Saving Reagan's Rep

Recently, conservatives have mounted a spirited defense of Ronald Reagan in the New York Times op-ed , against the charge that his visit to Philadelphia, Mississippi was a form of coded racial statement. Both David Babbling and Lewis Cannon have been so interesting on the subject that Pan Zen Zero has decided to conduct an imaginary interview with them as a sort of thought experiment.
PAN ZEN ZERO: Both of you have defended Ronald Reagan for starting his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi by saying that it was due to disorganization and indiscipline in his campaign. Can either of you elaborate?
DAVID BABBLING: Right. The whole thing was an unfortunate mix-up. Reagan was against it before he was for it. Or for it before he was against it. Either way.
LEWIS CANNON: In fact, I uncovered evidence that Reagan actually thought he was going to the real Philadelphia. You know-- the one in Pennsylvania.
PZZ: Oh, yes?
LC: Yes, for sure. The whole time, Reagan kept asking when he could get to visit the Betsy Ross House. When Nancy broke the news to him that he was in Mississippi, he just sat down and quietly leafed through his collection of Bonzo stills.
PZZ: But there is evidence that the campaign was invited there, in order to soak up some support from former Wallace voters.
LC: Well, he was the great communicator, not the great geographer. He didn’t expect to find many Wallace voters in Pennsylvania, but he was a trouper and he went anyway.
DB: So you see, planning to speak about states rights where he thought he was going really was an act of political courage. Or would have been, if …
LC: And the core of my argument is, all the liberals claim that this was some sort of masterstroke. Why they think appealing to Wallace voters by talking up states’ rights on ground zero of the resistance to black voting rights was a masterstroke beats me. Ron was really embarrassed by the whole thing. It was almost as big a fiasco as Dukakis in the tank.
DB: Which gets to another of my points in his favor, that Michael Dukakis went there eight years later. That’s a vindication if ever I heard one!
PZZ: But Reagan went there to boost states’ rights. Dukakis spoke about civil rights!
DB. Yes, but Reagan didn’t make a strident appeal to racism, only a low-key appeal. For example, he deliberately spoke at the state fair and avoided making his speech from the top of the dam where the murdered civil rights workers were buried. In fact, he was so low-key that the crowd didn’t even react.
PZZ: Yes, why do you think Reagan’s speech fell flat there?
DB: I don’t think the crowd could understand him because of his accent. After all, he was from Illinois. Then, too, he wasn’t at all like Wallace in his delivery, no “Hooo-ey” or “Goddamamightydam’s”, so they didn’t know how to take it. But the liberal press got it, all right. They ran right for the phones to crucify poor Ron with their agitprop.
PZZ: So you don’t think “states’ rights” in that context was a coded message?
DB: There are no “coded messages”. Hemingway said so. It’s all part of this vast liberal conspiracy theory about Republicans.
LC: Right. See, when conservatives hear “welfare queens”, they immediately think of white people. It’s only those dirty-minded liberals who get the wrong idea. So paranoid! It’s the Stalinist legacy, probably.
PZZ: What about Willie Horton?
DB: Wait a minute, that was a completely different Republican, George H.W. Bush!
PZZ: Well…
LC: And again, no conservatives even dreamed he was a black guy until they saw the pictures. Especially in the South, the idea of a governor letting a black guy go free was so off the radar, they just assumed: “White Guy”.
PZZ: What about “macacca”?
DB: Now, there you go again! Once more, different Republican.
PZZ: Yes, but we’re talking now about how Republicans use racial stereotypes to scare the voters and stir them up. What about that sneak attack on John McCain, the “black love child” smear?
DB: Doesn’t count. Republican on Republican. Why should liberals care? Only if they’re deep into all these wild conspiracy theories, I’ll bet.
PZZ: OK, then; back to Reagan. So this wasn’t a racial message?
DB. Right. Ronald Reagan didn’t have a racist bone in his body. He might have been a little callous at times, that’s all.
LC: And the proof that he wasn’t a racist is that he wasn’t homophobic or anti-Semitic. Plus, one time he was nice to some black guys.
PZZ: Back up a minute. How does not being homophobic or anti-Semitic add up to being non-racist?
LC: well, the three go hand in hand. At least in the Republicans I know.
PZZ: But there are some Jewish Republicans.
DB: and African American Republicans, too.
LC. Yeah, go figure.
PZZ: OK, so Ronald Reagan wasn’t personally a racist. But he was a lifelong opponent of civil rights legislation, wasn’t he?
DB: Not in communist countries. Only here at home.
LC: And again, only for the noblest reasons. He thought that since it was southern whites who had robbed African-Americans of their voting rights, it was only fair for southern whites to give them back. It wouldn’t mean as much, coming from the federal government. That was Ron—always the personal touch!
PZZ: So why did he oppose a Martin Luther King holiday?
DB: Reagan was afraid we were getting too much like the French – a holiday, here, a holiday there, big powerful unions, pretty soon no one is doing any work, just committing adultery and smoking cigarettes all day while beefing about the government. And again, he was vindicated in the long run. Look how Sarkozy wants to imitate the United States now.
LC: Here, I can see you’re still not convinced. I’ll offer you one more proof that Reagan was not a racist. It’s a known fact that he never had one of those minstrel-faced lawn jockeys all through the fifties when they were so popular.
DB: Really? Even I didn’t realize that. It’s a key fact; it should be more widely known.
LC: It’s a scandal how the liberal press keeps down the important stuff.
PZZ: Well, thanks, you two, for getting this all on the record.
DB: This has been fun and productive. Let’s get together again real soon and set the record straight on what happened to all those weapons of mass destruction.