We get (hate) mail

Now I don't hate Ronald Reagan. I always thought of him as kind of a hapless dupe being manipulated by his handlers but that's not to say that I liked him or his policies either. I might have just kept my mouth shut if the media had not turned his funeral into such a vapid love-fest but I couldn't stand the hypocrisy in the end and I posted this at the Detroit News blog.

That's show biz - The Reagan Years

I've been trying to wait to weigh in on Ron Reagan until a respectable amount of time after his funeral -- it was a long wait. The extravanganza is finally over and by the way it cost 400 million of your tax dollars to deify the man, which I guess is appropriate for a guy who invented "trickle-down" economics. He and his cronies got the money and we working stiffs got the shaft.

Ron Reagan presided over a Cabinet filled with thugs. More members were criminally indicted out of those ranks than in any other in the history of the presidency. He illegally fomented a war in Nicaragua that is said to have been partly funded by a CIA drug dealing operation. He fired the air traffic controllers, he contended ketchup should count as a vegetable in fulfilling the nation's commitment to feeding hungry children and he refused to release funding for AIDS research because at the time it was mainly occuring only within the gay community. As for ending the Cold War - baloney - Harvey Wasserman explains.

They rightly called him the great communicator. He was an actor and he played the press like a virtuoso. He was the first to perfect the concept of governing by soundbite. But Reagan wasn't really a great president - he just played one on TV.

As you can imagine this generated a few responses from my readers. I don't why but I always like the hate mail best. Makes me feel like I'm doing my job. This was my favorite.

Posted: Sun. 06/13/04 12:51 PM
From: Alex
City: Commerce twp, USA
Subject: Weblog: Libby Spencer
Comments: Its sad that the Detroit News employs such a raging nutcase like Libby Spencer.

You gotta love it.