Why should I feel sorry for Reagan?

[ButterflyBlood]

seriously. Why should I feel any differentely for him than if Saddam died right now?

[mot78]

1. He may have been fucked up policy-wse, but he wasn't as bad as Hitler

or Stalin or Pol Pot.

[ButterflyBlood]

2. ha, "not as bad as Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot"

that should the Repukes' new motto, since it's pretty much the only good thing I can say about them.

[tabasco]

32. Let them eat ketchup!

In 1981, as part of Reagan's budget cuts for federally financed school lunch programs, Ronald Reagan's budget director proposed classifying ketchup as a vegetable. The suggestion was widely ridiculed (by the public, not Reagan) and the proposal was killed. The wealthiest nation in the world but not enough money to feed our children.

This is just one example of the attitude of Reagan and the ruling corporate elite. Now we have Bush and the boys at Enron in charge. But the freepers declare Ronnie a saint and Bush the second coming himself. Unbelievable.

[evil_orange_cat]

3. I agree... I think reagan was evil... not THAT evil though... ;)

However, I'll be among those celebrating this day... :)

[EdGy]

4. we're really lowering the bar then aren't we?

Only if someone is as bad as Hitler is it okay to curse them as evil?

[Deja Q]

15. Well, he was against the 1964 civil rights law and didn't seem to mind

when AIDS started making its mark. I mean it's a gay disease that affect only the wicked who turn their backs on God and not in that way, right?

Reagan's self-infested religion or his alzheimers at the time (~1980) prevented him from doing anything about it because he didn't mind seeing all them wretched fags dead, as far as he was concerned.

For all we know, HIV was a genetically manipulated virus. It seems to be killing off all the people the repukes hate.

He wasn't hitler, but he was just about as bad.

Good riddance to bad bacteria.

[leftofthedial]

28. not for lack of fucking trying

he took a spiritual toll on America that we still haven't recovered from, and now his legacy is preemtively invading other countries, occupying other countries, LIHOP/MIHOP's, domestic disinformation, greed is good . . .

He legitimized American fascism.

[Endangered Specie]

5. If you can't feel sorry for Reagan...

at least have some sympathy for his family.

[Benhurst]

6. I do feel sorry for his family. As for his not being as evil as

Hitler or Stalin (I guess we're playing a numbers game here), I guess not. He was responsible for a thousandfold more deaths than Charles Manson, though, so should we say, while he was not a Hitler or Stalin, he was worse than a Charles Manson?

[7th_Sephiroth]

7. i do believe

he sold alot of weapons to terrorists, and they have used alot of them to kill american troops, so yes, he was as bad as hitler

[Raskolnik]

8. You don't know what you're talking about.

Reagan did bad things. Hitler did the worst things in the history of the world.

Reagan was not Hitler.

[Career Prole]

10. Reagan armed Saddam.

I don't feel sorry for Reagan, or for his family. I feel more sympathy for the families of the hundreds of soldiers killed in their prime without a "Breaking News Alert" and the thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died, unremarked, unreported, and by God uncounted in Iraq, none of whom will ever see the ripe old age of 93.
My dad died when he was 58 having never given chemical weapons to a single dictator and the Reagan family never noticed.
Pfffft!

[peacetalksforall]

31. I feel sorry for the people of Central and South America who really went

to their deaths under Reagan and Eliot and Negroponte and North and the rest - Reagans' handlers. Then how about the deaths and crimes of our country through drugs.

[7th_Sephiroth]

33. JUST BECAUSE

hitler was comitting genocide doesent mean he has set such a humongous standard that you cant compare other bad people to him

[Raskolnik]

34. Yes...

...actually that's EXACTLY why you can't compare other people to him.

[7th_Sephiroth]

35. in a time when everyone had nukes pointed at everyone else

"My Fellow Americans, I Have Outlawed Communisim Forever, the bombs drop in 5 minutes" Ronald Regan.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

19. Saddam was armed during his tenure by his direct orders to do so.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. This isn't about Reagan...it's about who you and we are as humans

Are we decent people who can still bring forth an ounce of respect or are we tit for tat pieces of shit without a shred of humanity left in us?

Reagan is dead and so are all the people who were killed as a result of his policies.

Everyone on this board is ...presumably...alive and sharing the planet with me...and it bothers me to see none offered up when humaneness is what is called for.

[Walt Starr]

11. Humanity died when Reagan was elected

It's survival of the fittest now. fuck Reagan and everything he stood for.

[Dookus]

12. It's easy, isn't it

to dehumanize those you disagree with? Fun, too!

[Walt Starr]

17. Seeing as how Reagan's supporters dehumanized me in the 80's

I have to respond to their dehumanizing bullshit in a fashion designed in order to equip me for survival.

[Dookus]

18. Well

I see that your hate has made you a happy, happy man. Congrats.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. No Walt..humanity dies every time we choose to kill it off in favor of

automaticity.

Good work nailing the coffin shut.

[greatauntoftriplets]

24. Had Ray-goon never been president....

...George H. W. Bush likely would never have been president. Nor would have George W. Bush.

Numbnuts is Ray-goon's gift to this country.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

25. Then cheer when the people that voted for him die

[Forkboy]

29. Good idea!

:evilgrin:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

30. See....

I can compromise :D

[Hippo_Tron]

13. I feel sorry for Nancy

She seems like a very nice lady. As far as Ronnie goes, I feel sorry that he had Alzheimers for so long, but a lot of people suffer from Alzheimers so I don't feel any special sorrow for him.

