Why do people call Reagan a Great President?

[GHook93]

Getting the hostage release was great, he was lucky enough to be President when the USSR collasped (I think it probably would have happened anyways), enacting the tax code was good, lower taxes was good, but I think its a fallacy that he was a great President.

Here are reasons why:
(1) Iran-Contra Affair: Claims we are fighting a war on drugs, but helps Contras make money by selling drugs to Americans. Either way this is a criminal scandal

(2) Immigration Control and Reform Act: Was supposed to reform immigrations and prevent illegal immigration. Instead it did nothing to decease immigration, employers ignored it, more illegals poured over the borders and all this act did was give amnesty to 3 million illegal immigrants

(3) 1982 Recession: Yes he was dealt a bad hand by Carter, but a year into his Presidency he we saw a recession with unemployment up to 10.2%! The highest since the Great Depression.

(4) The War on Drugs: The biggest waste of money, resources and police man power in US history. It was and is a huge failure. It has increase drug use and has made it so countries like Mexico, Bolivia and Colombia can't combat the well funded anti-government groups and advance their countries.

(5) Stock Market Crash of 1987: Yet another economic collaspe during Reagan's Presidency. Was it all him? No, but it happened on his watch

(6) The Saving and Loan Crisis: Due to the non-regulations and non-control cough cough much like the current mortgage crisis, but on a smaller scale cough cough we had a financial crisis to which keeps up the poor economic trend during the Reagan 80s presidency

(7) $3 trillion Dollar Budget Deficit: Up from $700 billion! How do people call him the grand daddie of fiscal conservatism? This is like a teenager getting daddy's AMEX card and going over $100K balance limit by $1 million dollars! Bush learned well.

(8) Lebanon: Didn't learn from Vietnam and got us in the Lebanese Civil War that put Hezbollah on the map and lead to a suicide bombing and the death of 200+ US soldiers and us running from Lebanon with our tails between our legs.

(9) Took funds from the EPA: People don't like the EPA on the conservative side and many times they do more harm then good, but protecting the environment is a necessary evil. The Clean Air Act took lead out of the air and Clean Water Act made US waterways the least polluted in the world!

(10) Not helping us get off foreign oil: No mandates to drill domestically. No mandates for fuel efficiency, which lead to the gas guzzlers of the 90s and today. No money to start developing oil free cars. He failed here, big time!

(11) HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Like the slow denial approach Stalin took when Hitler invaded Russia. Reagan did little in the beginning to tackle the AIDS epidemic. He acted painfully too slow. Personally I think he acted so slow because he thought he had the "Final Solution" to the Gay problem.

(12) Funded, Started and Helped Al Qaeda: Yep we were fighting those big bad Russian Communist, so it was probably the right thing to do. However, we funded the same people we are fighting today. We allowed one of the most brutal and barbaric regime of 80s-90s (Taliban) to take over an brutalize the Afghan people. Reagan build OBL! Maybe after the Soviets destroyed Afghanistan America should have tried to build a few schools like Charlie Wilson suggested!

(13) Supported Sadam: Iran and Iraq at war, Reagan supported Sadam with weapons and aid. How did that turn out Mr. Reagan.

(14) Named Scalia to the Supreme Court: Scalia has a good philosophy too bad he never follows it. He is a hack and only applies originalism when it fits his agenda. He is a fraud. If it goes against his views then he interprets the constitution to fits what he believes!

(15) Brought Alan "I am a big reason for the mortgage and credit meltdown" Greenspan into government: Greenspan recklessly kept reducing interest rates that is a big reason we are in this mess. He also is the only the made suggestion on deregulation!


Now I consider myself a fiscal conservative and voted Republican in both the Primary (Romney) and Generals (McCain), but I think Reagan is falsely idolized by the right simply because he might have been the best public speaker since MLK. Reagan also had some of the best one liners, I even put one in my signature. But look closely at his record and what he accomplished and it piss poor! It pathetic and some is out right criminal!

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

Reagan was a great President because he understood what he was presiding over... He instinctvely understood the prnciples upon the US was founded and he could communicate them well... He spoke directly the the American heart and it was a rare moment when Americans did not respond to his point of view with pride and the humility of having been treated his genius.

