Why was Reagan so bad? (I'm 17)

I didn't live through Reagan, and one of my friends holds Reagan as his personal hero and the best president ever.

Why was he so bad? All I really know about him is he started supply-side economics, which as much as I dislike the theory, seemed to have worked.

First of all, most people have claimed supply side economics a failure. I'm no expert, so someone else will have to provide the details.

One wonderful thing Reagan did was pull funding from state hospitals and other facilities for people with severe mental illnesses -- which led to a large population of the mentally ill being cast out onto the street and made homeless.

...ended up 'awfully near to the White House, if not actually 'in' it....go figure :eyes:

and that was just the beginning.
mostly, though, we would do well to remember he was a puppet presidency of Bush Sr., much like Bush Jr. is a puppet of Cheney.

before Congress and lied? I remember the hearings about this being on TV, but it was a lonnnng time ago.

...other who might remember it.

The thing is, I haven't thought about Reagan for so long...maybe we all need to brush up on our history. I know I do.

And look where he's at now.

Reagan held the working people of this country in contempt. He was a mean spirited, laughable buffoon - kind of like a retarded chicken.

on edit, how can anyone forget the horrors of trees that pump out tons of pollutants...

he did end the Soviet-bloc without a shot being fired. Although it was expensive for us, we do owe him something for that.

...I don't give Reagan too much credit for that. He was just at the right place and right time. Remember when the Iran hostages were released right after he took office? That was really fishy, and we found out later there was some deal made over that just to make Carter look bad.

but the soviet union was in decline, they had been lured into afghanistan by carter's intelligence agencies.

here's more on this myth...

Did Reagan win the Cold War? A myth exploded.
by DemocracyIsGood Sunday November 30, 2003 at 04:43 PM


Before I disprove this myth, I want to point out the childishness, crassness, and just plain ignorance of the propagandists who make this claim. Such a massive global struggle, and one guy who stumbled in after 90% of it was over decides to claim all the credit?

From http://democracyisgood.forclark.com:

Welcome back, Reagan Democrats! As for the "Reagan won the cold war" myth...

As Clark unites America, I'm going to be writing a lot of welcomes.

I guess the turning point was when it became apparent that the aren't the Tough on Defense national security party they've always claimed to be. For a while it looked like Bush was going to provide, as the bumper stickers say it, peace through superior firepower. Yet now every week there's a new terror attack in a new part of the world, and every day more soldiers die while Bush and his warmongers go to fundraisers and party like it's 1939.

But what about that claim we've heard so many times, that Reagan "won the cold war"?

Before I disprove this myth, I want to point out the childishness, crassness, and just plain ignorance of the propagandists who make this claim. Such a massive global struggle, and one guy who stumbled in after 90% of it was over decides to claim all the credit?

The war against communism was not a "Cold War" in any way, shape or form. WW3 is a good name for it, though this battle of attrition started before the end of WW1, and continued to the fall of the USSR (after Reagan), though we can argue it is still being fought, against Burma and North Korea, while a sort of unofficial peace negotiation (though market reforms and better relations) moves along with China and Cuba.

Millions upon millions of soldiers, refugees, diplomats, activists, saboteurs, reformers, union members both behind the iron curtain and in the west, intellectuals, freethinkers, environmentalists, protesters, writers, artists, most of all innocent bystanders, and on and on and on, of ALL political stripes (even communists themselves) fought, agitated, where tortured and died in the battle of attrition to bring down the dark age known as communism.

Winston Churchill may have been right when he said that an "iron curtain has descended ", however, that curtain fell in 1917, long before the short-term memory of us in the west.

WW3 started in 1917 when Lenin violently overthrew the liberal democratic Provisional Government which was struggling to restore order after the revolution. The civil war effort involved a motley coalition of liberal democrats, socialists, monarchist reactionaries. It also included many forgotten soldiers of the western allies, including a lot of Americans, who fought and froze in the obscure battles of 1918.

During Hoover's great depression, it looked like the house of cards about to collapse was capitalism. Many Americans actually went to the USSR for work! Those western technicians was one of the reasons Stalin's industrialization actually succeeded. Then Roosevelt's New Deal got capitalism on its feet again, and republicans will never forgive him.

Poland fought a forgotten war against the soviets in the civil war era, then fought them again for a few days in 1939.

Finland fought three forgotten David-and Goliath battles with the USSR, in the civil war, the winter of 1939, and in World War 2.

If you're talking about inflicting sheer military and economic costs, Hitler did far, far more damage than Reagan even claims to have done. Not only Germans but millions of Europeans, volunteers and conscripts, most of all Russians themselves, fought on the losing side of that evil-VS-evil war.

Fascist Japan also fought two short, losing wars against the USSR during WW2. They also fought Chinese communists in a four-sided war that also involved Chiang-Kia Check , who probably spent more energy fighting the reds than the Japanese. The other "faction" of sorts was the Chinese warlords.

For a while in WW2 we were aiding the royalists who fought against Tito in Yugoslavia. Though Tito was a communist, he was too liberal for the USSR, so Yugoslavia played a more of less neutral role in the "Cold War began". His slightly more liberal brand of communism made Yugoslavia more prosperous than the rest of eastern Europe.

General Clark played a direct role: he defeated and opened the way to the overthrow of Milosovich's "socialist" party, which was actually a communist leftover.

The largest blow dealt to communism - bar NONE - was the Marshall plan of economic development under Truman. This was a decisive proof that foreign aid and economic development, sharing and caring, kills more fanatic movements than the shoot and loot, borrow and bomb ideology of the Bu'ushists. People who pointed this fact out after 9/11 were denounced as traitors, kicked out of jobs, schools, and families, yet today the contrast between Iraq and Germany is more obvious than ever.

Rebellions in Hungary, Prauge, Tienamen square, and other massacres added many martyrs to the cause. Unions like "Solidarity" in Poland fought strikes, and unions in America and the west constantly fought communists infiltrators. Right now, the largest labor movement in human history is fighting massive but unreported struggles in China.

The UN fought the North Koreans and Chinese in Korea. Truman's policy of containment contained them, while Republicans were more interested in starting a nuclear war. (Republicans have never understood a phenomenon known as "radiation".)

JFK and LBJ fought communism to another bloody stalemate in Vietnam. How much fighting was enough to prevent the domino-effect, and how much was just futile overkill, is am irrelevant debate that Americans should leave behind us. ..... more....
http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/10967_comment.php

I was about to go off on this one. It was a subject of a semester project I did, and it just irritates me to no end for people to credit Reagan for "winning" the so-called Cold War.

Thank you. :-)

The Soviet Union spent itself out of existence, with its miserable economic structure, the failure of Afghanistan, and decades of decaying infrastructure (think Chernobyl).

The CIA pretty much figured out the Soviet Union was on its way down as early as the late 70's, and it was just a matter of time before it collapsed under its own weight. Giving Reagan credit for the end of the Iron Curtain is like giving a rooster credit for the sunrise.

Reagan was awful in so many ways, but you can't tell a repuke that. His anti-intellectual callousness and incuriosity, his disdain for the environment (Anne Gorsuch heading the EPA, James Watt heading Interior), the embracing of FAILED supply-side policies - it made the rich richer and the poor poorer, and our alleged prosperity was debt-based. Kind of like getting rich by maxing out the gold cards. We became, under Reagan's tenure, the world's largest debtor nation, when we were once the world's largest creditor nation.

