Post #4052668
2026-07-24 03:09 UTC
The wizened cowboy actor, clearly speaking someone else's lines and sometimes wandering off into covering up his confusion with a vacant thousand-yard grin (a lopsided thing, a disguised sneer) posed as the moral leader of the nation.
He washed his hands of responsibility for protecting the general welfare of the peoples of the United States. It was all on them now, their "personal responsibility", and if they were suffering they should just talk to a cop or start their own business.
But he was "sunny" and "witty" etc. U.S. #media and #journalism still pretends that Ronald Reagan wasn't a puppet.
(cont'd)
Replies (1)
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@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-24 03:11
But Richard Nixon was most definitely no puppet. That was perhaps his downfall: because he was his own man he would always earn the enmity of rival Republicans of ambition. A puppet leader ameliorates this issue because then all the rivals share the bulk of the power while the leader merely appears on TV in carefully scripted and rehearsed line-deliveries from the gang of advisors and co-conspirators. All Republican Presidents since Nixon have been figureheads. Nixon changed GOP politics forever. They decided to go for broke. (cont'd)