About Ronald Reagan
Reagan Family Gatherings Must be Interesting
A serendipitous thing happened Friday evening which relates to my previous topic. After fishing Friday afternoon at our "home lake," Lake Perris (not to be confused with the city in France), we hurried home to hopefully see Eunice and my favorite comedy, "Hyacinth" (Keeping up Appearances), an English comedy shown on public television. Being sweeps time, they had that insipid violinist, Andre Rieu on the station, instead. Turning the station, I found Bill Moyer's Journal, a show I really like (but Eunice doesn't quite seem to comprehend due to her limited English). They were talking about hate-mongering right wingers, and how they might have motivated that man who killed several people at a Unitarian Church in Tennessee. The Unitarian Church (in Riverside) is the one I used to attend, and still more or less consider myself to be a Unitarian, but in recent years, Eunice has been obliging me to take her to Bible thumping churches, including the @#%$@(%&%$% Baptist Church I wrote of in an earlier post (and had to endure once again earlier today). Well, up on the screen, among the right wing hate-mongers, pops Michael Reagan. It turns out that he is now one of them. He was shown saying that anyone who thinks the U.S. government had some complicit involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks should be executed. This made me think I needed to do a little more research about the Reagan family. Perhaps I was even being too harsh on Ronald Reagan by impugning his integrity and his fatherly concern.
As it turns out, I probably wasn't being harsh enough in my criticism of Reagan's dsyfunctional parenting style and overall disingenuousness. Here is what I found. Ronald Reagan had 4 children, plus one who died in childbrith. The eldest, with actress Jane Wyman, was Maureen, who died of cancer in 2001. The next was Michael. However, he was adopted in 1945, then Reagan and Wyman divorced in 1949, and Michael never lived with Ronald Reagan, nor spent much time with him, after that. Michael grew up having many emotional problems. A major source of Michael's problems was that he was molested by a camp counselor when he was 8 years old. His father, Ronald, never seemed concerned over the incident, nor gave Michael any sympathy. The sexual abuse of Michael made me wonder, seriously, whether this is a causal factor in hate-mongering. Perhaps they are trying to retaliate against some power-mad pedophile, and blaming any convenient scapegoats available, such as Liberals, Gays, Immigrants, Minorities, etc.
Reagan's third child, Patti, who Reagan had with his second wife, Nancy Davis Reagan, was rebellious and quite liberal. She even wrote a slimly disguised novel about a free-thinking liberal child of man who was a conservative governor of California, then President. Although she did have something of an emotional reconciliation with her father later on, Patti calls herself Patti Davis, not Patti Reagan, which pretty much says it all. Ronald Reagan's final child is Ron Reagan, the topic of my previous post. Ron Reagan supposedly had shown no political inclinations in the websites that I observed. In fact, Ron is stated as having had the smoothest relationship with his father of any of Reagan's children. Despite this, in recent years, Ron has clearly shown antithetical political views to those of his father, given that he now hosts a progressive talk show.
Moreover, Ronald Reagan rarely showed any affection toward any of his children. He also interacted with them only rather infrequently. Even though all of them were reasonably intelligent, none of Ronald Reagan's children finished college. There was definitely something dysfunctional in the family of this man who claimed to represent family values to the American people. In other words, what a hypocrite!
These are two websites I found to be good sources of information about the Reagan family:
September 10
Ronald Reagan's Namesake Son is a Liberal
In recent days, I have been hearing quite a bit from a fellow named Ron Reagan, on progressive talk radio. It turns out that he is Ronald Reagan's namesake son. I had heard years ago that Ronald Reagan's son, Ron, was a liberal and an activist, but it was only recently that I began actually hearing him speak. In fact, he recently got his own radio program on progressive talk radio, which I heard for the first time yesterday.
