Deifying Saint Ronald

Everyone who reads this blog knows that I am not a fan of Ronald Reagan.

But now with his 100th birthday in the offing (or has it already passed? I'm too lazy to look it up), there seems to be even more of the sainthood-politicking for RR, which is normally seen in the Vatican to promote to sainthood a particular "holy person" -- you don't have to look any further than the drumbeat to elevate to sainthood the most recent pope, whose post-mortem "miracles" defy all reason.

As Ann Davidow recently pointed out on Buzzflash:

As we take note of what would be Ronald Reagan's one hundredth birthday it remains a mystery why he is revered by so many Americans and held up as an icon by the Republican Party. Everyone in the GOP takes a crack at explaining why he is a splendid example of everything a leader should be and a patriot par excellence.
. . .
In the area of civil rights alone he trampled on basic values by using the "Southern Strategy" to promote his political fortunes. He kicked off his 1980 presidential campaign in Neshoba County where Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman had been lynched some years before as they worked to establish voting rights for black southerners - a despicable exercise in gutter politics. Asserting "I believe in states' rights before a "white, and at times, raucous crowd of perhaps 10,000" (Bob Herbert, the NY Times, 11/2007) Reagan shamelessly made the case for bigotry and exclusion in his pursuit of the White House. Everyone got the message, especially in the South, and as President he consistently vetoed programs that sought to level the playing field for minorities.
. . .
How is it that a man of such monumental failures is celebrated on the right as something of a political saint? Republicans and many others refuse to replace the myth with facts, and we are in danger of repeating many of the same deceptive practices in the conduct of our political life today.

Indeed. Even at the time I had a lot of trouble understanding the magnetic attraction of Ronald Reagan.

I still do. And I guess that there still is a movement to do a little "plastic surgery" on the face of Teddy Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore and turn him into Ronald Reagan. After all, who the fuck was Teddy Roosevelt, who became a traitor to his class and demand social justice and an end to the capitalist fuck-everyone-beneath-me-and-that-means-you system of trusts and monopolies?

I mean, really. Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican??? Come on.