Really simple poll; I'm just curious: Were you of age at the time to understand the Reagan era?

[blondeatlast]

Poll question: Really simple poll; I'm just curious: Were you of age at the time to understand the Reagan era?

[Xipe Totec]

1. Enough of age to be fucked by Regan

By having my spouse laid off while holding a 14.5% mortgage to pay on a single salary.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. me too... had a car loan of like 18%

too

[slackmaster]

60. Yes, my first car loan was 16.75% IIRC

And they made me feel like I was lucky to get the loan.

I worked for the bank that loaned me the money.

[jtrockville]

47. Count me in. Student loan programs were slashed.

Fortunately I had completed most of my college education by the time his policies kicked in. Had I been a bit younger, I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity for higher education, and I'd probably be on the public dole, either in jail or on some sort of assistance.

[Xipe Totec]

73. I could tell you horror stories about how we got screwed by the Russians

after Regan shut down project LACIE, which tracked world-wide wheat production through LANDSAT image interpretation.

[handmade34]

2. remember the campaign well

and thinking, no way, this guy can't win... incredulous

[doc03]

3. Spent 3 1/2 years on layoff n/t

[some guy]

4. sort of.

I was surprised in 1984 when
a) the country hadn't yet collapsed
b) people actually voted for that fucker a 2nd time

So - I didn't really understand how large the US economy actually was, so didn't realize how long it would take to actually crash it. But I did recognize and understand that was the direction we were moving.

[Autumn]

5. Reagan years sucked,

It felt a lot like this, vile nasty republicans doing whatever they could to destroy American life. No jobs. No money. Foreclosures. He decimated the steel industry. Busted the Air Traffic Controllers union. This one little restaurant in our town advertised for a dishwasher, 400 people applied.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Hear you on the Steel Industry.

Dad was laid off 3 times. Luckily, HIS "laid off" meant temporary idling until the economy got good again, not "get out and good luck". 1984-1987 were NOT good years for us. He was one of the last bunch from the 60s-70s starts to retire with some decent bennies. The ones after him, not so much.

Also, my parents were never a two-income family . . . until the Reagan Administration.

[Autumn]

18. It was nasty, My Dad retired from the mill in 70

my Husband worked at the mill for 7 years, and then got laid off in 81. No jobs. Went back to school on his GI bill and somehow we made it through. Thank God for Ramen noodles and cheese.

[thunder rising]

6. The greatest thing about the internet age is what we are doing right here. Keeping informed.

I was old enough but there was no way to get a real understanding of the issues. Before the internet the population was totally at the mercy of the media. I plead innocence by ignorance.

[Luminous Animal]

20. Knowing is not enough. It is the doing. With no internet, people unionized

across the nation, fought for civil rights, the feminist movement was at its strongest, protested the vietnam war en masse, and launched the modern free speech movement.

There were plenty of people reporting on the issues of the day and plenty of people and organization fighting against Reagan.

[struggle4progress]

50. +

[yurbud]

7. he started me on the road to becoming a lefty by shifting college financial aid from grants to more

loans.

I read that on page 16 of the paper and thought, ''Fuck! He screwed me! I voted for this guy and he screwed me!''

And come to think of it, I still haven't paid off my student loans. The interest that accumulated when I couldn't pay made them more than double to over $100K.

Thanks for the memories, Reagan.

[MadMaddie]

8. I was in HS

I was more politically aware than my classmates. When I went to college he was President and I remember thinking this man is no friend of mine.

[rgbecker]

10. My memory is of many people living on the streets.

Panhandlers in every city. Reagan and Volker just cut the money to stop inflation and there was no work for anyone. The end of unions came when Reagan fired the air controllers. My mortgage was 15% in 1981 while on the my first house in 1973 is was 7% and that was high according to my Dad who was advising me. When Reagan debated Carter I thought there was no worry that he would win but I remember the media spin after that debate was all about how wonderful Ronnie was. We got the largest dificit up until that time and he grew the government more than previous presidents. Star Wars? We are still paying for it and it will get us nothing.

[howaboutme]

11. I was old enough, and like a naive fool I liked Reagan

Over the last 30 years I've gradually come to the conclusion that the USA is becoming a fascist nation where the media, multi-national business, and government all partner to advance their own pet agendas while colluding to strip rights and assets from the USA people and keep them in the dark. Media consolidation was a big part of this.

It's about waging perpetual wars, weakening Constitutional rights, taking away privacy, working to the benefit of non-USA partners, and funneling your public assets money to the ultra rich who are very sympathetic to such activities. The gig started with Reagan and it is still being advanced.

