The Legacy of Ronald Reagan

dreamer20

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Most of us remember President Reagan as defeating the Soviet Union.


He did no such thing. He happened to be in power when the Soviets began to dismantle their empire. I recall Margaret Thatcher convincing Reagan that Gorbachev was a man that they "could do business with". Via talks with Gorbachev Reagan came to like and respect him and the Cold War was ended via diplomacy.
 

viking1

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As much as Republicans like to invoke Reagan's legacy it's kind of sad and ironic how much they are shitting all over it. I don't agree with all of his policy decisions, but I respect him as a very capable leader and statesman, and as a much truer champion of conservative ideals than the hypocrites currently serving.

Very true.

Neither Bush was conservative in any sense of the word. They talk the conservative talk, but neither walked the walk. They would have made good democrats in the political climate of about 35+ years ago. War monger, big spender, expander of government control, spin doctor extraordinaire. The demycraps and the publicans have traded places over the last 50 years.

Bush Sr. tried to undo nearly everything Regan did.
Sr. handed down more regulations than any president except Carter.
Carter may have been honest, and had excellent foreign policy, but he was a very weak, very poor domestic president, as was Nixon.

As bad as Bush is, I'm not sure he isn't better than either of the dems who ran against him. Kerry is borderline insane. Gore doesn't care about anything but environmentalism. Gore is also a hypocrite. When he quits flying all over the world in his private jet, when he drives a little dinky sardine can electric car, when he gives up his energy guzzling 15000sq.ft mansion for a "normal" size house, maybe I'll take him seriously...

The opinions on this were as predictable as the sunrise. Classic conservative vs liberal. Democrat vs republican. Most people vote party regardless of the candidate actually running. Most on this board are very liberal. What would you expect? The majority here are educated, urban, and gay.

Regan and the savings and loan scandal? How about Clinton and Whitewater, Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia? How about all the money from the tobacco settlement that disappeared? How many lost their life savings or retirement money in that mess? Ask my uncle, or my neighbor.

I don't agree with all of Regan's policies either. I do think he had a good vision of what life should be like in free democratic society.
 

B_phe1249

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Americans always get mushy when someone famous dies. American got mushy when Princess Di died and when John F. Kennedy Jr. died, but neither one of them had accomplished much of anything either.

I remember reading liberal, moderate, and conservative (Wall Street Journal) newspapers and magazines all during all awful eight years of the Reagan administration. I would suggest you go back and read what was written by columnists, reporters, historians, and his own former staff members during and right after his administration. He was a bumbling fool. One of his supposedly brilliant ideas to intimidate the Soviets was "Star Wars," which still cannot and does not work 20 years later.

How old are you? I suspect you were not even around when Reagan was in office? please confirm
 

B_Italian1

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Americans always get mushy when someone famous dies. American got mushy when Princess Di died and when John F. Kennedy Jr. died, but neither one of them had accomplished much of anything either.

You can't compare Reagan to Princess Di and JFK Jr. He was president for 8 years. Di was a princess who did do a lot for AIDS awareness and land mines. JFK Jr. didn't do much but he had a lot to live up to. His dad was one of the most famous presidents ever and his mom an icon. He finally became a lawyer after many tries, and launched a magazine. Sure Americans are going to get mushy, and even though that article was written shortly after his death, it still resonates today.

I remember reading liberal, moderate, and conservative (Wall Street Journal) newspapers and magazines all during all awful eight years of the Reagan administration.

I didn't think those were awful years at all. Prior to Reagan, Nixon had resigned under scandal, Ford did all he could to keep the country together, and Carter was useless.

He instilled a sense of pride in our nation which sadly does not exist to a large extent now.

So true.


Very true.

Neither Bush was conservative in any sense of the word. They talk the conservative talk, but neither walked the walk. They would have made good democrats in the political climate of about 35+ years ago. War monger, big spender, expander of government control, spin doctor extraordinaire. The demycraps and the publicans have traded places over the last 50 years.

Bush Sr. tried to undo nearly everything Regan did.
Sr. handed down more regulations than any president except Carter.
Carter may have been honest, and had excellent foreign policy, but he was a very weak, very poor domestic president, as was Nixon.

As bad as Bush is, I'm not sure he isn't better than either of the dems who ran against him. Kerry is borderline insane. Gore doesn't care about anything but environmentalism. Gore is also a hypocrite. When he quits flying all over the world in his private jet, when he drives a little dinky sardine can electric car, when he gives up his energy guzzling 15000sq.ft mansion for a "normal" size house, maybe I'll take him seriously...

