A Shared Father

Oh Good lord.

"My father would be perplexed by the overabundance of meanness in the political field. And he would be deeply saddened by it." Two words: Lee Atwater.

Compassion? AIDS. Goodness and dignity? Iran-Contra. Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to give presents and compliments to Saddam Hussein. He vetoed economic sanctions against the South African apartheid regime. He enabled decades of union-busting with his firing of the air-traffic controllers. He presided over a huge increase in economic disparity. And on and on and on.

I realize that the continuing work in canonizing Reagan and All His Works continues unabated, but even by the typical standards of right-wing hagiography, Ms. Davis' article is pretty absurd.

I loved my father, but he had his faults. I sympathise with Ms Davis, but is she really talking about the man who publicly hoped for food poisoning in the soup kitchens set up by the Hearsts in an attempt to meet their daughter's kidnappers' demands?; I hope she's not remembering fondly that part of the man who, though he didn't want to feel like he was a racist, dined out on the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" who might have existed in a couple instances, but who was completely unrepresentative of women on welfare---but a very convenient way of saying "black" without really saying it. This was a man who announced his presidential run of 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with a speech replete with the rhetoric of "states' rights" (important, but often a code word for segregation) but nary a mention of the murder of good men for the crime of registering black people to vote which was perpetrated not ten miles from where he was speaking?

Perhaps this, and the famous "bloodbath" comment, were the fringes of his personality. Perhaps he was not a mean or bigoted man...but he profited from the politics of bigotry and meanness.---his apparent niceness was often a matter of having others around more suited to the nasty stuff. When you've nurtured the likes of Ailes and Atwater , why bother doing it yourself?

Still, he is dead, and I gather that he was a good father to you, and I hope you will get some measure of solace as you remember what was best about him.

I loved my father, but he had his faults. I sympathise with Ms Davis, but is she really talking about the man who publicly hoped for food poisoning in the soup kitchens set up by the Hearsts in an attempt to meet their daughter's kidnappers' demands?; I hope she's not remembering fondly that part of the man who, though he didn't want to feel like he was a racist, dined out on the Cadillac-driving "welfare queen" who might have existed in a couple instances, but who was completely unrepresentative of women on welfare---but a very convenient way of saying "black" without really saying it. This was a man who announced his presidential run of 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with a speech replete with the rhetoric of "states' rights" (important, but often a code word for segregation) but nary a mention of the murder of good men for the crime of registering black people to vote which was perpetrated not ten miles from where he was speaking?

Perhaps this, and the famous "bloodbath" comment, were the fringes of his personality. Perhaps he was not a mean or bigoted man...but he profited from the politics of bigotry and meanness.---his apparent niceness was often a matter of having others around more suited to the nasty stuff. When you've nurtured the likes of Ailes and Atwater , why bother doing it yourself?

Still, he is dead, and I gather that he was a good father to you, and I hope you will get some measure of solace as you remember what was best about him.

YOUCAN BE REGISTERED AT WWW.PREDICTIONET.COM

Perhaps there is a slim chance Ronald Reagan would feel some remorse at what America has become largely as a result of his presidency but that is unlikely.
While Joe McCarthy died in shame for destroying so many lives with his oft applied "communist label" the person who fed him the names of supposed communists became our 40th president.
We can also thank Reagan for the demise of the middle class in America, a clear result of his Trickle down economics that has been embraced by Bush 41 and 43 and McCain.
While Reagan is credited for "bringing down the wall" his tear down the wall speech was made after it became known Gorbachev was intending to do so, Gorbachev was given the Nobel peace prize by the way,
America has little to thank Reagan for, Iran Contra perhaps? It could be argued Reagan should have gone to jail for that if nothing else.
Reagan's status as a great president is not deserved, he is no better than Nixon or Bush 43.

Reagan Was a terrible President. His Foreign policy set up the mess we have now. He was worse than GWBush. It's just he had the benefits of Teflon. I get sick of all the gushing that goes on for this Evil Man. Disgusting

Posted By: sharenews @ 06/11/2008 6:46:41 AM
Comment: IMPORTANT BULLETIN FOR ALL BLOGGERS ON THIS SITE:

TO NEWSWEEK STAFF:

This is to report that there is a FRAUD going on, on this site, in which bloggers are using the names of various bloggers (Obama supporters are most likely the culprits) who are fraudulently writing blogs that are deplorable and tagging them under other bloggers names (non-Obama supporters names). I officially reported such a fraudulent abusive use of fake postings that I just viewed on this site today that affected me personally. This is what it said in which the blogger fraudulently used my name as the poster:

IT SAID THIS. I NEVER WROTE THIS. SO ALL OTHER POSTERS, ESPECIALLY FORMER HILLARY SUPPORTERS, BEWARE:

Posted By: sharenews @ 06/11/2008 03:05:43

Comment: I agree. So why do so many Obama supporters make him out to be a Messiah?

