BLOOMBERG: Ronald Reagan Is A 'Socialist!'

[trailmonkee]

Source: business insider

Taking a page out of Newsweek's playbook, Bloomberg Insider went with a bold cover for Tuesday's edition of its daily magazine that it's distributing throughout the conventions:



The argument of the accompanying story, which will undoubtedly be a topic of conversation Tuesday at the Republican National Convention, is not that Reagan is actually a socialist. That term is used in a hyperbolic fashion, in a nod to the regular charges from Republicans that President Obama is a "socialist."

The argument of Michael Tackett's piece is that under today's Republican Party, Reagan would be considered too moderate for a party that has shifted further to the right.

From the story:

Ronald Reagan remains the modern Republican Party’s most durable hero. His memory will be hailed as The Great Uncompromiser by those who insist the GOP must never flag in its support for smaller government, lower taxes and conservative social values.

His record tells a different story.

During Reagan’s eight years in the White House, the federal payroll grew by more than 300,000 workers. Although he was a net tax cutter who slashed individual income-tax rates, Reagan raised taxes about

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-ronald-reagan-socialist-cover-newsweek-2012-8

[Stargleamer]

1. As Others Have Continuously Pointed Out. . .

Attila the Hun would be too moderate for today's Republican Party.

[skydive forever]

3. Damn you Stargleamer, you beat me to it

[skydive forever]

2. Wow!

I've never been the first to K&R. But its true, Reagan would be run out of the party today.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Reagan would still be welcomed with open arms by today's Republican Party

Don't fool yourself, there is a reason why Republicans still worship Reagan. After all, he

1) Cut programs for the poor, and cut Federal income taxes for the rich (from 70% to 28%) while raising payroll taxes on working stiffs

2) Doubled the national debt in 8 years, but it was OK because it was mostly for military spending

3) Was dying to start a fight with a Middle Eastern country (sent troops to Lebanon, bombed Libya), and launched an attack on the tiny island of Grenada.

4) Showed utter disdain for poor people and weaker members of society

5) Showed contempt for unions by firing the PATCO workers

6) Made up a bunch of crap and passed it off as fact (e.g., "Trees cause more pollution than cars&quot

7) Appointed a bunch of scoundrels to his administration, many of whom ended up being convicted of crimes

8) Appointed people like James Watt and Edwin Meese to his Cabinet who were the antithesis of the departments they were heading

9) Had the backing of the Religious Right TV preachers of his day (Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart)

10) Shitcanned Jimmy Carter's visionary energy policy in favor of one that heavily favored fossil fuels

11) During his time as governor of California, he sicced the National Guard on "hippies" in Berkeley.

Oh, and one more thing...

Ronald Reagan never wasted an opportunity to belittle liberals

[FailureToCommunicate]

18. Add Reagan's resistance to the key civil rights clause "Section 504" disability rights

that later became part of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990

Reagan and his administration kept trying to weaken or not implement that important provision of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 during his time in office.

Thanks for the list, Art.

[xtraxritical]

4. Here's a funny one about Reagan from the Onion, it's very apropos to this post.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/embarrassed-republicans-admit-theyve-been-thinking,19248/

[JackRiddler]

5. I beg to differ...

This party is very much the same one, just 30 years later.

I get that they're criticizing the extremism of the Republicans, but the effect is also to rehabilitate Reagan. No way.

[struggle4progress]

7. +

[progressoid]

21. Yeah, the article is pretty weak IMHO.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Who else do the Republicans have?

Nixon?

They really don't have a president who employed their ideals with any success except for Reagan, and it turns out he really didn't adhere to the true GOP philosophy of screw the poor and feed the rich to their current strict standards.

The only other Republican I can think of who tried their top down formula was Herbert Hoover, and even the craziest Republican today is loathe to highlight him as a great leader.

Mt Rushmore is a shrine to progressive politics.

[NYC Liberal]

8. Hoover, for his faults, was a better man than any of the GOP "leaders" today could hope to be.

Read about what he did in Belgium and Russia during and after WWI. His efforts there saved hundreds of thousands of people from starvation. He worked in the Wilson administration and considered running as a Democrat in 1920, possibly with FDR, but became a Republican because it was clearly going to be a "Republican year" (Harding won in a landslide).

He royally fucked up and was terrible as president, but he did do some genuinely good things.

[freshwest]

9. Thanks for the piece of history, he always seemed so one-dimensional in the history books.

[NYC Liberal]

14. It didn't help him that he was followed by the giant who was FDR.

Hoover was persona non grata in Washington for almost 20 years while FDR/Truman and the Democrats were in power. He and FDR weren't exactly on friendly terms.

He was a terrible president but not a bad man.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. Hoover's intransigence

made the ensuing Depression worse, and allowed the country to move
left in 1932.

Ironically, FDR is remembered as the most liberal President, but was
fiscally conservative because he worried about the next election; most of the
New Deal programs were already paid for with tax increases on business
which willingly went along because they got relaxation of antitrust
regulation and were able to set their own prices with government and
industry oversight.

The political vacuum at the time gave room for FDR's liberal Brain Trust
to legislate as they wished, which is where the liberalism label stuck.
The conservatives railed, but of course lacked political power.

In a way it was that move left that began this lurching from left to right
and back again over the last 75 years.

So if Hoover had been more moderate instead of obstinate, the political
pendulum would not have been sent swinging so far.

[gateley]

10. K&R

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. They created a myth.

They HAD to. The ACTUAL Reagan years were such a monumental FAILURE that anyone associated with it would have never worked in Washington ever again.

The original purpose was to fool the public but typical of these idiots, they bought their own propaganda.

[Cosmocat]

19. THIS

a trend that has become more locked in over time - republicans actually believing the BS they pitch, and we have a generation now that has lived their entire adult lives thinking their BS is actual fact.

Just disturbing.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. I've run into young Conservatives who were born after Reagan died....

....they act like I'm a heretic for speaking against their God.

If Republicans could have gotten away with it they would have done the same for Dubya, The whole "freed 50 million people" crap. They would shift the time-line of events so you would see the twin towers, then racing across the desert, then Saddam and bin Laden killed, then the tailhook landing and crotch dance on the Lincoln and people who said it didn't happen like that would be called "anti-American".

[Angleae]

13. This is the party that claims Hitler was a leftist

[Norbert]

15. If his name was Ronald Smith...

he would be labeled a RINO, the Koch/Demint/Armey faction of the party would run an ideolog against him and his political career would be over after the primary. You can't grow government, negotiate with the liberal Tip O'neill and raise taxes and still call yourself a conservative...unless you are Saint Ronald.

[allan01]

17. re:BLOOMBERG: Ronald Reagan Is A 'Socialist!'

and california is still struggeling from his horrible policies (or lack thereof) huge austerity measure s. and plus get this folks, the then democratic governor said about taxes, "taxes are a privlege, not a right".
and he ruined sag to boot . didnt take untill ed aziner to recover .and most of those follk dont even know what a socialist is .