Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States and the only one born in Illinois.
He was also the only president to live in Chicago as a youth. Lincoln, born in Kentucky, practiced law here, but always went home to Springfield. Grant, born in Ohio, never got closer than Galena, which at one time rivaled Chicago, with its location near the banks of the mighty Mississippi and thriving lead mine.
He was also the only president to live in Chicago as a youth. Lincoln, born in Kentucky, practiced law here, but always went home to Springfield. Grant, born in Ohio, never got closer than Galena, which at one time rivaled Chicago, with its location near the banks of the mighty Mississippi and thriving lead mine.
Reagan was born in Tampico. His family moved around a lot, living above a store on the South Side of Chicago, then Galesburg and Monmouth before settling in Dixon, where Reagan went to high school.
He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 with a degree in sociology, and took an interest in broadcasting. Feeling the lure of Hollywood, he moved west in ...
What? Why are we going over the particulars of Reagan's life? Because it's February. Black History Month! I think with our nation being whipsawed by Trump 2.0, we might have forgotten that. A time when we can examine the rich heritage Black people have brought to this country.
Reagan's first movie was "Love is in the Air" with June Travis. The movie took three weeks to film, and Reagan received $200 a week. It was well received — the Hollywood Reporter called Reagan "a natural" — he should have been, given he was playing a radio announcer, a job he had been doing in real life for years.
Okay, okay, Ronald Reagan is not technically a Black person. But if I've read the current political mood correctly, that's okay. Black History Month, which I previously saw as a chance to look at important parts of the past often overlooked in America's rush to celebrate whiteness, can now be viewed as a genocide against white history. If corporations can leap to scrap their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, to curry favor with, or at least not provoke wrath from, the Trump administration, then surely I can use February to celebrate a president who was the oldest in American history when he left office — 77, but still a year younger than Trump was when he started his second term. Three weeks ago.
Beside, I believe Reagan is a key figure in explaining what is going on right now. He didn't invent animosity toward federal government — that goes back to the founding of our country, and Southern states passionate about preserving slavery.
But he did perfect it, ushering in the age where Republicans realized, if you can't directly advocate against people you despise — immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ ‚ you can kneecap the government that supports them.
That is why our shadow king, Elon Musk, is running around, ripping down parts of the federal government — include scientists, doctors, and impartial law enforcement officers among the ranks of the despised now.
They call that "efficiency," though how it is efficient to destroy programs that help Americans to give the money back to rich people as tax breaks, is a mystery.
That it mainly hurts white Americans — most people in poverty are white — doesn't matter. That's a point that doesn't get understood about racism. Sure, it hurts the victims, big time. But it also hurts the racists themselves. When federal courts demanded that public swimming pools be integrated in the 1960s, small southern towns filled in their public pools rather than let Black residents — their neighbors — swim in them. They'd rather their own children swelter than share the pool.
He graduated from Eureka College in 1932 with a degree in sociology, and took an interest in broadcasting. Feeling the lure of Hollywood, he moved west in ...
What? Why are we going over the particulars of Reagan's life? Because it's February. Black History Month! I think with our nation being whipsawed by Trump 2.0, we might have forgotten that. A time when we can examine the rich heritage Black people have brought to this country.
Reagan's first movie was "Love is in the Air" with June Travis. The movie took three weeks to film, and Reagan received $200 a week. It was well received — the Hollywood Reporter called Reagan "a natural" — he should have been, given he was playing a radio announcer, a job he had been doing in real life for years.
Okay, okay, Ronald Reagan is not technically a Black person. But if I've read the current political mood correctly, that's okay. Black History Month, which I previously saw as a chance to look at important parts of the past often overlooked in America's rush to celebrate whiteness, can now be viewed as a genocide against white history. If corporations can leap to scrap their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, to curry favor with, or at least not provoke wrath from, the Trump administration, then surely I can use February to celebrate a president who was the oldest in American history when he left office — 77, but still a year younger than Trump was when he started his second term. Three weeks ago.
