re: #214 Absalom, Absalom, Obdicut

He advocated creationism in schools, denied the reality of AIDS, and claimed trees caused 90% of the pollution. To be fair to him, I don’t think he understood a damn thing about science— however, I think he knew that he didn’t understand, so I have no idea why he thought he was a fit person to serve as president. That is the absolutely weirdest thing about Reagan. He doesn’t seem like he was a malicious person.

Well, if he’d looked like Mr. Burns, he wouldn’t have been elected. His ‘sunny personality’ overcame nervousness about the crazy horseshit he was selling. The irony is that although he was instrumental in unleashing the ignorant, uncompromising horde, in practice he compromised all the time. One writer pointed out that he had been a Union President, and knew that in a negotiation you start out demanding the impossible, then allow yourself to be talked down to what you really want.

The problem is, the current Right remembers the impossible demand, not the inevitable negotiation and compromise, hence ‘Zombie Reagan’.