Reagan's obsession, cont'd.

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Reagan's obsession, cont'd.
May 11, 2009
By Billy Cox
HeraldTribune.com

Last week’s news about the imminent release of another celebrity biography — “Merv Griffin: A Life in the Closet” by Darwin Porter — triggered a flurry of e-mail exchanges among UFO researchers who’ve studied the more arcane concerns of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Actually, if advance word on the book pans out, it won’t add much to what we already know about Reagan’s fascination with UFOs. Besides, without a Ouija board, it’s difficult to verify what one dead person said to another dead person. Still, allegations that Reagan told Merv he feared an alien invasion of the United States conform to a well-documented pattern of public performances that raises questions about Reagan’s policy motivations.

Especially instructive in last week’s cyberchats were references to an 18-year-old biography by Lou Cannon — “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.” The relevant excerpts peek behind the scenes at Reagan’s determination to make periodic allusions to ET invasion scenarios, most notably at the 1985 Geneva summit with Soviet President Gorbachev, and at the United Nations in 1987.

According to Cannon, Reagan had become enamored of the 1951 sci-fi classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” where space alien Klaatu tells Earthlings to quit being so warlike or face annihilation. Reagan repeated his subsequent belief that real-world enemies would join ranks to defeat ET threats. Acutely aware of the commander in chief’s oratorical impulses was deputy national security advisor Colin Powell, “who struggled diligently to keep interplanetary references out of Reagan’s speeches.

“... The president’s casual references to invasions from outer space made Powell uneasy,” Cannon went on. “He worried that people might think Reagan was really concerned about interplanetary invasions if he kept raising the issue. When the subject came up, Powell would roll his eyes and say to his staff, ‘Here come the little green men again.’”

But it’s all ancient history, right? Not so fast. With the Republican party unable to attract even a third of America’s support in the latest New York Times/CBS opinion polls, it’s hard to turn on the tube without hearing the sock puppets yapping about how the GOP needs a new Reagan.

No wonder the Republicans lost control of reality. They’re so deep in denial they won’t even acknowledge what drove Saint Reagan to seek peace with the Evil Empire. In implicit repudiation of Reagan’s fantasies, conservatives use UFOs to build walls, not to bring ‘em down. Just a couple of quick examples:

Greg Gutfeld, Fox News, 11/18/08: “I like the UFO obsession because it points out a peculiar aspect of progressivism. That is, if you believe in progressive ideas, you’ll believe in anything, including alien conspiracies.”

Rush Limbaugh, Clear Channel, 10/31/07: “Somebody needs to tell these Democrats ‘The X-Files’ has been canceled. Yes. In fact, if we’re gong to start talking about UFOs, let’s start talking about illegal aliens. Let's make that bridge, because aliens, these guys, if there are UFOs that were little space guys on, they would be illegal aliens, and they flew in here without permission.”

If the GOP wants to be the permanent majority party again, it could start by familiarizing itself with Ronald Reagan and employing sharper rhetorical devices. Among other things.