Sid Blumenthal on the Racism of Ronald Reagan

[Sandpiper]

This is a few months old, but hits the nail on the head about Reagan and the GOP's attitudes on race

Look away, Dixieland

US Democrats won't win in the South while they keep quiet on race

Sidney Blumenthal
Saturday November 8, 2003
The Guardian

<snip>

The Reagans mini-series is the latest in a long line of cheesy TV productions mangling the lives of the presidents, though no one has chosen to politicise these tabloid productions until now. This time, a Republican mole filched a copy of the script, and the Republican party chairman, Ed Gillespie, assumed the pose of historian. The script put words into the mouth of Reagan - like these about Aids sufferers: "They that live in sin shall die in sin" (what he actually said was: "Maybe the Lord brought down this plague", because "illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments"). Gillespie called on CBS to pull the series or flash a warning on screen every 10 minutes that it was make-believe. CBS promptly crumpled, pulling the show from the network schedule. Leslie Moonves, the CBS president, abased himself with abject apologies.

The Reagans, judging from leaked excerpts of the script, features a distracted Ronnie and harridan Nancy, a melding of 1950s situation comedy and Mommy Dearest. Policy and politics are not its centrepieces. Certain crucial events in the rise of Reagan are noticeably missing. The actual words on race and civil rights, essential to his political success, are absent, though the Republicans haven't complained.

Some true-life scenes: Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (calling it "humiliating to the South"), and ran for governor of California in 1966 promising to wipe the Fair Housing Act off the books. "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house," he said, "he has a right to do so." After the Republican convention in 1980, Reagan travelled to the county fair in Neshoba, Mississippi, where, in 1964, three Freedom Riders had been slain by the Ku Klux Klan. Before an all-white crowd of tens of thousands, Reagan declared: "I believe in states' rights".

As president, Reagan aligned his justice department on the side of segregation, supporting the fundamentalist Bob Jones University in its case seeking federal funds for institutions that discriminate on the basis of race. In 1983, when the supreme court decided against Bob Jones, Reagan, under fire from his right in the aftermath, gutted the Civil Rights Commission.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1080497,00.html

[goclark]

1. Yep that's the Good Ole Boy Reagan

[LostInAnomie]

2. We should make sure stuff like this is common knowledge...

... we can't let the Repigs rewrite history and turn this racist plutocrat into a saint.

[redqueen]

3. They love him for it

They all claim not to be racists, but they are.

This will not bother his supporters one eensy weensy bit.

[candy331]

4. I wonder did he go to the colored heaven for what he

did on earth?

[JohnKleeb]

5. of course, I mentioend some of this stuff in my essay

[gratuitous]

6. Reagan also appointed Slappy

To the EEOC.

Another "legacy" to haunt America for years to come.

[hellbound-liberal]

7. Just posted it on the AOL message forum!

I've been dropping them little doses of reality every day this week.

[Bluebear]

8. And Barbara doesn't want MLK on currency, either

It would bother her beuatiful mind, apparently.

[Cyrano]

9. Opened 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi

As noted in the original post, Reagan's first appearance after the 1980 convention was in Neshoba county Mississippi. This should have told us everything we needed to know about him. It's the place where Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman (who were working to register black voters) were murdered by the KKK. Reagan spoke about "state's rights" which was (and is) code those who want to roll back the civil rights act and the voting rights act.

In addition to all the other calumnies that have been peddled about Reagan this week, he was a racist piece of shit.

[chelsea0011]

10. I'm not surprised. It's why they love him

They know deep down he is just like them. It's like Helms starting to sing "Dixie" when a new Black-African woman Senator gets on an elevator with him. It's his way of a welcome. And Helm's people love it and him.