After watching the Republican 'hopefuls' vie to be the most Reagan-like candidate, I can only wonder why? I understand his PERCEIVED approval ratings were high, but the truth is, they were about average for his whole term. Far behind Kennedy and Eisenhower, and short of Clinton's marks as well as Bushco's father's!
This is NOT made clear by glowing reports of his "Unprecedented Popularity" & "The most popular president Ever to leave office" in the MSM - clearly bullshit - to anyone who cares to look - just google reagan approval.
Having watched the back and forth between the NYT Eds (and RW blogs - "No one thinks of Reagan as a racist") lately over the "Reagan Legacy" I was amazed that anyone would try such a transparent attempt at whitewashing (interesting term, that) the history of Reagan's actions.
The Reagan presidency was seen AT THE TIME to be racist in no uncertain terms, by friend and foe alike. Of course, friends of this policy were spinning it as something other than what it clearly was, even as it was being put in place, but I don't remember many being fooled at the time.
One of the first Reagan vetoes to be overridden (by a Republican controlled senate!) illustrates just where Ronny stood on the issue.
As David Corn puts it:
"Reagan was AWOL on one of the important battles for freedom and democracy in the 1980s: South Africa. He defended the racist apartheid government there and claimed—as wrongly as could be—that South Africa had "eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country." And when Republicans and Democrats joined together in Congress to impose economic sanctions on the government of South Africa, Reagan vetoed the measure.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, said, "Apartheid will be dismantled, and its victims will remember those who helped to destroy this evil system. And President Reagan will be judged harshly by history."
While Archbishop Tutu was right in most of what he says above, the part about Reagan's judgement is not complete - at least in the US.
This diary is about seeing Reagan for who he truly was. In order to be elected and to implement his Union busting, NMLB (no millionaire left behind), "turn the mentally ill out into the streets" policies he embraced the "Southern strategy".
In a speech on the hill just after his Nobel prize Tutu had also said: "Apartheid itself is evil, is immoral, is un-Christian, without remainder. In my view, the Reagan administration's support and collaboration with it is equally immoral, evil, and totally un-Christian. . . . You are either for or against apartheid and not by rhetoric. You are either in favor of evil or you are in favor of good. You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral."
Brooks and Krugman aside, the evidence for Reagan's racism is there and it is pervasive!
This behavior goes clear back to his time as Ca. governor and his fight against the "fair housing" issue.
"If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, he has a right to do so." - Reagan gubernatorial speech 1966.
Add to this...
"States rights"
"Welfare queens driving Cadillacs"
"Young bucks buying T bones"
The "humiliating to the South" voting rights act
The firing of civil rights commissioners
The MLK holiday opposition.
Bob Jones tax breaks
The list goes on...
If argued that it was "just politics" or a "misunderstanding" I would reply - what's the difference?
Why does this matter now? To paraphrase - Those who champion the rewriting of history WANT to repeat it. Bushco is the TRUE heir to Reagan, just look at his economic policy and NOLA.
"The concept of Ronald Reagan as a master Mole for the Aryan Nation has not taken hold yet in the centers of political power.
Said one veteran oil industry lobbyist "He raised millions of dollars for these dirty little Senate candidates, and then they all ran like rats when he needed their votes on South Africa. They left him out on a limb like some old racist fool."".
Hunter Thompson - September 1986
This diary only addresses the issue of Reagan's racism, he has a lot more to answer for! The 'blame Clinton' meme of Busco has a flip side for progressives. It is clear that Reagan's presidency is responsible for the start of the many of the ills that we are dealing with now. From the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to the Iran-Contra 'retreads' now back in government, and extending to the insane social/labor/ecological rollbacks - the effects of which we are now seeing - and in some cases, just beginning to see. All of this and more can be traced (in a straight, mean spirited line) to Reagan's term in office.