Beside, I believe Reagan is a key figure in explaining what is going on right now. He didn't invent animosity toward federal government — that goes back to the founding of our country, and Southern states passionate about preserving slavery.
But he did perfect it, ushering in the age where Republicans realized, if you can't directly advocate against people you despise — immigrants, minorities, LGBTQ ‚ you can kneecap the government that supports them.
That is why our shadow king, Elon Musk, is running around, ripping down parts of the federal government — include scientists, doctors, and impartial law enforcement officers among the ranks of the despised now.
They call that "efficiency," though how it is efficient to destroy programs that help Americans to give the money back to rich people as tax breaks, is a mystery.
That it mainly hurts white Americans — most people in poverty are white — doesn't matter. That's a point that doesn't get understood about racism. Sure, it hurts the victims, big time. But it also hurts the racists themselves. When federal courts demanded that public swimming pools be integrated in the 1960s, small southern towns filled in their public pools rather than let Black residents — their neighbors — swim in them. They'd rather their own children swelter than share the pool.
Remember that dynamic; it explains a lot. You can draw a line from the shuttered pools to next week's move to eliminate the Department of Education. If deploying national standards mean we're to learn actual American history, then there shall be no standards at all!
History is a bad place, often. To get an idea just how bad, let's return to Reagan's biography Those of more tender sensibilities — a state sadly encouraged by the left as well as the right — are invited to bail out here.
Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 believing that companies should be able to do whatever they like, unencumbered by the interference of government — another belief as current as tomorrow. He opposed the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Constitutional grounds. He was also an unashamed racist. There is a 1971 tape from the Oval Office that has him yucking it up with Nixon about United Nations delegates.
"To see those... monkeys from those African countries," Reagan said, as Nixon laughed. "Damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"
That Reagan would go on to be elected president, twice, and become the godhead of the Republican Party prior to Donald Trump blinding them with his golden glory, well, it might be a shock. But it shouldn't come as a surprise.
History is a bad place, often. To get an idea just how bad, let's return to Reagan's biography Those of more tender sensibilities — a state sadly encouraged by the left as well as the right — are invited to bail out here.
Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 believing that companies should be able to do whatever they like, unencumbered by the interference of government — another belief as current as tomorrow. He opposed the 1965 Voting Rights Act on Constitutional grounds. He was also an unashamed racist. There is a 1971 tape from the Oval Office that has him yucking it up with Nixon about United Nations delegates.
"To see those... monkeys from those African countries," Reagan said, as Nixon laughed. "Damn them, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes!"
That Reagan would go on to be elected president, twice, and become the godhead of the Republican Party prior to Donald Trump blinding them with his golden glory, well, it might be a shock. But it shouldn't come as a surprise.
He also invented the disgusting and false racist and misogynist caricature of the "welfare queen". I think I've mentioned Heather Cox Richardson, the historian, before, she often references Reagan's use of the cowboy image and myth to promote a vision of extreme Ayn Rand-level individualism, with the only real aim, it seems, to cut taxes . Hope it's OK to post a longish quote:
ReplyDelete"They called themselves Movement Conservatives, and they celebrated the cowboy who, in their inaccurate vision, was a hardworking white man who wanted nothing of the government but to be left alone to work out his own future. In this myth, the cowboys lived in a male-dominated world, where women were either wives and mothers or sexual playthings, and people of color were savage or subordinate.
With his cowboy hat and western ranch, Reagan deliberately tapped into this mythology, as well as the racism and sexism in it, when he promised to slash taxes and regulations to free individuals from a grasping government. He promised that cutting taxes and regulations would expand the economy."
The whole piece is worth reading (she's also on Substack):
http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/heather-richardson/cowboy-mythology-twenty-years-since-reagan-revolution-rise-movement-conservatives/
And doesn't that summarize it neatly. Idealizing itinerant, semi-literate manual laborers as our national ideal.
DeleteReagan was vile. TrumPutin is both vile and insane.
Reagan appeared in dozens of Hollywood films, but they included quite a number of Westerns, hence his penchant for western gear and owning a ranch. He was, in many ways, living out the on-screen roles he played so many times.
