Rating Reagan: A Bogus Legacy

[muchacho]

The U.S. news media’s reaction to Ronald Reagan’s death is putting on display what has happened to American public debate in the years since Reagan’s political rise in the late 1970s: a near-total collapse of serious analytical thinking at the national level.

Across the U.S. television dial and in major American newspapers, the commentary is fawning almost in a Pravda-like way, far beyond the normal reticence against speaking ill of the dead. Left-of-center commentators compete with conservatives to hail Reagan’s supposedly genial style and his alleged role in “winning the Cold War.” The Washington Post’s front-page headline – “Ronald Reagan Dies” – was in giant type more fitting the Moon Landing.

Yet absent from the media commentary was the one fundamental debate that must be held before any reasonable assessment can be made of Ronald Reagan and his Presidency: How, why and when was the Cold War “won”? If, for instance, the United States was already on the verge of victory over a foundering Soviet Union in the early-to-mid-1970s, as some analysts believe, then Reagan’s true historic role may not have been “winning” the Cold War, but helping to extend it.

<snip>

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/060704.html

[colonel odis]

1. not to speak ill of the dead, but let's keep this guy in perspective.

on a personal level, he was an adulterer. he and nancy were carrying on while he was still married to jane wyman. rumors flew left and right that nancy had sex with frank sinatra in the white house. plus, she consulted an astrologer before making big decisions. he was never a regular churchgoer. he wasn't close to his children.

i don't get what's supposed to be so freakin' great about the guy.

his administration was the most-indicted in history. even his attorney general, the nation's top cop, came within a hair of being indicted. he cut funding for social programs with a vengeance. many believe it was with an agenda. during his administration we saw the beginning of the destruction of the middle class.

he played footsie with dictators. during his presidency the cia sold drugs to raise money for weapons and had osama bin laden on its payroll. oliver north ran the iran-contra program out of the white house itself. the u.s. sold saddam chemical weapons, then turned a blind eye when he used them on the iranians.

and, speaking of iranians, let's not forget that he interfered with american policy and tried to sabotage the carter administration's negotations with tehran so he'd have a better chance of winning the election.

i'm sorry for his family and hope he rests in peace. but, c'mon, reagan was not one of our better presidents, nor were his 8 years in office years america should brag about.

[Tim4319]

2. And none of these facts are ever brought up!

All Bill Clinton was do was have sex, and he put a black eye on the White House. Causing the destruction of an economic class gets an airport named after you. That is a bunch of B.S.

[unblock]

3. nice summary. a couple more:

he turned a blind eye to a raging lethal epidemic solely on the grounds that, in this country (unlike any other country in the world) it first infected the homosexual community.

today aids kills more heterosexuals than homosexuals in this country, as it always has in every other country in the world. however, the stigma, borne of reagan's characterization of it as a gay disease, and his refusal to address it on "religious" grounds, continues to pervade american thought and needlessly dooms millions of americans to a horrible death.


he also gave a wink and a nod to violent tactics of the anti-abortionists, essentially giving a green light to everything up to, and including, outright murder of people exercising their constitutional rights. today, abortion facilities are few and far between, and those that remain are dangerous due to the free hand the protesters have. they have circumvented the courts and the government to effectively impose a ban on safe abortion for many women throughout the country. the result is everything from needless violence, unsafe and dangerous abortions, and unwanted babies.

beyond this, granting extremists the privilege of violence in this instance has given rise to a culture of fear at every level of government. those who oppose to extreme right have legitimate reason to fear for their themselves and their families.

[Lindacooks]

8. You got it.

And he also slashed funding for cancer and Alzheimer's research (the chickens came home to roost there, fittingly), created the homeless underclass by destroying institutions that had housed the mentally ill, and stopped alternate energy funding right after the oil crisis of the late 1970s. We could have been free of foreign oil at this point if it weren't for that moron.

I think Reagan was the second worst president ever, after Bush*. I hated him in the 1980s, and I hate him now.