The opinions on this were as predictable as the sunrise. Classic conservative vs liberal. Democrat vs republican. Most people vote party regardless of the candidate actually running. Most on this board are very liberal. What would you expect? The majority here are educated, urban, and gay.

Regan and the savings and loan scandal? How about Clinton and Whitewater, Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia? How about all the money from the tobacco settlement that disappeared? How many lost their life savings or retirement money in that mess? Ask my uncle, or my neighbor.

I don't agree with all of Regan's policies either. I do think he had a good vision of what life should be like in free democratic society.

Excellent points, Viking1.
 

D_Harry_Crax

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How old are you? I suspect you were not even around when Reagan was in office? please confirm

I'm nearly 45, and not only was I alive during the entire Reagan administration, I was an adult during the entire Reagan administation--and a thinking one, not just intoxicated by his supposed charm and smooth delivery. Go back and read the newspapers and magazines of the time. A huge number of his appointees were corrupt or incompetent--remember the "Teflon president" phrase? Well, nothing was sticking to him while scores of his appointees were going down. Reagan was often clueless, incompetent, weird, etc., although not nearly as bad on any count as the current imbecile-in-chief.
 
D

deleted15807

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Yes the man kicked off his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. And why such a small out of the way city in Mississippi? Google it. It's not pretty.
 
D

deleted15807

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From my favorite columnist:

As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans “need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.”

But Republicans shouldn’t cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There’s no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity.

....people whose ideology says that government is always the problem, never the solution, see no point in governing well. So they use political power to reward their friends, rather than find people who will actually do their jobs.
 

hedonic

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Ronnie was a champion! It's so easy to look back and criticize, but the Reagan white house gave us something we lacked under the Ford and Carter administrations...balls! The guy taught us to have some self-respect again, so let's have some props where they are due bitches!

...and anybody who has ever seen his moves would agree that he definitely shouldn't have stayed an actor!

Thats right, Carter came from compassion and STILL does, Reagan, from big ego. (Enough said for me on politics.)
 

36DD

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I'm nearly 45, and not only was I alive during the entire Reagan administration, I was an adult during the entire Reagan administation--and a thinking one, not just intoxicated by his supposed charm and smooth delivery. Go back and read the newspapers and magazines of the time. A huge number of his appointees were corrupt or incompetent--remember the "Teflon president" phrase? Well, nothing was sticking to him while scores of his appointees were going down. Reagan was often clueless, incompetent, weird, etc., although not nearly as bad on any count as the current imbecile-in-chief.

You couldn't possibly have been an adult during all the Reagan years, you would have had to been 16 or 17, and that is a far cry from being an adult faced with real issues and decisions required for living independently.
 

joyboytoy79

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I was just a kid when Reagan was in office, but i remember this:

The collapse of the steel industry.

The collapse of the family farm.

The introduction of Crack into the inner-city.

Increased racial tensions.

Over-the-top Defense spending (something about lasers?).

Economic recession, although the rich got VERY rich.

The lowest educational standards of that century.

AIDS as a "gay disease" that didn't need to be commented on, or researched.

Again, i was just a kid. Heck, i was only 10 when Reagan was succeeded by Bush I. It all seems like pretty unhappy times for our country though, or at least it seemed that way to a pretty perceptive kid in the farmlands of Wisconsin.
 

D_Harry_Crax

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You couldn't possibly have been an adult during all the Reagan years, you would have had to been 16 or 17, and that is a far cry from being an adult faced with real issues and decisions required for living independently.

Oh, just stick it! I not only was a mature and increasingly well-educated adult during the Reagan administration (completing an MBA at a right-wing business school), I also owned my own corporation with a couple-dozen employees the last 2.5 years he was in office. Go back and read the newspapers and magazines at the time DURING the Reagan administration, instead of the after-the-fact efforts to make him a god because the Republicans need a role model newer than Teddy Roosevelt. I could cite all kinds of names, dates, scandals, statistics, etc., about Reagan, but here are just a couple: Reagan's approval rating was 46% in November 1986, with a 45% disapproval rating. In May 1987, his public approval rating was 46%, and his disapproval rating was 43%. Just because you have been caught up in the Republican noise machine to make Reagan some sort of Lincoln (which he certainly wasn't) doesn't mean the rest of us have been. I REMEMBER the Reagan administration really well now, because I was paying very close attention then, and I haven't been listening to the bullshit from Peggy Noonan, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, etc., since Jan. 21, 1989.
 

D_Harry_Crax

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You can't compare Reagan to Princess Di and JFK Jr. He was president for 8 years. Di was a princess who did do a lot for AIDS awareness and land mines. JFK Jr. didn't do much but he had a lot to live up to. His dad was one of the most famous presidents ever and his mom an icon. He finally became a lawyer after many tries, and launched a magazine. Sure Americans are going to get mushy, and even though that article was written shortly after his death, it still resonates today.