[Liberal Classic]

14. At some point you realize

There are more important things in life than ideology.

[mitchum]

16. You shouldn't feel sorry. His policies were responsible for tens of...

thousands of people having to deal with their dementia whille living on the streets, but he received the best care that YOUR money can buy.
He was a stupid and destructive man whose damage will live on long after the worms have had their fill.

[Benhurst]

22. ...

:thumbsup:

[Solly Mack]

20. I'm not going to pay respect to the myth

nor am I going to gloat and cheer.

Reagan's warped thinking and illegal policy making killed many...in that he was no different than Shrub.

a disease of the brain in no way changes his guilt...death does not either. History demands we still hold him responsible for the pain, death, and suffering he caused. If you find that cruel, ask yourself how people in Central America are feeling today.

Reagan wasn't simply a "US President" who has now died, and of which respectful tribute is now demanded/expected..out of some sense of "decency"...he was a world leader that brought senseless death to others.

A part of history died today and I felt the passing of that history...but I'll not pretend the part Reagan played in history is remembered with smiles by all.

...the man was not the myth the rightwing celebrates...a myth they will now celebrate ad nauseum.



and for the record, I don't give a rat's ass what any rightwinger thinks or feels about what I type on this board...if I write something they find offensive..good!

[mopaul]

23. Will Pitt says it best.........................

Don't feel like apologizing for how you feel re: Reagan? Post here.


A lot of people got into politics because of John Kennedy, or because they wanted to fight for justice in the civil rights cause. That entrance to politics was a positive one.

A lot of people got into politics because of Vietnam, or because Bobby got killed, or because MLK got killed, or because of Watergate. These were negative entrances into politics, borne of a need to stop outrages before they swamped the body politic.

Ronald Reagan was my entrance into politics, and it was a negative entrance. I remember very vividly this President telling me that my generation would be the one to face the apocalypse, a statement that was one of the most defining moments in my life. I lived under a cloud of fear after that.

My work in politics, for my whole life, has been in the majority an effort to undo the massive damage from the disaster that was the Reagan administration.

Our mainstream media journalism is a joke because of Reagan dereguation.

Our social programs were savaged because of Reagan.

Our environmental regulations, once something to be proud of, were eviscerated by Reagan.

The manifest power of corporations over virtually every facet of our lives came because of the massive deregulations put forth by Reagan.

The AIDS virus found a long, comfortable home in America because Reagan couldn't be bothered with funding research into 'gay cancer.'

Crack owned the urban world, wracked by the aforementioned social evisceration, for years because Reagan couldn't be bothered. Whole generations of Americans died in misery because he couldn't have gven a damn about their problems.

Saddam Hussein was a creation, in huge part, of Reagan.

Same goes for Osama bin Laden, who along with al Qaeda and the Taliban went from being a side project under Carter to a front-and-center priority that led directly to the attacks of September 11, not to mention the African embassy bombings. Those two embassies were destroyed with Semtex sold to Afghan mujeheddin (nee Taliban and al Qaeda) by the Reagan administration.

Dick Cheney was a Reagan creature.

Don Rumsfeld was a Reagan creature.

Paul Wolfowitz was a Reagan creature.

Richard Perle was a Reagan creature.

John Negroponte was a Reagan creature.

Elliot Abrams was a Reagan creature.

Dick Armitage was a Reagan creature.

There was some other guy named George, who spawned an idiot named George, who also came out of the Reagan administration.

If you cannot make the direct 2+2=4 connection between the legacy of the Reagan administration and the goddam intractible swamp we slog through every day today, then I despair of your ability to follow coherent logic.

Am I happy Reagan is dead? No.

Do I have a moment of doubt as to whether or not I should speak the truth of him to as many people as I can reach with my arm? I have not one single moment of doubt.

I'm sorry you feel bad because I don't feel bad enough about this, that I am perhaps being 'disrespectful.' Ronald Reagan was my entrance into politics, and it was an ugly, frightening entrance. The Reagan legacy has been a stain across our national landscape, and my life's work to date has been the process of trying to staunch the bleeding.

If you think I'm going to back off because he's dead, think again. If you don't like it, there's a nifty little 'x' next to this thread. Hit it.

Otherwise, speak the truth here and the Devil take the hindmost.

[Benhurst]

26. ...

:toast:

[Angelus]

27. Reagan is burning in Hell right now.

You don't have to feel shit for him. I don't.

[VOX]

36. It's a matter of your own honor.

You don't have to feel sorry for anyone. But a dead man is passing by -- so tip your hat to a fallen enemy, for a warrior is known by the strength of his enemies.

Then fight like hell against his kind -- and worse -- who are on the field **now**. They are the ones we must defeat.

:toast:

[noiretextatique]

37. you shouldn't feel sorry for him

his time was up, as all of ours will be a some point. some people we love, some people we do not. he did nothing to gain your respect in life, so why pretend now that he's dead? there is no honor in pretending to feel something you don't, just because some claim you should.
i am going to bed...to sleep peacefully.

[bluestateguy]

38. I don't think Reagan would want you to feel sorry for him

But we can have compassion for his family and respect the mourning process for a few days. As a former president his public record is fair game, but I don't think laying off for 3 or 4 days is going to do any permanent damage to a fair assessment of his record.

[Michael Harrington]

39. I almost felt bad for being so happy today...

And then I thought of Ben Linder and the impulse went away.

[Piperay]

40. No reason at all

but let him go now. I quit hating him once Clinton got in and I felt like this was my country again. Reagan is dead now and I am not wasting time or energy either celebrating it or giving out false sentiment.