Last Wednesday, practically before his body grew cold, conservative pundits began tarnishing President Gerald Ford by comparing him unfavorably to Ronald Regan.
That afternoon, as news of his death the previous night spread, a CNBC talk show host hastily labeled the 38th president a Soviet-appeaser and near enemy of capitalism.
Larry Kudlow, the rabidly free market host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company, began his program last Wednesday with a three-minute Op-Eu (that's opinion eulogy), setting the tone for the ensuing conservative barbarism.
Shelving the decorum of respectful homage we ordinarily pay to the deceased--a formality that differentiates us from, say...wild boars--Kudlow opted to take political aim at a dignitary whose life had expired less than 24 hours earlier.
I could not obtain a transcript of his mud-slinging obit, but a nearly identical editorial is published on his blog, whose insipid title is Kudlow Money Politic$.
"Ford was one of a long line of American executives who presided over the decline of the U.S. in both national security and economic terms," Kudlow callously and negligently opines.
"In national security terms," he continues, "Mr. Ford was a détentist who accommodated the Soviet Union in a number of ways,including unverifiable arms control deals."
Kudlow cites the US rooftop "retreat" from Saigon--implicitly Ford's fault--as a low point in US foreign policy, apparently because the senseless deaths of 60,000 US soldiers weren't reason enough to leave Vietnam.
Kudlow adds that his hero Ronald Regan "put an end to [this cowardice]...in the 1980's."
Of course it is natural to revisit the political aspects of a president's life, but Kudlow obtusely politicized Ford's death before even a day of solemnity could be observed. Kudlow's intent was clear: flog Ford as a warning to any Republican politicians getting cold feet about supporting the corporate assault on our constitution and our country. Who wants to be remembered as a weakling loser?
Kudlow proves once again that conservatives have no shame in their unwavering advance of corporate extremism.
He wasn't alone.
The American Spectator weighed in with a look at Ford under the unflattering headline: "When Greatness Isn't Called For."
Paul Beston, writing for the Spectator, asserted that "[Ford] maintained touches of Eastern liberalism on social issues, had a typical politician's misunderstanding of economics, and generally adhered to the détente policies that were put in place by Nixon and pursued through Jimmy Carter's tenure."
(Hey guys, who pulled "détente/détentist" out of the French lexique for show-and-tell?)
The Washington gaggle of Republican company spokespeople even flock around the same words, let alone the same talking points.
Regardless of whatever else Gerald Ford may have done,
the fact remains that he pardoned the greatest criminal of our time. It was this act that opened the door for the current corruption and imperialism in today's WH and administration.
There is no forgetting the pardon.
by
C.K. White (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments)
on Tuesday, January 2, 2007 at 11:09:37 PM
The older you get and the more you learn the truth about human nature past and present, the harder it is to fight disillusionment.
I hate being disillusioned, but I hate being lied to more. Denial is the refuge of the weak.
Liars are predators and parasites who prey on our weaknesses fiendishly. The power of evil is an illusion that exists only as long as we allow it. Fighting evil impulses in ourselves and others is the meaning of life.
by
rabblerowzer (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments)
on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 4:47:05 AM
2 comments
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