A legacy of St. Reagan
Reagan brought the party of Lincoln full circle. Reagan made it OK to hate fags, niggers, and poor people.(he had lots of help, but lent that grandfatherly goodness to the cause) He taught us that unions were evil, a socialist affront to capitalism and we applauded when he threw those vicious parasites-the aircraft flight controllers-out on their ear. He told us that Cadillac driving welfare queens, were like a swarm of boll weavels descending upon the cotton plantations of this great Union. A new breed of prospectors, mining the gold of every fertilized egg, whose degenerate behavior was an affront to family values. Homosexuals had created AIDS as a device to convert the rest of us to their ways, but it backfired, killing lots of them. So why should the government be interested in finding a cure.
Innefficiency destroyed the family farms, and Unions were responsible for factory closings. He made it perfectly clear for those of us still struggling to find the language, that victims were mostly responsible for their problems. You see the poor were responsible for their poverty. rape victims were oversexed women who "asked for it". That meant that it was OK to stop worrying about the problems of poverty. Reagan was the perfect figurehead to ease the transition from the "me generation" to the "me more" or "greed is good" generation. He said that it was OK to be a moneychanger in the temple because Jesus wasn't gonna knock over your tables as long as you had the means to join the club. Prior to my understanding of the code words, I had no idea how difficult life was for the wealthy. They needed to be exempted from the burden of taxation.
Likewise corporations had it really tough as well. It was obvious that Government regulation was keeping good corporations down. If we could just remove the boot of Government off of the neck of corporate America, we would all benefit. A rising tide lifts all boats, and we could see this before our own eyes as Cubans inspired by the siren song of prosperity, flocked to our shores in all manner of watercraft.
Reagan gave voice to the poor white people, rural and urban, who watched their farms foreclosed and their factories close. Rather than look above them, (at a newly emboldened class of Jesus approved junk bond moneychangers armed with the trickledown power of corporate welfare-Bentley driving corporate welfare queens if you will) their gaze was directed to the right, left, and below, they were shown their nemesis. According to Reagan there were millions of rich black moms driving Cadillacs they bought with welfare checks. He made it seem like you could become a millionare if you had a few kids and were lazy and didn't want to work. I remember being angry when I realized I lacked a uterus that I could mine for gold.
How could this be fair, thought the newly out of work urban and white poor, after all this is the land of the American dream and how dare some black mother get rich off of welfare.
The message to the middle class was that this new class enriched by your tax dollars ( those fat, black, Cadillac driving, love-chile-poppin chiselers) would no doubt be looking outside the ghetto for a place to live. That means they would be coming to lower property values in a theatre or neighbor hood near you.
He said it was OK to deal with terrorists, that when attacked it showed strength to run screaming out of Lebanon, and for anyone who had any doubts about the status of the shriveling manhood of state, that Grenada was a hornets nest of communists that were a threat to our way of life- despite appearances of a senior class football team kicking the shit out of a bunch of fourth graders (ok lets make that inner-city black fourth graders who were all 16 years old and very athletic for their age, looking not due to a physical mismatch, but because they were dumb)- and in so doing proved that we were a strong country that did not turn tail and run screaming like a bunch of girls from a monster in some bizarro world horror film. No it was morning in America-an early June, birds chirping, spring bloom-perfuming, kind of morning. As a country that still couldn't come to terms with its Vietnam related guilt, feelings of impotence, growing sense of division. We needed this uplifting message. Reagan gave aid and confort to class warriors while making the discussion of class war concepta non grata. He ushered in the age of responsibility ( code word for poor people who by their own actions proved unable to find their bootstraps), and family values (code for gays and other degenerates).
Reagan told us that judges were not up to the job and that their hands should be tied by congressionally approved mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. He had the foresight to recognize that in the future, the spawn of the welfare queens was a threat not only to our suburban neighborhoods but to the foundations of our democracy. He also knew that after the welfare queens had destroyed the family farms and industrial capacity, that good white people would need good paying jobs running the privatized prisons and mechanized army's of the future. He said that we should be scared enough to part with large amounts of tax dollars for missile defense and supermax prison construction, but not too scared-except of lots of black and Mexican boogymen- to keep borrowing and spending for the good of the economy. Borrow and spend was the proper way to manage the economy. He told us that Liberals had destroyed the country with their tax and spend ways. This was the vision of America that "tore down that wall", a message of inclusion and hope.
A message sustained by the son of his great vice president. Truly a message of "love thyself, your neighbor can take care of himself". Mourning in America. Indeed.
With the tour heading to the pyrenees tommorow, the stage 12 finish at La Mongie promises to separate the men from the boys. We will have a much better idea who the likely podium candidates will be. Six Americans presently occupy spots in the top 24 of the overall general classification, Armstrong, Hamilton, Hincapie, Julich, Leipheimer, and Landis. Hincapie is likely to loose time tomorrow for two reasons: He will be charged with working his ass off for Armstrong when they hit the first climb of the day, the Col d'Aspin, and if he has any juice left, on the following climb up Gripp. Landis who will also be charged with the same duties but will probably be held in reserve for the final climb, the charge up La Mongie. Hamilton, Leipheimer, and Julich all serve in the capacity of team leaders, like Armstrong, and will be protected until the action really gets underway.
