists of liberal speakers, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, assassination manuals, Nancy's astrologer.

Drug tests, lie detector tests, Fawn Hall, female appointees (8 percent), mining harbors, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. Marines in Beirut, Al Haig "in control," silence on AIDS, food-stamp reductions, Debategate, White House shredding, Jonas Savimbi, tax cuts for the rich, "mistakes were made."

Michael Deaver's conviction for influence peddling, Lyn Nofziger's conviction for influence peddling, Caspar Weinberger's five-count indictment, Ed Meese ("You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime"), Donald Regan (women don't "understand throw-weights"), education cuts, massacres in El Salvador.

"The bombing begins in five minutes," $640 Pentagon toilet seats, African- American judicial appointees (1.9 percent), Reader's Digest, C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed), 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey, Iran/contra.

"Facts are stupid things," three-by-five cards, the MX missile, Bitburg, S.D.I., Robert Bork, naps, Teflon.

Ah, the eighties in American politics... What did the President forget, and when did he forget it?

Comments

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

Actually, in this format anyway, I'm noting a far greater number of people wanting to vilify him than want to deify him...

He was a politician. *shrug*

[kshandra]

I'd rather not see either of those things happening, personally.

Re: I'm with you.

[soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com]

He was neither a god personified, nor a devil in a suit. He was a man. Fallible, and flawed. Every politician has done things that have been looked on with favor and with anger. Maybe a fair and balanced look at his presidency would be in order? (No, I am *not* turning in my Centrist card. I'm just tired of everyone going to screaming extremes about *everything*.)

[stone-princess.livejournal.com]

67. Shutting down all funding for mental health and creating the homeless problem by turing people out of institutions.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

68. Saving money by cutting TB treatment for homeless, thus causing the emergence of TBMR (which has cost the US economy alone more than 1000 times the money saved).

In fairness, this was a decision of the Reagan administration -- I have no idea whether the man himself knew anything about it. (From my memories of the time, that was something we frequently wondered about a lot of government policies...)

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but Reagan really can't take the fall for that one alone. He may have signed it, but it was the left wing who wanted mandatory hospitalization for mental health issues brought to an end. The funding was not eliminated, either. Cut back, yes, but once it was made possible for people to volunteer to be committed instead of it being mandatory, a lot of people chose not to be institutionalized. Since they really couldn't take care of themselves and their families couldn't have them forcibly hospitalized anymore for anything shy of murderous tendencies, they wound up on the streets. And fewer people in the hospitals meant lower operating costs.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

The list neglects to mention cutbacks in education benefits. College students were no longer allowed to be on welfare or get food stamps. This also meant folks who'd been displaced from a job and had to go on welfare were not able to get an education and pull themselves up.

If you made more than $8k/year you could not get a college loan under Reagan -- even though, at the time, the "poverty level" income here was $10k/year. Reagan was the reason I had to work full-time while going to school full-time. It was hell, and I don't recommend doing that to anyone.

[strangeduck.livejournal.com]

Forgive me for being too young to know what a single thing on that list means, but where could I find out what all those references actually refer to?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Google searches using the phrase and Reagan would be a good start.