Most presidents are easy to pin down on our cultural maps. Ronald Reagan was raised in Dixon, Ill., but we placed him in Hollywood, telling America's story on the big screen.Oddly enough, those who know facts place Reagan in Hollywood as the schmucky best friend of the lead in a mess of B-movies. Later, when taking the pay of General Electric, he lied about America in front of Chamber of Commerce audiences across fly-over country.
Enough factuality. The story, we think (we have entirely too much to do, & will not be reading it) will go on to say that "we" can't pin President Obama down like that. Guess not, 'cause the legendizers at TIME haven't had a chance to weave their magic bullshit spells yet.
4 comments:
Reagan quite clearly did not give a shit about Dixon Illinois.
In early 1981, President Reagan pushed into law a “dramatic rollback in domestic spending.” It hit the state of Illinois particularly hard. The author reveals “an early casualty” of the cuts was a home for “the mentally retarded,” located in Dixon. It was then the city’s largest employer, with 1,200 employees. As a result of federal cuts in Medicaid funding, it had to shut its doors. Reaganism, aka “Voodoo Economics,” also contributed to the largest steel mill in the Dixon region, Northwestern Steel and Wire Co., closing down in 2001. This put 1,400 workers out on the street. The farmers in the area also took a beating from the ex-hometown boy. The author said: “Reagan helped drive hundreds of thousands more of them into ‘financial collapse’ while enriching agribusiness concerns like Cargill and Monsanto.” As a final insult to Dixon, as a result of Reagan-inspired deregulation, the bus companies don’t serve the town anymore! Greyhound pulled out in 2001. If the folks in Dixon thought Reagan was going to be like that lovable character played by Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” they were sadly mistaken. Kleinknecht emphasized for the Dixonites: “Reagan was no Jefferson Smith!”
Porkulus Editor Can Only Add:
Had he given the Dixonians a break, it would have been called pork barrel spending & he wouldn't have been re-elected by all the tax-cutting fiscal conservatives.
P. S.: Where do you get this stuff? Or maybe we should ask why? (Not that signs of cyber-life here aren't appreciated., of course.)
Too much spare time &/or good multi-tasking skills?
I think this one originated in iTunes: I listen to a lot of news podcasts at work and I heard an interview with - I think - Kleinknecht whose bleakest/funniest point was that there was no travel in an out of Dixon except on foot if you weren't a car owner as a result of Reagan's policies.
Then I had to do some Googling when you mentioned Dixon.
Employment Editor Sez:
Hah! Multi-tasking & pod-casting. Knew it.
Cheating your employer is a more accurate description. Not that there's anything wrong w/ it. Cheat the boss before he cheats you, we always say.
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