Recovered Memory Syndrome
By Michael R. Bowen (06/11/04)
I was being thrown out of the den again. ABC News was "remembering" Ronald Reagan, and I couldn't stand it. I asked the kids how long they thought it would be before Peter Jennings hinted that perhaps Reagan's Alzheimer disease had already begun when he was in the White House.
Jennings made the allusion before the kids could answer. When one talking head, narrating a retrospective of video clips, referred to Reagan's "failed" attempt to stem Communist expansion in Central America, I finally lost it. "Yes, kids, that's why there are no Communist states in Central America today. That's why the Sandinistas were forced to hold a real election, and the moment the Nicaraguans had a vote they threw the Communists out. What the heck is wrong --"
"Mike. It's just the television, for crying out loud. Go fishing or something." So I did.
As long as the Left confines itself to recollections of Reagan's sunny personality and his ability to speak to the American heart, they do reasonably well. When it comes to historical fact, however, they go directly off the rails. A brief survey of liberal web sites yields an astounding crop of whoppers:
"Through the late 1970s, wages and working conditions were improving for ordinary Americans," says David Swanson, writing for Democratic Underground, in a column which also notes that he was 11 years old when Reagan took office. That might explain his recollections. Maybe his allowance went up in 1970s, but the grownup economy was going down the tubes.
" His economic policies were mostly a failure," opines Mark Weisbrodt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. I think he's referring to the unprecedented and sustained expansion of our economy which followed Reagan's tax cuts. Mr. Weisbrodt must have been quite happy with the way things were in 1979.
At CommonDreams.org, Paul Douglas Newman laments the many glowing farewells, and with that sadistic touch so typical of the Left, speculates that we have a "national case of Alzheimer's disease" which has caused us to forget the failure of Reagan's economic and foreign policies, and has doomed us to repeat our past mistakes in today's "descent into Bushism". To review: a Democrat gives us high taxes, economic doldrums, national pessimism, military weakness, and timidity abroad. A Republican replaces him, cuts our taxes, boosts our military and confronts our enemies squarely, leaving behind him a booming economy and a strong America. A Democratic administration soon follows, with rising taxes and more timidity in the face of our enemies, and by the end of that administration the economy slumps and our foes boldly attack us. Now a Republican has taken over, cut our taxes, and is taking the war to our enemies. Anyone can see a pattern here, unless you're an associate professor of American history. As Orwell said, some things are so stupid that only an intellectual could believe them.
In the 1970s, the Left told us we were mad to confront the Soviet empire. Their vast arsenal and titanic economy left us no possibility of victory. We were on the wrong side of history, and communism was making its inevitable advance: South Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, South Yemen, Afghanistan. It was time to wise up and face facts instead of getting into a fight we could not win.
Once the Berlin Wall fell, all that changed. Robert Parry of Consortiumnews.com now tells us that the Soviet Union was teetering on the brink of collapse before Reagan ever took office, and its fall during his tenure was mere coincidence. "Cold warriors Nixon and Kissinger-along with much of the US intelligence community-had recognized the systemic weaknesses of the Soviet system , which was falling desperately behind the West…" Funny, that wasn't how the Left used to talk. The Soviet system didn't have "systemic weaknesses"; it was always a system "from which we have much to learn".
So let's see: Reagan was a fool not to recognize the failure of the Soviet system and its resultant impending collapse, while at home, he was a fascist for opposing the socialism championed by that same failed Soviet system. Neat.
In the 1990s, headhunting prosecutors in child molestation cases became notorious for their use of the bogus "recovered memories" planted in the minds of child witnesses by psychologists. Today, the American Left has performed the same operation on itself. America is far from suffering a national Alzheimer's disease, but the Left is deep in the throes of its Recovered Memory Syndrome. Sweet dreams, folks. The rest of us have work to do.
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