Also...

More administration officials indicted under him than any other in history.

Cutting state funding to highways, schools, hospitals, and endorsing such wonderful concepts as ketchup being deemed a vegetable in order to keep school lunches in compliance with nutrition guidelines.

His endorsement of, and by, the Religious Wrong Wackos like Robertson, Falwell, and the like. Putting Scalia on the bench is one result of this.

A bumbling dunce who could not function without his teleprompter or constant diaper-wiping by his staff.

I recall when the Challenger shuttle exploded. He wanted to go on with scheduled SOTU speech that night, and at his cabinet table said "Life goes on...", but aides were quick to shut him up, and one week later, he delivered Peggy Noonan's treacly words. Now thanks to propaganda like Faux News, Reagan is now remembered as "comforting the nation" at this time.

Oh, and then there was the laying of the wreath at the Nazi Cemetery in Bitburg. He likened SS soldiers to "victims" as much as the Jews and others killed there.

Or the time he turned to his HUD secretary (his token black on the cabinet), and asked "How are things in your city, Mr. Mayor?"

And then Ed Meese, the worst AG outside of Ashcroft. Investigated 4 times by an independent counsel.

Or the time he told the Israeli PM that his nose "looked like Danny Thomas's" right in the middle of the PM talking serious issues about the Lebanese war.

And then the embarrassment of this "Christian, upright" president having his wife dictate his schedules and policies based on an astrologer.

Read Haynes Johnson's "Sleepwalking Through History" and learn more about this miserable failure of a president and a human being. Fuck his Alzheimer's making him lionized, as well as cretins like Rush. Reagan's approval rating when he left office was 37%. It was over 50% by the time Clinton took office, thanks to RW taking heads and radio propagandists.

Fuck Reagan, in perpetuity.

Haynes Johnson's book is a personal favorite of mine. Fuck Reagan.

As Mike from the young ones said

"That was a highly articulate outburst Zomby"

But seriously, what did you think of Reagan as a leader :-)

I was NOT reassured by his manly posturing and B-movie delivery of recycled Hollywood clichés. He was a fucking dunce and an embarrassment. Only Chimpy surpasses him, and that is why HE is so bad.

I thank Reagan for making me give a damn about politics. I got involved in anti-apartheid, and anti-Contra aid demonstrations in college, risking arrest and the usual scorn. Lived in a very conservative part of the country. This was the mid-80's, when he began his second term. Morning in America, my ass.

is that when Reagan came into office Wolfowitz was complaining to the CIA that they were wrong about the state of the Soviet Union. He and other neo-cons (this was when that term was first coined) pushed the CIA to revise their estimates of the strenght of the Soviets. Sound familiar?

when he left office from?

The last one I could find was from Gallup and it was 56%

I cannot remember the source, other than it was in a mainstream news publication (Time or Newsweek), and it was an article about the rise of RW radio in the early 90's. It mentioned the disparity since Reagan - the 37% is from memory, and could very well be higher, but quite a bit less than 50%, that I am sure of. There was Reagan fatigue when he left office - Iran-Contra, Ed Meese, the bumbling and the stumbling... people were ready for change. Now remember, his approval numbers were above 50% by the time Clinton took office, so RWers could use those numbers to retroactively spin history. But pollsters wouldn't lie, would they?

Oh, and I forgot to mention his infamous lie: "I will not negotiate with terrorists or trade arms for hostages".

but he rebounded like it never happened by the end of his term.

I don't think Gallup is pro-GOP, I tend to see them as the most reputable polling organization you can find.

about him slashing medical research funding, including funding for cancer and Alzheimer's. The chickens have come home to roost in his head.

These words seem to express it very well...


The Fletcher Memorial Home

(Waters)
Vocal Roger Waters
Orchestra arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen
Piano Michael Kamen

Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
And build them a home
A little place of their own
The fletcher memorial home for incurable tyrants and kings
They can appear to themselves every day
On closed circuit tv
To make sure they're still real
It's the only connection they feel
"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Reagan and Haig, Mr. Begin and friend Mrs. Thatcher and Paisley, Mr. Brezhnev and party
The ghost of McCarthy
And the memories of Nixon
And now adding colour a group of anonymous Latin American
meat packing glitterati"
Did they expect us to treat them with any respect They can polish their medals and sharpen their smiles And amuse themselves playing games for a while
Boom boom, bang bang lie down you're dead Safe in the permanent gaze of a cold glass eye
Their favourite toy
They'll be good girls and boys
In the fletcher memorial home for colonial wasters of life and limb Is everyone in?
Are you having a nice time?
now the final solution can be applied.


...................................................



mq
w/p
drs

he broke the back of a nation by creating an arms race no one could compete with. In the process he bankrupted the American worker and their families. He raped the treasury to build uneccessary and useless weapons. Think Star Wars, the missle that couldn't hit shit. The one bush* wants to bring back. There is no honor in bankrupting a nation through military build-up. None should be given. There is however honor in diplomacy, of which reagan nor bush has.

initiated that particular arms buildup. The response on our end was a reaction, or probably an overreaction. The Soviet Union had an incredibly powerful MIC, much worse even than ours, with absolutely no oversight or accountability.

It eventually succeeded in devouring the Soviet Union alive. That is quite apart from the extreme irrationality of an economic system that couldn't even do an adequate job of producing toilet paper.

I believe that the Soviet Union pretty much self destructed on it's own. Sure it made enemies all over the world, but they pretty much had to. They couldn't justify the system without maintaining a siege mentality, and convincing the population that the world was out to get them. They needed to be surrounded by enemies, therefore they made sure that they were.

I give Mikhail Gorbachev vastly more credit for ending the cold war than I give Reagan. I guess the Nobel committee agreed with my analysis.

I sometimes wonder if Bush is our country's own version of Brezhnev, and will succeed in doing to our country what Leonid did to his.

that a new book was out or coming out about the SU's inability to keep up with the arm's race was the reason for the collapse. I haven't seen the book, just heard about it.

Brezhnev chose to dramatically escalate the arms race in the late 70's, essentially scuttling detente. He followed this up with the disastrous decision to invade Afghanistan.

The massive American arms build up that followed was essentially a reaction to this.

I would not underestimate the power and influence that the Soviet MIC wielded. They essentially chose to spend themselves into oblivion. By the time Gorbechev emerged with his more sane ideas on national security it was already too late, and the MIC was still too powerful for him to do much about it.

I could remember that book about the build-up and collapse. I seem to remember the author, on TV talking about the hows and whys. I may be mistaken though.

Good observations, but I'd like to mention that this mentality wasn't something the Soviets had to invent. It developed among the population in general and was used by Lenin and then more dramatically by Stalin to justify the totalitarian state.

Russians in the early 20th century looked at the history of Western European nations having invaded their country repeatedly starting with Napoleon. Put another way, they felt like second-class Europeans with a lot of land other European nations wanted to exploit but through conquest rather than cooperation. The German invasion in 1914 and the extremely harsh war that followed intensified this perception, and when Germany once again invaded during WWII, it played into what Stalin had been saying all along. They became extremely paranoid and desired a buffer zone between them and the rest of the world through the control of other nations via political ideology.

I'll pause here to allow mental comparisons to Soviet ideology and PNAC and also how our own society is developing a similar kind of mentality about the outside world.

