Ole Ronnie Reagan may have been many things (a cruel man, an easily deluded man, a callous man), but there is one thing he was not - a civil rights leader. Paul Krugman has more:
So there’s a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights,” he didn’t mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake. [click to read the rest of Innocent mistakes - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog]
Can we stop naming airports and buildings after him already?
What about the aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan? Aside from the fact that the thing is a dinosaur, extremely hazardous, and an incredible waste of money, is the name itself appropriate?