I flew into a rage when I read on
CNN that
The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs.
Atrios, in yet another attention-grabbing headline, announced that we are at the Gates of Delerium. He's right. He also said that he never would have believed that a party that controls all three branches of government would start demanding to review the content of television programs.
Atrios, I love you.
But there is a deeper story lurking in there--beyond the tender feelings the GOP has for it's addled granddad. Through the magic of Google, I found an article that pointed me to the Reagan Legacy Project, which is devoted to naming at least one public landmark in every state after him. Founded in 1997 and sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, it is headed by none other than the now-ubiquitous conservative "activist" Grover Norquist. Yes, THAT Grover Norquist.
Another slick web-site devoted to promoting the legacy of Reagan is an offshoot of the Federalist Society (eek!), and endorsed by Grover Norquist's son, Michael.
I begin to understand that this is serious stuff. There is a serious, well-funded, on-going, organized effort to re-make Ronald Reagan into a deity.
Do these GOP freaks not remember the '80s???
It all came into focus at another Reagan Site . There, Rush slammed it up his nose summed it up for me pretty well in an excerpt from his 1993 book:
But sadly, the misinformation about Reagan and his administration persists. The effort to destroy him continues to this day. Examples are chronicled throughout this book, from blaming him for the Los Angeles riots of 1992, for the AIDS crisis, for environmental destruction, to the unending criticism of his economic policy leveled by practically every liberal Democrat in the country. It is a ceaseless blend of cacophonous and disjointed hysteria. Why? Quite simply, my friends, it is because Ronald Reagan is hated and despised. Strong words, I know, but I mean them. Hated because he demonstrated the folly of liberalism. He is the conspicuous symbol of its demise.
Where have I seen this before? Where?
It's truly amazing. In the '80s, we begged, pleaded. No, we DEMANDED appropriate attention and sane, scientific AIDS policy. Christ we threw blood at the White House. We held POLITICAL FUNERALS. That's just not done in this country!
What us gay guys/AIDS activists wanted from Reagan were things that he could actually get done with the power of his pen and the bully pulpit. Like explicit prevention education (such as distribution of condoms and sex education in the schools), information about and access to treatments for AIDS, an end to discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS, including the loss of jobs and benefits, and an "emergency" effort to find a cure for the disease.
And Reagan? He did as little as humanly possible and then lied about it. It was ideology over science. And he almost won that Abstinence Only argument, waaay back before it even had a name.
Funny thing is the GOP is now more upset at the truth being told about Reagan than they EVER were about AIDS. EVER.
That is, however, the subject of another Diary Entry. Ahh. In fact, it reminds me of something. Only I can't put my finger on it.
So who thinks CBS is going to cave?