10 Real Facts About Ronald Reagan That Republicans Never Choose to Admit

[steve2470]

http://mic.com/articles/85379/10-real-facts-about-ronald-reagan-that-republicans-never-choose-to-admit


A CPAC attendee wearing a Ronald Reagan mask.


Republicans sure love to talk about Ronald Reagan. Just look at some of these quotes from the Conservative Political Action Conference last week:

"Once again, the GOP is where the action is, just as it was in Jack Kemp's day at the beginning of the Reagan Revolution." - Congressman Paul Ryan (WI)

"It's time for the Republican Party to stop talking about Ronald Reagan and start acting like him." - Senator Mike Lee (UT)

"We need to turn this country around. We did it in 1980 with the grassroots movement that became the Reagan Revolution and, let me tell ya, the same thing is happening all over today." - Senator Ted Cruz (TX)

much much more at the link, keep reading

[steve2470]

1. my highly edited summary

1. Reagan fought against civil rights for African Americans.

2. Reagan vetoed an anti-apartheid bill.

3. Reagan supported the exploitation of Mexican-American farm workers.

4. Reagan actively participated in some of America's most infamous witch hunts against alleged Communists.

5. Reagan illegally sold weapons to Iran and helped create the Taliban and Osama bin Laden regime.

6. Reagan's economic policies caused a spike in unemployment and led to severe income inequality.

7. Reagan helped kick off the war on women.

8. Reagan failed to confront the AIDS epidemic.

9. Reagan is directly responsible for increasing American homelessness through his large-scale defunding of mental institutions.

10. Reagan added trillions to our national debt in an attempt to redistribute wealth from the poor to both the rich and the military.

[Contrary1]

2. Well, heh,heh,heh...you failed to mention this:

Reagan (or was it Nancy?) fires 11,000 striking air traffic controllers Aug. 5, 1981

Idiot anti-union repub. No wonder he is their patron saint.

[steve2470]

3. the article failed to do that, correct nt

[Art_from_Ark]

4. But even after he fired the PATCO workers,

he still had strong union support.
Go figure.

[lonestarnot]

5. That was a little into the looking glass. Unfuckingbelievable wasn't it.

[MFrohike]

6. In fairness

Number 6 isn't accurate. Reagan took advantage of Paul Volcker's relentless war on labor, but Volcker was the prime culprit. The real damage done by Reagan was his administration's half-assed defense of agency rulemaking. The prime reason it's so hard to regulate anything these days is because of the combined efforts of the Burger court and Reagan's connivance in destroying the proper function of government.

[mnmoderatedem]

7. a few more...

tripled the deficit. Shifted tax brackets dramatically to benefit upper level incomes (during his second term when he knew he would not pay a political price) Traded arms for hostages, somehow avoiding the terrorist appeasement label. Oh wait he's a republican though, so....

[1939]

8. Little bit one-sided there on the 1986 tax cuts

While Reagan pushed for them, the heavy lifting in that tax bill was done by none other than our own Representative, Dick Gephardt. That whole tax bill was bi-partisan and passed with a large number of Democratic senators and representatives. Democrats controlled the House and the Senate was virtually tied and very filibusterable.

[Enthusiast]

9. There was this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing

[Lochloosa]

10. Yes there was.

[Enthusiast]

11. They act like it didn't happen. It's an embarrassment to Republicans.

The ENTIRE media is so in the tank for the GOP that it's as if Lebanon didn't even happen at all.