Zombie Reagan Condemns Obamacare

Steve Benen asks

DOES THE RIGHT NOT REALIZE REAGAN WAS WRONG ABOUT MEDICARE?.... Most folks have probably heard the audio of Ronald Reagan in 1961, before he sought elected office, railing against Medicare. It was recorded as part of the American Medical Association's campaign against a precursor to the legislation that would become law several years later.

What I don't quite understand is why the right looks back at the recording with such fondness a half-century later.

Sure you do, Steve. It's absolutely priceless. Replace every mention of "Medicare" with "Obamacare" and you've got Ronaldus Magnus confirming every paranoid delusion from Beck, Palin and the rest of them.

You don't even have to do the work of altering the sound - play that thing untouched for teabaggers and they will swear up and down that they personally heard Ronald Reagan himself specifically condemn Obamacare.

They really are that deluded and that indescribably stooopit.

And the Goopers promoting Zombie Ronnie know it.

It's quite odd. We know with the benefit of hindsight that the warnings in Reagan's diatribe were silly, if not crazy. That conservatives listen to the recording 50 years later, and fail to notice that the scare tactics were wildly wrong, is disconcerting.

No, it's not. It's fucking genius.