Last night I watched the Republican Debate. I felt it was part of my duty as a good, grown-up, patriotic American … even if it meant cutting into my time with McDreamy.The debate took place at the Reagan Library, and all ten candidates kept trying to position themselves as Reagan's rightful heir. OK. I'm told that the Reagan Era is to conservatives what Camelot is to liberals. I can understand that.
The part that I didn't understand at all was the way the candidates all reacted when Chris Matthews asked if it would be a good thing for America if Bill Clinton was back in the White House.
They all laughed! LAUGHED! Falling over one another to be tied to Reagan's legacy and laughing at Bill Clinton? I felt as though I had fallen into an alternative universe.
I never hated Ronald Reagan. His administration just left me feeling sad about my country. It seemed that if you weren't a rich white guy, the Reagan Administration had no interest in helping you improve your lot in life. The topics that matter/mattered to me as a woman were an anathema to those folks. My friends of color, as well as my gay friends, felt completely invisible to the Reaganites. Bush 41 seemed like an extension of that.
Then along came Bill. Like in a Warner Brothers cartoon, music played, the clouds broke, the sun came out, the little woodland creatures re-emerged and life was good again. We all felt we had a place at the table. We could be trusted to make choices about OUR OWN BODIES. Guns shouldn't be standard issue. AIDS was a health problem, not a punishment from God against homosexuals. Bill Clinton seemed like he was interested in being everyone's President.
We miss him. And no matter how we feel about Hillary, we certainly would never LAUGH at the prospect of having him back in the White House.
So John Edwards is right after all. There really are two Americas. I saw that so clearly last night.
Reagan was a front man for those people who wanted to dismantle Roosevelt's New Deal because it was costing rich people too much in taxes. In spite of the 8-year interval of Bill Clinton's administration, the process still continues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it's all that and more. I was involved with a guy who was a died in the wool conservative, a disciple of Barry Goldwater's, and he believed firmly that issues like reproductive choice, gay rights & the Terri Schiavo case are community issues, not federal ones. Today you not only do you have to be rich to be of interest to these Republicans, you have to have a direct line to the Baby Jesus. I thought government was supposed to be secular. But beyond that, my Christianity, my faith, puts me in favor of stem cell research, rather than seeing those embryos destroyed. Mine makes me against the death penalty and for universal health care for children. Apparently the Jesus I pray to is just wrong. It's positively creepy.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about the death penalty, stem cells and universal health care. Sometimes it's nice to be reassured I am not alone.
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