Reagan's passing reminds me of song lyrics.

[maddogesq]

Ever since the announcement that Reagan had passed, all I hear in my head is this line from a Neil Young song about addiction:

“Oh, oh, the damage done.”

You see, America in my mind gets addicted to someone like Reagan, who comes off so affable, humorously self-deprecating--a man of the people. However, Reagan was an actor, where people like Lincoln, Kennedy, the Roosevelts, etc. were truly smart men with the gift of gab. Like bad drugs, Reagan made the unthinking among us high, while at the same time his henchmen did things to our country that will take decades to repair.

I would often find myself listening to the man give a speech, but at the end of the day, would always come back to reality. I knew so many “Reagan Democrats” and moderate Republicans who kissed the ground Ronnie walked on. I often wondered if these people realized what he was doing to the Republican Party: turning the once “party of Lincoln” in a raging, ultra right-wing band of thugs, thieves, and religious fanatics bent on the destruction anyone who opposed them.

Look at the modern mainstream media and think of this line from a Don Henley tune:

“I could’ve been an actor, but I wound up here.”

Here again, we see Americans buying into something that’s not really there. Like bad drugs, the reality hits years down the road. That reality is now, in the form of the BFEE, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. Like heroin addiction, the damage will take years to repair; that is, if it can be repair at all.

“Oh, oh, the damage done.”