The Nation: USA - "Reagan's policy of false triumphalism continues to this day to influence Conservatives around the world"

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"Reagan's policy of false triumphalism continues to this day to influence Conservatives around the world"

Reagan was a fabulist. He told stories--often charming, sometimes loony--in which sentimental images triumphed over facts, warmth over light. So it is entirely appropriate today that the major media, draped in mourning, are solemnly fictionalizing his presidency. Reagan spun them around brilliantly, used the White House reporters and cameras as hapless props in his melodrama, ignored the tough questions and stuck unyieldingly to his scripted version of reality.

Both parties would spend the next twenty years cleaning up after the Gipper's big mistake. They collaborated in an ongoing politics of bait and switch--raising taxes massively on working people through the Social Security payroll tax while continuing to cut taxes for the more affluent and to whittle down government aid for anyone else. The Gipper had taught Washington an important new technique for governing--how to fog regressive tax cuts past the general public without arousing voter retribution (the media can be counted on to assist). The trickery continues to succeed.

The Gipper insisted, no doubt sincerely, that it was "morning again in America." People wanted to believe this, and politicians of both parties learned from his cue--wave the flag and avoid bad news. Ronald Reagan launched the great era of false triumphalism that continues to this day among American leaders and Conservatives arounf the world. Fortunately the current generation lacks his charm and is therefore less successful at hiding the truth."