Whose Side Are You On? Reagan Or Hitler?

The conservative extremists seeking to attack working Americans and bust unions in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and really everywhere, need to understand with whom their philosophy is shared. Then they need to decide if that is acceptable.


So choose a side:

“We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike” ~ Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

Or…

“Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.” ~ Ronald Reagan, September 1, 1980

It doesn’t seem like a particularly difficult choice to me. I was not a supporter of Ronald Reagan. In fact, I think he did considerable harm to the country. But he was the first and only union president to be elected to the presidency of the United States. The fact that his conservative credentials are so well established makes his views on unions all the more significant and non-partisan.

Unfortunately, the knee-jerk right-wingers who profess to idolize Reagan either dismiss his support for collective bargaining or they are too ill-informed to know about it. With regard to the latter, that would be an intentional result of the media they favor. Do you think that Fox News would ever broadcast these quotes? With regard to the former, it is still intentional in that they are willingly hypocritical and obedient to the special interests who have fooled them into thinking that the welfare of billionaires is superior to their own. Just look at what they regard as Shared Sacrifice:


At some point the rank-and-file Tea Baggers need to wake up to the fact that they are being used. Corporations want to end collective bargaining so that they have a free hand to exploit and abuse their workers. The politicians, who are bankrolled by those same corporations, want to disrupt fundraising and support for progressive candidates and policies.

None of this is accidental. And the people who will get hurt the most are those who are following the conservative disinformation blindly with the pathetic impression that it makes them patriotic. They should ask themselves if they are really advancing the cause of freedom. They should ask Ronald Reagan.

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6 thoughts on “Whose Side Are You On? Reagan Or Hitler?

  1. That is a very good point, Mark!

    Something else which desperately needs attention, the blatant worship of American ideologues and presidents.

    I have never seen such pornographic reverence for a president ever!
    Reagan was just an ordinary man, and right-wingers are treating his memory as if he were touched by providence.

    • I know you meant that metaphorically, but I think they mean it literally. They want St. Reagan added to Mt. Rushmore.

      That offends me as an American, but also as an artist. That isn’t some hallway where you can keep posting the latest employee of the week. It is an amazing work of art that ought not to be tampered with. Would these jerks paint in Mother Theresa on Da Vinci’s Last Supper? Probably.

      • Arguably it shouldn’t even exist, plenty of other ways to immortalize those men without, what certain groups deem to be defacing a religiously significant landmark. But, manifest destiny and everything won out. That would be a good debate to watch, Mount Rushmore’s construction v. Building something somewhere else.

  2. I was telling a friend of mine not long ago that Hitler went after the unions before anyone else. That should tell us something. Why this doesn’t get more play I don’t know. It will be the same in America. If they are successful in destroying colective bargaining in the US what will they go after next.

  3. Did someone forget the air-controller’s strike and wiping out 12-thousand (or was it 11-thou) jobs just to break the unions. RonRaygun was a shallow, side-changing opportunist. Yeah, when it made him part of the crowd he hung with, he was a good-looking, good-talking union member, leader and spokesperson. Then he changed. Seemed to start around the time of HUAC and what he said to the HUAC committee. Later, he screwed unions and education in California. Got away with it because he seemed to come across as jest-us-ens. Durn fool just read scripts. Couldn’t remember which was a script and what he actually did (or didn’t).

    • I didn’t forget and I agree with your assessment of Reagan. But this is still a good juxtaposition of viewpoints for Tea Baggers to ponder.

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