Bill Maher punches a hole in the fabric of Reagan legacy

Bardox

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Maher, you fiend, how dare you besmirch Saint Reagan with... with... your truthy talk.:cussing2:
 

FuzzyKen

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My problem with Bill Maher on this one is simply that he is wrong. It may be an opinion he expresses, but there were many others long before Ronald Reagan. Reagan took a relatively successful career in front of a microphone and a movie screen and parlayed this into a Governorship and later a Presidency. Ronald Reagan was definitely not the worst President this country has ever seen and was, in fact, more reasonable based on his time period in office than many who have come and gone before and since. However the Reagan Presidency was just as flawed as most others, his star and legacy as a Governor was far better than the legacy he left behind after 8 years in the Whitehouse. The best speech Ronald Reagan ever gave in his life was his testimony in front of HOUAC in the 1950's. That speech if listened to very carefully was the legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan.
 

FuzzyKen

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First I am NOT a Reagan fan. I was not a fan of Arnold Swarzenegger either and for the same exact reasons. Yet there were great commonalities with their rise to political stardom. If one looked at actual qualifications for office such as formal education in profitable areas neither man had the qualifications necessary to hold office.

People without the proper qualifications are easily manipulated by advisors who at times are little more than front men for special interests. Reagan was in some ways his own biggest fan. Ronald Reagan turned both the Governorship of the State of California and the White House into his two greatest acting roles.

By the way I like your list of reading material, but my personal feelings are that none of this writing captures the essence of "how" but focuses on the failures and the deceptions he sold to Californians first and most of America later.

There was not really from my own research over the years much about Reagan that was real. Much like General George S. Patton, Reagan created a bigger than life image and then with speech writers more talented than most of his screen writers he began the job of convincing the American People and particularly those of an ultra conservative mindset that he was something far better than any of their other alternatives.

Now all that being said, your question was in regards to Bill Maher's flawed comparison of Reagan to the average "Teabagger".

Teabaggers these days simply ignore the truth and when they don't get what they want they use very blatant tactics including but not limited to obstructionism, smears, character assassination, and scandal to get their way. Listening to these people rail on and on and on spouting incorrect information as fact and living in a vacuum that does not relate to the real world was not Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan knew very well how to go in through the "back door", charm the birds from the trees, and make total baloney look like absolute brilliance. This is a very large difference. Reagan was an expert at "back door politics". Reagan had finesse which is a total contradiction to "teabagging".

I actually like Bill Maher and he is at times a more than competent comic and he has done some decent work in the political arena. I will never take that away from Mr. Maher because he has worked hard to accomplish what he has and has earned is place.

Success of a President these days is not always measured as it should be. Ronald Reagan left behind multiple legacies, and one of the largest was his ability to cover his failures.

Reagan was successful, had Richard Nixon been as successful there never would have been a Presidential Resignation.

With regards to individuals in the White House in spite of his failures I do not see Ronald Reagan in the same light in which I would view George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, California Governors George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and Arnold Swarzenegger.

In more recent years I would view the Presidential Administrations of George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Richard Nixon in far more harsh lights than Reagan.

There are many words not of a complementary nature that I feel could be used to judge Ronald Reagan, the word "Teabagger" is the only one that I disagree with. Slime Ball yes, "Tea Bagger" no.
 

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I agree with Maher that Teabagger rhetoric owes much to Reagan.

I also agree that Reagan inspired a lot of smart kids from the '80s to seek public office with the intention of denigrating government generally, and we are still dealing with the unfortunate consequences of that.

But in terms of Reagan's actual actions as President, he hardly fit the mold of a teabagger. Although Reagan did speak unkindly about the poor at times, it was Clinton who really dismantled the federal welfare state. And although Reagan pretty much introduced the storyline that private business drives the economy and government slows it down, it was Clinton who deregulated financial institutions, accelerated the loss of American jobs through NAFTA generally installed the mindset that America's interests and Wall Street's interests are one in the same.

From my perspective, every president since Reagan has gotten progressively more right-wing, until Obama. But Obama doesn't differ fundamentally from his predecessors; he just seems a bit more concerned about making life tolerable for the 99 percent as we morph into a corporate- and military-ruled third world country.
 

slurper_la

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I agree with Maher that Teabagger rhetoric owes much to Reagan.

I also agree that Reagan inspired a lot of smart kids from the '80s to seek public office with the intention of denigrating government generally, and we are still dealing with the unfortunate consequences of that.

But in terms of Reagan's actual actions as President, he hardly fit the mold of a teabagger. Although Reagan did speak unkindly about the poor at times, it was Clinton who really dismantled the federal welfare state. And although Reagan pretty much introduced the storyline that private business drives the economy and government slows it down, it was Clinton who deregulated financial institutions, accelerated the loss of American jobs through NAFTA generally installed the mindset that America's interests and Wall Street's interests are one in the same.

From my perspective, every president since Reagan has gotten progressively more right-wing, until Obama. But Obama doesn't differ fundamentally from his predecessors; he just seems a bit more concerned about making life tolerable for the 99 percent as we morph into a corporate- and military-ruled third world country.

^ that

Wow! Spot on man!!!