(no subject)

[geekchick]

I didn't care for many of Reagan's policies and I'm not sad that he's gone, but I can't bring myself to celebrate anyone's death. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the hate I see being expressed in a lot of places I frequent, and may have to remove myself from some of it for a while.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear. I remember the same sort of vitriol being spewed in the venues I frequented back when Nixon died. I may not know politics, but I know what I hate. And I didn't hate Reagan. Not enough to expend that kind of energy on someone who has died of a horrible debilitating disease, anyway.

[yy2bggggs.livejournal.com]

I take it you mean Alzheimer's. At least from the news I've heard, he died of pneumonia.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Reagan himself is just a stalking horse IMO... on both sides, he has become of a symbol of the right-wing takeover of government and culture that has reached new peaks under W. Much of the vitriol may simply be displaced frustration from the current government, others may be genuinely celebrating "ding-dong, the witch is dead!"...

[geekchick]

The stuff I've been seeing has definitely been of the personal variety. I don't mourn his death, but neither do I celebrate it. If other people want to do either, that's their own business, but with all the other energy drains in my life right now I don't want to surround myself with more vitriol at the moment. I'm not in a good mental space to deal with it right now.

i can't see...

[penk.livejournal.com]

... anyone celebrating the death of anyone else. Aside from the fact that what died yesterday was hardly the fellow who was in office. Alzheimers is a horrific disease. Doing the happy dance because someone you dislike slowly had his brain rot, and all his memories slip away from him slowly while his family could do nothing should apall anyone with an ounce of dignity.

I didn't like Reagan's policies, and I surely don't like the masses who idolize him. Does that mean I'll celebrate him succumbing to this disease? No. Move on folks.

There are other places to look

[telnar.livejournal.com]

I made a point of watching the coverage of Reagan's death on Fox News because I think that there is something to the custom of not speaking ill of the dead, and I'd rather hear eulogies of the man from those who admired him than those who opposed him.

Incidentally, I believed in many of his policies, but that's not something which matters today.

Re: There are other places to look

[geekchick]

I'd rather hear eulogies of the man from those who admired him than those who opposed him.

To be honest, I'm not much into the idea of listening to people deify him either. I doubt he deserves the full measure of either the scorn or the praise that gets heaped upon him.

Incidentally, I believed in many of his policies

I'm shocked. ;)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to understand why so many people feel such public ire for someone they didn't know *personally*. I can understand the quiet relief that his death might bring if you disagreed with his policies, but genuine glee?

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Seconded. There seems to be a similar attitude to Mrs Thatcher in the UK - so many people waiting for her to die, just so they can sing "ding dong, the witch is dead".

Reagan, like Thatcher, has been out of office for over a decade. There's just the person left, not the political figurehead. And whether or not you like what Reagan/Thatcher/whoever did in office, once they're voted out of office and retired from politics, what the hell does it matter?

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

Just wait until Clinton dies: you'll see similar attitudes expressed from the right, including from people who are now (and rightfully so) decrying the outpouring of bile about Reagan.

There was a similar feeling after Roosevelt died, but it was muted due to World War II and the fact that it was political suicide for people to say anything against such a vastly popular figure. That didn't stop the creator of Lil' Orphan Annie from writing a fairly nasty strip (http://www.liss.olm.net/loahp/resources/ww450828.gif) after FDR died. (There's a commentary page at http://www.liss.olm.net/loahp/loaww2.html that gives some more background.) People waited until FDR had been dead a bit to start flinging mud on him, creating some myths that refuse to die. (The "FDR knew ahead of time" bit about Pearl Harbor comes from this time, and despite very thorough refuting, it refuses to die. Even though a major part of that story would require FDR knowing that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor before the Japanese had finalized their plans.)

Regan's real sin for his opponents is the same as Clinton's: getting elected, then reelected, and having the dire predictions of their opponents prove to be way off. (I'm old enough to remember how Reagan was supposed to be inveitably starting WWIII. And to remember how Clinton was going to tax and spend us all into poverty. Both predictions proved to be way wide of the mark.)

Nixon is different. There was a reason you didn't see too many conservatives complaining too much about the outpouring of bile when Nixon died. Mainly because nearly all the bad things anyone said about Nixon were probably understated. (Cf. The latest round of tapes of Henry Kissinger's phone calls, where we find out that Nixon was too drunk to speak to Soviet officials during the crisis that developed around the Yom Kippur War. I now understand why it was Henry Kissinger who kicked us up to DefCon 3, and not Nixon..Kissinger was the sober one that night.) Of course, I am the son of (and am myself) a die hard Nixon hater, so I may be biased.

We live in an era of nasty political cheap shots, and it's way easier to attack someone after they are safely dead and can't defend themselves.