As Kerry Healey sinks into the mire of her own making and on the national scene the quagmire of corruption has engulfed the larger party, it is time to applaud the final wearing off of the Teflon of Ronald Regan, its performance and cast having asked for too many curtain calls and revivals. Reapplied in 1994 by the Promise for America, stuck back on in 2000 and 2004, the surface is checking and peeling and the overcooked meal has burned and lost its taste to the faithful fan club. It is interesting to me that it was always referred to as Teflon which is now suspected of serious carcinogenic problems not unlike the party for which it had become the metaphor. What goes around does indeed come around.
Hopefully the reinvigorated Donkey will learn from this and not make an Ass out of itself as it takes the stage.(At least on the national stage. Our local one will be in good hands in the corner office)
I have to say, as someone who remembers Reagan well, that I somewhat disagree. Yes, Reagon was THE teflon president. No matter what went wrong, it fundamentally would NOT stick.
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And you never really hear anyone talk about Henry Gonzalez. Who? He was the Congressman from Texas who warned his house colleagues that if they failed to impeach Reagan for Iran Contra, they would establish a DANGEROUS precedent for a President to abuse his power and get away with it.
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So Reagan literally got away with murder.
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Now, Right-Wingers LOVE to say Clinton got away with murder too, but they mean literally too!! Nut jobs, yes. By the time Clinton came to power, deregulation was in full-tilt, and media consolidation in full fervor. The right-leaning corporate media went after Clinton like nobody’s business. No matter what they did, however, nothing would stick. Look at Clinton’s numbers during Lewinsky. Bush would die for those numbers, or rather, he would kill for them (and has). At the time, right-wingers were calling Bush the Teflon president.
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And if you recall the first 5 years of Bush, nothing would stick to him either. Talk about your Teflon presidents.
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The Republicrats are collapsing under the weight of their corruption. The media certainly isn’t bringing them down. For the love of mike, I just posted yesterday that Bush flip-flopped on “Stay the Course” right there on ABC. An alert media would have made that page 1. Nothing.
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What am I getting at? I think it obscures the complex relationship between media, society, and power to claim Reagan was the teflon president, and make it sound like it was Reagan himself who achieved it. Somehow, ALL Presidents are becoming Teflon. Clinton upsets a pattern, because the media did sort of want to bring him down–but then again, maybe not so much.
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The fact of the matter is, corporate media seems fundamentally unwilling and incapable of maintaining it’s role as the 4th estate–it is now eschewing its role to be a watchdog on the government. As Herman would point out, it’s because they are too busy trying to influence more corporate friendly laws to go after the government. Episodes like Foley and Lewinski let them go through the motions but without political critique. Rather, it’s moral drama that doesn’t have to shake up policy.
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As a result, they are all teflon because the media doesn’t want anything to stick. They have both parties toeing the “market theory” line, so they carrot and stick polticians there.
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Even that is starting to collapse though, as CNN’s Mr. Money–Lou Dobbs is now going after BOTH parties for their destruction of the middle class. Gee Lou, do you mean to tell us now that market theory isn’t the be all to end all? Better late than never, I guess, but it will be a long time coming before you shake corporate media from that stick.
When I added the rejoinder
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“Hopefully the reinvigorated Donkey will learn from this and not make an Ass out of itself as it takes the stage”
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my attempt was an admonishment to warn of the slippery slope that leads to Teflon over coats. I agree it is a far more complex thing to discuss on a much grander scale than this blog. But I still assert that the meltdown of republican extremism can be witnessed right here in New England when a moderate republican like Chaffee will have to pay for the sins of his more extremist cohorts who can no longer hide under the cloak of Teflon. The Media and even extremists on both side of the political spectrum should take this as a warning. Now will they? I guess it is the continual optimist in me that hopes for that outcome. To think other wise is to be terminally cynical which in my opinion serves no one.