In any case, I think Stalin and those that followed him, all of whom up to Gorbachev were cut from the same cloth, were more responsible for destroying the nation than Lenin was. I say that not in admiration of Lenin, but he in fact inherited an already crumbling society suffering under the inept rule of Nicolas. IOW, he didn't have a lot to work with, and he perverted the ideas put forth by Marx to satisfy his own thirst for personal power. But at the same time, as backward as it may have been, the revolution against Nicolas was probably necessary to avoid total collapse and a destructive anarchy. Unfortunately for the Russians, more moderate voices with better ideas were silenced and eventually removed.

In fact it has been revealed that the Soviet's had nowhere near the capabilities our intelligence agencies said they did.

In many cases on purpose.

What brought them down was economics, pure and simple.

We were able to outspend them in the arms race, and even when they knew it was going to bankrupt them, they kept going anyway.

Not to mention you overlook the PEOPLE that were sick and tired of standing in line for hours on end to get things like bread and milk, while the politicians spent trillions on military hardware.

And his economic policies where incredibly damaging.

Do you realize how much debt YOU HAVE as a result of Reagan's policies?

Conservatively the estimate is at something just a bit over 3 1/2 to 4 trillion dollars!

Divide that by 250 million, and that is what every man, woman, and child was left with.

The amazing growth that was supposed to come from his tax cuts never happened. In fact quite the opposite did.

Remember poppy Bush's read my lips?

Reagan's policies are what caused Bush's loss of his second term.

Anyway, I firmly believe that Reagan was in the early stages of Alzheimer's in the end of his Presidency.

So in a way I guess he did make the perfect Republican President.

But took down the Soviet Union?

That is laughable.

"We were able to outspend them in the arms race, and even when they knew it was going to bankrupt them, they kept going anyway."

Thanks.

BTW I did say his economic policies were disastrous...but he did what you said. He spent so much on the military that when they Soviets tried to keep up, they went bankrupt.

GMTA.

nothing honorable there, bankrupting a nation. Bastard better not get his mug on a dime. I'll boycott it.

their defense spending remained steady

Sick-ass screen name. :evilgrin:

nm

The Soviet system was near bankruptcy as far back as 1972. The GDP per person in the USSR was less than 40% of that of the U.S., and their military expenditures exceeded 11% of that GDP. If you include their internal security apparatus, the total expenditures exceeded 16% of GDP.

So, no viable consumer product industries, inefficient agribusiness, high prices, no money, and excess expenditures in directions other than those that would stimulate economic growth and sustainability. Add to that, a disenfranchised and dissatisfied populace and the entire system was on the brink of failure for over 30 years before it fell. Its collapse was strictly a matter of time, and Reagan had little to do with it.

Actually, the two people i give the most credit to are JFK and Ted Turner. JFK's pursuit of space exploration as a national priority resulted in our expansion of sattelite technology, unmatched by any other country. Add to that Ted Turner teaching the business world that there was money to be made with the use of sattelite broadcasting and a 24 hour news channel. Now, there is so much information available, the Soviet system could no longer block the "real" west from being revealed to the Soviet people. When they realized how much better Western Europeans, Americans, Canadians, and the like were living, the genie was out of the bottle.

Honorable mention: Mikail Gorbachev. He is the Soviet leader that realized that the door had been opened and to attempt to sustain the system further was futile.
The Professor

Reagan was a befuddled puppet, President in name only. We actually had 12 years of Bush, contrary to popular belief.

lets not give Cheney too much credit, he doesnt have the heart to run anything let alone the western world. Meanwhile when Bill Clinton takes office poppy's friends put their shoulders into every sort of resistance and scandal mongering attempts at destruction, including shutting down the federal government. Id say we have had 24 years of Bushcorp abuse and its high time we pointed fingers at the Naked Emperor.

...so that school lunches could get away with degrading the quality of food served to children. That was a real classic Reagan move.

Thats what the number was here in Pittsburgh in the early 80s. While the steel industry was slowly dying, he did ABSOLUTELY nothing to aid these people or their communities AT ALL. It was troubling to see him talk on TV about how good everything in the country was when all we would see every day was news of another plant closing, more people laid off and the misery that accompanied these events. He hung this area out to dry, and will long remembered for that.

RPM

thousands and thousands of people died.

Is that bad enough?

Kanary

He was for limiting government and governmental interferance with the 'market' as defined by business cronies.

Major funding for many federally mandated tasks was eliminated, the income tax was cut along with some other federal taxes but the overall tax burden stayed the same since the states and locals had to increase their taxes to cover the missing federal funds. He put ideologues into office who had various conservative agendas such as the roll back of environmental regulations and the destruction of organized labor. As a friend to the 'working man' he fired all the air traffic controllers who went on strike, about 80% lost their jobs. His administration tried to qualify catsup as a vegatable for school lunches. He cut funding for the Veterans Administration, increased the Navy to 600 ships while not funding enough money for fuel/supplies for training. He started many major weapons programs and spent the old soviet block into bankruptcy. The current mania for ballot initiatives really took hold during his reign as conservatives around the nation rallied to ensure that the 'wrong element' didn't get too much of a voice.

War on "Some" Drugs nfm

No one would have dared try to test for drugs as a pre-requisite for employment. Reagan started the practice with Federal employees.

Now the pre-employment "piss test" is a sad fact of a cowed, humilitated workforce, glad to have any sort of job.

Adding to the list, Reagan failed to consider the emerging AIDS epidemic something that affected anyone worth living and so was willing to ignore it while the death toll mounted. By even refusing to mention it in public, he allowed the perception to fester that AIDS was only a problem among the homosexual community, thus a moral problem, thus only something that affected "immoral" people.

In short, he watched while people died because it scored him political points with the religious right.

He was a homophobic hateful doddering old man..

he didn't even mention the word AIDS until 1988. And lest we forget, he hired Pat Buchanan as his Director of Communications a mere two years after good old Pat declared "The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution" to describe the AIDS epidemic.

Makes me want to name something else after him . . .

anti-union, anti-middle class, anti-worker, anti-gay, anti-arts, anti-medical research. Economic plan from hell, cold war monger. Its not an honorable thing to build a military so strong just for the reason of breaking the economy of another nation. So the walls came down, while our country, indirectly sponsed the starving of millions of russians. Missles, and military build-up IS NOT a replacement for diplomacy.

how well the Russia people are doing after 15 years of capitalism. Nothing to be proud of. Just ask my wife's family who lost all their health care and their access to higher education.

we "broke" their backs with the arms race and send them Coca Cola and porn. reagan's hatred of communism cost more lives than we'll ever know. At a time when the world could have come together we turn our backs, we're still doing it to Cuba, its sad. Besides, Cuba has great fishing and I want to go, even if the state dept arrests me.

We never had a big homeless problem before Reagan in my memory and I was born in 1940. He screwed up the State of California. It hasn't really come back.

I remember him as a persuasive speaker. My Republican parents always wanted me to listen to everything he said. The unfortunate thing was that their insistence on me getting some higher education (Not too much. I was a girl, after all.)also included a class in logic. I was able to pinpoint every fallacy he spoke.

I hope this helps you. I am sixty four, so maybe you would rather hear from younger people.

the voice we need now. Its an incredibly important voice.

