I’ll never forget about 30 years ago when I watched the Republicans come up with a strategy to get Ronald Reagan elected. Before Reagan was originally voted into office he was nothing more than a “fringe” candidate – who had been hanging around national politics for a few years, formerly the governor of California, and before that a B movie actor. In fact, my most vivid memories of Reagan prior to his election as the 40th President were his advertisements for 20 Mule Team Borax. The Republicans took advantage of the disenchantment in the Democratic party – especially the left wing of the party (sound familiar?) – by putting up a third party candidate. The guy’s name was John Anderson (a good thing to remember for trivia buffs) and he was a liberal Republican who ran as an independent and took virtually no votes from Reagan and about 10% of the Democratic vote from Jimmy Carter. In fact, it was one time in my life when I was mad at my Mom – she was so unhappy with Carter’s centrist positions that she voted for Anderson out of spite. I tried to tell her, and anyone else who would listen, a vote for Anderson was a vote for Reagan – but the unthinkable (to me) happened.

Once in office, Reagan proved to be “The great communicator” by using his dramatic skills to act as the front man for the people who have been in the shadows, destroying our government ever since. Reagan put it right up front; “Government isn’t the solution, Government is the problem.” The tax cuts started, the deficits went into overdrive, and the middle class started to shrink. In concert with corporations who wanted complete power in this country the Republicans put Rush Limbaugh on the air and the guy somehow convinced millions of working class Americans to vote over and over again against their best interests. Reagan and his administration set into motion the philosophy and the events that have put this nation at the brink of economic disaster. It is still very questionable whether or not President Obama can change the course of this economy which is headed to virtual bankruptcy. In fact, I suppose you could make a strong case that it’s in bankruptcy right now, and what they are determining is whether or not “re-orgainization” is possible.

George W Bush was the final straw as far as the mechanism designed to destroy this country. And, if you’ve been listening to the Republicans during the present debates in Congress, they’re not finished yet. It’s like someone hanging from a cliff by their fingernails, the Republicans, if they can keep everyone in “lockstep” will be able to stop the Obama phenomenom – largely due to the ineffectual Democratic leadership in Congress. There have been a few bright spots of late – and I’m not talking about the stimulus bill which required the vote of three Republicans to prevent the Democrats from doing something they apparently have no stomach for – and that’s to make the Republicans do an old fashioned filibuster – make em talk, talk, talk, until they’re blue in the face. Put them up in front of the American people to show them for what they really are. However, back to the bright spots, both Patrick Leahy and John Conyers are talking about thorough investigations of the Bush administration for past lawbreaking. This is encouraging. I will continue to say that the way to really put these Republicans in their place is to put them before a judge and let them answer for the treasonous behavior of the previous eight years.

I’ve made it about half way through Conyers book (actually it comes from the committee hearings he held in the basement of the Capital because Democrats couldn’t call witnesses during the first six years of the Republican “rule” under Bush) George W Bush vs The US Constitution. You don’t have to go further than halfway through this book to realize that there was sufficient evidence – KNOWN EVIDENCE – to impeach Bush and Cheney long before even the Democrats regained majorities in both houses of Congress. Finally, maybe they are going to do something about this. I mean we’re talking about some serious violations. Reagan ended his reign with the Iran/Contra scandal, which was another example of an administration totally ignoring the will of Congress. There were some investigations, but everyone, including Reagan and then VP and soon to be President George HW Bush got off for what was clearly willful violations of the law. Bill Clinton won the Presidency by a razor thin margin following the first Bush Presidency, somewhat as Reagan did, with the help of a third party candidate – and he chose to “look forward instead of backward” regarding Iran/Contra.

Well, the policies of the Reagan administration can be directly connected to the economic failure of our nation. They can be directly connected to the destruction of the regulatory system that is leading to one calamity after another (today’s calamity is the poisoning of numerous children with salmonella from contaminated peanuts which were allowed to enter the food system via lack of regulation). They can be directly connected to the mentality that led to the fiasco in Iraq. Essentially, many of the people in GW Bush’s administration that stand to be accountable for misdeeds are the same people who participated in the misdeeds of the Reagan administration. This country may or may not be able to withstand two administrations focused on destroying what it took forty years to build after the Great Depression – that is still to be determined – but another one would finish us off for sure! In my mind, the only way to prevent the possibility of the Republicans sneaking another Reaganesque candidate over on an unsuspecting public is to make the last one pay publicly for his (their) abuses. Ronald Reagan is the ghost of the Republican party, he deserves a lot of credit for America’s present state of destruction.