The Blackwater fiasco is the epitome of Reaganism; and it shows what a fraud Reaganism is.

The most basic element of the Reagan philosophy is that Government is the problem. Reaganites said they wanted to shrink government down to nothing and flush it down the drain. What is their ultra patriotism without government? It's corporations running people's lives. Blackwater shows how it works.

Blackwater employees in Iraq get paid 5 to 10 times as much as the military troops. Why not use the military, which already has a system in place? The logic of Reaganism is the only explanation. What is the logic of Reaganism?

Reaganism takes everything wrong in government and increases it; and takes everything right in government and decreases it. The primary wrong factor is lack of accountability. It is a truism that whenever power sources lack adequate accountability, corruption will prevail over constructivity. Openness is the key factor to accountability.

The weakest point in democracy is the lack of accountability of the executive branch of government. Everything bureaucrats do is behind closed doors, often with classified documents. Classification is not keeping information away from enemies; it is keeping information away from the public.

As the public responds to the need for openness and accountability in government, which includes attempts by congress to require it, Reaganites move in the opposite direction. Their number one tactic is to move government functions out of government and turn them over to corporations. Supposedly, corporations can do no wrong, and government can do no right.

Blackwater shows how it works. They get paid 5 to 10 times as much as government employees to duplicate government functions, and they murder with impunity. Other contractors in Iraq operate at a similar standard. They cannot be sued, because they supposedly are not under the control of the US government, while they got bid-free contracts from the government.

It's illegal to use government funds for purposes which are not under government control. Yet the Iraq boondoggles are supposedly not under government control. That's how much accountability there is in the Reagan solution to the problems in government.