I have to wonder what conservatives think of him. Perhaps they think of him as some sort of traitor. Perhaps they think of him as misguided. But the fact is, Ron Reagan's politics being diametrically opposed to that of his iconic father is an embarassment to conservatives. As detailed elsewhere on this blog, the original Ronald Reagan himself used to be a Democrat until something strange happened to him around the time he met his future second wife, Nancy Davis, the daughter of a powerful conservative, and he seemed to sell his soul to the conservative movement. I do not think the same thing will happen to his son. Unfortunately, it was the original Ronald Reagan who became president, not the son. I guess going conservative is the path of least resistance to power. Of course, the conservative media chooses to ignore Ron Reagan, the son, which is the path of most resistance to power and influence.
The real reason why I am writing (or lefting) this blog entry is that Ron Reagan, the son, grew up with Ronald Reagan, the father, so presumably he has insight into President Reagan that others do not have available. Thus, the fact that Ron Reagan, the son, opposes his father's political views, tells us quite a lot about Ronald Reagan, the father. I believe one of Ronald Reagan's daughters also is a liberal. Granted, some of Reagan's family members may still be conservatives, but the defections are quite significant. I have not heard much about Ron Reagan, the son's, opinions of his father, but it is clear that he feels his father's political orientation was wrong, and from what I have heard Ron Reagan, the son, say, he seems to view his father as disingenuous and hypocritical. He also talks about how Republicans use distractions, lies, tricks, and superficial feel good messages, and take advantage of human nature in order to get people to vote for their candidates.
It is not unusual for children to disagree with their parents about politics, but it is when one's father is a political icon. Perhaps the lessons that Ron Reagan learned growing up -- lessons which resulted in him opposing his father's political orientation -- are ones which we can all learn, and Ron Reagan can be our teacher. I look forward to hearing more from Ron Reagan, the son. Sometimes, the child turns out better and wiser than the parent. Congratulations on your new job, Ron, and good luck!
Friday, August 29, 2008
Speaking well of the living, and ill of the dead
Current
mood: hopeful
Category: News and Politics
Now that the Democratic National Convention is over, I am
going to lay it on the line here -- no humor today. It is time to speak well of
the living, and ill of the dead. I have written extensively about politics on my
boxfreeblog (but not this week), although I have not summarized things quite
like this.
I remember when stadiums were named after places or features, not corporations. I remember when "Invesco Field" where Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech, was called "Mile High Stadium." How Symbolic! If you want a future where we are not peons made to pay homage to the Coirporate Gods, vote for Barack Obama!
I remember when CEOs were not paid milllions of bonus dollars on top of their multimillion dollar salaries, and I remember when their employees were able to pay their own way, rather than having more debts than assets. Two of our immediate neighbors on my street have had their houses foreclosed just in the past few weeks, and they had to suddenly move without being able to sell their houses. That is because the bank now owns their houses. If you want a decent economic future, with some semblance of economic fairness, vote for Barack Obama! If you do not want all the "Goodies" and power concentrated in the hands of a few people, vote for Barack Obama!
I remember when the United States was internationally respected, and was not the immoral, militaristic bully of the world. If you want the United States to back away from its rampant, caustic, immoral and destuctive military imperialism, vote for Barack Obama!
Of course, few people, including myself, are likely to agree with everything about Obama, but it is clear that he is a remarkable and brilliant person, a wonderful orator, a great leader, and a man who has the correct priorities in general for both the United States and the world. And as Obama said during his acceptance speech, this election is not about him. It is about us. It is about us as a nation finding our better nature, and moving forward in a positive direction. It is about us as a nation, not attemting to assert our dominance over other nations, but rather, treating them as equals. Truely actualized people do not need to proclaim their greatness; they lead by their example, good will and ideas. It is the same with nations. We may be a leader among nations by our example, good will, and good ideas, but never by force.
