Collective Lies and Pandering
Sorry, this election is already pissing me off, making me blog about non-zombie things, which will probably just get me in trouble. And it's only January!
But here's Paul Krugman's column (without his usual incomprehensible numbers-crunching):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21krugman.html
This is perceptive, especially the last two paragraphs which address a question I've had for a while now: why do all Republicans want to pretend they're Ronnie and make him out to be some kind of saint (when he wasn't), while Democrats can't run away from Bill fast enough and never mention him directly or praise his accomplishments (which were many and lasting)?
Though Krugman's two paragraphs probably still don't go far enough. The 80s were a decade of greed and hypocrisy, and of course I can't blame the White House for that, but there is something about a President setting (or reflecting) the tone of his nation, so excuse me if I continue to think Ron was a selfish, stupid, simple-minded fool. But it was the last decade when we had identifiable enemies - the Soviets (militarily and politically), the Japanese (economically). Since the 90s, our military enemies are stateless terrorists we can't catch, and our economic enemies are unidentifiable forces of globalization. So maybe the sheer simplicity of the Reagan narrative will always draw us back to it, no matter how hypocritical and meaningless its promises may be in our more complex, fearful century.
But here's Paul Krugman's column (without his usual incomprehensible numbers-crunching):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/opinion/21krugman.html
This is perceptive, especially the last two paragraphs which address a question I've had for a while now: why do all Republicans want to pretend they're Ronnie and make him out to be some kind of saint (when he wasn't), while Democrats can't run away from Bill fast enough and never mention him directly or praise his accomplishments (which were many and lasting)?
Though Krugman's two paragraphs probably still don't go far enough. The 80s were a decade of greed and hypocrisy, and of course I can't blame the White House for that, but there is something about a President setting (or reflecting) the tone of his nation, so excuse me if I continue to think Ron was a selfish, stupid, simple-minded fool. But it was the last decade when we had identifiable enemies - the Soviets (militarily and politically), the Japanese (economically). Since the 90s, our military enemies are stateless terrorists we can't catch, and our economic enemies are unidentifiable forces of globalization. So maybe the sheer simplicity of the Reagan narrative will always draw us back to it, no matter how hypocritical and meaningless its promises may be in our more complex, fearful century.
posted by KPaffenroth at
9:56 AM
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