Will Bunch chats with John Amato about his new Ronald Reagan book, 'Tear Down This Myth'
By David Neiwert Saturday Jun 20, 2009 5:00pm
A couple of weeks ago Will Bunch, our blogging friend from Philly and the proprietor of Attytood, visited with John Amato in L.A. for a bit while on the road promoting his new book, Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.
Will has a rundown of the book's contents at Attytood, and provided an excerpt for Salon.
Of special note, I thought, was this bit about Grover Norquist's role in shaping the Reagan Legacy project:
One of the more down-to-earth tributes was written by Norquist, who said: “Every conservative knows that we will win radical tax reform and reduction as soon as we elect a president who will sign the bill. The flow of history is with us. Our victories can be delayed, but not denied. This is the change wrought by Ronald Reagan.” Norquist all but revealed one of his missions in the coming two years — finding a presidential candidate who would assume the Reagan mantle in a way that neither Bush 41 nor Dole ever could — but not the other. His second big push was practically a guerrilla marketing campaign to make sure that the less-engaged Middle America would get the message that Reagan belonged in the pantheon of all-time greats right next to Lincoln, Washington and FDR. Norquist had learned the lessons of Normandy and of the Brandenburg Gate, which was that powerful symbols can mean a lot more than words (especially in a little-read policy journal), that a motorist under the big Sunbelt sky of Ronald Reagan Boulevard will absorb the message of the Gipper’s greatness without ever pondering if ketchup should be a vegetable in federally funded school lunches or if “the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers” in Central America were drug-dealing thugs, the kind of stubborn things that popped up in those newspaper articles ranking the presidents.
I've just gotten my copy and started reading, but it's an important book -- especially if you want to have some arguments handy for dealing with your Reagan-loving brother-in-law ...
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It's about time! Reagan was a fraud.
"Mr. Bunch, tear down that false legacy!"
to describe Ronnie during his presidency, which I lived through as an adult, and which administration I deplored. It turned me from being an "Independent" to a registered Democrat. I had already put my time in time in service to Amerryka. I already had been exposed to cultures throughout the Southern Pacific.
I thought that should have made it clear that Ronnie was nothing more than a puppet head, manipulated by other powers as napped openly.
Along came Booosh junior, the "Idiotic Dunce!" The powers openly, and in your face fashion manipulated this puppet head. Dick had him on his lap, and in ventriloquist fashion crammed down an invasion and violations of International Law and human decency upon his perceived subjects!
It is / was not Reagan or Bush or republicans or democrats which has taken over our government , our news media to change our policies / constitution / laws and moral values , but a elite group ,,, called The Global Empire.
Reagan , Bush or Cheney never have the power to create this destruction to our country , government , democracy , economy and laws , Reagan was and ACTOR and Bush was a person which most likely would not have finished college if not for his daddy or grandfather Prescott..
What is the difference of our Kings and Rulers is they reside in Washington DC. instead of Britain as in the early days of our country.
In the past 8 plus years we have lose our manufacturing & jobs , our union have come close to being destroy , our constitution / democracy / laws are no longer worth the paper or disk they reside on , our economy has been sent to China / India and other foreign countries and we are no longer sure that our vote is counted correctly or at all. The news media is controlled by this Global Empire ,,, and you told what you may hear , read think and act.
Does this sound like a government that has your interest at heart or that of a greedy Global Empire which has taken everything we have lost..
China and India did not gain this Global domination by themselves ,,, it has been giving as a gift by the greed and power of this greedy Global Empire which has their power and pocket book at heart.
Most pay little or no taxes and have a world slave work pool at their mercy and our military to control any resistance against them or their polices.
American has less say or input into our governments policies / actions then Israel China or India has today.
You have to see that they have done one h... of a job to split our citizens into many different groups at each other's throat and not theirs. They have one group blaming the other for the crimes and corruption of they commit..
Our??,, representative no longer listen to our problems but send you a CAN response to your comments ,,,, Where senators , house members and the President (or his administration staff) has an open door policy fort Corporations , the elite and even "foreign countries" to hear their every demand.
Do not fool yourselves into believing your concerns are their desire , because if this was true you would have the same privilege Global Corporations have on a daily basis.
The elected officials try to throw enough bones to the little people to keep them pacified and out of their hair.