Now that I have spoken well of the living, I will speak ill of the dead, as well as some of the living. Who is to blame for these problems we face as a nation? Clearly, it is the conservatives and the so-called "neocons." Yes, Bush, Cheney, Rove, and other like-minded individuals high in the power structure share some of the blame, but they only represent the continuance of policies which were begun many years ago. In fact, the person who should take the most blame for our current troubles, is Ronald Reagan, along with the colleagues who helped get him into power and spin his image in such a way as to maintain his popularity. The corporate media shares some of the blame for what has been happening in the U.S., and make no mistake, the media is biased and corporate in nature. It is true that some media outlets are progressive, such as Air America, whose Thom Hartmann I am listening to now, but by and large, the media is controlled by wealthy conservatives, such as Rupert Murdoch (thus, my disdain for him). The voting public also shares some of the blame for what has gone on in American politics. Voters have been rather easily duped by Republican scare tactics (eg. terrorism or communist "threats") and naive appeals to self-interest (eg, tax cuts and "freedom from government interference"). Meanwhile, conservative politicians have constructed a mighty coalition, one which I call the MIRP complex. That stands for Military-Industrial-Religious-Political complex. However, I sense that the public is waking up to the unfair tactics of Republicans and the inevitable failures of their policies.
Strangely enough, Reagan used to be a Democrat, and Thom Hartmann has played a tape of Reagan several times, railing against corporatism and encouraging voters to vote for Democrats. A couple years later, he married Nancy Davis, the daughter of a wealthy and prominant conservative, and began working for GE doing a radio talk show. Suddenly, he apparently sold his soul to the conservative movement. Ever since then, our nation has been on a dangerous and downhill course, led by the "neocons."
By the way, George W. Bush is pretty much the same type of president that Reagan was, except that Bush had a Republican majority in congress, and Reagan did not. Even the Clinton presidency did not do much to reverse the trend toward the MIRP complex, probably because he was working with a Republican-dominated congress, and maybe because Clinton is more of a moderate by nature.
If you want to reverse the destrcutive course our nation is on, and put our nation back on the path of progress, please vote for Barack Obama! Remember, this is one of the most important elections in the history of the United States, and the future is in our hands. I am a believer in the idea that good will win out in the end, good ideas that work, and the people who put those ideas into action. Now is the time to make it happen.
July 14
Not Playing Fair: Republican Election Strategies
Republicans have been outnumbered by Democrats for many years, yet, they have dominated the presidency since 1980, and at times, have dominated congress. This post is about the strategies that Republicans have developed which have allowed them to have success in elections. Prior to listing these strategies, I should point out 2 things: 1. Democrats are a more diverse group than Republicans and do not vote as consistently for Democratic candidates as Republicans for Republican candidates, and; 2. demographic trends favor Democrats into the future, adding further impetus to Republican strategists to find ways to convince voters to vote for their candidates, something which will probably and hopefully become a more difficult task. However, this fact is complicated by the Republican-like behavior of many Democrats, who seem to defer to Republicans out of fear of voter retribution on many topics, as described yesterday. That is why it is important for the public to be well-educated about the issues, and to make their feelings known to politicians. Most of us do not want a political choice between conservative Republicans, and semi-conservative Republican-like Democrats. I believe that most Americans want the chance to vote for people of truely different perspectives, including true progressive candidates, in addition to conservative candidates.
