David Aronovitch: “The Reagan years were the years, perhaps, in which the cold war was won, and that is obviously good. He wasn’t the missile-mad cowboy of cartoons, and those of us who thought otherwise were wrong. But the Reagan presidency of 1981-89 was also when the dragon’s teeth of the present were sown. Reagan’s legacy to the world may be the fallen wall, but it is also the third-world landmine.” (Guardian.UK [thanks, Roger])
Also: a remarkable collection of progressive columnists share my revulsion, or at least querulousness, about the orgy of myopic praise for Reagan this week. (I am tempted to take back my contribution from NPR for joining in the almost universal hushed tones of reverence with no counterbalancing viewpoints. All Things Considered indeed! Some would invoke the cliché about not speaking ill of the dead, but I would counterpose with that the one about living your life so that no one can speak ill of you when you die.) Here is a collection of links from the Common Dreams Media Center:
- Norman Solomon:
Media: Mourning in America… - Derrick Jackson:
Reagan Brought Back Black and White… - Alison Ninio:
Growing Up Reagan… - Jonathan Steele:
He Lied and Cheated in the Name of Anti-communism: From Iraq, Reagan Didn’t Look So Freedom-Loving… - Roberto Rodriguez & Patrisia Gonzales:
Morning and Mourning in America… - Mokhiber/Weissman:
Remembering Reagan… - Sheldon Rampton/John Stauber:
Wrapping Reagan in the Flag One Last Time… - Walter Williams:
Reagan’s Destructive Revolution… - Stephen Zunes:
Don’t Credit Reagan for Ending the Cold War… - Marty Jezer:
Two American Lives: Ronald Reagan & Dave Dellinger… - William Greider:
The Gipper’s Economy… - Antonia Zerbisias:
Media has Reagan Myopia… - Harvey Wasserman:
Rock & Radiation, not Ronald Reagan, Brought down the Soviet Union… - Zeynep Toufe:
Ronald Reagan, Neo-Cons and the ‘Intelligence Failures’ of the Cold War: Déjà vu All Over Again… - Lawrence Martin:
Gorby Had the Lead Role, Not Gipper… - Sidney Blumenthal:
The U-turn That Saved the Gipper: After Iran-contra, Reagan Ditched the Right and Embraced Gorbachev… - Peter Dreier:
Urban Suffering Grew Under Reagan… - Derrick Jackson:
Reagan’s Heart of Darkness… - Matthew Rothschild:
No Praise for Reagan… - Arianna Huffington
Ronald Reagan, Hedgehogs And The November Election… - Ted Rall:
Reagan’s Shameful Legacy: Mourn for Us, Not the Proto-Bush… - Tony Horwitz:
Let’s Bury Reaganomics With Its Founder… - Matt Foreman:
A Letter to My Best Friend, Steven Powsner On the Death of Former President Ronald Reagan… - John Moyers:
‘American Idol’ Faceoff: Reagan vs FDR… - Godfrey Hodgson:
Reagan’s Legacy? Look at the Closed Minds and Hard Hearts of the Conservatives who Staff the Bush Administration… - Geov Parrish:
The Reaction from Those of Us Who Came of Age During the Reagan Presidency — and Found It Inexplicably Horrific… - Robert Scheer:
Reagan: A Nice Guy’s Nasty Policies… - Paul Krugman:
Reagan: The Great Taxer…
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