He said what he meant and he meant what he said and that is a rare quality in a politician... it is certainly not a trait possessed by this Hesitant-elect... a Muslim parading as a Christian and a Marxist hiding under the pelt of an American.

 

[Modbert]

Reagan was a great President because he understood what he was presiding over... He instinctvely understood the prnciples upon the US was founded and he could communicate them well... He spoke directly the the American heart and it was a rare moment when Americans did not respond to his point of view with pride and the humility of having been treated his genius.

He said what he meant and he meant what he said and that is a rare quality in a politician... it is certainly not a trait possessed by this Hesitant-elect... a Muslim parading as a Christian and a Marxist hiding under the pelt of an American.

Just a question crazy, I mean Publius. What's wrong with a Muslim for POTUS? Not saying Obama is, just saying if he was then so what?

 

[GHook93]

Reagan was a great President because he understood what he was presiding over... He instinctvely understood the prnciples upon the US was founded and he could communicate them well... He spoke directly the the American heart and it was a rare moment when Americans did not respond to his point of view with pride and the humility of having been treated his genius.

He said what he meant and he meant what he said and that is a rare quality in a politician... it is certainly not a trait possessed by this Hesitant-elect... a Muslim parading as a Christian and a Marxist hiding under the pelt of an American.

I will admit I love his speeches, he truly was the great communicator. He also had a good message of smaller government. However, as I pointed out his record, well blows!

 

[GHook93]

Just a question crazy, I mean Publius. What's wrong with a Muslim for POTUS? Not saying Obama is, just saying if he was then so what?

Discussion this will only derail the thread!

 

[AllieBaba]

Reagan Administration Accomplishments 1981-1989
By Editorial Staff
Published December 1988
Reagan Administration Accomplishments 1981-1989 — The Forerunner

1. President Reagan’s economic policies stimulated the economy, creating 17 million new jobs. One-fourth of the new jobs were created in 68 consecutive months. Black unemployment was cut in half.

2. We were given incentives to save our money, to work, and to invest because of Reagan’s tax reforms.

3. The inflation rate decreased to less than 4.4%. Family income rose 12%.

4. We are now experiencing the longest and strongest peacetime prosperity in the history of the nation.

5. We are experiencing the best peacetime relationship with the Soviet Union in our history. We have also seen the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

6. We are now keeping the peace. We drew the line in Grenada, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf, and no countries have fallen to communism during the Reagan era.

7. The U.S. military was refurbished and strengthened.


America Just Prior to the Reagan Administration

1. Seven million Americans were unemployed.

2. We were told to live on less, to buckle our belts and to prepare for scarcity.

3. Americans went through two of the worst years of inflation in 60 years. There was a 13% inflation rate. Family income dropped and we had the highest tax bill in our history.

4. We were on the verge of a major recession.

5. With our cold wars during the ’70s, we inspired our enemies not to be afraid of us. The Soviets refused to come to the bargaining table. Cultural exchanges between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. came to a halt.

6. Disarmament was considered a noble goal. We did not know where to draw the line in our negotiations with the Soviets. Three countries fell to communism under the Carter administration: Benin (1977), Nicaragua (1979), and Zimbabwe (1980).

7. Guns and tanks that did not even work were being sent to battle.

8. Young Americans were not allowed to pray in school … even though Congress, every state house, and the Supreme Court begins business with prayer.

 

[AllieBaba]

Age And Experience: The Reagan Resume
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 08, 2008 4:20 PM PT
IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Age And Experience: The Reagan Resume

On Reagan's first day in office, Iran, concerned about what he might do, released the 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 15 months during the Carter administration. That, however, was only the first of many victories America would enjoy over the next eight years under this seasoned executive. Among his many accomplishments, Reagan:

• Rebuilt America's seriously depleted defenses and restored pride in the military so that a voluntary peacetime army became a reality and the draft an unnecessary relic of the past.

• Lifted price controls on domestic oil and, contrary to predictions that oil prices would skyrocket, instead saw them drop from $38 a barrel in 1980 to below $16 in 1988. Inflation collapsed from 15% to an amazingly low 2%, and interest rates fell from 21% in 1980 to single digits over the next six years.

