Reagan Was A Shitty President

[Modbert]

Yes, I can tell you why.

...Okay, can you tell me then? Or is there a secret decoder ring I gotta get out of a cereal box to find out?

 

[Madeline]

So can I.

* Because he was a good looking white man.

* Because he wrapped himself in the flag and had a lot of catchy slogans about "real Americans".

* Because he tapped into the fears many Americans had after Vietnam, Nixon, and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Etc.

 

[Jeremy]

Are there any on the left here, that have such a strong hatred for this "imbecil" of a president, that have any empethy for his actions as president? Is there anything he did that was good? Or does empathy and open mindedness die at the (R) behind his name? I mean for fuck's sake, Even I can find good things that (D) presidents have done. Anyone here dare to leave the "comfort" of hyperpartisanship?

 

[Woyzeck]

Deflection. I DID live during Reagan...so I know first hand. BIG difference from reading.

Not a deflection. I've read plenty about Reagan. One can see whether Reagan would be welcome based on his positions.

And none of us were alive during the time of the Founders and yet they get quoted and we have discussions for their intents and wants and fears all the time.

 

[Toro]

You shouldn't be. Don't know why people liked him so...I want to know what he did that was so great...

...and please, don't say he brought down the USSR. That was well on the way to happening a good couple of decades before he came to power....

Reagan gave belief to Americans again. He made them feel proud of the United States after perhaps the lowest decade since the Great Depression.

Not every American, of course. There is no such thing as unanimity in politics or history.

He also embodied what many believe to be the American ideals - individualism, strength, self-reliance. Few foreigners understand this about American culture. This is a big reason why he is revered by the Right in America.

 

[Big Fitz]

Reagan not welcome today?

ROFL. Only those who hated him then or never lived through him would believe such a thing.

The man had "IT" even more than Clinton was a rock star. The man would have dominated the mealy mouthed progressive washington set even more than he did in the 1980s. Why? Because when he was in politics there was no Fox News or Talk Radio helping him. All media was set FIRMLY against him save for small pockets of individual defenders. But even then, many democrats turned on their progressofascist masters and left the party to vote for Reagan in a way that would make P-BO's white liberal guilt vote jealous.

Reagan today, by the very nature of the resources available would dominate in a way not seen since FDR played being king for 4 terms.

 

[uscitizen]

You shouldn't be. Don't know why people liked him so...I want to know what he did that was so great...

...and please, don't say he brought down the USSR. That was well on the way to happening a good couple of decades before he came to power....

Reagan gave belief to Americans again. He made them feel proud of the United States after perhaps the lowest decade since the Great Depression.

Not every American, of course. There is no such thing as unanimity in politics or history.

He also embodied what many believe to be the American ideals - individualism, strength, self-reliance. Few foreigners understand this about American culture. This is a big reason why he is revered by the Right in America.

Yeah Astrology!
Tarus doodle dandy.

 

[Madeline]

Yes, Reagan had charisma. So does Obama. That alone will not make either one a great president.

And Jeremy, I don't despise Reagan. He died a gruesome death and I was saddened by it. What I object to is the worship of Reagan as if somehow if we are just "christian" enough, we can solve our problems.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I am fed up with all this revisionist history in which Reagan was the best president since George Washington. It's all bullshit folks, and here's why:

* "Trickle down economics" -- the basis for the infamous Reagan tax cuts -- was utter bullshit and did not work. At all.

* He expanded the national debt in unprecedented amounts. Yes, so have others since, but his was a Great Leap Forward.

* He and his wife relied on astrologists to help them make decisions about the country. WTF Nancy was even involved, no one knows...but to use a horoscope is inexcusable.

And my personal favorite:

* By embracing the Moral Majority, Reagan opened an era of religious lunacy in American politics, especially in the Republican Party. We are still paying for this. Pols in America have to pander to the Very Stupid to get elected...and that is almost entirely Reagan's fault.

Knock it off with the Great Communicator horseshit.

Progressives need to lie about everything. They lie about the Greatness of FDR and not surprisingly, they lie about truly great Presidents like Reagan and Harding.

"Trickle down economics" is a derisive phrase describing letting the private sector get back to work. The Private sector is the main engine of prosperity in this nation and FDR's New Deal and Obama's Stimulus highlight the utter, total failure of Big Gubbamint trying to "Create jobs"

"He expanded the national debt" is a phase used by ignoramuses who think Reagan was a dictator or Monarch and not a US President. At no time in his Presidency did the Republicans ever control Congress. Reagan proposed eliminating the Dept of Education and the Democrats told him "FUCK YOU AND YOUR SPENDING CUTS!!"

The other "points" are just too stupid to address and I won't waste the electrons in the effort.

Also, notice how the OP forgot to mention Regan's greatest accomplishment. He set as a goal the dismantling of the USSR and made it happen. This burns progressives like Dracula to sunlight.

To recap: Progressives lie. When they're not lying about what made them great, they lie about great people to try to make them look bad.

Progressives lie.

 

[Jeremy]

Yes, Reagan had charisma. So does Obama. That alone will not make either one a great president.

And Jeremy, I don't despise Reagan. He died a gruesome death and I was saddened by it. What I object to is the worship of Reagan as if somehow if we are just "christian" enough, we can solve our problems.

Point well taken. I'm sure than that you understand the point from those that object to Obama "worship". Placing any president on too high of a pedestal is not healthy.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

You shouldn't be. Don't know why people liked him so...I want to know what he did that was so great...

