I am so old I remember when the Naugahydes went extinct. How old are you?

[MosheFeingold]

61. I did meet President Reagan many times

I worked in Congress for many different Congressemen/ladies and also as a general staffer for different related agencies.

I am a life long Democrat, and I did disagree with Reagan about most everything, but he was honestly engaged in doing what he thought was best. I originally thought he was a bit of an empty suit until he called me out in a meeting about 20-30 people having read a memo of key points on legislation being worked out and went through every point, from memory, where he quizzed me exceptionally hard on why I opined certain ways on each issue. I basically pissed my pants, but stood my ground.

Didn't work -- he persuaded everyone that I was incorrect and the law got written the way he requested.

They don't make politicians like Tip O'Neil and Reagan anymore.

I understand the hostility because the Republicans are so hostile, but it wasn't that long ago that people would agree to disagree and work to common purpose (of which there is a lot more than you would think -- the hot button issues really take up like 5% of the time of actual workers). Most of the time it's like "oh shit, there's a fungus on corn crops in Kansas and people might starve unless we move money from X to Y and do Z (really happened)" Or "the roads suck, but the mobsters who fix them are crooks and will bleed us dry, etc."

++++++

I don't really like to talk about the Nazis. War is sometimes necessary, but always awful and brutal business. I will say I enjoyed the expressions on the faces of certain Nazis when they realized a very Jewish-looking Jewish guy was their interrogator.