Thursday, November 03, 2011

Some people's memory sure is different than mine..

One hears about different Republicans..
There is the Tea Party Republicans,
Ultra right wing Republicans
Middle of the road Republicans
And the one that baffles me the most is the Reagan Republicans

They talk about him like he was some kind of a wonderful hero of the Republican
Party… and may he was…..to them… sure wasn’t to the rest of us.

Why the ultra right wing have grabbed him is beyond me. After all I thought the
ultra right wing was/is the highly religious Republicans. And Reagan did not
wear his religion on his sleeve.. does any one know what religion he followed?

So I am confused, and I sure don’t remember the President or even Governor
called Ronald Reagan in the same way as those who proclaim him the Republican
of all Republican… Heck, even the Democrats refer to him, as
a great man of ideals… Which is all ironic, as he raised taxes, and
increased the National Debt as much or more than others.

Some will say, well, you are just looking at the political side of it.. Could be
as I was a citizen of California when he was voted in as a Governor. And
we cussed about him and his policies.. but the one that stuck out in my mind,
to even today… was when he cut the food budget for the nursing homes.
My neighbor was an Administrator of a nursing home.. And she was really
fed up with the new policies of soup and sandwiches for dinner. And their
lunches were to be stews, or casseroles and etc. But the long and short of
it, the citizens of California were far from happy.

Now jump ahead almost 20 years later… Reagan ran and won the President
Election. To those of us who ever lived in California dismay. Now my family
Is living in R.I. My now, deceased husband, was on Social Security Disability.
After having 6 different operations for blocked arteries, 3 doctors had decided
there is no way he could go back to being a welder or a diesel mechanic, that
he had been for over 34 years. We were on about a year, when Reagan
became President.. and thru his policies… we, along with many families,
got dumped off of the SSD, with one week notice. With the message of
now prove again, why you should be on SSD and you will do that with our
doctors, not yours. Long and short, it took us 10 months to prove once and
for all, that he deserved to be on SSD. After being thrown on welfare, which
horrified both of us, as both of us were independent people. They took the kids
savings and told us to spend that before we got any money.. and gave us food
stamps. I started some classes as I hadn’t worked for 30 years other than help
my husband in a small scrap iron company we had years earlier. It was a long
10 months, of lost dignity, and explaining to my kids that all the money that
they had saved (I think maybe $110 among the 5 kids we still had at home)
and why the government would make them take it out of the bank and spend
it. Against everything we had taught them about saving.

Also there was a man in a wheel chair, who lived in New York or New Jersey,
Who was turn down by the SSD… who after fighting it out with different agents
of the SSD… went to the office one day, with one more try, and went to the lobby
and shot himself… with a note in his lap… NOW YOU HAVE TO PAY
MY FAMILY AND GIVE THEM BENEFITS.

And that is what I remember about Mr. Reagan, that is why I am confused about
why people would call themselves… Reagan Republicans. To me that is not a good thing..

1 comment:

Betty said...

Reagan did a lot more damage than good while he was both Governor and President. Isn't it ironic that he cut the funding for Alzheimer's research, the very disease that ultimately killed him? But, the Republicans just loved him for the very reasons we didn't.