• Sun, 02/06/2011 - 19:06
• 8 Comments

This very kind, quite affable, and very polite man was my father's commanding officer in the Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army throughout World Way II. Both Ronnie and my dad were New Deal Democrats and active members of their labor unions.

My father stayed in the movie business, but Ronnie's career went flat so he became a corporate spokesman for General Electric. I assume it was the boys in the back room at G.E. who gave Reagan his new script and re-packaged his character as the just as affable and polite conservative Republican he was to become.

Today's right wingers -- especially the young ones -- have latched on to President Ronald Reagan as their ultimate icon. They certainly get mad when those of us in the reality-based community remind them of facts like these:

During his presidency, the deficit rose. He grew the size of the government, not shrunk it. He submitted 7 deficit budgets to Congress and raides taxes 6 times. In all fairness, I must point out that he did shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class.
His administration provided chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein
He appointed 3 of the 5 Supreme Court Justices who put Bush/Cheney in the White House
During the Reagan years shameless greed, unabashed bigotry, proud ignorance, and contempt for the truth became the GOP norm and the banking deregulation that destroyed the US economy became law
His administration tried to get ketchup classified as a vegetable in the school lunch program
His Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, said he was not concerned about land preservation for future generations because the Lord will be returning soon anyway
The Reagan years brought us "trickle down economics" which continues to be not only a Republican wet dream, but a theory proven NOT TO WORK
Iran-Contra: Made Watergate look insignificant, made the Lewinski affair seem moral
But he was a friendly, polite, and always affable man. A very "nice" one, too, I've always heard. Happy 100th birthday, Mr. President. Thanks for being so kind to my dad during World War II.