From April 15, 2020--My Stupid Mistake of the 1980's, Working with the Reaganites
Speaking of stupidity, and making big mistakes, here's one.
Back in the 80's, I was actively involved in supporting and defending Ronald Reagan. Why, you ask? Well, at the time, some of his close people were excited about some of the National Defense and Nuclear Science policies we were promoting. Then, in 1983, Reagan announced his support for a Strategic Defense Initiative, (SDI), which we had been advocating, and we thought we had just made a revolution.
Without going into detail, we were trying to end the MAD doctrine of mutual annihilation with the Soviet Union, with a defensive system to render Nuclear weapons "Impotent and Obsolete". At the time, we were on the inside, meeting with Bill Casey, CIA Director, talking with Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, and meeting with James Watt, Energy Secretary, and others. We thought we were "in", and for a time, we were.
What I regret is the way we kissed the Administration's ass, and swept everything else they did under the rug. Deregulation of Banking, the Kemp-Roth "Supply Side" Tax Reform insanity, dismantling of EPA protections, radical Free Market Economics with big attacks on Labor, rubber stamping the destructive policies of the Federal Reserve and Volcker, and courting of proto-Fascist Religious Fundamentalists like Fallwell, Robertson, and the Bakkers.
We also stupidly propitiated the Reagan Administration's destructive policies toward Latin America which brought in the Free Market looting policies of Rockefeller and Kissinger. We even supported the idiotic invasion of Grenada! There's a long list of wrongdoing, including the Iran-Contra Dope for Weapons trafficking deals, the phoney War on Drugs, and the racist Urban policies toward African Americans and other minorities, which we tried to ignore so that we could cheerlead for the one thing we thought Reagan did right.
I went along to get along, and didn't rock the boat. We adopted a blind eye to the anti-American and destructive things the Reagan Administration were doing, because we thought we were players, thought we had a seat at the table, stupidly believed that our "friends" in the CIA and Defense Intelligence Establishment would protect us from attacks, or bring us in at a higher level. We deluded ourselves that if we kissed ass to maintain our access, that we could work on solving some of the other problems down the road. Well, down the road never happened.
They sold us out in a New York minute. We were targeted big time by the same Intelligence Community we thought were our friends. Thinking back on it, I could have and should have spoken up. Maybe things would have gone a different way if I had. The organizations that were backing Reagan then have come back in force today, and are running a big part of the Trump policy. This is one of the things I can't "unremember" that keeps me up at night. But, I've stopped beating myself up over it, learned from it. It's the kind of mistake I'll never make again, and one of the reasons I may get a little strident now and then.
That's the difficulty of trying to take some leadership responsibilty, which is why people avoid it. If you fuck up, people die. Oh well, just an anecdote on some old history that you may find interesting or useful. On that note, onward and upward.
Back in the 80's, I was actively involved in supporting and defending Ronald Reagan. Why, you ask? Well, at the time, some of his close people were excited about some of the National Defense and Nuclear Science policies we were promoting. Then, in 1983, Reagan announced his support for a Strategic Defense Initiative, (SDI), which we had been advocating, and we thought we had just made a revolution.
Without going into detail, we were trying to end the MAD doctrine of mutual annihilation with the Soviet Union, with a defensive system to render Nuclear weapons "Impotent and Obsolete". At the time, we were on the inside, meeting with Bill Casey, CIA Director, talking with Weinberger, Secretary of Defense, and meeting with James Watt, Energy Secretary, and others. We thought we were "in", and for a time, we were.
What I regret is the way we kissed the Administration's ass, and swept everything else they did under the rug. Deregulation of Banking, the Kemp-Roth "Supply Side" Tax Reform insanity, dismantling of EPA protections, radical Free Market Economics with big attacks on Labor, rubber stamping the destructive policies of the Federal Reserve and Volcker, and courting of proto-Fascist Religious Fundamentalists like Fallwell, Robertson, and the Bakkers.
We also stupidly propitiated the Reagan Administration's destructive policies toward Latin America which brought in the Free Market looting policies of Rockefeller and Kissinger. We even supported the idiotic invasion of Grenada! There's a long list of wrongdoing, including the Iran-Contra Dope for Weapons trafficking deals, the phoney War on Drugs, and the racist Urban policies toward African Americans and other minorities, which we tried to ignore so that we could cheerlead for the one thing we thought Reagan did right.
I went along to get along, and didn't rock the boat. We adopted a blind eye to the anti-American and destructive things the Reagan Administration were doing, because we thought we were players, thought we had a seat at the table, stupidly believed that our "friends" in the CIA and Defense Intelligence Establishment would protect us from attacks, or bring us in at a higher level. We deluded ourselves that if we kissed ass to maintain our access, that we could work on solving some of the other problems down the road. Well, down the road never happened.
They sold us out in a New York minute. We were targeted big time by the same Intelligence Community we thought were our friends. Thinking back on it, I could have and should have spoken up. Maybe things would have gone a different way if I had. The organizations that were backing Reagan then have come back in force today, and are running a big part of the Trump policy. This is one of the things I can't "unremember" that keeps me up at night. But, I've stopped beating myself up over it, learned from it. It's the kind of mistake I'll never make again, and one of the reasons I may get a little strident now and then.
That's the difficulty of trying to take some leadership responsibilty, which is why people avoid it. If you fuck up, people die. Oh well, just an anecdote on some old history that you may find interesting or useful. On that note, onward and upward.
