Trickle down TV drama

If there's one person in this country Americans are forbidden to criticize, it's former President Ronald Reagan. He's the face of the modern conservative movement. His constituents and colleagues revere him. During his presidency, he was accredited with a new theology of economics, Reaganomics, and Republicans haven't turned their backs on the man behind the plan since. "Reagan" is a sacred word, and CBS had the nerve to utter it in vain.\nAccording to the Associated Press, "The Reagans," a four-hour made-for-TV movie, was scheduled to air on CBS in two installments on Nov. 16 and 18, but in light of an uproar caused by the content of the miniseries, it has been canceled and moved to CBS's movie channel, Showtime.\nBefore the public could even see the low-budget drama for itself, Republicans petitioned against the movie after The New York Times published an article last month, detailing controversial elements in the script.\n"(The Reagans) reputations are smeared," wrote Howard Kaloogian, chairman of the Defend Reagan Project in a letter posted on the DefendReagan.Org Web site, "by a collection of Hollywood liberal screenwriters and actors who concoct false events and statements in a desperate attempt to redefine the Reagan Legacy."\nHow dare those liberals write their own interpretation of the Grand Old Party's Grand Ole Gipper. How could they do that to America's beloved star of "Bedtime for Bonzo"? How could they deny the greatness of the awesome cloud that once "trickled down" economics? It's just not fair.\nKaloogian says it's in "poor taste" to vilify Ronald and Nancy Reagan while the former president "battles bravely against the ravages of Alzheimer's."\nBut what seems to be the greatest concern of CBS's protesters is that this one, four-hour miniseries will change the entire country's perspective of Reagan.\n"If we … do nothing, we will allow the liberal media to continue their 're-education' campaign, whereby young people … are denied the opportunity to know the truth about this great man," Kaloogian said.\nReagan isn't dead, but Republicans like to pretend he is. An airport carries his name, and a naval ship was just christened with his name this summer. Most presidents don't receive that kind of recognition until after they've died. They speak of the "Reagan Legacy" as if he were merely a legend, not a man who could perhaps have some faults in his character or policy. Why are conservatives so afraid that an insignificant, made-for-TV movie, concurrent with Reagan's life, will defame him?\n"We live in a culture today of reality TV," GOP chairman Ed Gillespie said in an Associated Press article Saturday. "Lines between fact and fiction get blurred."\n It's true this generation can only vaguely recollect what events occurred while Reagan was in office. "Muppet Babies" was more influential than the president at that age, but liberal and conservative youth alike, this generation deserves more credit than the assumption that a fictional movie will be confused with fact.\n Whatever happened to freedom of expression? Doesn't CBS, despite its cheesiness, have the right and an American obligation to express ideas and, above all else, entertain through the tradition of made-for-TV movies? Republicans can't call themselves patriotic when they bully media into submission. Certainly, the great and awesome former leader of the free world wouldn't approve of such behavior.\nHistory books will record the events that took place during the Reagan administration, and through education, students will learn and gather their own opinions and political views. The only person who won't remember the "holy" things that happened during the Reagan presidency is Reagan himself.