Unfair Republican election strategies include the following:
1.Making a deal with a foreign government -- Reagan's advisors, including the senior George Bush, apparently made a deal with the Iranians not to release the hostages until after the election in 1980. Reagan, who had been trailing Jimmy Carter, ended up winning the election, largely as a result of the Iranian Hostage Crisis. There is considerable evidence that in order to complete their part of the deal, the Reagan Administration gave many millions of the recently deposed Shah of Iran's money to the new Iranian government plus $150 million in arms for their war with Iraq. Israel was also compicit in this deal-making process (Looking up "October Surprise" on the internet yields references too numerous to mention on this topic.);
2. Using fear to motivate voters -- fear of terrorism, fear of foreigners, fear of crime, fear of foreign invasion, fear of loss of individual freedom, are all issues which Republicans regularly exploit in order to gain votes;
3. Appealing to a sense of individual freedom -- a common theme is that each person must stand alone and be self-responsible in order to prevent the loss of freedom;
4. Appealing to greed -- the whole "greed is good" philosophy was begun during the Reagan Administration; taxes are viewed as antithetical to human nature; Individuals are seen as having the right to as much money as they can get their grubby little hands on;
5. Doing strange things with voting machines, otherwise known as cheating -- in "swing states" or close elections, strange things favoring Republicans have been happening rather regularly; also, Republicans do better in final vote counts than in exit polling; This has never been the case before, nor is it in other nations, so something very suspicious has been happening;
6. "Vote Caging" -- this is when registered letters are sent to voters in Democrat-dominated areas, usually ones with a predominance of non-whites, and any letters which are returned unopened are used to argue that the registered voter does not live there, and therefore, is not allowed to vote;
7. Having too few voting stations in urban, Democrat-dominated areas, so that long lines, mostly of minority-race voters, form, and some eventually give up and don't vote, or they run out of time to vote;
8. Defining Democratic candidates in the most negative possible terms before the candidate has a chance to define him or her self in positive terms, even lying, if necessary, in order to do so (for instance, the John Kerry Swiftboat ads). Of course, Democrats do some of this sort of negative campaigning against Republicans, as well, but Republicans are particularly vigorous in using this tactic, and have virtually made a science out of it.
9. Blaming Democrats for everything that ges wrong during their administrations, even if it is the result of Republican ideas. For example, Republicans in the California State Legislature pushed for one of their pet projects, deregulation of electricity, and got it. After it was implemented, it turned out to be a disaster, with electricity prices spiraling out of control, and Bush's buddies at Enron and other electricity companies making out like bandits. However, the consrvative media with all of their Rush Limbaugh talk-alikes continually blamed the problem on then Democratic Governor Gray Davis, and managed to enact the special recall election which removed him from office and replaced him with another phoney-bloney Republican actor Governor, California's current Governor, Arnold Schwarzeneggar. As you can tell, I am more than a little angry about this entire sordid and revolting affair.
I know that many of these issues have been mentioned in previous posts, but for the sake of importance and continuity of recent posts, I felt I needed to put all of this information together in one post. Besides, not playing fair, and especially cheating, offend my sense of ethics and infuriate me, especially when something so important as the direction our nation takes is at stake!
May 25
Yesterday afternoon turned out to be one of "Eunice's Labor Camp Days." We were moving various pet houses, kitty condos, tables, large potted plants, a metal and wood tool holding contraption, a heavy, beauty shop sink and so forth. Whatever was too heavy for Eunice, she asked me to carry; if it was too heavy for me, we both carried it together. It was not raining yesterday, but it was cool and cloudy. I gather that the storm had moved northward and was causing snow to fall in the Sierra mountains. Anyway, the purpose of all this movement is to get our larger potted plants all in the greenhouse we had built. Then, Eunice plans to hire Reyna to make a drip irrigation system for them.