Unfortunately, like many others, I considered Reagan a joke, something that would blow over until people got their senses back. I made a mistake. Please tell me how to make this right.

of the past to educate those in charge of the future.

Most younger people consider us like teachers or preachers. They hate us to even say anything.

they all do. Just the ones who have no direction. They have an anger built from years of dealing with uncaring parents and educators. I would take to the streets, join marches, go to colleges. You would be so suprised if you went to a community college and meet the kids who are starving for your kind of knowledge. Sign up for some classes. I think your in for a pleasent suprise. :)

....most of what the younger folk have been exposed to has been very very harsh (and wrong)....they're hearing "THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD THINK*THINK*THINK* - read 'brainwashing'.

Do what you can - you have the heart/spirit that can differentiate/say, 'this has been my experience, learn from it and (hopefully) leap ahead....people are smart and they/we can recognize what is good/right/true....just say/teach all of the 'good stuff' and trust 'that'.

Peace. :-)

Does it work? Did Keynes fail?

Interesting looking back on some of those things, eh?

Kanary

my family.. my dad's union was weakened, he lost his health care, he had to work two jobs to keep the house. My uncle lost his job...

Supply side works very well for the rich.. but for people who actually work for a living, think Dickens...

It was liberal economic policies such as the new deal and the union movement that 'worked' for the majority of americans.

As Bragg sings.. "when did it fall apart? Sometime in the 80's when the great and the good gave way to the greedy and the mean.."

controllers. Things will change.

Deregulation which created the S&L crisis

Helped give birth to hardline Mujahedeen which included al-qaeda, to support terrorist support against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan

Massive military spending on worthless systems were responsible for a huge deficiets, while our intelligence was slowly being destroyed, by having less human agents.

Iran/Contra, trading guns for hostages

Starting a policy which armed Iraq with weapons against Iran. Millions were killed


There is much more in addition to what I have listed

A Starting a policy which armed Iraq with weapons against Iran.

A huge part of the mess we're in now started with Reagan, or at least started to focus under Reagan.

And then there's the association with James Baker III, whose institute sponsored the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

A traitor, Pruneface is a racist, warmongering gangster of the first rank.

I heartily recommend your friend Dan Moldea's "Dark Victory" for background.

:hi:

By any chance: Do you know Pete, my buddy, the only dry waller on a certain island off the coast of California? For some reason you remind me of his great friend ...

Shanti

well he put a bunch of mentally ill people
out on the street .

Air Traffic Controller strike (don't even get me started)

Just say No (oh good grief)

He refused to even say the word aids , and tried
too ignore Aids , until it was too late .

Honestly looking back he was a lot better than the pretender
we have now.

It's like Reagan was John the Baptist, or the one who paved the way for Mr. Jesus, our pRezident, George Dubya Boosh.

And being in my late '20s at the time, I found the changes to be shocking.

Such as hearing white guys use the word "nigger", which was considered taboo before then.

Such as the new-found popularity of "comedy" based on attacking the weak and helpless (e.g., Andrew Dice Clay)

His administration went after the left with a vigor not seem since Nixon (and recall Nixon was forced to resign). People opposing the US backed military regime in El Salvador were tagged as subversives.

Before Reagan there were almost NO people living on the street - even terminal alcoholics seemed to be able to afford a room in a run down hotel. You simply did not see the numbers of people living in cardboard boxes in industrial areas and beside roadsides until the Reagan era.

Funny, I grew up in the eighties as well (well, probably more in the nineties). However, because I never grew up seeing homeless on the streets as a child, I was acutely aware of seeing them after the wonderful world of "Reaganomics."

Which makes me believe after Ronald Reagan University is up and running and enough repugs funnel through there to get edjumicated and later go on to affect the economic policies of this country, we will all end up living in tent cities, that is, if junior doesn't do us all in first.

The Reagan campaign was negotiating with the Iranians, who held American hostages, while Jimmy Carter was still President.

The Iranians released the hostages on Reagan's Inauguration Day.

Then Reagan secretly sold the Iranians weapons.

It's almost as if the Reagan campaign told them to hold the American hostages until after the election, in exchange for weapons.

October Surprise by Barbara Honegger. It changed the way I looked at government. I already couldn't stand Reagan. This made me distrust the system itself.

the worst piece of human flotsom ever to walk the earth. I was in Oregon when his "economic plan" really took hold. My family and I had no jobs, no food, it was the worst time of my life. I'm 55. I had never heard of a food bank until RR. I hope he suffers for years to come for what he did to this country. He broke unions, broke laws, sanctioned murders. The repugs idolize him.

government cheese. I remember that during the reagan years.

My kids really liked it though, seeing how that's all they had to eat with macaroni or potatoes. Fuck Bush, Fuck Reagan.

but good grilled cheese IS NOT a good enough reason to praise reagan. LOL

will explain everything...you can get it on Amazon for about $20

Bush* of course is the worst. Here's a Reagan summary:

1. Fiscal irresponsibility. Ran MASSIVE deficits his entire term. We still pay interest on the bonds the government sold to borrow the money. Reagan claimed the tax cuts would generate more income to cover the deficits. It never happened--and is another Repug lie. We'll be paying interest on the $2 trillion of new debt Reagan added forever.

2. Tax burden shifted from wealthy to middle and poorer classes. Reagan cut the rates for the very highest paid, but increased the rates for those at the bottom. Contrary to Repug propaganda, Reagan signed the LARGEST TAX INCREASE in history into law. It boosted the payroll tax significantly on the lower income group.

3. Environmental setbacks. We went from progress in all areas of the environment to a standstill or worse everywhere. We still haven't gotten back on track and Bush* has made the trend very negative.

4. Social safety net for poor gutted. Reagan used the racist "welfare queen" propaganda to get even supposed Democrats to support him on this.

5. Accelerated the collapse of the union movement. Hiring scabs became the norm.

6. Supported many unsavory dictators and thugs. Got caught breaking the law illegally supporting the "Contras" in Nicaragua. The Contras were right wing goons opposed to the Socialist government.

7. Average Americans saw their standard of living decline during Reagan's two terms--in spite of economic growth. Trickle down was a miserable failure then, just like it is today under VacationBoy.

I don't get it.

Reagan was the essential TV president, and if not for the 'recovery' from the 1982 recession, he might very well have been trumped by Mondale. But he kept that wagging head and genial smile going, and the press complied with the lies being fed by Deaver and others. Remember the "Morning In America" campaign? Don't forget the random carpet-bombings of Libya and other feel-good overseas adventures. And the big bad Soviets were going to invade western Europe if we don't stand tall...

Made us want to forget the Lebanon debacle when he invaded Grenada too.

Anyone who thinks the compliant press started with Chimpy needs to check out Mark Hertsgaard's "On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency". They were afraid to be critical of the senile drooling fool.

Then that fucking moneywasting tool of the military-industrial complex: SDI.

And firing the PATCO union members.

People will buy any lie any time when sold with a flag and a bible and an apple pie. 49 states... easy with good PR!

there is nothing wrong with capitalism or democracy and as soon as both are in place you will be able to see for yourself.

christian nut cases.

to run against him. I couldn't stand Reagan, thought he was evil, but yet looked at the dems with utter dismay saying, "This is who you're nominating? THIS is YOUR best option?"

