Reagan Would Be Considered a Liberal Appeaser in Today's GOP

Think I'm kidding? Glenn Greenwald dug up some wonderful quotes in this post. It seems that in 1988 certain hardcore militant rightwingers were comparing Reagan to Neville Chamberlain. Reagan's sin? Negotiating with the Soviets! Selection:

In fact, though Ronald Reagan has been canonized as the Great Churchillan Warrior, back then he was accused of being the new 1938 Neville Chamberlain because he chose to negotiate with the Soviets and sign treaties as an alternative to war. Conservative Caucus Chair Howard Phillips, for instance, "scorned President Reagan as 'a useful idiot for Kremlin propaganda,'" and published ads which, according to a January 20, 1988 UPI article (via LEXIS):

likens Reagan's signing of the INF Treaty to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's signing of an accord with Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler in 1938. The ad, with the headline, ''Appeasement Is As Unwise In 1988 As In 1938,'' shows pictures of Chamberlain, Hitler, Reagan and Gorbachev overhung by an umbrella. Chamberlain carried an umbrella and it became a World War II symbol for appeasement.

According to the January 19, 1988 St. Louis Post-Dispatch (via LEXIS), when Pat Robertson was campaigning for President in Missouri in 1988, he "suggested that President Ronald Reagan could be compared to Neville Chamberlain . . . by agreeing to a medium-range nuclear arms agreement with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev."

The Orange Country Register editorialized in September, 1988 that "Ronald Reagan has become the Neville Chamberlain of the 1980s. The apparent peace of 1988 may be followed by the new wars of 1989 or 1990." And even the very same Newt Gingrich, in 1985, denounced President Reagan's rapprochement with Gorbachev as potentially "the most dangerous summit for the West since Adolf Hitler met with Chamberlain in 1938 at Munich."

The people who so vehemently denounced Reagan then are the people running the Republican Party--and the country--today. They are ruthless, dangerous fanatics who want a series of wars with Syria, Iran, and anyone else that they see as a "threat". They dredge up the tired old Chamberlain argument any time they get a chance to, using it to attack anyone who objects to their insane, reckless agenda. We have to have the courage to stand in their way--and to remember that they even threw this lie at St. Ronald.

(Hat Tip: Atrios)