How do you begin to de-program a cult follower?
More specifically, I am speaking of the Reagan cult.
Is it even possible?
They have taken a senile, grouchy old man and turned him into an icon of virtue totally opposite of the reality of the man.
Almost every Republican in office will tell you that he/she is a "Reagan Republican". Reagan was the type of conservative they dream of being themselves.
But that Reagan never really existed.
As David Stockman, Reagan's economic adviser, wrote in one of his earlier books, it was all a hoax. Reagan knew that you could not cut taxes and balance the budget. That was never his plan.
His plan was closer to the Grover Norquist model of drowning the government in a bathtub. He knew that if government spent enough money on defense and taxcuts and wars, then there would be nothing for social programs for the people. That was the way to cut government. Make it so expensive that we could no longer afford it.
Reagan was never the person that the current Republicans see as their idol. Perhaps it is that way with all historical characters?
But, whatever the reason, the Republican Party has become a cult of Reagan. He could do no wrong. How do you begin to de-program such a cult?
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