Reagan is crying on Time magazine and the Fox wingnuts are upset, including Michael Reagan, who\’s just another right-winger on radio. It gives him another topic and a reason to be interviewed, but few people pay attention to him so it\’s tantamount to one big yawn. His brother Ron, a progressive talk radio host, had a completely different take, not minding at all that dear old dad is pictured on Time, while also chiming in that Reagan just might have this reaction, using the word \”betrayed\” to describe it. As far as I\’m concerned, Time\’s photo editorializing, also called a conceptual cover, hits the subject right on the mark.
So I\’ve got a news flash for those whining about it. If Reagan were alive today
he would not shed a single tear, but he\’d likely be crying buckets. (As a former Reagan Democrat I can say this with some authority.) Because what Bush, Rove, Rummy, Cheney and the Republicans have
done to the Republican Party is nothing short of destroy whatever Reagan helped
build, including the strong on national security image, which is now part of the dustbin of Republican myth making. But don\’t take my word for it.
Around the corner from the trial of Scooter Libby, during a late-afternoon
break, Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, was telling me that the Republican
Party is kaput. \”The brand isn\’t just sick—it\’s dead. The G.O.P.
is cracking up.\” (Luntz is a marketer marketing his new book,
Words That Work: It\’s Not What You Say, It\’s What People Hear, about political
marketing, and knows he needs a compelling message. We have a brief discussion
about whether his thesis about the end of the Republicans might get him some
publicity.) The Bush administration, in other words, could well have brought
one of the greatest marketing and P.R. success stories of the modern era—the
rise of conservatism and the Republican Party—to an end.Caught
in the Spin Cycle (emphasis added)
Of course, Pat Buchanan\’s book Where the Right Went Wrong told the
story a couple of years ago.
The truth of the matter is that the sainted heroes of both parties, Reagan and Kennedy, would both be appalled at what Bush has done to the presidency, but also what he\’s done to America\’s image around the world. As for Iraq, Reagan faced the Soviet Union, and John F. Kennedy faced Khrushchev over a divided Germany and over missiles in Cuba, but neither president felt the need to launch preemptive war. And don\’t give me this malarkey about terrorism being worse than the dawn of the nuclear age. It simply is not true. However, if you\’re a Republican I realize it\’s the only rope you have to grasp. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is hanging your entire party with it.
If you look at Iraq today and what the Republicans did in the Senate this week, which is contrary to what the people want and voted on last November,
I\’d say one measly Time tear for Ronald Reagan is being, shall we say, conservative.
Comments are closed.