Comments on: The Reagan myth is stunting the Republican Party https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-reagan-myth-is-stunting-the-republican-party/ ECPR's Political Science Blog Sun, 21 Apr 2024 22:26:59 +0000 hourly 1 By: Mark Smallwood https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-reagan-myth-is-stunting-the-republican-party/#comment-48942 Sun, 21 Apr 2024 22:26:59 +0000 https://theloop.ecpr.eu/?p=8279#comment-48942 As a B-Movie actor and SAG president, Reagan was uniquely placed to snitch on dozens of film industry employees to Joe McCarthy's HUAC. In 1980, candidate Reagan gave a speech extolling 'states rights,' (a code phrase in support of the failed Confederacy, Jim Crow laws, and racist attitudes and legislation) in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where only a few years before, three young students had been murdered by the KKK for trying to register black voters. In 1984, Reagan chose to commemorate the 40th anniversary of D-Day at Kolmeshöhe Cemetery in Bitburg, Germany and laid a wreath at the cemetery memorial, a cemetery that held the remains of only German soldiers, and several dozen SS members. Iran-Contra.

These and many other examples expose Reagan as a man willing to present a friendly face to the public while pursuing craven and sometimes illegal acts behind the scenes. In some ways, his Presidency, which did indeed pave the way for Trump's ascendance, was even more insidious than Trump's. However, each man draped himself in the mantle of the flag (Trump, literally so) and took a populist stance. Both men were originally registered members of the Democratic Party, until they found it financially advantageous to switch sides, showing their utter hypocrisy and weak moral centers.

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