"Just Say No"

Nancy Reagan will be remembered for three things: her glassy-eyed adoration of her husband, that little red dress, and "just say no", her contribution to the war on drugs.

"Just say no."

As a simple, easy to remember catch phrase, sure.

As a drug policy, not so much.

But it was all we got from the Gipper and Mrs. Gipper.

And that was the 80's in nutshell:

Rich, comfortable, smugly clueless people telling the rest of us to "just say no."

As the CIA helped flood black neighborhoods with crack cocaine to fund Ronnie's illegal war against the Contras.

As thousands of people died from AIDS, a disease that neither of them acknowledged until one of their own, Rock Hudson, contracted it.

As American trained death squads wandered around Central America, killing any leftists they could find.

As the Republican Party began its systematic dismantling of the American Middle Class.

And all the while trillions of dollars disappeared into the waiting maws of defense contractors.

It was Nancy's reactionary father who turned dear, simple Ronnie from an FDR Democrat to a fire breathing, red baiting, FBI informant Republican.

Weep for Nancy Reagan's passing? Let her family do that.

The rest of us should...

"Just say no."