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Coming to Your Town? By Bill Berkowitz Indulge me for just a moment.
The Man Republicans Want as King: Ronald Reagan
Flash forward to the year 2010. Here's the scene: I'm driving up the Ronald Reagan Highway on the way to the lovely coastal town of Mendocino, California. Along the way, I stop at the Ronald Reagan Rest Area to relax for a couple of minutes. I'm thirsty, but all I have is a $10 dollar bill--the recently reissued bill with President Ronald Reagan's face where once old Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father, an author of the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, and our first Treasury secretary, stared out at us.
Reagan legacy projects The most influential of all the Reagan-honoring organizations is the Washington, DC-based Ronald Reagan Legacy Project (RRLP). Founded in 1997 and sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, headed by the now-ubiquitous conservative activist Grover Norquist, it is hitting on all cylinders (see "Grover Norquist: 'Field Marshal' of the Bush Plan" The Nation, http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010514&s=dreyfuss). The project's "mission is to honor and memorialize the historic achievements of President Ronald Reagan. It aims to do so by naming at least one notable public landmark in each state after the 40th president." In March, Norquist testified before Congress in support of HR 452, the Ronald Reagan Memorial Act of 2001, which specifies that a committee be established to choose a location on the National Mall for a memorial to Ronald Reagan. Norquist said Reagan "deserves this memorial on America's Mall because he represented America." Last year, the conservative Federalist Society established a Web site called "Reagan 2000: Federalism and the New Republicans," a campaign "dedicated to individual, family and community rights and responsibilities in acts of self-governance, as set forth by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence and codified in its subordinate guidance, our Republic's Constitution, the original intent of which is specified in the Federalist Papers."
Other conservative organizations cashing in on right-wing Reagan-mania, which is no way should be confused with Beatle-mania, include NewsMax.com, the ultra-conservative online news site. NewsMax is offering "an authentic piece of Reagan history!" They're selling a "framed lithograph of the famous 'Reagan Country' portrait -- each hand signed by the renowned artist!" - Texan Gary Giuffre. The 16" x 20" print is yours for only $249.00 plus $4.95 Shipping. Will the real Ronald Reagan please stand up Richard Alan Leach, in the June 2001 issue of Z Magazine, looks at the new book Reagan In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America, edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson and Martine Anderson (The Free Press, 549 pages). Leach says the collection, representing 250 of his 400-word essays delivered over the radio between 1976 and 1979, contains the "subliminal message… that Reagan was a Deep Thinker, rather than 'vacant between the ears,' as his ideological soul mate Maggie Thatcher once remarked." While Reagan cronies deify the fellow, Leach brings us back to earth with a few choice memories of: 1) Reagan as the "Teflon President"--nothing stuck, mainly due to the pass given him by the mainstream media; 2) the president who dozed off at meetings on a regular basis; 3) Reagan in the "post-Hollywood role of the Great Communicator [which] was basically public relations, to make the American people feel good about themselves." In terms of real damage to real people, who can forget the Iran-Contra "arms for hostages" scandal; the surreptitious funding of the Contra Wars; support for all sorts of rogue reactionary movements in Latin America and Africa; Reagan's lack of interest in supporting sanctions to help end apartheid in South Africa; the "record number of convictions or indictments (138) of his associates, making the Reagan administration the most corrupt in U.S. history"; a legacy of record deficits; and his fueling of the racial divide, in part with his phony "welfare queen" stories. Reagan, with the support of his then-aide, Gary Bauer, who later went on to found the homophobic Family Research Council, was totally silent about the growing AIDS epidemic crisis for five years. When the president finally used the word "AIDS"-- it came on April Fools Day no less. Some Reagan rethinking is just plain silly and darn nearly embarrassing. According to Leach, Mark Burson, the executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, said that "Reagan's writings compare favorably with the 'Federalist Papers,' providing 'the most compelling evidence yet that the president was indeed a man of letters worthy of comparison to our Founding Fathers'…" There are also those who'd like to see Reagan's mug carved into stone up there on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Currently, legislation is pending on erecting a Reagan memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Washington D.C.'s National Airport was renamed the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 1998. Also in 1998, the RRLP helped to enact legislation in Florida naming the state's turnpike the Ronald Reagan Turnpike.
In a late-March, E.J. Dionne facetiously led off a column with, "Perhaps we should simply rename ourselves the Ronald Reagan United States of America." As of March 2001, there were 45 dedications; 42 in the United States and 3 internationally, including two, in get this, Grenada--a commemorative stamp collection and a Ronald Reagan Scholarship Fund to send students from Grenada to the United States for study - and one in the Marshall Islands - the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll. Enough said. Ronald Reagan Sites: Ronald Reagan Legacy Project - http://www.reaganlegacy.org/ Reagan 2000: Federalism and the New Republicans - http://www.reagan2000.com/ Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum - http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/ The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation - http://www.reaganfoundation.org Michael Reagan's "The Reagan Information Interchange" - http://www.reagan.com/ The Reagan Ranch: A project of Young America's Foundation - http://www.reaganranch.org/index.html Bill Berkowitz is a free lance writer covering the Religious Right and related conservative movements. Contact him at wkbbronx@aol.com. |
Hollywood Reagan was an unlikely candidate to become a conservative darling, but a shift to the right politically and he was on his way 
Mr. Bush watches as fomer First Lady Nancy Reagan christens the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan earlier this year 
© 1997-2002 BEI