It wasn't the Reagan Revolution. The William F.

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4. I was older than that - but he didn't fool me either.

I think I realized the first time I heard one of his radio commentaries what a dangerous man he was. Dangerous in that he sugar-coated all kinds of horrible, stingey, cheapskate, selfish, un-Christian, myopic, shortsighted, penny-wise/pound-foolish ideas that NEVER should have seen the light of day, much less find any favor with anybody anywhere. HORRIBLE stuff. And the "kindly" affable old uncle shtick he presented, soooooooooooo slick and silky and folksy and aw-shucks.

I worked at the FM rock-format sister station of this AM talk station that ran reagan's commentary. It was a strategy he adopted after he lost the presidential nomination to Gerald Ford in 1976. He went back to California and a number of very wealthy republi-CON tycoons and industry chieftains gathered around him and funded him and helped him build an increasingly appealing and high-profile platform that would keep his name and voice and statements in the news and in the public eye and ear. Ensured that he didn't fade away and wasn't forgotten - so he could rise again to fight another day, and preferably win next time. They propped him up and gave him his cue cards and watched him sell the "gospel" of that freedomy-freedomy thing, of trickle-down and the bullshit about the free market being a magic cure-all for everything that ailed America. And as the actor he was, he did splendidly! He sold that shit just like he sold that GE all-electric home and anything else he pitched.

And I'd catch some of those commentaries, and I remember being very troubled. This guy was trouble. He was GONNA be trouble. We had to do something! And nobody did. Nobody cared. Everybody just really liked his pleasant old affable persona a lot. They'd listen to anything and forgive him anything. They felt he really understood, connected, and was somehow one of them, even though he was a Hollywood celebrity and governor of California and slicky-boy smooth-talking spokesman and aw-shucks harmless ol' fella.

Harmless MY ASS. I knew people were gonna bite. I knew people were gonna go for that shtick. I knew they were gonna fall all over themselves to see in him what they wanted to see. And they'd love it when he'd lull them back to sleep with his pleasant folksy talk and demeanor, that aw-shucks stuff that was worth more than the Crown Jewels. People loved that stuff and they ate it up. It sounded SOOOOOOO good and so comforting and so soothing and so harmless.

And look what he did. Look at the "reagan revolution" he started. The blight he caused to sicken our land. I blame him for just about everything that's gone wrong with our country. Whatever is happening now started with ronald reagan. He made it okay to be selfish. He made it okay to be a cheapskate. He made it okay to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. He made it okay to turn the poor and mentally ill out onto the street. He made it okay to balloon the war machine while too many people starved. He made it okay to put down the poor as moochers and welfare queens and all kinds of other lies and fabrications and fairy stories. As phony as any of the fiction he starred in.

I will go to my grave hating and despising ronald reagan more than any other individual in history. If I could, I would systematically go around the country removing his name from every award, every bridge, every ship, every school, every highway, every airport, every government building, every foundation, every scholarship, every monument, every ANYTHING. Starting with what should still be the Simi Valley Freeway and moving straight across the country all the way to what should still be known as the Washington National Airport. He was the most dangerous man in America, if not the world - because of the shit he sold and made to seem respectable and desirable. That bastard singlehandedly caused more hardship, did more damage, and wrought more wreckage, despair, and desolation than any other figure in history. And we are STILL paying for it, through the nose, today.