Writes: Bob Herbert

EXCERPTS:

‘Reagan may have been blessed with a Hollywood smile and an avuncular delivery, but he was elbow deep in the same old race-baiting Southern strategy of Goldwater and Nixon.’

‘”I believe in states’ rights,” said Reagan in his 1980 campaign — Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the Neshoba County Fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans — they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew.’

‘He was tapping out the code. It was understood that when politicians started chirping about “states’ rights” to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we’re with you.’

‘To see Reagan’s appearance at the Neshoba County Fair in its proper context, it has to be placed between the murders of the civil rights workers that preceded it and the acknowledgment by the Republican strategist Lee Atwater that the use of code words like ‘states’ rights’ in place of blatantly bigoted rhetoric was crucial to the success of the G.O.P.’s Southern strategy. That acknowledgment came in the very first year of the Reagan presidency.’

| Read Full Article Here | More Articles by Bob Herbert | Ronald Reagan’s Top 10 Greatest Achievements |

REFERENCES:

1. Ronald Reagan: A serial liar with a Heart of Darkness who made Americans feel good about themselves!
2. Three Lives for Mississippi
3. The Ronald Reagan Home For The Criminally Insane.
4. Ronald Reagan’s Top 10 Greatest Achievements
5. Republicans and Race — We shouldn’t avert our gaze at the issue of race because we’re unwilling to tarnish Ronald Reagan’s image