I didn't compare Reagan to Princess Di or JFK Jr. I compared the public reactions to their deaths, which is quite different. My point was that Americans felt sentimental and sad when Reagan died, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything about Reagan, because Americans felt sentimental and sad about Princess Di and JFK Jr. Again, this is about the public's perceptions, changing reactions and opinions, the way that the public memory evolves over years, and it doesn't change what Reagan actually did or didn't do one iota. I know that you just like to be difficult, but don't twist what I said or insult the intelligence of other readers of LPSG by doing so.
 

36DD

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Oh, just stick it! I not only was a mature and increasingly well-educated adult during the Reagan administration (completing an MBA at a right-wing business school), I also owned my own corporation with a couple-dozen employees the last 2.5 years he was in office. Go back and read the newspapers and magazines at the time DURING the Reagan administration, instead of the after-the-fact efforts to make him a god because the Republicans need a role model newer than Teddy Roosevelt. I could cite all kinds of names, dates, scandals, statistics, etc., about Reagan, but here are just a couple: Reagan's approval rating was 46% in November 1986, with a 45% disapproval rating. In May 1987, his public approval rating was 46%, and his disapproval rating was 43%. Just because you have been caught up in the Republican noise machine to make Reagan some sort of Lincoln (which he certainly wasn't) doesn't mean the rest of us have been. I REMEMBER the Reagan administration really well now, because I was paying very close attention then, and I haven't been listening to the bullshit from Peggy Noonan, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, etc., since Jan. 21, 1989.

First, I can't take you seriously as someone who considers himself mature and well-educated when the your first words to me are "oh, just stick it!"
Second, I don't have to go back and read the newspapers because I was there.Third, you are not as well-educated as you claim, or you would be knowledgeable enough to know not to tell someone who has a different view point than you that they have fallen victim to some "Republican noise machine". I have my own brain and I think for myself, thank you.
 

Blocko

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He was a slobbering moron who acted his way through a mediocre Presidency that oversaw some of the worst foreign and domestic policy decisions of the 20th century. He made stupid gaffes and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war with his pugnacious maladroit theatrics. He along with Nixon are the main reason that the USA isn't (and hasn't been for a long time) in the top 5 of the Human Development Index, despite the size of its economy.

The Soviet union was a rotten apple and eventually it fell off the tree. Reagan didn't do that, he was too busy invading small nations, selling arms to Iraq and Iran and dividing the classes in the US so keenly that some places in the country resemble the 3rd world.
 

36DD

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I was just a kid when Reagan was in office, but i remember this:

The collapse of the steel industry.

The collapse of the family farm.

The introduction of Crack into the inner-city.

Increased racial tensions.

Over-the-top Defense spending (something about lasers?).

Economic recession, although the rich got VERY rich.

The lowest educational standards of that century.

AIDS as a "gay disease" that didn't need to be commented on, or researched.

Again, i was just a kid. Heck, i was only 10 when Reagan was succeeded by Bush I. It all seems like pretty unhappy times for our country though, or at least it seemed that way to a pretty perceptive kid in the farmlands of Wisconsin.
I don't know anything about the steel industry or the family farm, but surely you can't blame Reagan for crack, can you? Racial tensions have been around forever...he had nothing to do with that. Those defense systems you are talking about (lasers) helped me become a very rich woman and have helped to benefit the lives of countless American soldiers in Iraq and around the world, not to mention in medicine. I believe (but I could be wrong) the lowest educational standards in this country were evident during the 1990's. Aids was a relatively new disease during the beginning of his presidency and I believe was looked upon as a gay disease because that is the community in which it first presented itself. The way that was handled had more to do with the CDC's ability and guidelines not the President's personal viewpoint.
 

Blocko

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Aids was a relatively new disease during the beginning of his presidency and I believe was looked upon as a gay disease because that is the community in which it first presented itself. The way that was handled had more to do with the CDC's ability and guidelines not the President's personal viewpoint.

Some of the purposes of an elected executive government:
A) To move to respond to a crisis quickly and to be held accountable when they don't.
B) To oversee the agencies in the government, make sure they're properly funded and equipped and make them accountable to the people.
The chain of accountability.
C) To be aware of current events so they can have responses and opinions ready.

Did Reagan do these things in the case of AIDS? Did Bush do them during hurricane Katrina?

In fairness to Bush, he at least has good initiatives to stop the spread of diseases, especially in Africa. One of the better choices of his stay in office.