THE LEGACY OF RONALD REAGAN (2)

Some readers have queried (off list) my description of Reagan as
a "Fascist". What I said was that in some ways Reagan could be
described as a Fascist. I hesitated to use the word but upon
reflection I feel I was justified in using it.

Let’s tease it out a little. What is the textbook classification
of a fascist. What features characterise Fascism?

1.) Aggressive militarism. Reagan undertook one of the largest
military build ups in history. It was undertaken directly at the
expense of the Working Class and the poor. Hitler also undertook a
deliberate arms build up in Germany in the 1930s.

2.) Tub thumping flag waving patriotism. Reagan is widely credited
even by his enemies of restoring America’s self respect and its
rightful place in the world. Reagan was elected at a time of
perceived crisis just as Germany had been humiliated by military
defeat in World War One the United States had been humiliated by
military defeat in Vietnam and its seemingly powerlessness in the
face of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

3.) An assault on the social and economic conditions of the Working
Class. Reagan sought to overturn all the gains of the American
Working Class made since the time of Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Reagan oversaw the eliberate shift of wealth from the working class
to a privileged layer of American society. In August, 1981 he signed
the biggest tax cut until then in American History. This was paid
for by deliberately ripping money out of social programmes. What
didn’t go to the rich was diverted into the arms build up. One
analysis which I’m attracted to and hasn’t received much attention
since Reagan’s death is the one put forward by Nick Beams which
equates Reagan’s rise with the declining rate of profit which
afflicted Capitalism toward the end of the 1970s. According to Beams
Reagan was needed to attack the social conditions of the working
class in order to raise the rate of profit to acceptable levels.

4.) A middle class backlash against the rise of the Working Class.
This best describes the rise of Mussolini in Italy in the 1920s but
its also apt for Reagan in America in the 1980s. Reagan rose in
reaction to the perceived excesses of Government programmes to
alleviate poverty in America in the 1960s The Great Society etc.

5.) The scapegoating of religious or ethnic minorities for political
gain. Reagan perfected the art of ’Dog whistle’ politics. He
deliberately opened his 1980 campaign for President in an area which
resonated with the civil rights struggles of the 1960s. Reagan sent
a clear message to disgruntled whites particularly in the south that
he was on their side. Reagan was a strong supporter of Barrie
Goldwater in 1964, in fact it was during that campaign that Reagan
first achieved national political prominence. Goldwater campaigned
directly against the Civil Rights Amendment and consequently became
the first Republican Presidential candidate to win states in the old
confederacy in over a hundred years.

The description of Reagan as a "fascist" is a provocative one but
there are certainly similarities. Both Reagan and Hitler were
cultivated by sections of the ruling class who saw in them plausible
and persuasive frontmen. Both Reagan and Hitler were prompted to go
into politics by a detestation of Communism. But the more apt
comparison is probably between Reagan and Mussolini.

I don’t like to speak ill of the dead can I find something nice to
say about Reagan? Well perhaps I’ll leave it to my dad. Upon hearing
news of Reagan’s death he said Ronald Reagan was the handsomest film
star he knew. He didn’t do a bad job in "Kings Row" (1942). Where he
uttered the immortal line "Where’s the rest of me?" Apparently
Reagan made three films with Errol Flynn and on one occasion Errol
Flynn went to the head of the studio to complain that Reagan was
stealing his scenes which isn’t a bad compliment.

By the way both my grandfather and his brother knew Errol Flynn.
My Grandfather’s brother when he was a member of the Bondi
Lifesaving Club and my Grandfather when he was cutting cane in North
Queensland in the early 1930’s which come to think of it puts me at
about three degrees of separation from Reagan himself. It’s a funny
old world!