The man behind the myth sheds a lot of light on why there is a need for a myth in the first place. If you go into the Capitol Rotunda, you will find a statue of this man who broke the laws of the very body where this statue is housed. What kind of person was the man who busted air traffic controller’s unions, enabled the deregulation that caused the Savings and Loan implosion and whom was busted lying to the American people about the Iran Contra affair and why does he deserve to have history rewritten in his favor?
Despite his belief that Biblical End Times prophecy should influence policy, (he once called the Soviet Union “Gog”) he and his wife were devout believers in Astrology. Astrology, is frequently derided by many Fundamentalists as witchcraft, but Ron and Nancy get free passes because they have so enabled the social conservative agenda. Nancy took it so seriously that she ordered dedicated phone lines to be installed in the White House and Camp David so she could never be without the wisdom of the zodiac.
The President of the United States had his wife’s personal astrologer go over his itinerary and change it so that everything was optimized for the best influence of the Zodiac. Chief of Staff Don Regan was ordered to confer with Nancy regarding which days were best for the President’s activities. According to Joan Quigley’s memoirs, this belief in superstition was taken to seriously that the announcement of Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court was coordinated by a man with a stopwatch to insure that the man hit the correct moment!
This belief in superstition was echoed in the most powerful commander-in-chief of armed forces in the world believed completely in End Times eschatology. A man with the power to bring about Armageddon was a believer in Astrology and was quoted in the December 1983 issue of People magazine as saying-
"Theologians had been studying the ancient prophecies -- what would portend the coming of Armageddon-- and have said that never, in the time between the prophecies up untiI now, has there ever been a time in which so many of the prophecies are coming together. There have been times in the past when people thought the end of the world was coming, and so forth, but never anything like this."
This attitude was reflected in his Administration as well, His Secretary of the Interior James Watt, a man whose job it was to preserve the environment for future generations once said, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.”
But Reagan was very much a believer in hands off management. His job was not to lead. It was to use his movie star media savvy experience to sell an agenda to the American people while posing in front of a flag, reciting humorous stories, and reading a speech off a teleprompter. And he was given a pass by the press on that for most of his time in the White House.
Understand that Reagan had been shot while in office only 69 days. The press initially went easy on him. The public sympathy towards their leader was similar to what happened to George W. Bush after 9-11. The press took it easy on him when it should not have. The Executive Branch of the U.S is so powerful that it should never be given a free pass from inspection simply because pundits say that now is the time to rally around our leader.
But it makes sense that if a leader is basically hands off to an agenda that increases the deficit that was such a dire concern in the 1980 campaign, deregulates the S&Ls so that his contributors can have high yield no risk investments, increases defense contractor handouts, violates a law regarding funding terrorists in Central America with US taxpayer money, and empowered the Mujahadeen and Osama Bin Laden, elevate a War on Drugs that savagely curtails our legal rights, if you benefit from any of these policies, then the man is a hero who deserves his name on an airport.
That’s the reason behind the retelling of recent history. The powers behind the throne, the think tanks, the real Washington elite had a perfect sock puppet in Ronald Reagan. However horrible the policy, he can look the camera in the eye, justify it in focus group selected words which some speechwriter wrote that he reads convincingly off of a teleprompter.
He could even lie through his teeth to the American public regarding breaking the law and not be held accountable. On November 19, 1986, Ronald Reagan held a press conference regarding selling Tow and Hawk missiles to Iran. He said “…We only sold a few missiles” (more than 2,000 were sold), “We don’t condone shipments to 3rd parties…”, (Israel shipped the missiles), “The missiles were not sold to get back hostages…”(They were sold for that and to fund the Contras) and “We are trying to promote a dialogue with Iranian moderates…” (This was Khomeni’s regime. The moderates were either dead or in jail!)
Two months later, when testifying in front of the Tower Commission on this matter, he specifically acknowledged approving the arms sales. Two weeks after that he tried to reverse that and say his prior statement was erroneous. He was even caught accidentally reading his own notes on evading questions aloud into the record. He said under oath while looking at his notes “If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised.”
Ronald Reagan could get away with saying that South Africa had stood with us during every war we’ve ever been in. They were actually on the other side during a war Mr. Reagan had fought in himself. He allowed an invasion of Beruit, then ran away while accusing his political opposition of cowardice. He escalated the Nixon era policy of a War on Drugs that serves to imprison people cruelly instead of treating their addiction.
He pardoned W. Mark Felt and Edward Miller for authorizing FBI agents to break into VietNam protesters’ offices without a warrant (small government behavior? I don’t think so!)
When he was running for office he said-
-“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."- Burlington Free Press, 15 Feb 1980
-“History shows that when the taxes of a nation approach about 20 percent of the people's income, there begins to be a lack of respect for government... When it reaches 25 percent, there comes an increase in lawlessness.”- Time magazine, 14 Apr 1980
-"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the G.I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything."- Newsweek magazine, 21 Apr 1980
-"Trains are not any more energy efficient than the average automobile, with both getting about 48 passenger miles to the gallon."- Chicago Tribune, 10 May 1980
-"Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emissions standards from man-made sources."- Sierra magazine, 10 Sep 1980
-"I have flown twice over Mount St. Helens. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that one little mountain out there, in these last several months, has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind."- Time magazine, 20 Oct 1980
Each of these statements is provably false and he was elected anyway. That might explain why Donald Trump isn’t concerned about being the Birther candidate!
The man obviously existed in a delusional fog completely divorced from reality. But he could read a speech in front of a teleprompter and make the nation feel that gaps in these falsehoods were not important, we’re being protected from the Soviet’s Evil Empire by him and his cronies.
I think that is the reason behind the recent Jan 21st Time Magazine cover stating Obama loves Reagan! Obama admiring this man and contributing to his myth, shows the current Chief Executive’s true colors. He has no problem letting the country be run by interests who did not or will not vote for him. As long as he can read a speech from a teleprompter and make us feel good about the worst ideas Washington elitists come up with, he has every reason to think he can repeat what Reagan did with a sluggish economy and low approval ratings.
But the bias in the news media is not liberal. If it was Reagan and Bush II would never have been given the free passes they were. I can’t see Obama making the deliberately false statements like Reagan did during the coming campaign and getting away with it.
Admire the political ability of Reagan or his handlers if you must. But as a person and a President, he was sorely lacking. How does Reagan, a proven senile, superstitious, delusional old fool, deserve his name on an airport, much less having history rewritten in his favor?
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