Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Drink Entire Against the Madness of Crowds


Your anti-Strategic Forgettery booster shot is here.

Behold, actual history.

Way to go, Rick!


5 comments:

Fred said...

That photo of Ronnie the huckster is perfect. He looks like he's about to start singing "We got trouble, Right here in River City." Like the charlatan in "The Music Man" he was just an easygoing, amoral smooth talker who needed a job. Hollwood didn't want his shtick anymore but he had enough talent to con the rubes on the politics stage. The pay wasn't as good but the percs were great with lotsa ego stroking and les lines to memorize. pretty sweet gig for a has-been actor.

Habitat Vic said...

Kudos to Rick Perlstein, yes indeed. How 'bout that, an actual paid-his-dues journalist who makes use of his U of Chicago history degree to help analyze the recent past.

Unlike that other U of C history major ... well, you know the rest.

ChiefD said...

St. Ronnie's sheeples just don't like it when it's pointed out that he was a sham-- a divorced "family values" man who was largely estranged from his children from his first marriage, a politician who courted the Religious Right who rarely set foot in a church himself, and a campaigner who railed against Carter's deficits who then promptly submitted a budget that called for a deficit larger than all previous deficits combined. And the rubes ate it up. Thanks Ronnie!

gratuitous said...

I'll need to get this, I think. For folks interested in some more of this depressing time in American political history, I recommend Seth Rosenfeld's "Subversives," which is based on his efforts for three decades to dislodge government documents about FBI domestic spying, the meddling of J. Edgar Hoover, and the rise of one Ronald Reagan.

Hoover was initially suspicious of Reagan's overtures, but became persuaded of his bona fides. Reagan was a toadying little sycophant to Hoover, and both men used the other to further their own agendas and careers. Joe Bob would say, "Check it out."

Anonymous said...

Time before the publication date to read the prequels: Before the Storm (Goldwater era) and Nixonland (you-know-who era) - terrific reads and great background to see how we got where we are today. Can't wait for this new volume to further my advanced state of depression!