From: Jim Devine <[email protected]> c b wrote: > http://www.examiner.com/liberal-in-orlando/8-reasons-why-ronald-reagan-was-a-horrible-president-1
Why the reverse cult of personality? Didn't leftists learn a long time ago from Marx that it's not individual politicians (no matter how powerful) as much as social forces that matter in politics? the focus on a single evil individual distracts people from the neoliberal bloc hiding behind the curtain. ^^^^^^^^^^^ CB: Do u use the concept of cult of the personality the way its originator Nikita Khruschev did ? giggles, The significance of this article is that it is a small step at reversing the Reagan cult of the personality which is part of the Tea Party's and right wing's ideological pillars today. I have seen lots of praise for Reagan , but this is the first time I've seen a mainstream press anti-Reagan article. It is necessary to take on the Reagan cult to counter the Tea Party and , of course, Reaganites. Notice one of the things cited that Reagan did was good - amnesty for immigrants. That shows that this writer is not a left winger. Actually, Marx's direct statement was that Big Men could slow or speed the pace of the rev, but not make it or thwart it completely. That' exactly what Big Man Reagan did. He slowed movement toward socialism by initiating counter-reforms and especially a counter-reform ideology. The ideology he initiated reversed reforms that he did not reverse while in office. His ideology is very influential today. There's a great facebook page Americans Against the Tea Party that is carrying a big part of the necessary anti-TP , anti-Reaganite nitty gritty propagandizing , developing counter rhetoric to such things as anti-government and anti-welfare rhetoric that got a big leap forward in Reagan time. ^^^^^^^ BTW, it's unfair to blame Reagan for the 11% unemployment in 1982-3. If you want to blame anyone, it would be Paul Volcker, who the DP president Jimmy Carter named to be head of the Federal Reserve. RR's tax cuts for the rich actually counteracted Volcker's tight monetary policy when it came to the unemployment issue. ^^^^^^ CB : Yea, the DP haters have mentioned that about twenty times over the years here and on related lists. The important thing about this article is not its political economic precision ( as I said one of the things cited done by Reagan is politically correct, amnesty for immigrants) The importance is the appearance of an anti-Reagan personality cult in a mainstream paper. First time I've seen that. ^^^^^^^^^ Whether the Gypper was "horrible" or not depends on your perspective. If you want there to be a neoliberal consensus among the ruling forces in US and world society, RR was great. He cemented the coalition that transformed US and world society, so that DP icons such as Bill Clinton and Barack Obama went along with neoliberalism (and have deepened it). ^^^^^^^^^^ CB: Well yeah. If one is a rightwinger, Reagan is great. And Reagan was definitely a key individual in establishing Reaganism . Reaganism has shifted the political spectrem to the right such that the Democrats are Reaganites too. Clinton made a major cut in Welfare. He did major deregulation of Wall Street. Reaganism a better term than neo-liberal, because Liberalism is associated with what he helped bring down. Such code words as "tax and spend Liberals" code for " Negro-lovine white politicians are central to the Reaganite ideology. Anyway, because of the association in mass political discourse of "Liberal" with FDR and LBJ, it is confusing to call Reagan an initiator of neo-liberalism because Liberalism in the American sense is. what he started the attack on. From an internaitional point of view neo-imperilism is a better term. Imperialism is an ecomomic category as used in Marxism. Neo-liberalism is a surge of finance capital and monopoly. Imperialist revival has brought us a new 1%, not seen since the early 20th century.p - Jim Devine?/ "In an ugly and unhappy world the richest man can purchase nothing but ugliness and unhappiness." -- George Bernard Shaw ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