All one has to do is look around and see just who has benefited the fruits of our government's action and policies in the past 8 years plus..
Reagan and Bush do not get the credit for this total destruction to our country it comes the GLOBAL EMPIRE which has a monopoly on our government and growing overseas on a daily basis..
They has taken back or destroy the benefits and fruits which American workers and citizen have fought for and gain in the past 60 plus years...
They have learn that it is easy to get Americans to divide and attack each other rather then them.....
One statement for democracy will always be true and the only way for it to survive...... United we Stand and Divided We Fall...
There is no difference in what MOST Americans want and need but You are ones which can pick the choice...
The middle class died under Ronnie Raygoon & his banker band, the Ray Goons who left America trashed, for their benefit. Conservatism died under GW Shrub. Obama is the leader of the 'new' conservative American movement. The Reagan/Bush conservative movement has moved to the loony-bin level of gun whackies, abortion blowhards and the Palin ass drooling cave monkey bizarro Planet and won't ever recover.
What has happened is the old Dems have now become the NEW PROGRESSIVES and are auditioning for a leader since Kucinich is not charismatic enuff and others are too conservative.
It amazes my how effective these sons of bitches have been at promoting Reagan. They got the DC airport named after him and I don't know how many BLVDs. They wanted to get his face on a coin and put his mug on Mt. Rushmore. Talk about audacity. The only place I would like to see Reagan's pie hole is at the bottom of my toilet.
That's because for years the Republicans were attacking Clinton and his legacy of peace and record prosperity while we were silent on Reagan legacy of debt, AIDS, Iran Contra, upper class tax cuts and almost pushing us to nuclear war with the Soviets.
Well, no more.
What about that Iran Contra deal? That was easily as bad as what Nixon did. If Clinton would have done something like that they would have had him impeached before the sun set.
82-84. There was so much cocaine everywhere I went.
It was everywhere. I remember thinking where is all this stuff coming from? People were snorting it at tables in restaurants.
It was sanctioned by the govt'. They were the ones bringing it in and marketing it. Then Reagan cut off the chemicals to South America.
He made it illegal to sell large quantities of ether.
They got busted with Iran Contra. So they had to make a showing of the war on drugs. Talk about hypocrisy. sheeesh.
Meanwhile the prisons were filling up.
Seems he forgot about the 1986 Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA) which was the largest tax increase in U.S. history, that was enacted to deal with the massive deficits Reagan saddled the country with. But why bother with inconvenient truths?
Was that when he raised Social Security taxes??
Is this the largest tax increase in US history to this day?
Thank you for bringing this up. If it's not anymore, what one is?
Would it be on Bill Clintons watch?
Why is he is so revered by the wingnuts? He was a brain-addled old man who had mommy issues, liked to eat jelly beans, thought trees cause pollution and ketchup was a vegetable.
It's great to see Will Bunch in person. I found 'Attytood' a few years ago and have always been impressed by his site.
Alas, we didn't see you John. Still, it was nice to hear your voice!
Thanks for this great interview.
:)
"He was a brain-addled old man who had mommy issues, liked to eat jelly beans, thought trees cause pollution and ketchup was a vegetable."
Don't forget smarmy snake in the grass smear merchant.
I saw a PBS special on Bush 41 and how Bush 41 did not respond in kind when Reagan went negative on him and as a result Reagan won the primary. Bush 41 learned quick after that how to play ball if you want to win as a Republican, which was when he went on to "Willie Horton" Dukakis to win the presidency.
PS - Reagan was no bright bulb but he wasn't stupid enough to think trees caused pollution and ketchup was a vegetable. He, like all Republicans, was in the pocket of the big polluters and big agri-business and the companies that made ketchup.
I thought that was John Kerry? ;)
I don't think Teresa Heinz Kerry tried to classify ketchup as a vegetable though. That kind of hutzpah can only come from a Republican.
When I lived in England (1973-1986) they had a series called "Spitting Image" which was a British satire featuring puppets. One of their regular features was called "In Search of Reagan's Brain". The beginning showed Ronnie sitting in bed with Nancy. His head popped open and a tiny pea-sized brain popped out and ran away, giggling. To my knowledge, they never found it to return it to his cranium.
