Here's the lesson of Obama's Reagan comment: don't publicly praise the talents of evil men [View All]

[jpgray]

"Wow, that Stalin sure knew how to push economic reform! Check out those five year plans of his!"

"Hitler was sure a hell of a great speaker and party organizer!"

Both are true, but it isn't always a good idea to say so in public.

An absurd comparison, I know. Reagan is not on par with the above two men for evil. And I don't believe Obama admires his policies or platform so much as his ability to symbolize a platitude for Americans. And say what you want, that -does- take talent. But Reagan, for the reasons we all know, is still -plenty- evil. Want to know where the media atmosphere comes from? Want to know where our corporate corruption comes from? Want to know where our modern style of freewheeling military and economic imperialism comes from? Direct homophobia from our head of state? Relentless image marketing and "character" issues promoted in campaigns to hide an ugly, unpopular platform? Reagan is where it all really picked up steam.

Usually even historically evil world leaders are men/women of ability. But when those abilities are used to promote some abhorrent, nasty policies, they are not deserving of public praise. Yeah, academically it's fine to say that some evil leader had talent for organization, for economic revitalization, for hiding evil policy in platitudes. But saying it in public is going to piss people off. And it should. It's a fucking stupid thing to do, unless you admire the policies and practices of the man/woman you're praising, -don't- praise the abilities of such in public. Just don't do it, at least not without some explicit qualification. That goes for all the candidates, by the way, who I'm sure have also done this to some degree.