An opinion article in the Financial Times tells some unspoken truths about the 'mystical' Reagan years...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/01/business/financialtimes/main6256362.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.10
"Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas - and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.
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The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot-savant (the wise fool). "
Certainly Ms. Palin (and a host of other conservatives who deny things like Evolution or Global Warming) is/are intelligent, even clever, but they frequently quote ill-researched, often veneer thin factoids, while eschewing vastly better supported research supporting the position they don't prefer. In her case, she is highly ambitious, and it seems her power base for election and support is to appeal to a social/political stance which doesn't prefer the scientific outcome/researched positions, consequently, she adopts such a position, and claims it is simply 'common sense' that, for example, that Global Warming isn't happening.
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ReplyDelete187 words and the only discernable message is "I think conservatives are stupid because I disagree with them."
ReplyDeleteActually the problem is that people don't look at everything Reagan did. Lots of conservatives today say Reagan was all for free trade and he was as long as it was on a level field. When Japan started to send honda motorcycles over at below cost he slapped a tarriff on them and saved Harley-Davidson. None of the free trade conservatives remember that. He also did try to balance the budget, he made a deal with congress to raise taxes if for every $1 he raised taxes they would cut spending by $3. Of course he made the mistake of trusting them and signing the tax increase first and after the tax increase spending went up. Also he continued some of the SALT talks started by Carter and got some real cuts in nuclear weapons. Running a military buildup and putting missles in Europe at the same time put lots of economic pressure on the Soviet Union and hastened its downfall. Most of todays conservatives simply forget that he did use tarriffs when free trade was not working and did not have to start a war to weaken an enemy.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Andy, welcome to Penigma. I hope you will comment often.
ReplyDeleteSecond, your comment is pure opinion - and as such cannot be contested, apparently all you personally could glean was what you claim you gleaned, but it was considerably different than your claim.
I frankly don't think conservatives are stupid, but I suppose you can't be blamed for thinking that - the point of the post was quite evident - Ronald Reagan is seen as the father of modern conservatism, yet he essentially fostered an idea that no one needs to be smart or educated or experienced to govern. That rather unsubstantiated claim has been taken to extreme by the likes of Sarah Palin, an ambitious woman who is, unfortunately, ill-educated compared and in contrast to the posts she seeks, and it shows. Worshiping iconoclasts has long been the domain of the American experience, but dreams of Walter Mitty aside, history shows such characters are in fact caricatures, not reality. Reagan was a meticulously managed figure, who, over time, became quite aware of the short-comings of conservatism and worked to address them. Palin, and the like (such as GW Bush), seem oblivious, in short, they aren't Reagan - but ultimately Reagan is to blame for the attitude - not Palin.
If that is too complex or deep to be easily grasped, I apologize - but I think perhaps you grasped it fine, and instead simply chose to use snark. Conversely, if you want to have a realistic conversation about the competence (including eruition) of Palin, I'm game.