Just shows us how the rest of the world perceived this man, as calgarylady says, a brain-addled old man. I was pleased not to have lived in the US for most of the time he was President but it was embarrassing to be an American abroad then.
Will be at the following location?
Red Lion Hotel
Fifth Avenue
Seattle, Washington
The Weekend of November 6-8, 2009...
PS.Seattle resident and son of Pres. Ronald Reagan, that is. ;)
It makes me feel bad about my negative feeling for his parents, because he seems decent.
I don't know it all, but I've read "his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, he switched to the Republican Party in 1962."
Do ya think he may have been considered a DINO or Blue-Dog back then or simply... a crafty opportunist?
When I went in the U.S.N. in 1980, I knew nothing about him. All I heard, was that he was good for us, the hostages were released and the U.S. military got a raise, if I recall correctly? How time goes by :-/ Thank you for yours, by the way♥
The myth of St. Ronnie has to be one of the most tiresome and damaging lies of American politics.
I just wrote and erased a massive diatribe about all the lies and mistruths but then I realized that was quite silly considering this is a thread about a book dedicated to that. Point being, it goes so much deeper than people realize and dates back long before his presidency. So much of the vileness and lies of the modern GOP can be traced back to his ability to make so much ugliness acceptable in politics back in the 60's.
In my life time I became politically aware at the end of the JFK administration. Johnson was bad but I didn't think anyone could be worse than Nixon. At the time I thought that Reagan beat Nixon and no one in the future could ever be as bad for the people than Reagan. Then came W. I shiver to think of what will happen if that trend keeps up. I didn't understand at the time the love for Reagan and I still really don't have a clue how people so want to believe in Reagan they except the lies.
one of those that goes for slogans, gimmicks, or is distracted by shiny objects, so Reagan never appealed to me. Even as a young voter I thought it was ludicrous that a shitty B-actor (yeah, he was Governor of California, so what)was being run as a presidential candidate. He offered nothing and every time he spoke if was if he was simply acting in another role.
The election that saw this tool win was my first presidential election and I remember my sense of doom at the announcement that he had won. I wasn't wrong. What a vapid, shallow, vacuous man. That anyone would think him great just shows how low some people's standards are.
Oh, yeah, Grover Norquist is a fucking traitor and I won't even begin to tell you what I really think should be done to him.
That's what I heard in England - "Why did you vote for a B-rated actor?" I told them I didn't and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why my fellow Americans had.
My first election saw Nixon re-elected! It scarred me for many many years and was the one of the main reasons I moved to England. Then we got Thatcher . . . .just proving that there are idiots voting everywhere you go.
Wicked sums up Reagan at the 2:20 mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKY0RejvuoQ
How in the world did the myth about Reagan spurring "unprecedented economic growth" take hold?
Not only was the economy...the real economy; low unemployment, private sector jobs created, successful business startups, low existing business failure rate, fewer average months in Recession...WORSE under Reagan than it was under Jimmy Carter, but it got even WORSE under Bush1. Remember the "It's the ECONOMY, Stupid!" election? Yeah, Reagan's VP beneficiary of Reaganomics LOST that one to a relatively unknown Governor.
In the twelve uninterrupted years Reagan and Bush1 were presidents, there were maybe two years of "ok" to average economic growth. The rest sucked. Any Democrat beats that record. Even the worst economic policies known to man are likely to see at least a couple of "ok" to average results years out of twelve!
Then, of course, all but maybe 18 months of the Bush2 presidency sucked to historic low levels.
The only oasis of truly stellar economic growth since the day Ronald Reagan was first elected 28 years ago were the Clinton years. And that was because he and his Democratic Congress of 1993 passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 without a single Republican vote and reversed the disaster of Reaganomics on a dime. Naturally, Bush2 reversed the direction on that, returned to Reaganomics and the rest is history.
ut oh, the right is going to go crazy over their St. Ronnie Raygun
We've become the most plastic, superficial, corporate, and sold out country on earth. Reagan is probably grinning.
Wasn't Fred Thompson supposed to be "the next Reagan"? Let Republicans continue to try to relive their fraudulent fantasies. It's a losing political strategy.
Sleepwalking Through History
Haynes Johnson 1991
http://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalking-Through-Hi...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-...
check out this graph that shows deficits of the last 4 presidents. look how much $ reagan spent. you know the guy that wore the cowboy hat for the romantic effect of individualism and government is the problem. but we spend the publics money anyways.