And Reagan also won partly because the lie machine was so incredibly strong: the whole fake-pattiotism, anti-communism, "Dems want to give all your tax money to artists who put Christ's Cross in urine", falg-waving rara bullshit. Which rara bullshit, ironically enough, for some reason is most attractive to precisely those people (union workers, middle-class, midwesterners) Reagan was deliberately screwing out of livelihoods and viable hunting and park lands.

Cheating. I just couldn't believe those landslides. Imagine how popular Clinton must have been to even slide by the cheaters. Now we know our elections need a BIG reforming.

Reagan was such an idiot-- he believed that he was a conservationist because he was conservative. He thought that trees caused more pollution than cars, and believed there were more forests in the US in 1981 than there were when the Pilgrims landed. As governor of California, he couldn't see the point of saving the redwoods because they were "just a bunch of trees".

He was instrumental in the Iran-contra scandal, yet he always feigned ignorance when questioned about it. His administration supported the slaughter in Latin America of peasants, especially those who dared to challenge decades of oppression. He was so ignorant of South America that when he finally went, he was surprised to find that there were "a lot of countries down there".

As for labor, he showed his contempt right off the bat by firing striking air traffic control workers, then sitting by as working people kept getting laid off during his recession of 1982-83-- a truly horrible time to be looking for a job. He made fun of jobless people, saying that they should "vote with their feet", apparently longing for the days of the Okie-Arkie migrations to California in search of fruit-picking jobs.

As for singlehandedly bringing down the Soviet bloc, that's a laugh. This completely ignores the contributions of NATO, Western Europe, and all administrations before his. The overt crumbling began in 1989, after he was out of office. The Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. But the seeds for the USSR's, and the Soviet bloc's, demise had been planted long before that, because the Soviet "economy", if you could even call it that, had long been based on the production of military weapons, and parts for other factories. They so neglected the consumer that people had to wait in line to buy such sundry items as toilet paper and bread. Thus, they were headed for a fall, regardless of who was in power.

Leaving me with years worth of interest to pay on student loans and car payments, I incurred the level of debt which I had because the interest payments on EVERYTHING were tax deductions, as were 100 percent of medical expenses. So while the GOP/Reagan claimed they didn't raise taxes, they were spinning. They didn't raise the tax rates, they just removed the classic working class/middle class tax deductions.

Did you know that Reagan's cabinet meetings didn't merely follow an agenda. They were word-for-word SCRIPTED because the idiot couldn't handle them any other way. Picture the smiling buffoon who used to host "Death Valley Days" and personally did the commercials for its sponsor, Twenty Mule Team Borax. He was the greatest at simulating warmth and caring - whether it was peddling soap or peddling the GOP line.
The Smithsonian should get some of his cabinet meeting scripts. "Good morning everyone. Let's get started. John, tell us what's new and exciting over at treasury."

If Shakespeare were alive and writing historical plays, Reagan would be the first in a line of puppet presidents.

That's for starters.

Lucky if you could get credit at 17%, even on a house to buy.

People had a terrible time even buying food, things were so expensive.
So, made much higher hurdles for food stamps for all those "welfare cheats" and immoral single mothers.You almost literally had to be on your last dollar to get food stamps, having sold everything you owned.

Oh, Reagan was a nut case. I celebrated with a big GLASS of brandy when he left office, because life had been so HARD for everyone but the rich.

There is no doubt about that.

Also, did you know that William Casey and Oliver North were in charge of the "botched" rescue attempt of the Iran hostages?

Think about that.

The "botched" hostage rescue was Pres. Carters.
I never could understand what was sopposed to happen, had those helecopters not crashed in the desert.
Something about bringing the hostages to a stadium and using gas to stop the Irainians.....
Help me out with this.

he also deregulated the trucking industry, which has had an impact on highway safety. I think of that when I'm on the freeway, trapped between a couple of oversized semi's.

I could never understand the argument that he was warm or likeable! He was really creepy (like Bush).

"I don't recall"

That dude was asleep at the switch.

... Ronald 'Raygun' Reagan, the fascist gun in the west.

http://news8austin.com/content/news_8_explores/mental_illness/?ArID=78468&SecID=320

1980 – Congress proposed new legislation (PL 96-398) called the community mental health systems act (crafted by Ted Kennedy), but the program was ended by newly-elected President Ronald Reagan. This action ended the federal community mental health centers program and its funding.
1980 – Congress passed legislation (PL 96-416) tile Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) allowing the Justice Department to sue state governments if they violate the civil rights of the mentally ill or mentally retarded in their state hospitals (the Act was focused originally on prisons).
1981 – Congress passed legislation (PL 97-35) sought by Reagan, titled the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 that shifted funds to the states vial block grants. States had the option of using their funds to continue to support mental health centers.
1987 – Congress passed new legislation (PL 99-319) developing rules for the protection and advocacy for the mentally ill and offered dollars to the states to set up human rights agencies and regulations to insure rights of the mentally disabled.
1987 – Congress passed new legislation (PL 99-660) requiring that for states to receive block grant monies for mental health and substance abuse, the states had to develop plans for how they would care for the mentally ill who were released from state hospitals and the staff who needed to be retrained.
1987 – Congress passed new legislation (PL 100-77) called the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, to assist the states in providing housing for the homeless who are mentally ill.
1989 – Congress passed legislation (PL 100-336) titled the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to prohibit discrimination against individuals with physical or mental disabilities.
1990 – Newly elected President Clinton proposes a national health reform act that will provide mental health and substance abuse services in the coverage (Hillary Rodham-Clinton was chairperson).

a very regressive policy which shifted the burden of paying for government to people who weren't rich

1. Reagan really wasn't in charge. Jim Baker, Mike Deaver and Ed Meese pretty much handled things for ol' Dutch while he napped his way thru 2 terms. Why was he so popular? HE WAS AN ACTOR! He knew how to act like a President, read his lines like a President, and present himself like a President. He had no clue what his loyal henchmen were doing behind the scenes, and not a care about what the poor and middle class were going through. It was much worse during the second term when his alzhimers started to really kick in.

2. His administration began the fallacy of "trickle down economics", where the rich were showered with more money, which was supposed to trickle down through the middle class & poor through more jobs. In reality, the only thing to trickle down was when the rich decided to piss on everyone through massive stock fraud and S&L schemes.

You ever see the Saturday Night Live skit where Phil Hartman was Reagan.

He asks all nice and stupid in front of others, but then behind close doors he changes. He becomes super smart and ruthless, ordering everybody around.

That skit was hilarious, and I've always wondered how close to the truth that was. Even though at the end of his last term, he was pretty much a vegetable.

For me, it will always be the Satanic Cult he joined back when he was governor of California. He made a pledge to deliver the United States of America to the Dark Forces, and spent every day until he died, back in 1986, trying to make good on that pledge.

If I had a nickel for every virgin sacrificed on the cold pewter altar he had built in the Nixon Room, with the specially forged golden tongs of death, I'd be rich enough to afford his ridiculous "Star Wars" missile defense shield, and at least twelve of his favorite hookers.

Reagan spent most of his adult life tripping on some extremely rare hybrid PCP/Mescaline/Dog Thyroid Juice, which he took intraveinously every morning, after having several nuns beaten outside his window.

One of the pacts he made with Satan was that after his death, his body would be allowed to stay breathing for eternity. His kidneys and liver were replaced with replicas made of wax, and his brain was pretty much left intact.