We People Versus Me People Part 4: Revolting Politics
As mentioned yesterday, when I was a child, we in California had this phony-baloney, actor governor who hated trees, loved big business, and was basically no good, in my opinion. He went on to become a phony-baloney president when I was 21 years old and voting in my first presidential election for Jimmy Carter, who lost and became perhaps the best ex-president this nation has ever had. The thing that made me really suspicious was when the hostages were released from Iran as soon as Reagan became president. Obviously, Reagan's team had made some sort of hypocritical, nefarious deal with those terrorists they claimed they never dealt with, in order to help their side win the election; as long as Carter was in office, he would be saddled with the hostage situation, dragging down his presidency. Six minutes after Reagan was sworn in as president, the Iranians kept their end of the bargain, and released the hostages. This would be my first clue that somethng was seriously wrong with the way politics works in the United States, and in particular, the way that Republicans will do anything to foist their way into power. I find it strange that there was not more public outrage over the matter. I guess those who voted for Reagan, wanted to count it as some sort of diplomatic coup for him, while those who had not, for the most part, were too preoccupied with Reagan's ascendency or too new to the process and inhibited, as I was. Of course, another coup of even greater proportions, which has received more attention, is that of George W. Bush's ascendency to the presidency in 2000. But there was another coup, here in California, which resulted in us getting another actor as governor. When Grey Davis was governor, around the beginning of his second term which started in 2003, conservatives managed to blame him for everything that was going wrong in our state. A plethora of conservative pundits got on the airwaves, and somehow managed to link Davis to the ripping off of California by Bush's buddies at Enron. They also blamed Davis for being controlled by lobbyists, and for California's entire budget deficit. The whole affair gave me mental nausea, if you know what I mean, the same sort of nausea that I get when I hear George W. Bush speak. Subsequently, a recall election was held in which Davis was recalled, and Arnold Schwarzeneggar took his place. Then there is the matter of teh 2002 gubernatorial election in Alabama, when in the middle of the night, a large number of (statistically impossible) Republican votes suddenly appeared to erase Democrat Don Siegelman's lead, and make his Republican opponent the winner. Is it any wonder by now that I find the actions of the Republican Party revolting? I bellieve that, over time, more and more of the electorate are joining me in this disdain over such political maneuvers. Sooner or later, if these Republican tactics continue, I predict that there will be a sort of populist revolt, a peaceful, protesting populist revolt which takes place in public venues as well as at the ballot box. It may be argued that this quiet revolution, in fact, has already begun. The public is tired of being treated like serfs and peons (or is it pee-ons?) to the ruling Republican feudal lords. Technology may march on, but economically, wealthy Republicans have been recreating essentially a feudal system once again here in the United States, largely undoing centuries of social and economic progress. The good news is that we, as in the "we people," the ones who place the highest priority on the public good, can retake our society from the "me people," the ones who place their own personal gain above anything else. We have a voice and have a vote. That is something even the "me people" cannot take away.
At one time, Ronald Reagan was a "we person," a flaming liberal. I have heard a tape, on the Thom Hartmann show, of Ronald Reagan in his liberal days, entreating the public to vote for union friendly, anticorporatist candidates in the election. Not long after that, he met Nancy Davis (ironically the same last name as California's former Democratic governor), and her ultraconservative, rich father, and began working as a radio announcer for the corporate media. (I believe he was working for GE.) Somewhere in the process, he sold his soul to the conservative movement, and found a way to become a governor, with the help of big money, and eventually, the president who began all the current trouble the United States now finds itself in. Ronald Reagan really wasn't that different from George W. Bush; we have merely gone farther down that road which he set our nation upon. Now, we find ourselves at an intersection; we may continue down that same road, or turn left and climb back up the hill of progress.
May 24
We have been having interesting weather in this area. Two days ago, there were two tornadoes nearby in unpopulated areas near the 215 freeway, along with torential rains and flooding here in Moreno Valley as well as in Orange County. When I went to school Thurday evening, it looked as though it had been snowing there, although actually, it was about 2-3 inches of hail that was on the ground, not snow. Meanwhile, it has been snowing up at Big Bear Lake again, all the way down to lake level. There has been a huge cut-off low pressure system covering the entire Western United States these past few days. The forecast calls for continued downpours from time to time. today and tomorrow. This is good news for the water supply. We really need the water, as last year was the dryest in Southern California in recorded history. Two years prior to that, was the wettest in the region since mount Krakatoa in Indonesia collapsed, altering the weather worldwide that year. Also, we have had the coldest period as well as the warmest period in the recorded ihstory of this region in recent years. I can't help but wonder whether or not these recent turnabouts in weather are a result of global warming -- perhaps, but that is a difficult thing to prove. One thing is for sure; we never used to have tornadoes here in Southern California.