...and please, don't say he brought down the USSR. That was well on the way to happening a good couple of decades before he came to power....

Reagan gave belief to Americans again. He made them feel proud of the United States after perhaps the lowest decade since the Great Depression.

Not every American, of course. There is no such thing as unanimity in politics or history.

He also embodied what many believe to be the American ideals - individualism, strength, self-reliance. Few foreigners understand this about American culture. This is a big reason why he is revered by the Right in America.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Toro again.

 

[boedicca]

Yes, Reagan had charisma. So does Obama. That alone will not make either one a great president.

And Jeremy, I don't despise Reagan. He died a gruesome death and I was saddened by it. What I object to is the worship of Reagan as if somehow if we are just "christian" enough, we can solve our problems.

That is hardly why Reagan is admired. Toro's post above summarizes The Why very well - and it has nothing to do with Being Christian Enough.

 

[Jeremy]

So can I.

* Because he was a good looking white man.

* Because he wrapped himself in the flag and had a lot of catchy slogans about "real Americans".

* Because he tapped into the fears many Americans had after Vietnam, Nixon, and the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Etc.

The same can be said about Obama however...

* He is a good looking man.

* He had a lot of catchy logos and slogans like "Yes we can" and "Change we can believe in"

* He tapped into the fears many Americans had about war, Bush and the economy.


C'est la vie.

It's all about capitalizing on the moment and getting the vote.

May the best salesperson win.

 

[Big Fitz]

I never got that from Reagan that it was all about being "Christian Enough".

He DID make it a morality issue and believed in objective-absolutist morals. That is why the cold war became a good vs evil issue, because he truely believed that the US was the last example of Good in the world. And at that time, that was a very powerful thing to realize. That feeling lasted till the second term of Clinton, and the impeachment trial and constant drumbeat of the media that we as a nation sucked dispelled it.

 

[Modbert]

I never got that from Reagan that it was all about being "Christian Enough".

He DID make it a morality issue and believed in objective-absolutist morals. That is why the cold war became a good vs evil issue, because he truely believed that the US was the last example of Good in the world. And at that time, that was a very powerful thing to realize. That feeling lasted till the second term of Clinton, and the impeachment trial and constant drumbeat of the media that we as a nation sucked dispelled it.

He's the reason why the Religious Right controls the GOP today.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Reagan referred to God -- and he meant it. I think it must have burned Progressive ears to hear him speak so affectionately that he was the servant of a higher power that wasn't Mo' n Bigga Gubbamint

 

[Big Fitz]

I never got that from Reagan that it was all about being "Christian Enough".

He DID make it a morality issue and believed in objective-absolutist morals. That is why the cold war became a good vs evil issue, because he truely believed that the US was the last example of Good in the world. And at that time, that was a very powerful thing to realize. That feeling lasted till the second term of Clinton, and the impeachment trial and constant drumbeat of the media that we as a nation sucked dispelled it.

He's the reason why the Religious Right controls the GOP today.

ROFL... the religious right controls the GOP...! Whatta joke! As compared to the DNC, they have influence, but control? Shit... we wouldn't have had McCain then. we woulda had Huckabee.

 

[rikules]

I am fed up with all this revisionist history in which Reagan was the best president since George Washington. It's all bullshit folks, and here's why:

* "Trickle down economics" -- the basis for the infamous Reagan tax cuts -- was utter bullshit and did not work. At all.

* He expanded the national debt in unprecedented amounts. Yes, so have others since, but his was a Great Leap Forward.

* He and his wife relied on astrologists to help them make decisions about the country. WTF Nancy was even involved, no one knows...but to use a horoscope is inexcusable.

And my personal favorite:

* By embracing the Moral Majority, Reagan opened an era of religious lunacy in American politics, especially in the Republican Party. We are still paying for this. Pols in America have to pander to the Very Stupid to get elected...and that is almost entirely Reagan's fault.

Knock it off with the Great Communicator horseshit.

I must admit that I wasn't really paying attention at the time....

however
your post makes me think....wonder....

who WOULD be a great president today?

I can't actually think of a person (in or out of politics) who makes me think/feel/believe...

"now THAT person would make a GREAT president!"....?

and now I think of a second question....

the presidents of the past who we now consider to be GREAT...washington, lincoln, FDR (? perhaps)

were they REALLY great presidents are just men who happened to be in the right place at the right time?

just thinking......

 

[Big Fitz]

Reagan referred to God -- and he meant it. I think it must have burned Progressive ears to hear him speak so affectionately that he was the servant of a higher power that wasn't Mo' n Bigga Gubbamint

That's what scared the moral relativists and atheists. To them, he was the personification of religious insanity. He said it, and believed it and lived it.

 

[Modbert]

ROFL... the religious right controls the GOP...! Whatta joke! As compared to the DNC, they have influence, but control? Shit... we wouldn't have had McCain then.

Control of what matters most in the GOP, positions. As Barry Goldwater, Mr. Conservative himself once said, he'd be considered a Liberal in his party at the rate the party was going.

Barry Goldwater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president and the growing involvement of the religious right in conservative politics, Goldwater's libertarian views on personal issues were revealed; he believed that they were an integral part of true conservatism. Goldwater viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice, not intended for government intervention.[36]

After his retirement in 1987, Goldwater described the conservative Arizona Governor Evan Mecham as "hardheaded" and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican party had been taken over by a "bunch of kooks".[39]

In a 1994 interview with the Washington Post the retired senator said,
When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.[40]

A few years before his death he went so far as to address the right wing, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."[48]