[myopic4141]

4. Peggy Noonan on Hardball

Peggy Noonan expressed the difference between her ideology and mine in a comment on Hardball just before entering a hard break. What she said was that liberals should not be criticizing the decisions made by the Reagan Administration during the geopolitical circumstance of the 1980's. Of course, she was referring to the supplying of WMD and targeting for the WMD to Saddam Hussein during that period. My problem with her comment was that I could not imagine a geopolitical circumstance that would warrant arming Saddam Hussein with such weapons and then with telling him where they should be used. To me, that would be like giving Adolf Hitler the poison gas used in the concentration camps and then the addresses of the Jews to be rounded up for extermination. The Reagan Administration supported such tyrants through out the world in his policy against a collapsing Soviet Union (it would have collapsed around when it did no matter who the President of the US was at the time). Not only did the Reagan Administration support these individuals, he also brought down the moral authority of the US to the same level as these individuals. Our actions in the furtherance of democracy were no better than those of the communist countries and sometimes far worse. Imagine a time where this nation was the greater of two evils in comparison to the Soviet Union which is how we were viewed by the populations of many allies (Bush II is in a similar situation now). That is the true legacy of Ronald Reagan.
My memories are not only about his approach to foreign policy; but, the lack of compassion on the domestic front (also like Bush II). Do not get me wrong, Ronald Reagan had compassion, it is just that it was tunnel visioned (unlike Bush who has no compassion what so ever). If the person in need was not standing directly in front of Reagan, that person did not exist. The example I would like to trot out is what happened to my uncle who had a severe case of multiple sclerosis. First, he was fired from his job because he could no longer function (that is not Reagan's fault) and lost the medical insurance. Reagan then signed a bill that removed his acquired medical benefits earned for service during the Korean Conflict (non military related problems were no longer covered). Finally, he lost the assistance from Social Security during Reagan's sweep for "welfare queens" and it took six months to get it back. Any help from the rest of the family disqualified him from social services.
There is much more; but, these items represent the epitome of what was wrong under the Reagan Presidency so forgive me if I do not hold him in high esteem. It is sad that the likes of Reagan and Bush II are the paragons of the Conservative movement; but, then, this may be the best that they can do. After all, Conservatives need heroes to worship just like the rest of us.

[colonel odis]

5. perhaps reagan and bush II are paragons of the conservative movement

because they're the type of people conservatives look up to. people who look out for their own kind and no one else.

having seen all ronnie all the time for the last 24 hours, one thing has become abundantly clear. as much as i despised reagan while he was in office, george w. bush can't carry his jock strap. the past day, and i'm sure the next four or five, will inadvertently point out the differences in style, demeanor, intelligence (yes, w.'s even dumber than reagan.), and graciousness.

perhaps as people watch endless clips of reagan, they'll ask themselves "what the fuck do we have today in the oval office?"

[myopic4141]

6. Paragons.

Reagan as a paragon, I can understand because he did look out after his own. Bush II as a paragon is harder to fathom for he feeds on his own.

[bogey18]

7. Reagan represents a major turning point in history

He represents the first president elected solely because of his likeability and recognition factor who had not one scintilla of intelligence to add to any political dicussion, much lass pretend to be a statesman. This has continued now right through Arnold being elected governor of California. We no longer ask what can this man bring to the most important job in the world - the only question is "can he be elected?" Statesmanship is dead. Whoever has the most money and the best commercials wins - as the ideals of our country are dying an accelerated death under the thumb of the religious right and the amoral neo conservatives, lets all remember with great admiration and fondness the Borax salesman who proved to the rest of the world that we really are a childish and unsophisticated country.

I hated Reagan as governor of California and I abhorred him as the president of the US - but he convinced me that Mencken was right.

[myopic4141]

9. Immoral rather than amoral.

Amoral implies no sense of right and wrong and those in charge through flaunting their religious convictions demonstrate that they have that sense; therefore, immoral applies more aptly. The "end justifies the means" attitude is an indication that they do not have as much faith in their basic principles as they profess which makes them "religious individuals; but, not people of faith". The hypocrisy displayed when readily shedding the mantle of morality shows them to be fanatics no better than the enemy they chose to fight. This is the legacy of Ronald Reagan's Republican Party for he was the first of immoral hypocrites to hold the office under the new conservatism.

[Say_What]

10. Yes. First puppet-president installed by the GOP

and he SUCKED as governor of California. When he ran for pres I was by then living in Massachusetts and I really didn't think the American public would be so stupid, but, 8 years later...

Democracy Now reviewed his abysmal record earlier today.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/07/1443218