Twenty years ago we were engaged in a secret illegal war in Central America, and a secret legal one in Afghanistan. There are a lot of things that haven’t changed in the intervening years (and a lot more that changed, and then changed back). So, here’s a trip down memory lane courtesy of the peerless original ‘paper’ blogger: Paul Slansky’s The Clothes Have No Emperor.
March 1985: In Which the President Shows How Much He’s Forgotten About the American Revolution
3/1 Desperate to win Contra aid, President Reagan says the Nicaraguan rebels are “the moral equal of our Founding Fathers.” Historical novelist Howard Fast calls this “an explosion of such incredible ignorance that…he is not fit for public office of any kind.”
3/6 “Nuclear war would be the greatest tragedy, I think, ever experienced by mankind in the history of mankind.” -President Reagan demonstrating his awareness of just how serious it would be if he pushed the button.
Geraldine Ferraro’s Diet Pepsi ad- for which she is reported to have been paid over $500,000- premieres on The Fall Guy.
More on the flip:
<img src="http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/actors/nancy-reagan/nancy-t.gif"
3/8 A second benign polyp is found in the Presidential colon. Says Larry Speakes, “There is no clinical evidence that this kind of polyp ever becomes malignant.”
3/13 President Reagan- whose fondness for talking tough is exceeded only by his love of getting laughs- does both as he wraps himself in Clint Eastwood’s aura and declares, “I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers. ‘Go ahead and make my day'”.
George Bush attends the funeral of Soviet leader Konstantin Chernerko.
3/15 Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan resigns after being ordered to stand trial on fraud and larceny charges.
“Molanari, you creep! Cut out this crap!” – Sen. Alfonse D’Amato refusing to believe that the person on the other end of the phone is actually President Reagan.
3/18 ABC is purchased by Capital Cities Communications for more than $3.5 billion, the largest non-oil acquisition in corporate history and first time a network has been sold.
“More than twice as many people are fighting in the field right now against the Nicaraguan communist regime as fought against Somoza.” -President Reagan trying to garner support for contra aid.
3/19 “Nearly three times as many men are fighting the communists right now as the Sandanistas had fighting Somoza.”- President Reagan trying even harder for Contra aid.
3/20 Rupert Murdoch enters the movie business, buying 50% of the Twentieth-Century-Fox Studio.
3/21 20/20’s Geraldo Rivera attempts to shed some light on the Bernhard Goetz debate by re-enacting the subway shootings, while Barbara Walters shares Chinese take-out with the gunman in his apartment.
A week later, Goetz- who is being seen, in the wake of reports about his vicious New Hampshire confession, as less a hero than kind of a creep- is indicted for attempted murder, after all.
At his 29th press conference, President Reagan explains that he has no intention of visiting a concentration camp site during his upcoming visit to West Germany. To do so, he explains, would impose an unpleasant guilt trip on a nation where there are “very few alive that remember even the war, and certainly none of them who were adults and participating in any way.” Though this stunning ignorance of the actuarial tables is displayed to a roomful of reporters, not one challenges it.
3/25 “You like me! Right now! You like me!”- Sally Field accepting her Best Actress Oscar for Places In the Heart.
3/26 General Electric- the corporation that, by hiring Ronald Reagan as its spokesman in the 50’s, is most responsible for him being where he is today- is indicted for 108 counts of fraud for falsely billing the Pentagon for over $500,000. It pleads guilty.
3/29 NOW PLAYING: Deperately Seeking Susan. Director Susan Seidelman’s insistence on casting the then-unknown Madonna pays off, as her presence transofrms a slick New Wave farce about amnesia into a cultural event and confirms the singer’s ultra-superstar status as she mounts her first concert tour. “Into the Groove” becomes the all time best-selling 12″ dance single.
3/31 “I find the ‘drama’ of it all some the hippest and funniest stuff done in America today…Its camp freshness fits perfectly into NBC’s late-night mold.”- Saturday Night Live producer Dick Ebersol announcing plans to start airing monthly wrestling specials.
listening to Pat Buchanan speak, some of which forced me (against my will) to remember Reagan, and now you’re piling more on. Jeez.
But I really liked Desperately Seeking Susan when it first came out. Wonder how it holds up? Not that I’m going to actually go rent it to find out.
I guess remembering that we survived one dangerous idiot of a President is cheering. Though this one is so much more of a dangerous idiot that I’m not really much cheered.
Oh well, anything that points out the absurdity of the current Reagan-worship is a good thing, so thanks for that.
Graphic artists were still using pica rulers and paste-up glue rather than computers.
Blog wasn’t a word, at least not one spoken sober.
Phones were attached to walls and there was something called long distance charges.
Airbag was something you called your mother-in-law.
A woman’s right to choose wasn’t in jeopardy.
Your religion was nobody’s business but your own and the United States still had a secular government.
Air conditioning was not standard in new cars unless you call rolling down the window, manually, air conditioning.
I, personally, survived the seventh year itch and was starting my eighth year of marriage.
You could buy a decent home for under $50,000.
Oh, and Reagan was president and you could no longer get the low interest student loan that saw me through graduate school. That particular student loan program was cut as soon and Reagan took office. Republicans…always looking out for the little guy.
Yep, one item on a l-o-n-g list of reasons why I despise Reagan. I remember just being in despair that all of the things that started with LBJ’s Great Society programs – that really helped millions of people and that liberals had to fight so long and so hard to get into place – were being dismantled seemingly overnight.
One reason I’m so fond of the Sam Rayburn quote, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, It takes a carpenter to build one.”
I graduated in December of 1980. January 1981 Reagan took office and the student loan program, which I couldn’t have gone to graduate school without, was immediately cut. I thank my lucky stars I finished my education before the Reagan years began, but just by the skin of my teeth.
If Reagan didn’t start the war on PEOPLE in poverty, he certainly got it rolling.
Reagan broke the backs of unions, which started the decline of all worker representation.
1981 Begining of the 12yr Nightmare: Reagan/Bush
Decline of wages, permanently
The birth of Corporate Tyrany, legal loopholes, protection for the Wealthy
The Decline of Education for working people
Government got their share of drug money, and the street prices soared. (which began the assault on working people’s homes and property to obtain the money for their habits)
Corruption/Covert Operations/Corporate Money laundering
The Birth of toaday’s Neo-Cons
Oil Companies obtained their stronghold on people’s throats/wallets
The list could go on, and on, but it’s Easter Week-end, and I’m going to throttle the rage, and shoot the first damned bunny that shits a “Red” egg in my basket at the camp this week end.
So I’ll end this rant, with a famous quote about anymore corrupt Reagan Administration Follies with:
“Uh…I really don’t recall” “Nancy, was that ok?”
I’m continually amazed when the subject of Reagan comes up at the depth of ‘mis’understanding that the general public has about what Reagan really did(and didn’t do) while in office.
His destruction to social programs like Hud housing/funding for mental health -leading to the begining of the real homeless in this country-education cutting-union busting, most corrupt administration in modern history(at the time) and all people remember is ‘mr. g. tear down that wall'(forgot the whole arms for hostage mess, his senility and stupidity). To say nothing of the whole family values push with his own family as the poster family for dysfunctional families.
Yet somehow he’s ended up as Rosseta Stone for the modern Repuglican Party.