Was Ronald Reagan a good president? (illegal, Pelosi, Brown, Reid)
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Basically Liberals will blindingly assert how bad he was, with absolutely no basis. Whereas conservatives blindingly assert that Clinton was a horrible president, which has no basis. Just the way it is.
This is what is wrong with politics in this country, the left-right paradigm. People like their party, even if the policies are similar. Reagan and Clinton ideology was worlds apart, but the overall policies of their administrations were similar. The rich got richer, wars were spread, the middle class was further eroded, etc, during both administrations.
Obama is properly compared to Carter. Both pathetic, both disasterous as presidents, and both brought about (or will very soon bring about) a conservative revolution.
Michele Bachmann has praised Carter and claimed that the Dems' moves away from someone like Carter made her a Republican.
I.e. she thinks the Dems were OK as long as they had a white military veteran from the rural heartland in charge rather than white ethnics from the Northeast like Dukakis or Kerry, or mixed race Hawaiian Kenyan Muslims like Obama By those standards, she would've been fine with Gore as well although not with Clinton because he didn't serve in the military.
The fledgling GOP rehabilitation of Carter is interesting. There have been Dem presidents in the past who have been appropriated as icons by the GOP, like FDR, Truman, and Kennedy. While those men were POTUS the GOP for the most part despised them. Praise for LBJ is virtually unknown outside of neocon circles. Johnson was despised in GOP circles when he was president. For Carter to be rehabilitated similarly (considering he wasn't a very popular president even amongst Dems during his administration) shows how one faction of the GOP are straying into right wing populist "white identity politics" and away from fiscal conservatism.
Reagan was a horrible President. Anti-education. Pro-military (he never met a uniform he didn't like). Anti-environment but not nearly as bad as Bush2. Fiscally irresponsible (aren't they all?). His administration ignored AIDS, even joked about it. His administration tried to list ketchup as a vegetable in school lunch programs. Made the wealthy extremely wealthy while the average (ignorant) Joe cheered his pro-American rhetoric that masqueraded as warmongering capitalist rhetoric. Trickle down? Nah, more like peed on.
ah, ketchup. I forgot about the ketchup. And while I'm not anti-military, he also elevated it to its sacred cow status among Republicans. Now Republicans won't even consider slicing into it, even though the cold war is long gone.
What a stupid comment. Liberals and communists aren't the same. Read a book some time. It'll do you good.
Anyway, my parents raised me to revere Reagan, but I now think he was just okay. And I see some of the bad consequences to his policies.
Strengths
1. Optimism, faith in the American People. spoke strongly against the Soviet Union
2. I may not agree with his politics, but at least he was decisive and got things done, even if they weren't all the right things.
I'll add another strength of Reagan. He was willing to reevaluate his beliefs given evidence to the contrary. He was not a stick in the mud like Bush. He was also willing to work with those not of his ideology. Despite his reputation he'd always had a pragmatic streak. He had charm and charisma, which made him respected. And he established peace with the Russians.
Quote:
Weaknesses
1. He Turned a blind eye to deficit spending, which we're currently dealing with now.
2. He set the stage for the current Republicans' tax cut fixation. (though that's not entirely his fault. It's annoying to watch anyway.
3. The current trend of massive income inequality began under his watch. Now we have the biggest inequality since before the Depression. Thanks, Mr. President.
Two other massive weaknesses: do the words "Iran-Contra" ring a bell? And the War on Drugs eroding the Fourth Amendment which marked the beginning of an anti-liberty trend that eventually would result in the Patriot Act.
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On the whole, he was a decent guy who meant well, but I don't think many of his policies were good for the country. He's overrated. Two out of five stars.
PS. Does anyone else think the Republicans' cult-like obsession with President Reagan is a little odd/unsettling/creepy? Just build a temple to him already, why don't ya.
Originally posted by majoun
I'll add another strength of Reagan. He was willing to reevaluate his beliefs given evidence to the contrary. He was not a stick in the mud like Bush. He was also willing to work with those not of his ideology. Despite his reputation he'd always had a pragmatic streak. He had charm and charisma, which made him respected. And he established peace with the Russians.
You're right. He did have a pragmatic streak. Who would have thought in 1980 that he, of all people, would sign a peace deal with the Russians?
This is what is wrong with politics in this country, the left-right paradigm. People like their party, even if the policies are similar. Reagan and Clinton ideology was worlds apart, but the overall policies of their administrations were similar. The rich got richer, wars were spread, the middle class was further eroded, etc, during both administrations.
No.
Clinton had huge surplus.
Reagan had huge deficits and his supply-side economics has brainwashed the masses into thinking wealth actually trickled down.
I don't think any of these people could tell you what actually happened in the 80's.
The fall of the Soviet Union wasn't by chance.
The technology boom wasn't by happenstance.
The ensuing housing market was a move to save wealth.
The economy was in decline well before Reagan took office.
He prolonged the inevitable with his policies. Sort of like squeezing the last bit of blood from the turnip.
Quote:
An The Outlook for China: A CIA Perspective
Address by Deputy DDI John Gannon
at the College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Massachusetts
20 November 1996
First, China has been the fastest growing major economy in the world over the last decade. At some point in the not-too-distant future it will become the largest in the world, surpassing the United States. In the past few years, China has taken steps to overcome the boom-bust cycle that has plagued it since the reforms were launched by Deng Xiaoping in 1979...
Any government would be challenged to manage a country that is home to almost one-fourth of the world's population. But before we conclude that the Chinese leadership cannot meet the demands for jobs, schools, and infrastructure, we need to remember that the four out of five Chinese who live in the countryside ask remarkably little of Beijing...
The second notion we hear is that China's economic bubble will inevitably burst--that it will not be able to feed itself or that it will run out of steam for lack of energy. It is useful to remember that Japan can also be described as resource poor. When a nation exports as successfully as China has, it should be able to buy whatever it needs on the world market.
More fundamentally, what China wants most is respect. This is sometimes hard for Westerners to comprehend. China's leaders, some of whom were born under the last Emperor, experienced firsthand the unequal treaties that denied China sovereignty on it own soil. These leaders fought a long civil war, a war that is not over in their eyes and that continues only because of US intervention.
The last sentence should be pretty telling. It basically states that when a country uses up all its resources ir eventually leads to a lower standard of living because government take on massive debts.
We were out of resources at the end of the 19th century but through force and coercion we were able to maintain the lifestyle, sorta. But all that is done now and it's time to move on.
Last edited by BigJon3475; 07-06-2011 at 07:47 PM..
It is probably too early to judge him historically. What I remember most is how much sway he held with the public. He could give a speech and people would be hanging on every word. Democrats just wish they had a candidate with such appeal. He did some things modern conservatives would cringe at: New taxes to save Social Security, Amnesty for illegal aliens, making MLK day a Federal holiday.
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By those standards, she would've been fine with Gore as well although not with Clinton because he didn't serve in the military. 
