Monday, June 07, 2004
np: bruce springsteen - born in the u.s.a.
atrios and kos have been keeping watch on how the conservative machine is going to attempt to work its revisionist history tentacles on the death of president reagan.
tom tomorrow links to this insightful article written back in january in reaction to the cancellation of the reagan mini-series that republican politicians helped put a stop to airing on CBS. ronald reagan's legacy with the HIV/AIDS epidemic is probably his most troubling and lasting one. his outright ignorance of the problem, from its initial public and medical press in 1981 to reagan's first actual mention of the epidemic in 1987, helped deter funding for the fight against the disease to the tune of almost 60,000 reported infections and nearly 30,000 deaths by the end of 1987.
it is of course important to show respect in death. it is also important to not let history be whitewashed at the hands of those who would have us fall for the bait and switch. there will be repeated, rote information about reagan being the most popular president (false in many cases) and of his tax cuts (false) and small government (again, very false). nor to let someone's interpretation of a past person color the conventional wisdom about current people. there will be connections made between reagan and w. i'm sure. aside from dismal economic policy, cabinet and advisory cronies and ignorance toward the gay/lesbian community, they have little in common. partisan politics may be off limits, or at worst in poor taste, this week, but once the body's in the ground, all bets are off. the iraq war hasn't stopped for reagan's death. let's not let the media be distracted by it either.
