[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 22, 2004

  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I was not able to speak on the floor 
Wednesday, June 9, 2004, regarding the passing of former President 
Ronald Reagan. However, I would like to submit to the Record an article 
from Cleveland Plain Dealer written by local columnist Sam Fullwood on 
Tuesday, June 8, 2004.

                  President Reagan: A Bad Leading Man

       I never liked Ronald Reagan.
       I didn't like him as a B- movie star in eyewash like 
     ``Bedtime for Bonzo,'' a 1951 movie in which the future 
     president of the United States was upstaged by a chimpanzee.
       I didn't respect him for turning away from President 
     Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal policies helped lift 
     Reagan's own family out of the depths of the Great 
     Depression.
       He was a hypocrite who started out as a Democrat and proud 
     union man but turned Republican after he became rich and 
     famous in Hollywood by pretending to be a common man.
       But it was as president that I disliked Reagan most. 
     Actually, the way he announced his decision to run ruined any 
     chance of redemption.
       On Aug. 3, 1980, the former California governor went to 
     Philadelphia, Miss. Of all the places in this great nation, 
     Reagan chose the infamous town where the bodies of three 
     murdered heroes of the civil rights movement--Michael 
     Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney--had been found in 
     1964. He never mentioned them or civil rights in his 
     announcement speech.
       Instead, on that hot, summer day in Mississippi, he stole a 
     line from Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist campaign.
       ``I believe in states' rights,'' Reagan said.
       I haven't been able to stomach him ever since.
       Of course, a great many people loved Reagan for his 
     optimism and never-say-die confidence in this nation. I tip 
     my hat to him for that.
       But judging from the accolades following news of Reagan's 
     death, at 93, last weekend, many people only note the best 
     about the 40th president.
       I remember the downside, too.
       Much of the bad that has happened in America's public life 
     started with the Reagan Revolution. Racial polarization 
     widened during his two terms in the White House.
       Reaganism let loose a sense of entitlement and lawlessness 
     among corporate executives, spawning that famous line by 
     actor Michael Douglas in his 1987 movie, ``Wall Street.'' 
     Said Gordon Gekko, ``Greed is good.''
       Before Reagan, the national GOP contained moderates and 
     conservatives in equal measure. After his rise to power, the 
     relatively liberal Rockefeller wing of the party was clipped, 
     leaving only the red-meat conservatives and intolerant 
     Christian fundamentalists.
       And that wasn't the worst of it. Reagan and his powerful 
     allies poisoned the nation against government. Out of 
     misguided populism, he threatened to starve the federal 
     government out of existence.
       Such a notion was impossible. But it didn't prevent Reagan 
     from overseeing record deficits, rampant unemployment, 
     desperate homelessness and rising poverty. Meanwhile, he 
     spent liberally on military hardware, which helped end the 
     Cold War.
       Little is said about how he waged war on this nation's poor 
     people. Reagan loved to tell stories, and he invented 
     whoppers about ``welfare queens'' and ``people on welfare 
     driving Cadillacs to cash food stamps.''
       Reagan understood the power of an exaggerated metaphor. He 
     used his movie-honed skills to inspire affluent Americans and 
     to scapegoat poor ones.
       It was mostly smoke and mirrors, honed from a life and 
     career lived in La-La Land. I am saddened by his passing, but 
     I can't indulge in the fiction that he represented the best 
     of our national character. He didn't.
       First and everlasting, Reagan was a bad actor.

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