I NEVER wrote the above comment or ANY mention of Obama being a Messiah. At this point I am ready to bring this abusive process that you are using on your site to FOX NEWS as I have done this before and they are very responsive. I have copied this report to send onto the media if I dont see a stop to the smearing of my name or others on this site moving forward!

Ronald Reagan not only won the Cold War, he gave us the last 28 years of prosperity. Billions of people today have freedom, the right to make choice, and make mistakes, because of the expansion of liberty that his policies had. I'll give just one example - five countries in Central America liberated from tyrants and insurgencies. Not just in the USA, but billions of working people around the globe benefit from the economic expansion his policies generated. Even as we struggle with parts of the economy, the next economic boom will always have a leg planted by the Reagan boom. The haters tried to hijack his memory, but they've failed and historians continue to correctly place him as one of the two greatest presidents of the 20th Century

Who cares!!!!!!!! I agree with LuLuBelle. His supply side economics was based on the massive importation of labor (free trade) to destroy the blue collar middle class. He started his administration by overtly firing the striking air traffic controllers and ignorantly destroying the economy by "dereguation". George Bush finished what Reagan started. Both of them piled up deficits that are responsible for cheapening the US dollar thereby driving the price of oil out of sight. He and Bush II set the stage for the most massive decline in the US standard of living in the last one hundred years now in progress..

Who cares what he would think? he was a terrible president whose history was re-written by the Republican party!

Dearest Patty,
This week has been the same for me in reflection upon a father, his brother and his father, my grandfather. The anniversary of my father's death was in April. He died young. Like your father he was a public servant only on a much smaller scale and he did not run for office but worked for a political entity. His theory was KISS - keep it simple stupid. He too raised us without predjudice - we were to make up our own minds. He was a great man and humanitarian. I did not always agree with him - nobody ever agrees 100% - but I had great respect for him and his ideals and character - as with your father. I too judged him as a man, not just a politician. I am truly sorry for your loss. This week happens to be the birthdays of my father - today, my uncle (another good man) was the 3rd and my grandfather who passed on his moral character and intelligence was born on the 5th. My mother is also gone (at age 50). So, be thankful you have her still with you to help you remember all the wonderful times with your father. Thank you for sharing your feelings. It is most difficult to bare your soul to millions. I personally am taking comfort as I am "in sort of the same boat"
God bless and keep you.
L

He would have thought like the rest of the United States ... wow the democrats just count out states they don't want and then crown the victor they do want. I should have joined that party and saved myself a lot of hard work.

C. Maclean: I can't decide whether you're a right-wing clown posing as a heartless leftist or left-wing loser confused by too many years of hysterical paranoia. I'm fairly certain, however, that you're unemployed and probably collecting some form of welfare given the length of your post, the pseudo-sophistication of its logic and the fact that it was posted at 4:50 PM... a time when most people are working.

Because I tend to believe the best in people, I'm going to assume that you're in fact a right-winger posing as a heartless paranoid leftist because I just can't bring myself to accept the possibility that people as brainless as you can have such correct spelling.

C. Maclean: I can't decide whether you're a right-wing clown posing as a heartless leftist or left-wing loser confused by too many years of hysterical paranoia. I'm fairly certain, however, that you're unemployed and collecting welfare given the length of your post, the pseudo-sophistication of its logic and the fact that it was posted at 4:50 PM... a time when most people are at work.

Because I tend to believe the best in people, I'm going to assume that you're in fact a right-winger posing as a heartless paranoid leftist because I just can't bring myself to accept the fact that people as brainless as you can have such correct spelling.

Forget the snarky comments. They only highlight the "meanness" Ms. Davis laments. This is a sweet, heartfelt tribute from a daughter to her father, all the more poignant because of their well-publicized differences. Let it stand as it is.

This is kind of a gross article, in that Patti Davis trashed her father so much when he was alive. Now, she's grieving. Yeah. Dead noses don't smell roses.