As Americans age they will forget what it was like when the USA was an economic powerhouse that served a broad middle class. The young have no concept of a USA without their made in China toys.

[SteppingRazor]

12. Not really. I was a couple years old in 1980. But I remember....

him saying that this could be the generation that faces armageddon. I think I was 8 or 9 at the time. That may have been my first inkling that I was, if not a liberal, at least in disagreement with conservatives. Because Reagan seemed genuinely pleased about the notion of armageddon. I did not know whose side I was on, but I knew that Reagan was a scary, dangerous man.

[paulflorez]

13. My only memory of Reagan was seeing a wrinkly old man talking on TV once.

Just once, that was it. Was born in '82. I have way more memories of Clinton, and George W. Bush is burned into my brain like a traumatic experience.

[XemaSab]

15. I was 13 when Bush I got elected

But my mom taught me well about the many horrible things he did to California before he took his shitty self national.

[Lindsay]

16. I detested Reagan.

I couldn't listen to him; his voice made my skin crawl. I knew every word he said was a lie, including "and" and "the."

Someone said recently that Reagan was like a slow-acting poison. What we're reaping today was sown under Reagan. An evil man, and I do not use that term lightly.

[katandmoon]

19. +1

[blondeatlast]

26. Indeed he was a slow-acting poison; that's a great description of him. nt

[tedbear]

32. Ronald

Slow-acting poison - beautiful analogy. He single-handedly undermined the unions and that was the worst thing the workers of this country took without a serious fight (as I recall).

[FSogol]

28. Same here. Reagan was scum. n/t

[katandmoon]

17. Proud of the vote I cast for Carter against that senile tool.

[Demoiselle]

21. More than old enough to be horrified.

I was convinced when he was elected that Reagan and his cadre were going to do us irreparable harm. I was right.

[uppityperson]

22. Plenty enough of an age to feel sick that people fell for his lies and couldn't see

cia papabush behind what happened those yrs.

[hlthe2b]

23. Not nearly politically aware enough to appreciate until...

late in his second term. I certainly did not vote for him, but I didn't have a true appreciation for the repercussions we would face from his policies until much later.

[Anakin Skywalker]

24. Youth is outnumbered here on D.U.? Are all the young people over at Creepy Freepy Land?

9 to 61? (At the time of this response) Whoa!

Wassup wit dat, holmes?

[hunter]

25. Young people skip threads about Reagan. He's ancient history. Dust.

Older people like me still remember that rat fuck and will open a thread like this just to piss on his grave.

[lunasun]

78. No younger people please read these threads Current word on the

streets is he was some kind of saint /saviour. -NOT!

example of history rewrite

[spartan61]

27. It was because of Reagan that I changed from

repuke to Democrat.

[FarLeftRage]

29. Yes... 22 at that time.

Knew a lot of fucking stupid people that voted for the old, wretched, worthless piece of shit.

Could not stand the dumb bastard and all the dumb bastards that voted for it...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

30. In retrospect, no. I was 22, didn't like him, but I can't say I "understood" the way I do now.

[NNN0LHI]

31. Spent the better part of eight years laid off and working shit jobs to feed my family

One of those many layoffs lasted almost two years straight.

Don

[rug]

33. I became a communist for 8 years.

[sad sally]

34. And don't forget who his VP was - HW Bush.

Also Reagan's first Treasury Sec Baker came from none other than Goldman Sucks - what a surprise.
He spent most of his time on the ranch in CA, but when he and Miss Nancy were at the WH they watched movies and read the funny papers. Story was that staff gently woke him up in the morning around 8-ish. On more than one occasion he fell asleep during cabinet meetings.
Reagan's presidency was an American nightmare - and is totally amazing to hear really smart people today (including President Obama) talk about what a great man he was. After losing two family members to Alzheimer's in the last eight years, I think Reagan was in the beginning stages very early in his first term.

[Silver Swan]

35. My spouse was unemployed for a total of nearly three years

of the eight Reagan was President, and he still voted Republican.

[Withywindle]

36. I turned 11 in 1980.

I spent most of my teens believing I would never see 20, because there WOULD be nuclear war with Russia because of him and other right-wing hawks. This was just a FACT to me, I never doubted it.

