The Atlantic: Ronald Reagan's Long-Hidden Racist Conversation with Richard Nixon

[Llevron]

1 hour ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

I am going to have to push back against this.

 

It's not our communication that's the problem.

 

Yea I dont disagree with any of that to be honest. Just to be clear, I dont think its our problem, its just something we can do better. And its probably minor in the grand scheme. But if your intention is for us collectively to take on the elites and actually win, I think in come situations the language we use can change perception greatly. What Jumbo says below though is very true and I never saw it from this perspective before myself. 

 

46 minutes ago, Jumbo said:

every oppressed group benefits from/needs its more militant voice as it does more moderate ones, but it is also true that the form each style takes in any given event can damage as much as help the cause, and therein lies the rub and the weight of choice (assuming one is given to truly thoughtful process)

 

Its always been clear to me that you have to have a measured approach to stuff like this. You cant always get results being nice about it. And you cant always get results being more abrasive about it. AND you cant always get results by trying to be "medium" to use a Redskins term of infamy. 

 

1 hour ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

So yeah, I have to push back on "our" communication. It's not us. It's a system.

 

Agree for the most part. And I appreciate the perspective. You know I actually didnt know/have an opinion on any of this stuff before you @BenningRoadSkin were in here talking about it a few years ago and I decided to think a little more deeply and explore new sources of information a bit more. So its appreciated. 

[mammajamma]

Not that shocking if you remember some of the racist stuff he was spewing when he started the "war on drugs"... 

 

Never understood why republicans tied themselves to Reagan so much.. He could be easily argued as one of the most destructive modern presidents. The destruction from the "war on drugs", the trickle-down failure that continues to haunt our economy, giving weapons to bin laden, etc to fight the russians, Iran-Contra... etc etc etc

[Bozo the kKklown]

2 minutes ago, Llevron said:

Agree for the most part. And I appreciate the perspective. You know I actually didnt know/have an opinion on any of this stuff before you @BenningRoadSkin were in here talking about it a few years ago and I decided to think a little more deeply and explore new sources of information a bit more. So its appreciated. 

[NoCalMike]

As far as poor struggling whites go, their struggles are valid and important to address as well, however some of the issues with struggling minorities, African Americans specifically are different and unique to them.  The key point though is, the right-wing politicians don't care about either of them. 

[No Excuses]

34 minutes ago, mammajamma said:

Not that shocking if you remember some of the racist stuff he was spewing when he started the "war on drugs"... 

 

Never understood why republicans tied themselves to Reagan so much.. He could be easily argued as one of the most destructive modern presidents. The destruction from the "war on drugs", the trickle-down failure that continues to haunt our economy, giving weapons to bin laden, etc to fight the russians, Iran-Contra... etc etc etc

 

Conservatives have been whining about Hollywood destroying America for decades, yet they keep electing disastrous Hollywood chumps to run the country again and again.

[Bozo the kKklown]

4 minutes ago, mammajamma said:

Never understood why republicans tied themselves to Reagan so much..

He ended the FDR era. They love that.

[AsburySkinsFan]

44 minutes ago, mammajamma said:

Not that shocking if you remember some of the racist stuff he was spewing when he started the "war on drugs"... 

 

Never understood why republicans tied themselves to Reagan so much.. He could be easily argued as one of the most destructive modern presidents. The destruction from the "war on drugs", the trickle-down failure that continues to haunt our economy, giving weapons to bin laden, etc to fight the russians, Iran-Contra... etc etc etc

But he beat the Russians.

[NoCalMike]

3 minutes ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

He ended the FDR era. They love that.

 

Yep.  FDR/The New Deal principles were trashed in favor of "rugged individualism" and "free market principles" and "greed is good" values under Reagan.  They were slowly attempting to chip away at them prior but Reagan was the actor, I mean President that was able to successfully put a friendly message in front of the con. 

 

"Roosevelt is dead. His policies may live on, but we're in the process of doing something about that as well."

-Rush Limbaugh

[nonniey]

5 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

I think there's probably a good chunk of folks on the right who think all these racism accusations were smears. Dog whistles didn't exist and folks were seeing things that wasn't there. Seeming more like those folks were right on the trajectory of the conservative movement.  @nonniey come defend your boy.

 

 

I'm disappointed, but am thinking on it.  

[youngestson]

4 hours ago, AsburySkinsFan said:

Well, technically he just counted to 2...

Was really hoping nobody noticed that. 

[No Excuses]

The guy launched his campaign in 1980 with a "states rights" speech, at a location where three civil rights workers were burned to death.

