Clayton, when the Sandinistas did their land reform, basically returning granpa’s farm from the thieving colonels, they handed over the deed accompanied by an AK so the farmer could defend his land, knowing the farmers could turn against them if they wanted. Totalitarians don’t do that. The Sandinistas got the same media smear as Sarah Palin. Reagan copied Carter’s support for the thugocracies of Central America when he could have supported the popular goal of mixed economies and representative democracies in the European style. This very ugly side of Reagan is not discussed, when he was so blinded by his understandable hatred of the Soviet system that he supported armies of “anti-communist” criminals to prey on the subjugated people of the region.