It just amazes me how some people try to make an icon out of an jovial but empty suit who can make a good speech when it's written for him. Reagan was NOT a great president and in NO WAY belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Economic development? Reagan watched the U.S. steel industry die and never did a thing about it, then broke the air traffic controllers' union (don't worry; the replacements eventually formed another one). Even Bush I called his economic platform "voodoo economics," then sold out by accepting his vice presidency, leading us to Bush II's godawful eight years. Thanks to Mr. Bunch for bringing us all a much-needed dose of reality on Reagan.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown...
Thank you David. I shall read it, as I have "that Regean loving" brother in law. Nailing his buttocks to the wall is one of my favorite things.
I'm reading the book now, actually. It's great - very smooth writing, and the content is important.
I have to get me a copy of this book.
Of course our MSM will have a couple of weeks worth of faux outrage by all of their coporate fscist employees - like Larry Kudlow and the Fox zombies, rewriting history before our very eyes, and convincing the weak minded that Ronnie Raygun was D-day, V-day, JFK and Licoln Washington and Jefferson all rolled into one, and how dare the left wing loones disparage his immaculate perception.
I was only 13 when Reagan took office but I was shrewd enough to know that his policies were bad for me. I didn't buy the act and I wasn't distracted by phony patriotism but I did pay attention.
The Reagan administration made me the empathetic progressive I am today so for that I'm grateful. It taught me the importance of paying attention. I won't abide fairytales spun by the GOP and I won't let future generations be deceived.
I was 18 at the time. Personally, I was into the hardcore punk movement, we hated that fucker and many songs from that era (hardcore)reflect that hatred - funny thing is, about the same time that he was elected to a 2nd term (1984) the punk movement sort of died. It felt (to me anyways) that all our work was in vein and America was just screwed. A nation of fat, apathetic fools incapable of any kind of critical thinking - and I'm sad to say, history has proven me correct.
The one Reagan tax increase that really pisses me off is his move to tax unemployment benefits. UE benefits can be as little as 40% of what you were making while employed, but to tax them in unconscionable. Talk about kicking a man when he's down!
is a testimony to how
stupidill-informed the American people are!Most don't know the tax deductions he took away from the average American like interest on car loans and all medical expenses from zero.
He took away those deductions that affected the middle/lower classes that had little affect on the upper class and used these deductions to off set the tax deductions he gave the upper class.
Reagan IS the grandfather to the situation we're in now... caused by deregulations and BIG tax breaks for corporate executives.
Most Americans are too
stupidshort sited to look back over the last 30 years and see who benefited by the Reaganomic's (voodo economics to Bush Sr.).to protect consumers against loan sharking!
in the political arena over the years. I can truly say that Ronald Reagan was one of the empty suits who had a matching head. His vagueness wasn't just from the onset of Alzheimers. It was also from that conservative point of view that all problems have simple answers if you just let the Average American fix them. He didn't have any real answers but most of the problems would just fix themselves with Yankee ingenuity. Right.
Saint Ronald believed the Russians were the evil monkeys from the 'Wizard of Oz' and ketchup was a vegetable, all the while his pill popping wife was "comforted" by Frank Sinatra, astrologers and her illegal alien maids from Peru.
Reagan was the beginning of the lapdog, pro Republican mainstream media.
Right after he was elected and began to give White House press conferences, Reagan was so inaccurate on the most basic and obvious facts the press' effort to correct him along the way looked to many like they were badgering the poor fella'.
Perhaps out of feelings of guilt that they had to report so many crooked dealings and deceits during the Nixon administration, the press took their viewers' complaints to heart and began to back off challenging Reagan's loose-at-best grasp of the truth. They allowed Reagan to assert the most outrageous fabrications and factual inaccuracies without challenge.
As we all saw, however, mainstream media made up for their lapdog silence during the Reagan (and Bush1) years the moment Clinton was elected.
That is a mainstream media pattern that has survived to this very day; lapdog passivity toward Republicans, aggressive antagonism toward Democrats. It is so ingrained in the system now, I'm sure the new generation of press/mainstream media sees it as more-or-less a "journalistic tradition" and wouldn't think of violating it.
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