Ronald Reagan was the only United States President to channel the ghosts of Hitler and the still living Charles Manson simultaneously, and we may never know his intentions for this bizarre graveyard tryst, but its safe to say he didn't do it to try and get puppies for handicapped children.

More likely, he had designs on ruling the world; having extra vertabrae installed, and finally finishing the New York Times crossword puzzle, which had always annoyed the living shit out of him.

Study up on Reagan. There's a lot of misinformation going around on him, but with any luck, and hypo of Industrial Strength Glass Cleaner, you can have a better understanding of this fascinating, and thoroughly depraved President, whose body is still preserved in a little jar somewhere near San Bernadino.

Better yet, phone his son Ron Jr. He's always looking for work, and will tell you everything you want to know, for the price of a few drinks.

Hope that was helpful.

Fat Tony Scalia and Sandra Day O'Connor were appointed to the Court. Reagan elevated William Rehnquist, a Nixon appointee (man, that's a whole 'nother thread) to Chief Justice.

Tell him about James G. Watt, his Interior secretary, who was forced to resign because of bragging that his staff consisted of "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." The current Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, was his understudy.

Tell your Reagan-worshipping friend that he will be paying off the interest on the debt of Reagan's collapsed economy for the rest of his life.

Tell him about how Nancy Reagan used to consult an astrologer to schedule Ronnie's meetings and appearances.

Tell him how Reagan used to doze off in cabinet meetings.

They had ketchup designated as a vegetable to cut costs of giving poor kids a decent school lunch (it had to include certain components including at least one veg). A relatively small thing, but it sums up what a heartless he (and the corporate fascist wing of the GOP) is.

Reagan gave us the infamous "$900" hammer for the military as he pissed away billions of dollars on over-priced penis-replacing military hardware, but spend a few extra pennies to give a kid at least one decent meal a day, nah thats too much to ask. Bastard.

He had a very different vision for us, it could have taken us to a very conflicted end. He was more like (but just like) the neocons. Actually, I think he was better than they are. He was smarter. But in his own way, very naive.

It's a dance we do with the Republicans who are in the liberal tradition. We save each other from our excesses.

This is one of the most ignorant quotes by him. Gee whiz, Mr. Reagan, if there were only one left after all the logging you want to do, what would we use to make our oxygen? What would absorb our CO2?

George. Oh, arkkkk....!!! My mistake. I thought this thread was about Nixon. Oh my, it must be the old timers syndrom. She says as she runs rapidly into the night.

“My fellow Americans: I am pleased to tell you today that I have signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes.” During a microphone test, 11.08.1984

What a yuckster!

I goddamned near starved to death along with a bunch of other people I know due to that fucking tottering old dipshit and his fucking "trickle down" economics. By the time anything "trickled down" to the bottom of the goddamn food chain,which was where I was back then,there wasn't anything left.

One of my "fondest" memories was back in '85. I filled out 110 job applications in one week trying to find ANYTHING to call a job to survive on.Zip, zero, nada, zilch, nothing. The next week I was evicted and living in my van.

Fuck Ronald Reagan and everything he stood for!!!!!

Look for "Dark Alliance" - it was a national story published in the San Jose Mercury News, and later BURIED!

It told of how the CIA developed Crack cocaine to sell in inner-city LA to raise money for the war against the contras.

Iran-Contra was only the tip of the iceburg.

As I recall the Mercury recanted on that story because they could never prove it; it was a rumor that stuck.

so what does that say about you?

I like facts.

...extended his presidency. I remember him being on the way down before that. The sympathy he got for taking a bullet overwhelmed any reality of what he was doing.

I think he said, "When you've seen one tree, you've seen them all."

The economic gains were not real. He spent the money of future generations.

--IMM

...problem was, the main objective was to destroy what remained of the new deal by choking off the government's revenue. The growth that ensued in the late 80s was not commensurate with the amount of debt we were saddled with. I believe Reagan and Bush 1 added almost 2 trillion to the national debt, a staggering amount.

I realize that when one is very young, those programs may seem irrelevant, because you don't depend on them, and at 17, everything seems possible, and it's hard to imagine that YOU might end up depending on them. When you're older you realize that lifes's a bit tougher than that, and even if you don't depend on them, you may not begrudge those who do so much (unless your heart fails to develop, then you become a "conservative".

As with Bush II's economic policies, Reagans primarily benefited big businesses and not working people. You are absolutely right about the huge deficit. I could improve the immediate standard of living for my family by borrowing thousands and thousands of dollars but in the end the bill would come due.

...who ran this country like the senile proprietor of a mom-and-pop grocery store, taking a nap behind the counter as all manner of hoods and thugs shoplifted his merchandise.

Here are some excerpts from Paul Slanksy's book, THE CLOTHES HAVE NO EMPEROR: A CHRONICLE OF THE AMERICAN '80s:

Nov. 20, 1980: President-elect Reagan arrives at the White House to receive a job briefing from President Carter, who later reveals that Reagan asked few questions and took no notes, asking instead for a copy of Carter's presentation.

Dec. 18, 1980: Washington Post headline - REAGAN ON THE SIDELINES; HE OFTEN SEEMS REMOTE FROM TRANSITION.

Jan, 20, 1981: Just before 9:00 a.m., Michael Deaver, stunned that the president-elect is still sleeping, enters his bedroom to remind him that he's "going to be inaugurated." Says Reagan, "Does that mean I have to get up?"

By sheer coincidence, the day that Reagan is inaugurated, the 52 American hostages who have been held in Iran since November 1979 are all released!

Feb. 5, 1981: Testifying before Congress, James Watt (Reagan's nominee for Secretary of the Interior) is asked if he agrees that natural resources must be preserved for future generations. "Yes," he says, "but I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns."

Feb. 11, 1981: Labor Secretary Ray Donovan eases requirements for the labeling of hazardous chemicals in the workplace.

March 3, 1981: In an interview with CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, President Reagan cites a 1938 speech by FDR in which he "called on the free world to quarantine Nazi Germany." Roosevelt in fact made no such speech.

May 10, 1981: Washington Post headline: REAGAN WANTS TO ABOLISH CONSUMER PRODUCT AGENCY.

May 11, 1981: Attorney General Edwin Meese calls the American Civil Liberties Union "a criminals' lobby."

May 21, 1981: New York Times headline: WHITE HOUSE SEEKS EASED BRIBERY ACT; SAYS 1977 LAW INHIBITS BUSINESS ABROAD BY U.S. CORPORATIONS.

June 16, 1981: President Reagan holds his third press conference, where he replies to questions on:

1. The Israeli attack on Iraq: "I can't answer that."

2. Israel's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty: "Well, I haven't given very much thought to that particular question."

3. Pakistan's refusal to sign the treaty: "I won't answer the last part of the question."

4. Israeli threats against Lebanon: "Well, this one's going to be one, I'm afraid, that I can't answer right now."

5. The tactics of political action committees: "I don't really know how to answer that."

As for skepticism about his administration's grasp of foreign affairs, Reagan declares, "I'm satisfied that we do have a foreign policy."

July 15, 1981: Reagan dismisses stock fraud charges against CIA director William Casey as "old news."

July 23, 1981: Treasury Secretary Donald Regan invites the president to join the negotiating session at which his tax-cut bill is being shaped. Reagan replies, "Heck, no. I'm going to leave this to you experts. I'm not going to get involved in details."