 

Didn't have to listen to this tape to know that he was a racist dirtbag. The dog whistle was used so Republicans can maintain plausible deniability, as we see time and time again when it comes to the racism in their views and policies. Unless you were caught calling people monkeys or the N-word, you couldn't possibly be racist in this worldview. Trump did everyone a favor by discarding the dog whistle all together, laying bare naked the racist, white-identity politics agenda of the GOP since Nixon.

[Riggo-toni]

4 hours ago, Llevron said:

 

Trump supporters cant count to 3 lol

Yes they can, but the men have to be naked to count to 21.

1 hour ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

He ended the FDR era. They love that.

Not really...actually, not at all.  He didn't even manage to roll back LBJ's Great Society programs, which were his main target - those reforms ended up being carried out by Clinton.

[Bozo the kKklown]

5 minutes ago, Riggo-toni said:

Not really...actually, not at all.  He didn't even manage to roll back LBJ's Great Society programs, which were his main target - those reforms ended up being carried out by Clinton.

He lowered the tax rate on the wealthy and corps. He ended union power by firing all the air traffic control workers, etc.

 

He ended the FDR era because he was the first to push against it - altho Carter did too - and changed how we view economics. Since Reagan, every president has been taking away all of those initiatives.

[Llevron]

16 minutes ago, youngestson said:

Was really hoping nobody noticed that. 

 

I really thought it was part of the (joke} 

[ClaytoAli]

As much as this may be something of a story, it is a play.

 

Take the GOP glory of the Regan Messiah away and make him the boogie man. So that any association with The POTUS is negative.

 

This is the real race card played in politics.

 

Remember Willie Horton!

[Bozo the kKklown]

10 minutes ago, ClaytoAli said:

As much as this may be something of a story, it is a play.

 

Take the GOP glory of the Regan Messiah away and make him the boogie man. So that any association with The POTUS is negative.

 

This is the real race card played in politics.

 

Remember Willie Horton!

I can see the opposite. "See Reagan said stuff too. Trump is like Reagan."

[Cooked Crack]

 

[Jumbo]

most of  my friends back in the day certainly had little issue noting that ronald raygun was not merely a chimp's co-star but also a genuine deluxe rightwing bigot entering dementia (this condition is not necessarily a liability for gopers as it's often indistinguishable from their "normal" state)

 

 

[Rocky21]

Anybody remember Reagan's Nazi Bitburg controversy?

 

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitburg_controversy

[LD0506]

As ever, I am amused.

 

People clutching their pearls at the thought that Saint Ronnie the Oblivious was somehow not the endearing avuncular uncle prototype they had always been told? That he was actually the same type of closeted, close-minded bigot that the rest of the Repubs have always been? SHOCKING! Shocking I tell you!

 

I know that a lot of you younguns weren't around for Reagans '80 campaign, but I can vouch for the fact that TONS of this came out, there was a slew of stories about what a POS he was in private and it was roundly dismissed as lies, snark or bitter grapes. 

 

People don't WANT to know, people want to stumble along in their fantasy dayscape of whatever they heard last and simply dismiss any evidence that vast numbers of their fellow citizens are not just ****ty people, but openly, gleefully ****ty people that will applaud oppression and terror as long as it is happening to a group they are not fond of. They will find an excuse, and if they can't, they'll make one up.

 

The Republican Party has played this longer than I've been alive. It is the one consistent aspect to their creed. 

[Bozo the kKklown]

 

34 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

People don't WANT to know, people want to stumble along in their fantasy dayscape of whatever they heard last and simply dismiss any evidence that vast numbers of their fellow citizens are not just ****ty people, but openly, gleefully ****ty people that will applaud oppression and terror as long as it is happening to a group they are not fond of. They will find an excuse, and if they can't, they'll make one up.

WORD!

[mistertim]

Not especially surprising to me. A little surprising that he was so overt about it to Nixon, but I assume he didn't think of the possibility that it would eventually get out (it took a long ass time for it to happen anyway). 

 

The whole Reagan thing is mostly mythos anyway, as others have talked about here in more eloquent terms than I. 

[TheGreatBuzz]

Well at least one totally ****ing awesome thing was brought to the world during his presidency. 

 

 

 

Me!!

[NoCalMike]

I for one can't wait for Reagan's racism to be blamed on..........Obama. 

[ClaytoAli]

21 hours ago, BenningRoadSkin said:

I can see the opposite. "See Reagan said stuff too. Trump is like Reagan."

We are saying the same thing