Friday, June 19, 2009

Shame on You, John McCain, or," You of All People Should Remember 1968"

I can't make up my mind whether John McCain's gaffe on Reagan and the Prague Spring is laughable or depressing. I'd comment more, but former Alterdestinian Duss gives the "Reagan speaks and Communism falls" meme the proper treatment:

It’s the one where conservatives deploy a potted history of the Cold War — in which Reagan spoke and the walls came tumbling down — to cast international politics as a zero-sum contest between good and evil, and to cow progressives into a more aggressive rhetorical posture toward America’s adversary of the moment. It is usually hidden under the guise of “solidarity with captive peoples” and absent any genuine consideration of the practical effects on the peoples concerned.