So, let's get this straight about Reagan. He attacked those that would cause a shift in the economic engine of Wall Street. He attempted to create scapegoats to his priority of sequestering wealth among the few.
By Sagar Jethani
14 hours ago
Ronald Reagan was angry. (click here) It was October 1986, and his veto against the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act had just been overridden — and by a Republican-controlled Senate, at that.
He had appeared on TV a month earlier to warn Americans against the Anti-Apartheid Act, decrying it as "immoral" and "utterly repugnant." Congress disagreed, and one month later, it produced the two-thirds majority needed to override Reagan and pass tough new measures against South Africa's apartheid government. These measures included a ban on bank loans and new investments in South Africa, a sharp reduction of imports, and prevented most South African officials from traveling to the United States. The Act also called for the repeal of apartheid laws and the release of political prisoners like African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela, who had spent the last 23 years in prison....
Wright Predicts A Speedy Override In House, Senate (click here)
March 17, 1988
By George E. Curry, Chicago Tribune.
WASHINGTON — President Reagan, setting the stage for a showdown with Congress on civil rights, Wednesday vetoed a bill that would restore federal protections for minority groups, women, the elderly and the physically disabled.
It had been anticipated that Reagan would veto the Civil Rights Restoration Act even though it had been passed by wide margins in the House and Senate. The President said the act would ``vastly and unjustifiably extend the power of the federal government over the decisions and affairs of private organizations.``House Speaker Jim Wright (D., Tex.) predicted Wednesday that the House and Senate would quickly override the veto.
``President Reagan may want to turn the clock back on civil rights, but the American people do not,`` he said....
The Republicans simply don't believe in freedom or equality. The current US House proves that. They really don't believe in the US Constitution. Tom DeLay proved that. The Right Wing extremists that identify with Reagan is proof of their loyalty to wealth first and the fear of disrupting that wealth by actually instilling democracy and freedom. They chronically look to act to protect wealth and not the rights of the people of the USA. They allow impoverishment instead of increasing the minimum wage. They cut support to food stamps without proving a safety margin to the lives of hungry Americans.
Republicans hate the Middle Class and the Unions that provide for their stability.
Reagan was about wealth. The imprisonment of the former President of South Africa for a fifth of his life was about wealth, not freedom. President Nelson Mandela was scapegoated in order to maintain the status quo. The ruling class in South Africa didn't care if the citizens of South Africa were killed instead of recognizing their own hate of them and their allegiance to greed.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement which included disinvestment was the ONLY pressure that worked. Losing their wealth was and is the deepest fear of the power brokers.
The lessons of Nelson Mandela are many and aren't isolated to South African freedom and democracy. It ignore that at his death would be a travesty to his life.
