by Chuck0 Infoshop News June 6, 2004
"We should declare war on North Vietnam...We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas." -- Ronald Reagan, Fresno Bee, 10/10/1965
"Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders." -- Ronald Reagan, Sacramento Bee, 4/28/1966
At long last, many people in the United States and many more around the world are celebrating the death of another bloody leader. The occasion for this celebration this week is the death of another American president, Ronald Reagan. The problem with his death is that he died of old age, which is hardly a fitting death for a war criminal, terrorist mastermind, enemy of the workers, and all around bad guy. In a world that was moving towards freedom, equality, and social justice, it would be poetic justice if criminals like Ronald Reagan met their just desserts and shuffled off this mortal coil at an early age. But we still live in an era where the so-called "liberals" on NPR drone on and on about how great a president this guy was. The rest of the media is filled with propaganda and lies about Reagan's achievements and legacy.
Ronald Reagan will not be treated well by history, despite the best efforts of academic historians and right wing disciples to white wash his record. History and humanity will look back at Reagan as the man who smashed the labor movement with his repression of the PATCO strike, which set back workers rights and led to two decades of wage stagnation. Humanity will remember Ronald Reagan as the president who who invaded other countries, threatened the world with nuclear annihilation, engaged on covert wars, supported death squads, and otherwise pursued policies that led to the deaths of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. Ronald Reagan will be remembered as the man who prolonged the Cold War, even as he knew that the Soviet Union had never participated in that war to the extent that the U.S. had lied about.
Ronald Reagan will be remembered as the man who snitched on his fellow actors as head of the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan was responsible for the rise of the radical right, which set back human rights and freedom in the U.S., as well as around the world. Ronald Reagan will be remembered as the man who refused to do anything to challenge the apartheid regime in South Africa, instead insulting the world by supporting a policy of "constructive engagement," which meant supporting a racist regime so that capitalists could continue business as usual.
If anything, Ronald Reagan deserves to be forgotten. Hopefully he will be, but the American system of power is intent on making sure that he is lauded and put on a pedestal. But the world knows that bloody leaders who are put on pedestals are always pulled down, even after they are long dead.
The corpse of Ronald Reagan will "lie in state" in Washington, DC later next week. If we Americans lived in any other country, there would be no peaceful "lying in state" for this evil man. But the instruments of power are still strong--the fawning coverage of Reagan's death reflects the way that the media treated Reagan when he was president: with kid gloves.
I'm one of many people around the world who is overjoyed that Ronald Wilson Reagan is finally dead. Let's drink to the death of another tyrant, albeit one whose death is long overdue.