Aug. 5, 1981: The Reagan administration begins sending dismissal notices to over 5,000 striking members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Union (PATCO). By week's end, the union is broken. In the years that follow, U.S. air-traffic fatalities rise exponentially.

Aug. 31, 1981: An unnamed White House aide tells a reporter, "There are times when you really need (President Reagan) to do some work, and all he wants to do is tell stories about his movie days."

Sept. 4, 1981: The Agriculture Department proposes cutting the size of school lunches and offering tofu, yogurt, cottage cheese, or peanuts as viable meat substitutes. In addition, condiments such as ketchup and pickle relish would be reclassified as vegetables.

Sept. 11, 1981: Nancy Reagan defends her decision to spent $209,508 in donated funds on a 4,732-piece china set: "The White House really badly, badly needs china. It's badly needed."

Sept. 23, 1981: President Reagan plays host to boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and his wife. "We're very proud," says the president, "to have Sugar Ray and Mrs. Ray here."

Sept. 25, 1981: President Reagan states that he in untroubled by the drop in stock prices "because I don't have any."

Oct. 23, 1981: The national debt hits $1 trillion.

Nov. 23, 1981: President Reagan vetoes a stopgap spending bill, which forces the federal government--for the first time in history--to temporarily shut down. Says House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, "He knows less about the budget than any president in my lifetime. He can't even carry on a conversation about the budget. It's an absolute and utter disgrace."

Dec. 5, 1981: New York Times headline: REAGAN WIDENS INTELLIGENCE ROLE: GIVES C.I.A. DOMESTIC SPYING POWER.

Dec. 16, 1981: During a House of Commons debate, British Labour Party member Andrew Faulds refers to President Reagan as "that incoherent cretin."

Dec. 20, 1981: New York Times headline: REAGAN OFFICIALS SEEK TO EASE RULES ON NURSING HOMES; PROPOSALS INCLUDE REPEAL OF REGULATIONS ON SANITATION, SAFETY, AND CONTAGION.

And that barely scratches the surface of Ronald Reagan's FIRST YEAR in the White House!!!

president. And the wonderful Republicans hid that from the American people, because they wanted to ride into office on his popularity (he was a good television personality), so I'd say he wasn't great because he didn't have his whole mind about him, during most of his term.

Kind of like Georgie boy.

An image I still have of the Reagan years is our ambassador Jean Fitzpatrick dancing merrily with the then dictator of Argentina at a ball in Buenos Aires. It was telling because it showed in the most revolting way Reagan's support for the rightwing thugs across the continent who were putting dissidents in mass graves (Those former pals of ours are now accused of genocide by their own people). Kirkpatrick herself justified America's coziness with dictatorships because, she insisted, they can be changed, while communist regimes cannot (she weas sure wrong on that point.) Note that support for Democracy never entered her or her boss's head.

The Iran-Contra investigations ... maybe someone with a stronger stomach could describe here how the Reagan government brought disgrace to everything the U.S. is "supposed" to stand for.

His Admin. took Iraq off the State sponsor terror list that enabled US companies to sell Iraq dual use technologies and the heliocopters used to gas his own people. Our government also provided him with war intel. Opposed the Prevention of Genocide Act that would have established sanctions against Iraq.

His Admin. took Iraq off the State sponsor terror list that enabled US companies to sell Iraq dual use technologies and the heliocopters used to gas his own people. Our government also provided him with war intel. Opposed the Prevention of Genocide Act that would have established sanctions against Iraq.

and I'll do it again.
How did he win reelection in 1984, winning 49 states, winning the Union vote, and running record deficits?
My opinion, because things were so bad during the Carter years.
Carter was a boob, brought the Shaw to the U.S. for medical treatment,(we're still paying a price for that today),quit selling grain to the Soviets (Yes it did encourage south america to burn some more rain forests to grow wheat),sat on his hands while interest rates went through the ceiling.
Probably most important, he could talk over the press directly to the american public.
Love him or hate him, he kicked our democratic collective ass up and down the block.
The "blue dogs" were a result of Reagon...(or Carter)
Party switchin' (Dem to Repug) became popular.
Some in our party have never gotten over it.(read above posts)

Carter gave us four years of peace and had his ambasadors standing up to Latin American tyrants, instead of coddling them, for the first time in our history. Reagan set the clock back to re-instate our enthusastic support for those mass murderers.

of what we wanted him to do...on every issue...consistently...and was vindicated...turns out he and the old bag Thatcher were right about the oppressive nature of the USSR, but many on the left just couldn't bring themselves to admit it...We saw it as our last best hope for world socialism and it failed, thanks largely to him subverting it at every turn, including funding EVERYONE who was fighting the communists (which turned out not to be legal, but that is beside the point...he still sucked as!!). He also funded an arms race that democrats tried to freeze..put offensive missles in Europe and did all kinds of scary things to keep the world on edge. The USSR tried to match him dollar for dollar but couldn't sustain it. Yes, they probably would have collapsed anyway but there is no question he accelerated the process. Bottom line..We lost he won...by 44 states, then by FORTY NINE STATES in 84'...an absolute blowout over an openly liberal candidate. This was devastating to the left...Bottom line: He was EFFECTIVE in crushing communism overseas and dealing a severe blow to socialism in America. THIS is the true reason why many here hate and loathe him. Let's just be honest about it.

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Gave in to the terrorists, packed up and left.

but I remember "Lefties" being aware of the oppressive nature of the USSR long before Reagan was president.

People here have listed many reasons to loathe him and many of them are direct personal economic, justice and quality of life issues. I'm not aware of anyone who didn't like him because he dealt "a severe blow to socialism in America."

completely.

Reagan's 1986 State of the Union Address was scheduled for the evening of January 28. The Challenger accident earlier that morning forced a rescheduling of the speech until February 4. There was some speculation that the WH was pressuring NASA to get the launch off so Reagan could make a reference to it during his speech.

It's only speculation, so take it FWIW.

RONALD REAGAN RECORDS AS FIRST
(1900-1989)

(Peggy Noonan pay attention)