DeleteReagan became more of a racist later in life, because it suited his political needs. In his younger days, his views were quite progressive, even liberal, given his Midwestern roots. Reagan grew up among very few people of color and was almost oblivious to racial discrimination. Not the brightest crayon in the box, either...just one of the whitest.
Ronnie Reagan. Karl Rove. Newt Gingrich. Grover Norquist. Leonard Leo. Robert Bork. The apocalypse has been coming for quite awhile. They're the forefathers of DJT, Elon, Stephen Miller, Russell Vaughht, and all the others salivating over the spoils of America.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget bush Cheney and rumsfeld
DeleteMaybe all this focus on "efficiency" isn't the best way to go. Justice Louis Brandeis pointed out in 1926, in his dissenting opinion of "Myers vs the United States" that "The separation of powers was adopted by the Convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power". He believed that the separation of powers was intended to slow things down, to better protect individuals liberty.
ReplyDeleteOf course, i am cynical and don't believe efficiency was ever the intended goal of "DOGE" - just a pretty word to represent the "E" in his way-too-cute little acronym. I heard the IRS Employee handbook got butchered when DEI words were "banned" from government documents. Text referring to "the inequity of holding onto taxpayers' money" and "the inclusion of a taxpayer identification number" were purged.
Thank you, Neil.
ReplyDeleteWell stated and true. I wish more people would see this., the people who need to see this won't. And if they do, they don't believe the truth.
or won’t care
DeleteReagan chose to start his candidacy for president in tiny, rural Neshoba County, Mississippi, where just a few years earlier civil rights workers were murdered by the Klu Klux Klan for the outrage of trying to help southern blacks. He could have done the speech anywhere but he choice a place where the Klan ruled. Reagan's speech was about state's rights, a clarion call to white supremacists in the south.
ReplyDeleteYou recall Trump started his campaign by slurring Mexicans. I thought to myself that his destroyed his campaign chances when I heard him. I realize now that he helped himself with the slur. Racism is and apparently always will be a foundation of America.
yup
DeleteThe humans who accept the ideas of hatred and derision don’t really mind if they get hurt. As long as the people they have been trained to hate are hurt more it’s fine.
ReplyDeleteExactly true. To them life is a competition and winning means that someone else is worse off than you. Conversely, the worst horror is seeing one of "those people" happy and better off than you, then all hell breaks loose.
DeleteThank you, Neil, for your steadfastness and daily contributions to help us remain grounded in this never-imagined reality we are living. I really don’t understand why so many people in our country are so drawn to the destruction of our democracy rather than the promise of what it could be. And speaking of Heather Cox Richardson, her book, How the South Won the Civil War, should be required reading for every American citizen. Was it Toqueville, the author of Democracy in America, who wrote that one of the requirements of a democracy was an educated population?
ReplyDeleteDon't you wish Reagan was more interesting? Think about it. Born and raised in Illinois, went to Hollywood to make movies, became Governor of California and President of the United States. Shouldn't we all be flocking to Dixon to bathe in the glow of all things Reagan? I haven't been in Dixon since before Reagan became Governor. I don't even know if there's a museum. I remember the town was full of pink petunias. Quite pretty. I wonder if that's still their thing. Maybe I'll pop over there this spring and check it out. I like petunias.
ReplyDeleteDixon is the town that woman ripped off for millions for her show horses!
DeleteI blame Reagan for everything happening in this country today.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. It all began on Reagan's watch. The Reagan Era began the sickening realignment toward conservative policies in the Untied Snakes, and made him an icon of American conservatism. Think back to his funeral in 2004...it was "Mourning In America"...the long good-byes, the emotional eulogies...his last role on the American stage. Nobody I know did much crying.
DeleteHistorical rankings of U.S. presidents have typically placed Reagan in the upper tier, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high...second only to those of JFK, and well above either Bush 43 or Obama. And they are far higher than any approval rating from his tenure as POTUS. I will never understand that. He was an evil bastard, going back to his gubernatorial days in California, but not even close to being as terrible as the Current Occupant. He didn't rant...he spoke. And Ronnie had far less mush in the old cabeza.