• Cut everyone's taxes (over congressional objections), thereby launching one of the longest economic recoveries on record and leading to the creation of 20 million jobs.

• Ordered an assault and rescue mission in Grenada that sent Cubans home, rescued grateful American students and took the negative national media by surprise.

• Subdued Libyan terrorism with an air assault on Moammar Gadhafi's base and successfully forced down the Egyptian jetliner carrying terrorists from the Achille Lauro ship hijacking.

• Assisted the Philippines in breaking away from right-wing dictator Ferdinand Marcos and did the same for Haiti, Panama and Chile.

• Cracked down on Soviet spies and thefts of U.S. technology and reached parity with the Soviets in embassy and U.N. personnel.

• Became the first president to stop and reverse the spread of communism by giving help and encouragement to democratic resistance fighters in Afghanistan, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

• Revitalized the ideal of democracy throughout the world and witnessed the global trend shift from socialism to free enterprise.

• Stood firm at Reykjavik, Iceland, on developing his anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative and walked out on Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviets strongly believed that SDI would render their entire nuclear missile capability obsolete.

The added public pressure that Reagan brought to bear on Gorbachev — "Tear down this wall" — led ultimately to the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the failure and dismantling of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War.

More than 100 million people enslaved behind the Iron Curtain in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania tasted liberty for the first time, and another 140 million in nations from Armenia to Georgia and Lithuania to Ukraine declared their freedom and independence.

Later, Gorbachev and leading Soviet generals conceded that all this wouldn't have happened if not for Reagan and his winning strategy of peace through strength. Objective analysts will likely agree that Reagan's gigantic accomplishments rank him among our top presidents after Lincoln, Washington and FDR.

 

[AllieBaba]

"To a generation that does not remember charred bodies of American Soldiers being dragged through the streets of Tehran, the ominous threat of Soviet agression, a partitioned Europe, the boycotted summer Olympics of 1980 and double digit inflation and interest rates the magnitude of Reagan's accomplishments cannot be understated. Ronald Reagan transformed America in a way no other President has done since F.D.R. . The unparalleled economic growth of the 1990's were built upon the foundation of ending the Cold War, establishing the free market system does work and low interest rates low inflation are true methods to regulating the economy. That is just part of the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
Jim D., Brockton
Boston.com / News


CHANGING THE WORLD
The world of 2004 is very different from the world of 1980, and no man deserves more credit for the positive changes than Ronald Reagan. In shaping foreign affairs, domestic policy, his political party, and the American character, Reagan was among the most successful of all presidents. In none of these categories does he rank at the very top, but he was among the greatest in all of them.

When Ronald Reagan took oath in January 1980, America was a declining power. In Central America, totalitarian allies of Fidel Castro had conquered Nicaragua. Abandoning their promises to protect civil liberty, the Sandinistas were creating a Stalinist state in which the Communist party would be the living God in the "liberation theology" of a servile state church. Other Communists were fighting a war for the same goal in Central America. In 1983, a hard-line Stalinist seized power in a coup in Grenada. Today, Latin America is freer than it has been since the days before the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Spanish Empire. The region still has a long way to go, but these days Fidel Castro is generally understood as a relic of a terrible past rather than an avatar of the new Latin America.

President Truman had initiated the policy of containment to prevent the Soviet Union from expanding its evil empire, and to force Communism to collapse from its internal contradictions. Ford and Carter abandoned the policy, however, allowing nation after nation to fall to Soviet control. Nixon's policy of détente had been embraced and extended so widely that the American political élite was making policy based on the permanence of Soviet power, taking for granted a bipolar world in which many hundreds of millions of people would live indefinitely under the Soviet boot.

Ronald Reagan was among the very few visionaries who foresaw a better world. Challenging the Soviets to an arms race, halting Soviet expansionism everywhere, and reasserting the moral superiority of freedom in language evocative of Churchill and Kennedy, Reagan destroyed the evil empire, bringing Truman's vision to fruition.

In terms of expanding American power, Reagan ranks only behind Jefferson (Louisiana Purchase) and Polk (the annexation of Texas and the Southwest). He ranks equal to Franklin Roosevelt (defeating the Axis) and ahead of Madison (fighting the British to a draw).
Dave Kopel on Ronald Reagan on National Review Online

 

[sky dancer]

Reagan was a so-so actor. He was handsome and 'folksy' and appealed to Amurcans.

