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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Yoga comes to Bellview ... Wet storm will bring mountain snow, valley rain ... FERC rejects Jordan Cove LNG project ... Yoga comes to Bellview ... Wet storm will bring mountain snow, valley rain ... FERC rejects Jordan Cove LNG project ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: Nancy, we barely knew ye Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Mar. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Mar. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News This has been a rough couple of weeks for the American right. Over and above the travesty of a possible Trump nomination, the Republicans have lost their biggest champion on the Supreme Court. Now comes the news of the demise of Nancy Davis Reagan, wife of Ronald, former first lady, sometime film starlet, and throwback to a time when a chilly smile and an unflappable denial was seen as some great feminine virtue. The tendency of the American public to look fondly, and through rose-tinted glasses, at their current and former first ladies has benefited Mrs. Reagan in her later years. The tragedy that she rightly made public over the loss of her husband to Alzheimer's disease, long before his actual death, was an important step — she changed her opinion on stem cell research and became a champion of the cause. But she did so only after that political football landed close to home. As with so many conservative leaders of her generation, she elected to remain blissfully ignorant of the pressing issues of her day — as long as they did not affect her. While stories of her fierce protectiveness for her husband made the news — she was said to be able to spot a potential phony or impending threat long before the president was aware of it — what was often neglected by the media during her era was her stoic denial of the AIDS epidemic (a stance that influenced her husband to the point that he did virtually nothing to stem that mini-holocaust). And while the press focused blithely on her conspicuous, "Dynasty"-style spending to spruce up the White House, they neglected to drill down into her signature "Just Say No" drug program; an insubstantial attempt by an advantaged woman to curb the flow of drugs and drug abuse into poor, urban neighborhoods. She never did understand that "saying no" was a privilege reserved for people with choices, who lived in a socioeconomic strata well above that of the people to whom she was preaching. Her red sweater-and-cowboy hat-clad image, alongside her husband on horseback at their 688-acre ranch in the Santa Ynez Mountains, was designed to speak of an America that was prosperous and without pain. She wore blinders due to her love for a president who envisioned a return to a "shining city on the hill." The quasi-fascist implications of that shining city, and the gates it built to exclude many Americans who sat powerless as the Reagan machine dismantled the real economy in favor of Wall Street, were of no interest to her. As first lady, she was one of three during the 20th century who might have had sufficient influence on the American presidency to incite real change (the other two, Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt, collaborated with their husbands to great effect). Instead, she consulted psychics and went shopping for Christofle china. Late in her life, the media, under influence from conservative owners, pundits and columnists, attempted to build her up, using her love of her husband as a platform. While she may have deserved to be lauded for her loyalty, and for her commitment to an old-fashioned, "stand-by-your-man" mentality, in reality, she could have done so much more. Cossetted in her Bel-Air mansion (paid for by a handful of wealthy Republicans, among them Walter Annenberg, as a reward for the roaring 80's economy), she remained a doe-eyed innocent from a certain generation of women, refusing to look at the long-term effect of the blissful ignorance for which she stood. Despite all of her power over the man she loved, she ultimately did very little that was not in service of her immediate needs. As such, this columnist can find little to say about her demise, other than to make the rather obvious point that most of the world, with the exception of the top 1 percent, is no more rich for having known her. Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Daily Tidings columnist, arts reviewer and freelance writer. Email him at gillespie.jeffrey @gmail.com. DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Mar. 11, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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