We People Versus Me People Part 3: When the Trouble All Started
When I was in graduate school, I wrote a paper about how personality theories are influenced by their authors' personal experiences. I got an "A" on that paper. I had really found something important. I suspect the same is true of historians, even more so, in fact, since history is not bound by scientific methods to help give it objectivity. Nonetheless, I believe that my version of history as I understand it is accurate, as accurate as I can make it.
There are certain events in people's lives which shape their futures -- perhaps some life circumstance, perhaps a tragic experience, perhaps a fleeting memory of some brief event, perhaps something that was said, or even an impression of somebody, good or bad. I had one of those experiences when I was a child that was based on something that was said, and a bad impression, and it was the first sign of my future political inclinations. We had this yucky governor here in California when I was a child. I remember he said, "when you've seen one tree, you've seen them all" in reference to the redwood trees. He would just as soon cut them all down if there were a profit to be made. I also found out that this phony baloney governor was a former (?) actor named Ronald Reagan (or was it Ronny Ray-Gun?) That was my introduction to the revolting world of modern American politics. Apparently, if someone was well known enough, could say a few funny lines (funny, at least, to those with warped minds), and appeal to people's more selfish, baser tendencies, he could be elected governor. As I found out later, he could also be elected president, much to my revulsion. Even worse, my parents were Republicans who almost certainly voted for him. As for me, I am proud to say that Ronald Reagan was the first president I did not vote for. He certainly was not the last, though. Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, we have suffered under Republican presidents for 20 out of 28 years. Even Clinton, the lone Democratic president since that time, was frequently embattled and had to deal with a Republican dominated Congress throughout most of his presidency, which made many of his policies more Republican-friendly, and business-friendly, than they might have been otherwise. This road we started on as a nation in 1980 has led us to this point in history, where the contrast between conservatives and progressives is more stark than ever, and where the effects of the Reagan administration's corporatist and morally misguided policies are finally being realized. To quote Jeremiah Wright "the chickens are coming home to roost." I don't know what the origin of that saying is, but I know what it means. Eventually, the effects of one's actions will become evident. This is something that I truly believe in. History may take detours, ones which may kill many people, waste people's lives, or last generations, while those who know there is a better way patiently wait. Those who are impatient with the slow pace of change, may start wars, or revolts, but in all likelihood, only make things worse by doing so. Thus, we need to have patience, and wait for people to see those roosting chickens so that they we may all finally realize a better way of organizing society, a better way of life. That is what I tell myself.
I see such an awakening now in the American people, but I do not know how it will play out. I see people sick of Republican rule, but they still might find a way to win the election. Lord knows they try every trick in the book to dupe as many people as they can into voting for their candidate, and if that fails, I believe they are not above cheating. Take a close look at all the suspicious circumstance of the past two presidential elections. Look at how exit polling, which used to be extremely accurate, now sees more people saying they voted for the Democrat than what the official tallies indicate. Look at how privately owned computerized voting machines suddenly find large numbers of Republican votes. I smell a rat named Rove here. Nonetheless, I see people starting to become wise to Republican tactics. At least it seems that way to me. I see people ready for a non-white or a woman president. I see our nation's demographics shifting toward minority groups which are more progressive leaning. I see our nation's center shifting slowly but surely from some sort of leaning tower of conservatism which had been leaning so far to the right that it risks toppling over, to a straighter, more balanced, upright position. However, if John McCain becomes our next president, I am afraid that the United States may indeed topple over, metaphorically speaking, and need a great deal of effort to make upright again. Just remember, the trouble all started wih a guy name Ronald Reagan who didn't like redwood trees. I love redwood trees. My wife, Eunice, stepdaughter, Isabella, and I even hugged one. At least we tried to, but it was too big. The date was Labor Day, September 3, 2001.
I will have more on the revolting world of American politics, and Reagan's role in it, in my next post.