The Gipper is gone, but I'm doing okay

My luck, Reagan has to die when I have an easily offended young Republican staying at my house. So my best cracks were dried up out of politeness. It's tough, because you don't want to trash on someone who has died. And also, conservatives expect elevated behavior out of liberals, so they are prepared to be unduly offended at anything a liberal says. Watch out, because Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. will be trying to twist every single liberal comment and make it sound like liberals are cursing a good man to hell. To keep it simple, a few thoughts.

*I actually feel really sorry for Ron & Nancy. Alzheimer's is a horrible way to go, and it's probably even harder on the family than the victim in alot of ways. Nobody deserves the fate of watching a loved one disintergrate like that, and Nancy Reagan certainly never did anything to cause anyone to wish that on her.
*Nonetheless, Reagan is a historical villian. He's worse than Richard Nixon, in the sense that he did more damage to American society. We were able to recover from the dumb shit Nixon did. Reagan's legacy will be longer-lasting and more awful. Nixon may have instigated the Southern strategy, for instance, but Reagan gave it a life of its own.
*Just because the man's dead doesn't mean we have to pretend he was a great man who did great things. One show I saw on TV showed pictures of the Berlin Wall falling down during his obit. How rude! The wall fell because Germans demanded it, not because an ex-movie star made threatening comments. It was a good time and a good memory and it's openly manipulative to attach something everyone feels great about with someone who half of us have serious problems with.
*Speaking of Germany, don't forget Bitburg. Reagan-lovers, look it up. That really is inexcusable.
*And because of that, and many other things, we should be allowed their anger at Reagan. His death doesn't mean that criticizing him and his policies is somehow off-limits. Don't forget, we wouldn't be in this situation now if Reagan and his people had a fucking clue had to handle foreign policy.
Conservatives love to guilt liberals about our supposed "compassion" and abuse that to keep criticism off us. It's been going on with Reagan for years; if you criticized him, you were accused of being a meanie because he's sick. And that's going to be upped--expect his death to be used for political gain in every way possible.
There's no reason to allow yourself to be guilt-tripped by conservatives. As a friend and I discussed this weekend, it's not that we love people and want everyone to be singing in a field or anything like that. But I do want everyone everywhere to make a living wage so they won't steal my car. When conservatives try to shame you by saying that you are a softie who loves other people, just say that you're tired of locking your car. They don't have much to say to that.