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Something else, someone mentioned Reagan as the best president. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. However, some facts to know are: the economy and national debt rose under his policies. In 1987, a large Stock Market crash occurred, causing plenty of fear. It took a few years to recover. Many of the really bad things happened during his second term in the White House.
For fact, he was more senial later in his term as president. The post from LittleDolphin is correct. The eviction of the mentally ill from their institutions was inappropriate and disrespectful.
The middle class (just like today) shrunk under Reagan. Being middle today and surviving is a good thing. Many were not lucky under Reagan. The lesson to be learned is to ignore the "happy talk" from media proclaiming Ronald Reagan was the greatest president ever.
This is not an angry post. This is factual based post that would give someone an idea of the economic status of America in the eighties. TV, radio, and music have been great, but underneath the happy exterior lies a trouble world plagued by Middle East conflicts and an economy almost as bad as the current day.
The person who extolled him as the best President ever didn't quite have his head on straight. There's no need to have second thoughts on Ronald Reagan--one was more than enough!
Reagan was far from the greatest president. I'll concede, though, he does deserve some credit for outplaying the Soviets and doing it WITHOUT a major war. That alone puts him in a different league than either of the Bushes.
n the end presaidents are judge by history on what was accomplished during their presidency. Reagan saw the end of the cold war;the fall of the berlin wall;the reductions of nuclear arms. It was the first time since WWII that americans didn't think the world was about to end in nuclear war. Even the Democrats started taking about the end of cold war bonus. But the most important thing really was to end the terrible attitude of americans since the vietnam war. We could use another Reagn for that if nothing else now days. Results count and he accomplished alot.Even Obama has said he admired reagan and that is a big admission for a liberal democrat and of course their was those Democrats for Reagan when he ran for a second term.He was a breathe of fresh air at a time when the other politicans thought america was headed downhill and like now there was the politcs of hate groups and defeatism.
For some reason, Reagan has a fan club that even Jesus would be jealous of. Me? I don't get it. He wasn't a bad guy but he had a horrible cabinet which helped him mismanage his terms. I won't repeat any negatives or positives because they've been talked about here ad nauseum but one that no one has a whole lot of knowledge about and doesn't talk about is the complete debauchery that was the AIDS outbreak and the Reagan administration's horrible reaction to it. The blame? His cabinet's refusal to listen to the CDC. But ultimately, it goes to himself. Any president who fails in such a large manner to lead his people cannot ever be 'Best President,' and anyone who even mentions his name as such has little to no idea what they're talking about.
For some reason, Reagan has a fan club that even Jesus would be jealous of. Me? I don't get it. He wasn't a bad guy but he had a horrible cabinet which helped him mismanage his terms. I won't repeat any negatives or positives because they've been talked about here ad nauseum but one that no one has a whole lot of knowledge about and doesn't talk about is the complete debauchery that was the AIDS outbreak and the Reagan administration's horrible reaction to it. The blame? His cabinet's refusal to listen to the CDC. But ultimately, it goes to himself. Any president who fails in such a large manner to lead his people cannot ever be 'Best President,' and anyone who even mentions his name as such has little to no idea what they're talking about.
Reagan didn't care about AIDS until Rock Hudson got sick. His failure to handle AIDS didn't come from homophobia as much as it came from classism and snobbery. As long as the disease just affected "those people" and not wealthy white middle aged Republican men in his own social circle, he didn't care. He only paid attention to it once one of his buddies got sick and he realized that AIDS knew no class boundaries and belatedly acknowledged it after it had already spread widely.
Something else, someone mentioned Reagan as the best president. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. However, some facts to know are: the economy and national debt rose under his policies. In 1987, a large Stock Market crash occurred, causing plenty of fear. It took a few years to recover. Many of the really bad things happened during his second term in the White House.
For fact, he was more senial later in his term as president. The post from LittleDolphin is correct. The eviction of the mentally ill from their institutions was inappropriate and disrespectful.
The middle class (just like today) shrunk under Reagan. Being middle today and surviving is a good thing. Many were not lucky under Reagan. The lesson to be learned is to ignore the "happy talk" from media proclaiming Ronald Reagan was the greatest president ever.
This is not an angry post. This is factual based post that would give someone an idea of the economic status of America in the eighties. TV, radio, and music have been great, but underneath the happy exterior lies a trouble world plagued by Middle East conflicts and an economy almost as bad as the current day.
Actually, the middle class started shrinking in the mid-70s and continues to this day. This shrinkage has transcended many administrations, both Democrat and Republican. The reasons are too many to get into here.
This is not an angry post. This is factual based post that would give someone an idea of the economic status of America in the eighties.
Well we can debate weather your post was fact-based or not, since most of your post was actually opinion ("really bad things happened in his second term...", "in fact he was senial (sic)", "many were not lucky under Regean"...). Actually I would debate on weather he can even be fairly judged by history yet, I would wait another decade or two myself.
But a good historian will not pick apart of take an episode of his presidency out of context (i.e. - the many posts on Lincoln saying he was a racist, he violated the constitution, etc). They will look at his legacy. In that regards I would say his most prominent legacy was bringing the cold war to a peaceful end, and also bringing back the confidence and faith in the citizens of the U.S. that was lost with Vietnam, Watergate, and the Carter years. The economy is still one of debate I admit - he successfully ended one recession but at the expense of tripling the national debt. But all in all I remember it being a relatively prosperous time after the Carter years.
Well we can debate weather your post was fact-based or not, since most of your post was actually opinion ("really bad things happened in his second term...", "in fact he was senial (sic)", "many were not lucky under Regean"...). Actually I would debate on weather he can even be fairly judged by history yet, I would wait another decade or two myself.
But a good historian will not pick apart of take an episode of his presidency out of context (i.e. - the many posts on Lincoln saying he was a racist, he violated the constitution, etc). They will look at his legacy. In that regards I would say his most prominent legacy was bringing the cold war to a peaceful end, and also bringing back the confidence and faith in the citizens of the U.S. that was lost with Vietnam, Watergate, and the Carter years. The economy is still one of debate I admit - he successfully ended one recession but at the expense of tripling the national debt. But all in all I remember it being a relatively prosperous time after the Carter years.
Yes, Reagan may have tripled the national debt. But I'll bet that by the time Obama's 8 years or 4 years is up, he'll be pretty close to that if not exceed it. But, maybe it's necessary to pull us out of this recession/depression we are entering.
The Reagan years were good to be career-wise as well as financially. No complaints. The think I really like about Reagan is that he made you feel real good about being an American. He took office at a time when America appeared to be in a state of decline. He was the right person at the time. I'm hoping that Obama is the right person this time - time will tell. I do see parallels between Reagan and Obama.
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