 

[Lycurgus]

I think when pointing out any negative situation which comes to pass in any presidents term, it takes a lot of background and understanding to determine exactly how it should reflect directly on the president themselves. No matter the party or the issue.

One opinion in regard to the opening post, I don't consider Reagan as being lucky in regard to the fall of the USSR. In fact prior to voting for him I felt I understood his goal well in regard to the USSR.

 

[Truthmatters]

That is written by right wing people who probably think Palin is a great American.


Gorbachev is credited with the successes you clain are Reagans.

Everyone else in the world but cons know this.

 

[sky dancer]

Under Reagan, we sent the deficit skyrocketing, growing faster in real dollars than under any other president, including the current one. We cut social spending to the bone, creating the homeless problem by turning hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people out on the streets. We appointed Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. We cut school funding, trying to classify ketchup as a vegetable. We banned the Beach Boys as attracting the wrong sort of crowd. We traded arms, money, drugs, and hostages between Iran and the Nicaraguan rebels. More appointed officials were indicted and convicted of crimes than under any other president. We gave chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. We claimed that trees cause most pollution.

Reagan catastrophically lowered taxes in 1981, creating debt so bad he raised taxes each of the next six years and still didn't make up for it. And while he streamlined the complex and exemption-riddled income tax, his changes created the largest-ever shift of tax burden from the wealthy to the middle-class and working poor.

He was a bad president, who promulgated bad policies and appointed bad people.
http://www.whiterose.org/dr.elmo/blog/archives/004686.html

 

[sky dancer]

Iran-Contra

I did not trade arms for hostages, whoops, I guess I did.

The nomination of Robert Bork for Supreme Court Justice.

Reagan embraced the white racist leaders of the South African apartheid.

 

[AllieBaba]

You guys would have hated Jefferson even more than you hate Reagan, I'll bet.

Those guys who stand up for human rights and make progress in the world are just too horrible, aren't they?

 

[sky dancer]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBx5-alXisY]YouTube - Thanks, Ron (The Many Faults of Ronald Reagan)[/ame]

 

[Truthmatters]

The Enduring Lies of Ronald Reagan -- In These Times


First to go is the myth that Reagan was the most popular president since FDR. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting reminds us, “During the first two years of Reagan’s presidency, the public was giving President Reagan the lowest level of approval of all modern elected presidents. Reagan’s average first-year approval rating was 58 percent—lower than Dwight Eisenhower’s 69 percent, Jack Kennedy’s 75 percent, Richard Nixon’s 61 percent and Jimmy Carter’s 62 percent.” At the end of his second year, (remember the Reagan recession?) Reagan’s approval rating was 41 percent; after the Iran-Contra scandal was revealed, Reagan’s approval rating stood at 46 percent. His approval rating for his entire presidency was lower than Kennedy’s, Eisenhower’s and even Johnson’s, and at times he was one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history.

Also forgotten is Reagan’s own embarrassing propensity to just make things up. Reagan was a dunce and a fabricator. One of his most famous assertions was, “Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do,” and he maintained, wrongly, that sulfur dioxide emitted from Mount St. Helens was greater than that emitted by cars over a 10-year period. (In one day, cars emit 40 times what Mount St. Helens released in a day even at its peak activity.) In 1985, Reagan praised the P.W. Botha’s apartheid regime of South Africa for eliminating segregation, a blunder then-Press Secretary Larry Speakes had to correct a few days later.

The man was a liar and his "greatness" is a myth.

 

[AllieBaba]

Yeah, yeah. And you'd say the same about Lincoln if you'd been around during his time as well. He was a Republican and did get us into a war.
Sheesh.

 

[sky dancer]

Reagan was no Lincoln.

 

[Chris]

Someone was asked to describe Reagan in one word, and they said, "Lucky."

Reagan and Bush are responsible for 90% of the National Debt.

ReaganBushDebt.org

 

[Truthmatters]

Yeah, yeah. And you'd say the same about Lincoln if you'd been around during his time as well. He was a Republican and did get us into a war.
Sheesh.

You live in a frabricated world.