{"id":1192,"date":"2009-02-06T14:43:13","date_gmt":"2009-02-06T22:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2009-02-06T14:43:13","modified_gmt":"2009-02-06T22:43:13","slug":"in-honor-of-ronald-reagans-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1192","title":{"rendered":"In Honor Of Ronald Reagan’s Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronald Reagan would be 98 years old today were he alive. So on this special occasion, I thought it would be appropriate pay tribute with an excerpt of the new book<\/a> by Will Bunch, “Tear Down This Myth.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Reagan:<\/a>It was Ronald Reagan himself who, as the spotlight faded on his presidency in 1988, tried to highlight his eight-year record by reviving a quote from John Adams, that “facts are stubborn things.” The moment became quite famous because the then-77-year-old president had botched it, and said that “facts are stupid things.” The tragedy of American politics was that just two decades later, facts were neither stubborn nor even stupid – but largely irrelevant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Any information about Iran-Contra or how the 1979-81 hostages were released (Rudy Giuliani had falsely claimed during the 2008 race they were freed when “the Gipper” looked Iranian leaders in the eye) that didn’t fit the new official story line was being metaphorically clipped out of the newspaper and tossed down “memory hole” – the fate of any information that would have undercut Reagan’s image as an all-benevolent Big Brother still guiding the conservative movement from above.<\/span><\/p>\n

A more factual synopsis of the Reagan presidency might read like this: That Reagan was a transformative figure in American history, but his real revolution was one of public-relations-meets-politics and not one of policy. He combined his small-town heartland upbringing with a skill for story-telling that was honed on the back lots of Hollywood into a personal narrative that resonated with a majority of voters, but only after it tapped into something darker, which was white middle class resentment of 1960s unrest.<\/span><\/p>\n

His story arc did become more optimistic and peaked at just the right moment, when Americans were tired of the “malaise” of the Jimmy Carter years and wanted someone who promised to make the nation feel good about itself again. But his positive legacy as president today hangs on events that most historians say were to some great measure out of his control: An economic recovery that was inevitable, especially when world oil prices returned to normal levels, and an end to the Cold War that was more driven by internal events in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe than Americans want to acknowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

His 1981 tax cut was followed quickly by tax hikes that you rarely hear about, and Reagan’s real lasting achievement on that front was slashing marginal rates for the wealthy – even as rising payroll taxes socked the working class. His promise to shrink government was uttered so many time that many acolytes believe it really happened, but in fact Reagan expanded the federal payroll, added a new cabinet post, and created a huge debt that ultimately tripped up his handpicked successor, George H.W. Bush. What he did shrink was government regulation and oversight — linked to a series of unfortunate events from the savings-and-loan crisis of the late 1980s to the sub-prime mortgage crisis of the late 2000s.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happy birthday you greedy, lying, war-mongering, phony, SOB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ronald Reagan would be 98 years old today were he alive. So on this special occasion, I thought it would be appropriate pay tribute with an excerpt of the new book by Will Bunch, “Tear Down This Myth.” It was Ronald Reagan himself who, as the spotlight faded on his presidency in 1988, tried to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[159,272],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-will-bunch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-je","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4365,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4365","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":0},"title":"Mitt Romney: Hang The Obama Misery Index Around His Neck","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/1\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday Mitt Romney spoke before a gathering of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch-funded lobbying group that bankrolls the Tea Party. In response to a question, Romney stumbled over language that comes perilously close to a lynching reference: \"Do you remember that during the Ronald Reagan-Jimmy Carter debates, that Ronald\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4057,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4057","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":1},"title":"Whose Side Are You On? Reagan Or Hitler?","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16000,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=16000","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":2},"title":"Where’s The Outrage? On The Tenth Anniversary Of Ronald Reagan’s Death","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/5\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ten years ago, on June 5, 2004, former president Ronald Reagan died after a long illness including severe Alzheimer's disease. It's a curious fluke of timing that this anniversary should occur just as some prominent events have sprung up in the news that parallel notable capstones of his term in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ronald Reagan","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/reagan-remember.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/reagan-remember.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/reagan-remember.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8971,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8971","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":3},"title":"Fox Nation vs. Reality: Obama’s Imaginary Bulldozer Rolls Over Saint Reagan","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/31\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Fox Nationalists are working overtime to scare up horror stories about FrankenObama and his dastardly schemes. The latest episode features President Obama plotting to erase the memory of Ronald Reagan from the history of all mankind. As might be expected, they are lying. In order to facilitate this nonsense.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10670,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=10670","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":4},"title":"Does Fox News Think That Ronald Reagan Tried To Panic The Markets?","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/7\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend's edition of Fox News Sunday had a segment wherein the host, Chris Wallace, interviewed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. In the course of the interview Wallace addressed the government shutdown and the approaching debt ceiling crisis with this phony premise: \"This week both you and the president seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27142,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=27142","url_meta":{"origin":1192,"position":5},"title":"Oliver North? Really? The Unmitigated Gall Of Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/5\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"So Oliver North was on Fox News giving analysis on the negotiations with Iran about nuclear weapons. Yeah, that Oliver North. the one who sold arms to Iran for Ronald Reagan, which was against international law. The one who took the illegal profits and sent them to terrorists in Nicaragua,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Oliver North","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/north-iran-nukes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/north-iran-nukes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/north-iran-nukes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/north-iran-nukes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}