A COUNTER-EULOGY TO RONALD REAGAN

The measure of a man’s worth is the answer to the question: “Would the world have been better off had he not been born?” What is Ronald Reagan’s measure?
Conservatives liked to brag that Reagan set a goal and went for it no matter what popular opinion was. That contrasted with Bill Clinton who they said held his finger up to the wind to determine what direction to take. When a leader surveys the people to find out where they want to go then tries to lead them there, that is democracy. When a leader goes wherever he wants, that is autocracy or dictatorship.
Ronald Reagan did not like the Constitution. He subverted the Constitution and committed treason. He said he would never deal with terrorists or their state sponsors. As he was making the claim he was cutting a deal with Iran, whom he claimed was the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism. The deal called for Iran to hold U.S. embassy hostages until after the 1980 election. That would make President Carter look ineffective and give the election to Reagan. In exchange, President Reagan would give badly needed weapons and military equipment to Iran. Reagan took the oath of office at noon on Jan. 20, 1981. Iran released the hostages that evening. In March 1981, U.S. weapons and military equipment began flowing into Iran. That deal was seditious and subversive.
Reagan secretly funded an illegal rebellion against Nicaragua. He did so even though Congress has passed a resolution forbidding him to do it. The result was the Iran/Contra scandal for which sufficient evidence existed to impeach Reagan. The Democratic Party, which is more loyal to the Republican Party than it is to the American people, decided not to pursue the impeachment.
Reagan was unencumbered by intelligence and a conscience. He had no loyalty to the U.S. His only loyalty was to the U.S. ruling class and its primary party the Republican Party. He, like most Republicans, believed Americans are like children. Deep down, most of the common people want a paternalistic government, one that will make decisions for them, a dictator. They want to be lied to and told that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy do exist. They want to be told they are more brave, moral, intelligent, charitable and patriotic than they really are. This belief carried Reagan to the highest elected position in the nation.
Reagan rose to power on an economic reform platform. Unfortunately, economics was a subject for which he had little understanding. In 1980, George Herbert Walker Bush labeled Reagan’s economic plans “voodoo economics.” Actually they were the same economics implemented by Republicans in the 1920s that led the U.S. into the Great Depression.
When the stock market experienced its greatest crash in U.S. history in 1987, it should have surprised no one. Only because regulations, so hated by Reagan, kicked in, was an economic catastrophe and a second great depression avoided.
It took the U.S. over 200 years to run up a trillion dollar debt. It took Reagan one term to run up another trillion. In his second term, Reagan ran the debt up another trillion dollars. Reaganomics triggered a debt spiral that now exceeds $7 trillion. The interest is hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Instead of keeping classrooms open, providing better healthcare and maintaining the infrastructure, that money flows like a river into the black hole of interest payments. Closed classrooms where America’s youth took band, chorus, art, gym and other classes in the past now should bear a slogan above the door stating: “In memory of the Reagan debt.”
Reagan preached constantly that he would get the government off the backs of businesses so they would be free to do what they do best. It turned out that what businesses do best is steal. Banks and Savings and Loans merrily shelled out trillions of dollars in bad loans. Taxpayers were stuck with the bill for federally insured loans that accrued in hundreds of billions of dollars. Embezzlers and malfeasance artists such as Neil Bush and Congressman Henry Hyde were typical as they walked free with pockets full. Other businesses moved their factories to nations that had no labor or safety laws leaving Americans to fend for themselves in the low-paying service market. As Reagan preached “family values” incomes of fathers plummeted forcing mothers to abandon their children and enter the workplace.
While Reagan gave tax cuts to his wealthy friends and compatriots, he passed the largest tax increase in history. The tax increase was a thirty percent increase on payroll taxes. The payroll, or Social Security, tax is a flat tax and harms low-income people the most.
As Reagan worked his voodoo magic on the economy creating record debts, deficits and negative balances of trade, his foreign policy adventures showed no greater capability or responsibility. An advocate of the MAD (mutually assured destruction) approach to international politics, he was willing to annihilate the world. Life on earth exists today only because the Soviet Union did not select a leader as sociopathic and mad as Reagan was. Reagan claims credit for the fall of Communism. He deserves it, or rather the American people do. The Soviets couldn’t help but notice that the U.S. was installing raving lunatics in the White House. Harry Truman used nuclear weapons. Kennedy came a hair’s breadth from using them over Cuba. Beginning in 1969, even worse madmen got control of the “button” culminating in Ronald Reagan. The Soviets rightly were terrorized by the prospect and decided it was better to be a capitalist than a radioactive cinder.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, Reagan gave nearly $4 billion of our tax dollars to the anti-Soviet fighters. One of those fighters who received millions of dollars was a Saudi Arabian named Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden used the funds to form an organization known today as al Qaeda. Until 1991, bin Laden was a valued friend of American leaders.
Reagan also provided the precursors to Iraq that made it possible for Saddam Hussein to develop chemical and biological weapons programs. One journalist reported that the U.S. also provided coordinates to Saddam to help him hit targets with his chemical weapons.
In 1970, Reagan called for the mass slaughter of his own people. He was incensed that Americans would exercise their First Amendment rights and oppose a war. He stated that dissent on the nation’s campuses against the Vietnam War should not be tolerated. “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with,” Reagan urged.
Reagan didn’t care how many people were killed by the chemical weapons he gave to Saddam Hussein. There were tens of thousands. He didn’t care how many Central Americans died at the hands of U.S. supplied and trained death squads. There were hundreds of thousands. If they were not members of his noble class, they were of no value to him.
Reagan demanded total obedience to the law by everyone except himself and his nobles. When he was not busy committing treason and subverting the Constitution or funding death squads around the world, he was running drugs. He became the world’s biggest drug pusher. While his wife Nancy was seen in TV commercials urging America’s youth to “just say no to drugs,” Ronald was peddling crack cocaine through his pushers in Los Angeles. The drug money was used to fund his dirty war against Nicaragua and to enrich his cronies. It seems tax cuts were not enough for that gluttonous group.
Until 1962, Reagan called himself a Democrat. However, during the McCarthy hearings era, Reagan ratted out his friends and acquaintances as enthusiastically as any Republican. During his youth, Reagan attempted to join the Communist Party. After the interview, the Communists decided Reagan was too “featherbrained” to be accepted into the party. Ironically, Reagan was good enough to be the leader of the U.S., but he wasn’t good enough to be a member of the Communist Party.
Reagan’s vision was through a rear-view mirror. He believed in rule by royalty or nobility. He and his second wife Nancy believed they were royalty. Reagan was a 17th century man trapped in the 20th Century. He had a plantation mentality that viewed common people as expendable slaves or serfs whose only value was the services they rendered to the monarch and his nobles.
Reagan had a reputation as a straight shooter. In fact, he was a crooked shooter. Usually he was doing the opposite to what he claimed he was doing. He promised to balance the budget. He never did. He claimed to be a law-and-order president. He was the U.S.’s biggest illegal drug pusher. He claimed to represent peace. He initiated numerous wars around the world. As he was pledging that he would not deal with terrorists or their state sponsors, he was making a deal with the worst terrorist state. He claimed he supported unions, then fired 12,000 air traffic controllers, which resulted in a rise in plane crashes. He claimed to be a tax-cutter while he was implementing the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
Reagan was an embarrassment to enlightened and civilized people. He brought shame and dishonor to this nation.
The measure of a man’s worth concludes that the world would have been a far better place had Ronald Reagan never been born. He was a madman, sick and twisted enough to launch a nuclear war and annihilate life on earth. Reagan escaped justice in this world. If the religion he claims to practice is valid, his days of reckoning are at hand.