Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Cut and Paste "Reagan" to make it applicable here

Here's somebody pulling no punches, I agree with Glenn Greenwald on this:

Exactly the same is true of Thatcher. There's something distinctively creepy - in a Roman sort of way - about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with loathing Margaret Thatcher or any other person with political influence and power based upon perceived bad acts, and that doesn't change simply because they die. If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history.
When Reagan died...after several years of dementia which forced him into a relative non-existence, he received the last fumes of the ethos of the first term of George W. Bush -- NEVER SAY ANYTHING CRITICAL about a Republican or what the country did.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure what's weirder -- having grown up in the Reagan/Thatcher era, remember them both being mean-spirited, vicious creeps, Reagan's alleged "geniality" notwithstanding...but, what was extreme wingnut thirty years ago is almost moderate Democratic these days.

But of course, if either was alive and kicking today, I'm sure they'd manage to overcome any humanitarian scruples and be as full batshit insane as the rest of your modern Republicans.

Anonymous said...

I remember from a decade ago how oftern I heard "You Don't Criticize the President at a Time of War" from Repuke creeps.

Funny, we're still "at war" in Afghanistan, yet I haven't heard this at all from Repukes since, oh, at least January 20, 2009 or so.

pansypoo said...

the brits are more honest. also their 99% wasn't FOOLED by thatcher like the reagan democrats were.

but in hindsight, reagan was better than HIS REAGANUTS.

dpjbro said...

Not to make too fine a point, but Maggie ruled for ten years, so who is it who wasn't fooled?

She knew how to placate the working stiffs by increasing the budget for the NHS while she also increased the national pension fund. Socialism wasn't (and isn't) a dirty word in the UK or for Thatcher, it seems.