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From: orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Axis military after WW II:re to Lewis
Message-ID: <525@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 09:24:36 EST
Article-I.D.: whuts.525
Posted: Thu Jan 30 09:24:36 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Feb-86 10:42:19 EST
References: <1245@pucc-i> <915@whuxl.UUCP> <1259@pucc-i>, <518@whuts.UUCP> <321@pyuxii.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 48

> Once again Sevener's paranoia with Reagan clouds what might have
> been a perfectly fine article.  It seems that no matter what
> happens in the world today, it is Reagan's fault, in Sevener's
> view.  Now we have Reagan encouraging Japan to rearm.  Hogwash!
> Every argument that Sevener puts forth has an element of "I
> hate Reagan to the point of paranoia" as its premise.  
> T. C. Wheeler

I do not disagree with *everything* Reagan does but just 90% of it.
I was shocked when I saw the Treasury I tax reform plan: it was
actually something that I could support.  I also noted my support
for the aim of genuine tax reform in an article on the net.

It is an indisputable fact that Reagan has been encouraging Japan
to re-arm.  Unfortunately it is not just Reagan who is promoting
this foolish and shortsighted view but others as well.  Just as
with most of Reagan's policies - it was the Committee to Promote 
the Present Danger who laid the groundwork for the current arms
race under Reagan's administration.  It was the Committee to Promote
the Present Danger who gave the push to reject the SALT II treaty.
It should therefore be no surprise that Max Kampelman, one of the
negotiators in Geneva, was a member of the Committee to Promote
the Present Danger. (who of course has obtained *no* agreements!)

Reagan is not "the focus of evil" in American politics, as always he
is the representative of powerful vested interests who first promoted
him when General Electric hired him as a spokesman after they had
been caught in the price-fixing conspiracy in 1959. "We need somebody
to improve our image" GE said, and Ronald Reagan fit the bill.
After all he had proved his credentials by supporting the blacklisting
of actors earlier in the 50's.
 
But Reagan *is* the symbol of these type of militaristic and repressive
politics and he *is* the President.  As President he bears responsibility
for the actions of his past and present appointees like James Watt,
Anne Burford, Ray Donavan, and now Ed Meese.
 
My view of the extremity of Reagan's current policies is not mine alone:
a Republican speechwriter for Nixon and Ford who supported Reagan in
1980 just had a piece in the NYTimes castigating Reagan's policies
supporting a tax giveaway of $750 billion while launching annual
deficits of $200 billion as antithetical to the whole idea of
"conserving" the American way of life.  This lifelong Republican
experienced in politics saw quite clearly through Reagan's fog of
accusations at Congress for monstrously increasing the deficit that
it was Ronald Wilson Reagan himself who was to blame.
 
       tim sevener   whuxn!orb