AlterPolitics

Andrew Levine reflects on Ronald Reagan’s legacy, and how — to this very day — it continues to derail sensible policies:

The most enthusiastic Reaganites today are radical, nationalist, racist and xenophobic; just like the fascists of old. And because Democrats lack the courage and conviction to stop them, they drag our politics rightward, regardless of who sits in the White House or which party controls Congress.

These circumstances have forced the left or what remains of it into a defensive mode — struggling, often in vain, to retain as much as possible of the social, political and economic progress gained before the Reagan era began. Not in the Tea Party sense, but according to the real meaning of the word, it has made conservatives of those who would otherwise be struggling to make a qualitatively better world.

For many, Obama, the Rorschach candidate, conjured up hopes of putting an end to this sad state of affairs, putting progress back on the agenda. But, as Reagan’s screenwriters might have had him say, “boy, were they wrong!” Under Obama as much as under Clinton or either Bush, Reagan rules.

You can read the article in its entirety over at Huffington Post.