Either someone on First Lady Jill Biden’s staff has a sick sense of humor, is a troll, or is just really, extraordinarily obtuse. On Wednesday, the first day of June, the first day of Pride Month, they announced that there will be a White House celebration next Monday for Nancy Reagan. She’s getting a stamp. So Postmaster General Louis DeJoy will be there, too.
Yeah. Nancy Reagan. Of those Reagans. The administration that treated the AIDS crisis as a big joke—literally.
President Ronald Reagan did not publicly acknowledge the existence of AIDS until September 1985, four years after it emerged in the U.S. And then it was only because a reporter brought it up at a press conference.
And yes, Biden is having this celebration with that Louis DeJoy—the guy Trump handpicked to destroy the Postal Service. The most hated, corrupt person in government since Trump’s departure.
Yes, Congressman Pascrell—they should fire DeJoy now. They should have fired him months ago.
Just in case you think this is maybe something that’s been in the works forever and not really the responsibility of the Biden administration, nope. Wednesday’s announcement was the first anyone heard of it publicly. The USPS made the surprise announcement that it would issue the stamp June 1. The first day of Pride Month. It absolutely smacks of Louis DeJoy trolling the libs. And the White House playing along?
What in the hell are they thinking?
It is absolutely an unforced error. There’s nobody friendly to the White House that is going to look on this kindly. It’s a poke in the eye to the LGBTQ and allied community. It’s a poke in the eye to the former First Ladies—Eleanor Roosevelt, Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, and Lady Bird Johnson—who also have stamps on the basis of having done stuff for the nation that wasn’t harmful.
It’s showing an administration that doesn’t really get where it’s seated right now, at this existential tipping point for democracy. That everything is normal and thy have to be pleasant and conciliatory to the people who are trying to destroy not just the Biden administration, but the whole Democratic party and a majority of its base.
It’s just “galling,” as the editors of GayNrd write. “To call Nancy and her husband Ronald’s stance during the AIDS epidemic problematic is almost laughable. Almost because there’s nothing too funny about it.”
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