Reagan shared a few other characteristics with Trump besides the ones Neil lists, such as stupidity (the man thought pollution was "caused by plants and trees") and a showbiz past that did not exactly groom them as statesmen.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing they have in common: At one time, it was thought outlandish and preposterous that either one would ever be president.
Yeah, when Reagan ran in 1976, I thought the consensus was that the idea was ridiculous. Well, that was MY conclusion, anyway. I could not believe that he was actually taken seriously and won in 1980. I knew the country was in deep trouble when my life-long Democratic father (a factory worker, no less) voted for him, over my strenuous but pointless objections.
Delete6 years after Nixon resigned in disgrace and the holier-than-thou folks of the "religious right" saw fit to elect the divorced Republican movie cowboy rather than reelect the incumbent who had been a Navy veteran, devoted Christian, and small businessman.
Fast forward to 2016 when I just assumed that the reality-show charlatan wouldn't make it past the first primary. Oops. The country was (and is) in much deeper trouble than I knew.
The thing is, despite what's transpired in this benighted nation, it WAS and remains "outlandish and preposterous that either one would ever be president."
my moms family moved here from Missouri in the 40s leaving behind a large extended family . this gave me a built in connection to the Christian Right.
DeleteI know these people well and love them . most are well educated and successful though many lived on family farms and attended far right churches. Nixon, Reagan , the Bushes and now Trump have left us with less and less to talk about when it comes to politics.
they are part of an enormous group of like minded people. obviously more than most of us cared to acknowledge . they've always been there. and you have to remember it wasn't just them that elected Reagan he won in a true landslide. so lots of dems crossed over to vote for him. it doesn't seem so preposterous to me. our country has always had way too many bigots. not all bigotsae uneducated rubes. tech bros voted for trump. they are by definition college educated. there are some really big problems in this country . the trump administration currently the biggest. and there literally is nothing we can do about it. nothing that has any efficacy
I admire the way this piece demonstrates how we can walk and chew gum at the same time, by honouring the contributions that Black people have made to the world throughout history whilst simultaneously recognizing the achievements of an accomplished movie star and statesman like Reagan (whose birthday was in February). You could alternately have profiled the great Jack Benny, Burt Reynolds or William S. Burroughs, to name a few others.
ReplyDeleteWhile still a broadcaster for the Cubs, Reagan he took a screen test during spring training in California. That led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros.[ Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service. Reagan somehow had become a star, despite a limited acting range, but WWII interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again.
ReplyDeleteThroughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films and also appeared in multiple Western films in the 40s and 50s, something that had been denied to him while working at Warner Bros. He began his political career as an FDR-Truman Democrat, and continued to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity, calling it a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror"...
But it was also was Reagan's strong belief that Communism was a powerful backstage influence in Hollywood. That led him to male a sharp right turn. He supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960. When Reagan began working for right-wing General Electric (GE), he gave motivational speeches to GE employees, criticized Medicare as "the end of individual freedom in the United States"...and registered as a Republican.
In 1964, Reagan gave a speech for presidential contender Barry Goldwater that was eventually referred to as "A Time for Choosing"...in which he argued that "the Founding Fathers knew that governments don't control things. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose" (No wonder Orange Julius thinks so highly of him).
The speech increased Reagan's profile among conservatives, leading to the California governorship--and eventually to the presidency. This was the guy who sent National Guard bayonets into Berkeley and tear-gassed the entire campus from helicopters. Will Agolf Twitler top that? Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But soon. Too soon.
Just discovered your blog--via "Every Damned Day." Love both. And yes, Trump is just the symptom, not the disease. It goes back to Newt, upon whom The Gipper put a smiley face, and before that the guy who figured out how yo monetize hate via the USPS. Richard somebody. I can see Jefferson Davis running DOGE with more Cavalier Gentlemanlyness that Musk does.
ReplyDelete