I often speak about my belief that the roots of modern conservatism back up to the run-up to Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1981. The only purpose for such comments is the need to understand and rationalize the current depths of the American socio/political Right. After Reagan’s earlier failures in securing his party’s nomination, he embarked a path of Conservative thought manipulation unparalleled in our history. From newspaper columns to radio shows, Reagan spoke the words that gave rise to his title of the ‘Father of Modern Conservatism.’
A nation that was “Left of Center” for many years (post early 1960s), traversed through the Nixon’s (corruption) years, chugged through Ford’s Administration, and landed squarely in the camp of Ronald Reagan. It was then that faux conservatism became the seeds of the GOP today.
// ]]>
Under Reagan the nation took a sharp turn right and has never shaken the ‘Black Hole’ gravitational pull of a conservative abyss.
Under Reagan…
*Race-Relations became a political pawn for winning votes in the South. Hate Crimes increased exponentially during his administration.
Lee Atwater, the most influential Republican political operative of the 1980s and Reagan’s campaign manager in 1980, called Reagan’s subtle approach to white backlash voters the “New Southern Strategy.”31 Atwater acknowledged in 1981 that the strategy had been designed to appeal to “the racist side of the [George] Wallace voter” without antagonizing other Americans who might be offended by ugly Wallace-style racism. As Atwater explained, “You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘nigger’—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like ‘forced busing,’ ‘states’ rights,’ and all these things that you’re talking about are totally economic things and a by-product of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it… because obviously sitting around saying, ‘We want to cut this,’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘Nigger, nigger.’”32
*Reagan, despite campaigning as a fiscal conservative, started the nation’s slide into (deep) deficit spending and budget malfeasance. (Chart through 2006)
*His administration featured corruption and international intrigue that was harmful to the Eastern and the Western Hemispheres. Through intel operatives and para-military’ thugs’ like Oliver North, Reagan sold arms to Iran, sold WMD technology to Iraq and funded an evil para-military organization in Central America.
* His years in office were not only the direct opposite of conventional conservatism, Reagan appears very much like the dreaded, “big-spending social liberal,” he so adroitly railed against. Think Progress : 10 Things Conservatives Do Not Want You to Know About Reagan.
As the Father of Modern Conservatism and one who is consistently used as the conservative model for political aspirants, I assert that Reagan is singularly responsible for the birth of today’s social and political divides.
After Reagan’s political operatives, Karl Rove and Roger Ailes moved the GOP to the precipice of political indecency; and the party fell into the crevice. George H.W. Bush’s operatives led directly to the methods of Rove with George W. Bush.
Let’s take a look at 10 Points Of Conservative Malfeasance
1. A cacophony of Americans are rebelling against increasing taxes to the nations’ wealthy. They watch as the middle class shrinks and as the income gap grows further apart. Yet, they sit in bewildering quiet.
2. Grover Norquist, an unelected Washington operative (funded by the Koch’s and other sources) forces through political pressure, the majority of GOP politicians to sign a pledge against any form of tax increases.
3. The Supreme Court of the United States decided in favor of Citizens United, thus opening the flood gate for corporate ‘money-in-politics,’ on a secret basis. The SCOTUS considered corporations as people and money as speech.
4. Birth of organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC (Koch Brothers and other Right-Wing Millionaire Donor’s Club) which craft legislation for Federal and State Legislators. Why would a legislator involve him or herself with legislation crafted by self-serving segment of the population? Money?
5. “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. What about serving as a U.S. Senator singularly focused on doing what is best for the nation?
6. A Tea Party (including many in Congress) who wanted to refuse raising the nation’s spending limit, thus failing to live-up to America’s responsibility in paying its international debt.
7. State Governors who embarked on passing immigration legislation that is backfiring on one noted southern state: Alabama. Item: The recent arrest of a very Caucasian foreign auto industry executive assigned to the Mercedes-Benz assembly facility in state. I am certain that was not the focus of the law.
8. Attacks on and efforts to dismantle any entity that supports Democratic voting blocks. (ACORN, Public Service Unions, NPR)
9. Defunding Planned Parenthood, thus denying critical women’s services during a depressed economy (caused by the GOP).
10. “Ninety-Nine percent” support for presidential policies while the president perpetrated two simultaneous wars and while lowering taxes.
Of course, GOP Malfeasance spreads far further than 10 points of life, if you like add to the list!
Reagan wasn’t inaugurated in 1979. He was inaugurated in Jan. 1981.
Read the 1971 Powell Memo/Manifesto and everything you’ve pointed out makes even more sense…
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html