I grew up in an isolated area, but I devoured my dad's lefty magazines, listened to punk, bought the Sun City anti-apartheid record, got in fights at school...and was lucky enough to go to huge pro-choice and pro-GLBT actions in DC in 86 and 87 (I remember seeing the AIDS memorial quilt laid out on the Mall for the first time when I was 17 or 18...oh GODS. :cry:)

So, yeah.


edit: here are some links about the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt, for those who weren't there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMES_Project_AIDS_Memorial_Quilt


http://www.aidsquilt.org/

[Kat45]

37. I had been terrified of him being elected.

The day after the election, I remember riding the subway into Boston writing depressing bad poetry in reaction to the election results.

I also think that a lot of the bad effects of his ideas, policies, and actions are being felt more strongly than ever today.

[Harry Monroe]

38. 18 years old in 1980

I cast my first presidential vote for Carter.

[rasputin1952]

39. I remeber the Reagan years better than Reagan ever did...

and I'm still suffering from them...:(

[Liquorice]

40. I was almost 10 when Reagan was elected. He and Bush Sr ruined my teenage years! nt

[dimbear]

41. If you had any kind of conscience at all, you couldn't understand the Reagan years.

You watched them go by, and in California you had a double dose. Whew.

[last_texas_dem]

42. I was born in '83, so, not really...

Towards the very end of his term, I think I can remember knowing the name of the President & what he looked like, but not really anything else.

However, my first real political memory is sitting in my parents' room on Election Night 1988 while my mom watched the returns on the old rabbit-ears TV and her being really sad and worried. That has always stayed with me.

[Douglas Carpenter]

43. yes and the same night I watched Frank Church, Birch Bayh and George McGovern go down in landslide

defeat. I just couldn't believe it was happening. I sat and cried. I really did. It is hard to even imagine now that three of the great liberal lions of the Senate came from Idaho, Indiana and South Dakota.

[CTyankee]

70. Such good, good people! Those were days when we liberals stood proud.

Reagan just killed us. Our spirit. Our country. It has not been the same since him. Every time I see Peggy Noonan I feel like stomping on her face...

[csziggy]

44. In 1980 I voted for the first time since Nixon had stolen the election of 1972

1972 was my first chance to vote for President and I felt that Nixon and his dirty tricks had stolen my vote and the election, even though I had voted against Tricky Dick.

My hubby convinced me that I needed to vote - his brother campaigned for McGovern in 72 and for Carter in 76 and was doing it again in 80. So I voted for Carter and again felt as though my vote had been stolen.

I never had any desire to vote for any Republican - Nixon convinced me they were all crooks and nothing has ever shown that was incorrect.

[blondeatlast]

45. K for the coffee crew. nt

[Maine-ah]

46. I was six years old when Reagan was elected.

I remember it well, amazingly. My parents are/were very strong democrats. That was the election that got me interested in politics.

[tabbycat31]

48. I was born in 1980

So I honestly never knew a life when the middle class was not being fucked over. My parents had it well because they're government employees, but now people are coming for them too.

[RZM]

49. I was a toddler when he was elected

One of my first school memories was writing a letter to him in first or second grade. Don't recall the subject matter :) All I really remember was thinking 'US good, Soviet Union bad' and thinking Reagan was a nice old man.

[mopinko]

51. i almost lost my job for protesting raygun cuts in eeoc

i was a union tradeswoman at that time, and was part of a protest of hard hat women in front of the federal building in downtown chicago. i was interviewed, and on the 6 o'clock news. i was lucky that i was working for the supervisor that i was. the other one would have found a reason to get rid of me. not that they needed one. hell, they laid me off every other week. but they did have a quota for women, and he would have had to justify it to the brass. but he could have just made something up. he fired a friend of mine for 'not sweeping enthusiastically'

yeah, i remember the whole flippin nightmare.

[SteveG]

52. Old enough to have voted against him twice

in 1980 and 84. I saw it as the beginning of the trashing of the U.S. and the public by the far right.

[Arkansas Granny]

53. Oh, yes! I understood "catsup is a vegetable" Reagan quite well.

[CTyankee]

72. "I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple."

Remember that line from James Watt, who was Reagan's Sec'y of the Interior? That was on top of his objection to having the Beach Boys play on the Mall. (I forget the occasion).

Thnakfully, it was enough to get him fired...

[blondeatlast]

77. Gawd, I'd nearly put him out of my mind. I started this thread, so I guess

I brought that vile memory on myself.

:mad:

[Jackpine Radical]

54. Hell, I'm old enough to remember Ike's first campaign.

I remember when Robert Taft came to my little town on the campaign trail, and all my family were supporting Douglas MacArthur in the Reptilian Primary.

