By Mickey Walker-June 26, 2011
It began with Ronald Reagan. If you could get a trained actor to convince voters that what
you saw on television or the Silver Screen was real, you could elect actors to
high office. Like governor of
California or even president of the United States. You pause a bit at first to reflect on the idea of what
makes for a good leader. Could an
actor possess the skills and the political acumen to pull off an 8-year term in
the White House? Sure thing.
Ronald Reagan, ne the Great Communicator, the Gipper, the
Old Ranger from the TV show, Death Valley Days, pulled it off. For 8 years as president of the United
States, he convinced most of America that he was on the side of the working man. Yet he was directly responsible for massive
cuts to the workforce. He
convinced us to believe that a job flipping hamburgers was a manufacturing job
of high purpose. At the same time
he was busy firing all the Air Traffic controllers who went on strike for more
pay and better working conditions. He totally destroyed unions in America, the last effective bargaining
tool of the working man that better served the greatest number of Americans,
not just the wealthy few.
All the while, Reagan convincingly appeared on camera to
explain his positions on policy. He was smooth. He proved
that you could convince most all voters of most anything if you said it with
the right intonation and subtle facial expressions on camera. I remember the time Reagan needed to
explain some of the new little taxes that needed to be levied to clean up the
trillions of dollars he racked up over the years with his borrowing and
spending spree to defeat the Evil Empire, Russia, and bring it to its
knees. There was the question of raising
federal taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. But Reagan said that he would be against taxing beer because that was
the working man’s drink. Wow. He cared about the working man. He was just as convincing in his
delivery as he had been as the Gipper in the movie “Knute Rockney, All
American.” Yet under Reagan, the
working man’s lot suffered several body blows in Reagan’s tax reform bills and
in his philosophy on how the pie should be carved up. The working man lost out and the corporations thrived.
In late 2002, Cheney had summoned the Bush administration's
economic team to his office to discuss another round of tax cuts to stimulate
the economy. Then-Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill pleaded that the
government -- already running a $158 billion deficit -- was heading toward a
fiscal crisis. But by O'Neill's account of the meeting, Cheney silenced him by
invoking his take on Reagan's legacy.
For the first time in history, had Reagan proven truly that
“deficits don’t matter?” Those
very words were spoken by Dick Cheney in a Cabinet meeting convinced president
George W. Bush that it was their time to spend, spend, spend. Did the Republicans have no second
thoughts about racking up more debt when their very avowed politics had been
“conservative” for over a century? Weren’t they even a little bit red-faced at their massive borrowing and
spending? Like the big-spending
Democrats they have enjoyed demonizing for over a century? When you borrow, you have a shortfall,
and that money you do not have to pay for your spending on weapons, invading
and occupying foreign countries, is called a deficit. And when you borrow to keep the government running, you must
pay the piper. You must pay the
interest on the deficit or the ongoing increases of borrowing to keep on paying
for the spending. “Deficits don’t
matter.” What a curious notion. Yet I truly believe that Reagan
convinced Americans of that very concept because he was, indeed, the Great
Communicator that could explain it all in very believable terms so the American
people would buy it. No one ever
called him on it.
And later, Bush would borrow and spend another 4 Trillion
dollars on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a country that had no weapons of mass
destruction which was the reason Bush told America it was necessary to attack
them. Almost 10 years later, our
servicemen still boots on the ground, we wonder why. And if the countless billions of dollars a week we are still
borrowing and spending to finance such madness is worth it. And if deficits really don’t matter
after all.
So under Reagan’s 8 years as president he was directly
responsible for America going into debt 3 Trillion dollars more than when he
took office. We as a country did
not have the money to run our government, build up the armed forces in
peacetime, mind you, so we borrowed it. And to hell with paying the piper at a later time or paying interest on
the new debt incurred. America was
great, America was back, and God was most assuredly on our side. Reagan convinced us that America was
the best. He made us feel good. He seemed like a regular guy you could
trust. So America did trust him. Many have said he will go down as one
of the greatest American presidents.
Reagan believed in mixing church and state, and relied on
religious organizations to elect him and GOP candidates from dog catcher to Senator. Reverend Jerry Falwell organized the
Moral Majority which publicized hit lists on candidates NOT to vote for. All Democrats, Reagan and Falwell were
in bed together. It meant more
votes, and selling God and country to all Americans from the Oval Office was a
piece of cake as long as Reagan was on camera reaching out to all
Americans. The Christian
Coalition, another group mustered their memberships to vote for Reagan and the
Republicans because it would be better for our country. Besides, Reagan was opposed to abortion
which suited the religious groups just fine. Jefferson and Madison turned over in their graves after
Reagan convinced the American people that a separation of church and state was
not really all that necessary after all. If you feel good about God you will feel good about letting His hand
guide your country. And oh yeah,
in the mixing of church and state, it’s probably best if you are Christian
(wink, wink).
It is very likely that Reagan proved one thing for certain,
though. That you if you had the
right light, audio, color and editing, you had the trappings of unleashing a
great communicator upon the land. Put an accomplished, seasoned actor like Reagan behind the president’s
desk in the Oval Office, all things are possible. Make-believe becomes reality. Put the right face powder on an already photogenic,
well-known face that everyone recognizes instantly, and you are off to the
races. It’s show time. But pay no attention to that
14-Trillion dollar debt behind the curtain. Or the 1.6 Trillion dollar deficit that is likely to never
go away.
The GOP base, the wealthiest Americans run giant
corporations or at least has millions of dollars of stock in these
companies. Many of them such as
Halliburton have no-bid contracts with our government. That means no other company can bid
competitively against them. So if
their hammers are sold to us taxpayers at $500 apiece, there is nothing we, nor
the Tea Party, can do about it. Funny how the latter, as a group protesting government spending seems to
fluff over the giant upcharges we taxpayers are burdened with from these groups
like Halliburton and all the other no-bid war corporation cronies of
Presidents, Congressmen and Senators. They are cronies because they get special considerations. Like billing the American taxpayer $40
million for food for soldiers in Iraq that never got served up. Or for items like a $500 hammer when
the US Army could go out and buy one at Wal Mart for $9.99. Imagine that. Imagine why congressmen don’t cut spending there instead of
putting Social Security and Medicare on the operating table of spending
cuts. Try to imagine why the Tea
Party raises so much hell about excessive government spending while overlooking
spending so much for a relatively inexpensive item. Funny thing that, eh? I wonder what the Koch Brothers would say about it.
Money motivates no doubt about it. It makes silk purses out of a sow’s ear every time. Take George W. Bush. Puhlese. Money buys actors who transcend to lofty positions of great
communicators. Dudes you would
want to have a beer with, just ask Billy Bob. Cheney was probably right. Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter. When the rich are getting richer at the
expense of the poor voter who believes the illusion, it’s true. Deficits don’t really matter. Nor does
truth. And when you are
stealing in high places from the government Americans don’t matter either. It’s
the money, stupid.