All of the People Some of the Time: Totally Miscellaneous Observations on the Reagan Years
With a certain amount of guilt and amazement, I make the following admission: I miss the Reagan Administration. The possibility of this never occurred to me during the actual years of Reagan's presidency, when he and his minions committed one alarming act after another. But, like the rest of the country, I have now endured eighteen years of his utterly colorless successors: Bush I, Bill Clinton, and (just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water), Bush II.
1. Ronald Reagan often talked about that there was a New Morning in America. Ronald Reagan gave America something to believe in, even if that something was, by and large, utterly false.
2. Reagan and his minions were frequent users of the tactic known as The Big Lie: if well-dressed people assert as true something that is demonstrably false, eventually the public will begin to believe that there is something to it. Otherwise, why would apparently rational people keep saying it?
3. An atheist out to prove the nonexistence of an all-good and all-powerful deity could simply use this argument: Ronald Reagan was never struck by lightning when he used the term "balanced budget." While publicly damning the tax and spend Democrats, Reagan rolled up the largest deficits in history, more than doubling the national debt. The sole nod toward a balanced budget made during his administration was the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, an act of Congress mandating cuts to balance the budget. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act is believed to be the only Federal law ever effectively repealed as a result of everyone just pretending that it wasn't there.
4. That Reagan's second term ended on such downbeat notes is as a result of a simple set of facts. Reagan was the diametric opposite of Jimmy Carter. Carter was a man of rare intelligence and moral fortitude whose cabinet consisted largely of people whose talents would have been better utilized in the role of cast members for the television program Hee Haw. Reagan had none of Carter's gifts, but came to power backed by a group who even I must confess consisted of One Smart Bunch of Guys. By Reagan's second term, the Smart Bunch of Guys had largely left his service for the greener pastures of illegal lobbying, their last gestures of loyalty to their revered chief being a series of unflattering Tell-All books. In Reagan's second term, his advisors were on an intellectual par with the Twenty Mule Team featured along with Reagan in Borax commercials on the 1960's television program Death Valley Days. Chief among this group was the redoubtable Ed Meese. Meese's ascension to office embodies the notion of Lowering the Bar; he became chief law enforcement official of the United States of America by virtue of the fact that several grand juries and special counsel never actually got around to indicting him. As Attorney General, Meese sparked widespread debate among legal scholars with his assertion that the Attorney General's interpretations of Federal law were somehow coextensive with those of the Supreme Court of the United States. The debate centered around a single issue: was Meese's assertion the stupidest thing ever said by someone serving in the Presidential cabinet, or could there have been others? The debate was quickly resolved in favor of Meese.
5. The Iran-Contra affair showed the Reagan Administration at is most basic level: unconcerned both with the rule of law and the existence of facts. Reagan told the American public, "I know in my heart that we did not trade arms for hostages." Yet Iranians got arms, and Iranian-backed paramilitary groups released hostages thereafter. Try this for a thought experiment. Go to McDonald's. Order a Big Mac. Give the person behind the counter U. S. currency equaling the purchase price of the Big Mac. Now eat the Big Mac, telling yourself all the while, "I know in my heart that I did not exchange money for the Big Mac." Convinced? It's the Big Lie at work, albeit unconvincingly, once again.
6. Reagan's mantra for deregulation was Unleashing the Genius of the American people. The genius of the American people, once unleashed, appears to have turned primarily to the looting of S&L's.
1. Ronald Reagan often talked about that there was a New Morning in America. Ronald Reagan gave America something to believe in, even if that something was, by and large, utterly false.
2. Reagan and his minions were frequent users of the tactic known as The Big Lie: if well-dressed people assert as true something that is demonstrably false, eventually the public will begin to believe that there is something to it. Otherwise, why would apparently rational people keep saying it?
3. An atheist out to prove the nonexistence of an all-good and all-powerful deity could simply use this argument: Ronald Reagan was never struck by lightning when he used the term "balanced budget." While publicly damning the tax and spend Democrats, Reagan rolled up the largest deficits in history, more than doubling the national debt. The sole nod toward a balanced budget made during his administration was the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act, an act of Congress mandating cuts to balance the budget. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act is believed to be the only Federal law ever effectively repealed as a result of everyone just pretending that it wasn't there.
4. That Reagan's second term ended on such downbeat notes is as a result of a simple set of facts. Reagan was the diametric opposite of Jimmy Carter. Carter was a man of rare intelligence and moral fortitude whose cabinet consisted largely of people whose talents would have been better utilized in the role of cast members for the television program Hee Haw. Reagan had none of Carter's gifts, but came to power backed by a group who even I must confess consisted of One Smart Bunch of Guys. By Reagan's second term, the Smart Bunch of Guys had largely left his service for the greener pastures of illegal lobbying, their last gestures of loyalty to their revered chief being a series of unflattering Tell-All books. In Reagan's second term, his advisors were on an intellectual par with the Twenty Mule Team featured along with Reagan in Borax commercials on the 1960's television program Death Valley Days. Chief among this group was the redoubtable Ed Meese. Meese's ascension to office embodies the notion of Lowering the Bar; he became chief law enforcement official of the United States of America by virtue of the fact that several grand juries and special counsel never actually got around to indicting him. As Attorney General, Meese sparked widespread debate among legal scholars with his assertion that the Attorney General's interpretations of Federal law were somehow coextensive with those of the Supreme Court of the United States. The debate centered around a single issue: was Meese's assertion the stupidest thing ever said by someone serving in the Presidential cabinet, or could there have been others? The debate was quickly resolved in favor of Meese.
5. The Iran-Contra affair showed the Reagan Administration at is most basic level: unconcerned both with the rule of law and the existence of facts. Reagan told the American public, "I know in my heart that we did not trade arms for hostages." Yet Iranians got arms, and Iranian-backed paramilitary groups released hostages thereafter. Try this for a thought experiment. Go to McDonald's. Order a Big Mac. Give the person behind the counter U. S. currency equaling the purchase price of the Big Mac. Now eat the Big Mac, telling yourself all the while, "I know in my heart that I did not exchange money for the Big Mac." Convinced? It's the Big Lie at work, albeit unconvincingly, once again.
6. Reagan's mantra for deregulation was Unleashing the Genius of the American people. The genius of the American people, once unleashed, appears to have turned primarily to the looting of S&L's.
posted by Francis D'Eramo at 6:47 PM
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