[Bluenorthwest]

55. I remember him as Governor and by the time he was President

I was in the streets and in the pages opposing him at every deadly turn he made. Wost President in history. To me, he is the face of Death itself.

[KamaAina]

56. Yup. Indeed, I came of age during them.

That's pretty much what shaped me into the wild-eyed lefty pinko I am today.

[pitohui]

57. reagan was the absolutely last straw

forget being independent, it was made absolutely clear that if you had a brain and a heart, you weren't welcome in the republican party

it was all about pandering to greed and racism

yeah, i remember being flabbergasted that such a man would be chosen to lead his party, not to mention the nation

maybe i didn't know all the fancy footwork of foreign policy, etc. but i knew in my gut that a man who pandered to greed and racism was not a good man and not a good leader and that his rise was very very bad for the rest of us

i don't think anyone in my family ever voted for a republican pretty much ever again, except maybe my dad tries to remain somewhat "independent"

as for me, i wouldn't vote for a republican friend even if all he was running for was DOG CATCHER!!! even if he PAID me for the vote!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

58. I was of age and living in California when the dunce was elected governor.

Much to my disbelief that Californians could be that effing stupid.

[slackmaster]

59. I got laid off of three "permanent, full-time" jobs during those years

I see most of it as a slow-motion recession for people like me who were new in the job market. I kept finding myself working hard, seriously underpaid, with people above me making way more than their skill level or contributions to the companies seemed to justify.

I kept missing out on traditional Christmas bonuses and generous vacation policies. I felt like I was on a carousel and chronically missing the brass ring.

[EFerrari]

61. Mostly but there was a lot that didn't register at the time.

Working couple with small kids.

[ProudDad]

62. I'm old enough to have lobbied against that FUCK

when he was governor of California...

I was involved in prison reform issues -- the only white guy in a "Black" organization...

In fact, we had a press conference scheduled right after one of his. He came out of the room and was about 8' away from me -- and he looked like SHIT -- pancake makeup, wrinkles, the Walking Dead! In fact, I saw Hubert Humphrey on that trip to Sacto too. Humphrey was dying of cancer and he looked and sounded better than ray-gun.

So, yeah, I knew him to be a fascist FUCK back in the 60s...

[cherish44]

63. I was 13 when he got into office, 21 when he left

Didn't really pay much attention to politics though. Was a fun, blissfully ignorant time in my life. I didn't really become politically aware until Bush the 1st took the throne

[PufPuf23]

64. Reagan was Governor part of the time I was at Cal

I quit a Federal job when Reagan was POTUS after 16 years (technical and professional after BS) because Reagan made a mockery of the agency. The Feds paid me as a GS 9/11 to go to grad school for a year and I set quit date by the time commitment made for the "free" education in 1986. Two of my biggest arguments with my long dear departed Dad were being a Fed (my adolescent rebellion along with going to the hippie school Cal) and my Dad's two favorite pols were FDR and Reagan and he did not see the disconnect.

Reagan demonized Cal and the Fed agency, both progressive and functioning scientific institutions at the time, and deliberately caused harm.

[earth mom]

65. Union Busting, Welfare Queen, Service Economy....

that evil bastard was hugely responsible for the destruction of the middle class! :grr:

[blondeatlast]

66. k

[Codeine]

67. We're STILL living the Reagan years.

His destruction of the unions has led us to where we are today.

[blondeatlast]

68. Indeed. I think the young'uns don't understand where all the wretchedness

came from.

[GoCubsGo]

69. I graduated college in 1983.

The best I could do for a job was a $4.35/hr clerical position my mom got me. I know how the current grads are feeling right now.

[lunatica]

71. I hated him with the heat of a thousand suns on his inauguration date

Months before he made a deal with the Iranians to release the American Hostages at the exact same time of his inauguration and the media played them side by side all the while showing a superimposed American flag waving in slow motion.

Puke!

God I hated him then and I may hatred for him has only grown over the years.

[GreenPartyVoter]

74. I remember Reagan, and my Dad yelling at the TV whenever he was on it.

[blondeatlast]

76. Are you my long lost sister? My Sunday School teaching dad

cursed like a sailor when he saw Reagan (well, any Republican, but especially Ronnie Raygun).

[AndrewP]

75. I was 8 when he was elected, but I remember him well. What a prick.

I would have been a lefty anyway, but that sealed it forever.

[Cerridwen]

79. I fought reagan/bush and bush. eom