1.First to turn America into a DEBTOR nation
2. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of national income in eight years
3. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of gdp over eight years
4. First to double the deficit in just eigh t years
5. First to “almost”: triple the national DEBT in just eight years
6. First to increase SPENDING by 80%--over 8 years.
7. First to SPEND more in eight years than was spent in prior 50 years.
8. First to have “real” INTEREST RATES of 8% after averaging 1% over 35 years.
9. First to keep PRIME INTEREST RATES at 20%.
10.First to over value the dollar to the yen at rate of 262 yen to 1 dollar.
11.First to have served as Governor and increase STATE SPENDING by 112%
12.First to have HOME LOAN INTEREST RATES as high as 16%
13. First to CUT TAXES by 60% for his rich pals
14. First to allow the SAVINGS AND LOAN INDUSTRY to be raided after signing a deregulatory bill and proclaiming “I think we have hit the jackpot”. Come and get it the vaults are unguarded.
15. First to deal with TERRORISTS
16. First to send an AUTOGRAPHED BIBLE to a man he called “The Satan of Terrorists”.
17. First to have an ADMIRAL plead the Fifth Amendment.
18. First to have a stealing, lying, gutless wife abusing MARINE LT. COLONEL plead the Fifth Amendment.
19. First to have a “sitting” CABINET MEMBER INDICTED
20. First to have an ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE INDICTED.
21. First to have an ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE SENT TO PRISON.
22. First to have over 100 MEMBERS OF AN ADMINISTRATION CHARGED WITH CRIMES..
23. First to have more members of his administration charged with crimes than CUMULATIVE TOTAL OF ALL OTHER PRESIDENTS in the twentieth century
24. First to set a record for the LARGEST ONE DAY PERCENTAGE DECLINE in the DOW in history. 10-19-87
25. First to have over $10,000,000 INCREASE IN WEALTH from serving for 8 years as president.
26. First to testify ”under oath” 130 times that ”I DON’T REMEMBER” .
27. First to have an Admiral with a photographic memory testify 128 times “ I DON’T REMEMBER”.
28. First to undergo BRAIN SURGERY a few months after leaving office. No pain no gain.
29. First to, repeatedly, FALSIFY HIS WIFE’S AGE. As tho anyone cared.
30. First to promote his religious faith and never have an ACTIVE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.
31. First to never use the term JESUS CHRIST in speeches.
32. First to seek GUIDANCE FROM THE STARS not from God
33. First to have had a SHOTGUN WEDDING.
34. First to have worked as a SHILL in Las Vegas.
35. First to call a Stealing, Lying, Psychotic, wife abusing Marine a “LIAR.
36. First to have been OPENLY ALIENATED from his children.
37. First To have served with ALZHIMERS
38. First to have UNEMPLOYMENT AT 10.8% since great depression.
39. First to attack a small unprotected nation with 88,000 inhabitants and 10,000 bb guns then PROCLAIM -“America stands tall again”— “we have whipped the Vietnam Syndrome”-we have defeated communism”. Gosh! What if we had whipped Cyprus?.
40. #1-in FARM FORECLOSURES
41. #1-In BANK FAILURES
42. #1-In SAVINGS AND LOAN FAILURES
43. #1-In Percent increase in PERSONAL BANKRUPTCIES
44. #1-In recorded MISSTATEMENTS
45. #1-In never having a single press conference in which he did not make at least one or more INCORRECT STATEMENTS.
46. #1-In needing a staff person standby during press conferences to tell the press “WHAT HE REALLY MEANT”.
47. #1-In having SERVICEMEN KILLED during peacetime.
48. #1-In largest DROP IN POPULARITY in one week.
49. #1-In being first to HONOR NAZI STORM TROOPERS by calling them” Innocent Victims”
50. #1-In being first to be labeled “BRAIN DEAD AFFABLE DUNCE’ by this writer.
51. First to lie-over and over-to reporters “I DO NOT DYE MY HAIR my barber uses a special shampoo”
52. First to have a wife who ”forced” him to WEAR THREE SUITS in one day
53. First to boast “Not bad for a DUMB GUY who worked only 20 hours per week”.
54. First to have his wife sit nearby and WHISPER ANSWERS to questions
55. First to FALL ASLEEP while the Pope spoke
56. First to invite the Pope to visit the White House and “BRING THE WIFE AND KIDS”
57. First to have his press secretary remove him from the microphone because he could not answer questions. Then, as the reporter
yelled out “answer my question” he replied “MY HANDLERS WON’T LET ME SPEAK”. Quick get the white coat.
58. First 20th Century president to have historians RATE HIM BELOW every president of the 20th except for Richard Nixon. 1994 Poll.
59. First to give us a First Lady with a past reputation for giving the BEST BJ in Hollywood.
60. First to suggest his eldest son undergo PSYCHIATRIC examination
61. First to have been voted in British polls (twice) as the ”MOST FEARED LEADER IN THE WORLD” sic em Rambo.


62. First to serve as Governor on a ”conservative” platform and INCREASE SPENDING BY 112%.
63. First Governor TO INCREASE personal income taxes by 60%, tax increase on cigarettes by 200%, state tax collections by 152%.
64. First to have a Special Assistant say on national TV “sometimes you had to HIT HIM ON THE HEAD with a 2 x 4 to get his attention”
65. First to have his official biographer state on national TV ‘After he was shot in 1981he GOT SLOWER AND SLOWER EACH YEAR. His speech got slower. He deliberated more and he hesitated more when he spoke. He lost his physical quickness and would not make decisions on the spot. It was a very, very slow and steady mental and physical decline”.
66. First to have a POPULARITY RATING OF ONLY 35% after his first two years in office.
67. First president to have been DIVORCED
68. First president to have the Geriatrics Department of a major
university study his behavior and conclude that AFTER THREE YEARS IN OFFICE HE HAD ALZHIMERS.

Ownership of the media began accumlate in the hands of fewer and fewer people during Reagan's presidency.

Part of the reason we're getting so much propoganda now is Reagan's attacks on public television and media ownership regulations.

-

for surviving the hell of the Reagan years.

"I survived the Reagan years and all I have left is this lousy t-shirt."

...resulting in hundreds of arts organizations (opera houses, musical theater groups, dance companies) to go bankrupt and shut down. Reagan was the first president I voted against when I was 18, and beginning my first year at a music conservatory. I spent those years in school watching my career erode around me before I had even started. I did manage to have a professional career (and barely make ends meet) for a number of years, but finally gave it up for a better quality of life. I don't blame Reagan for ruining my first career, because there are many I knew who have had more success. It's just that odds of succeeding were severely changed by Reagan.

He gutted important programs and drastically cut spending. He created a huge deficit and national debt. He supported (and the CIA created and trained) the Nicaraguan Contras who slaughtered civilians, women, and children and when Congress refused to appropriate any more money for the Contras, he went behind Congress' back and raised money through illegal arms sales to Iran and filtered that money to the Contras. Interestingly enough, the man that did the investigative research on that was a young senator by the name of John Kerry.

Despite the a-hole and failure he was, he was re-elected in a landslide because of one thing. He drastically lowered taxes. His opponent (Mondale) ran on a platform of raising taxes. Reagan said he would lower them more. That's it. That's all that counts to selfish, small-minded Americans. "Taxes up or taxes down?"

who lived in a romanticized Hollywood world of good guys and bad guys, cowboys and Commies, whom more sinister forces in the corporate/military/wingnut world quickly realized would make a perfect front-man character actor in their greed- and power-driven adventure film. They're still using him.

Ronny is responsible for thousands of deaths, because he ignored the disease because he considered it a "gay" disease.

Ronny trained and equipped our friend OBL. Then abandonded him when he was no longer usefull. That's when he turned on his creator.

Cost our country billions. The government insured all those banks and ronny removed all the regulations on them and allowed them to go into bankruptcy to the tune of hundreds of billions. Plus he DOUBLE our national deficit during his horrible 8 years.

--------------------------RONALD REAGAN RECORDS AS FIRST---------------------------
(1900-1989)

1. First to turn America into a DEBTOR nation

2. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of national income in eight years

3. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of gdp over eight years

4. First to double the deficit in just eigh t years

5. First to “almost”: triple the national DEBT in just eight years

6. First to increase SPENDING by 80%--over 8 years.

7. First to SPEND more in eight years than was spent in prior 50 years.

8. First to have “real” INTEREST RATES of 8% after averaging 1% over 35 years.

9. First to keep PRIME INTEREST RATES at 20%.

10. First to over value the dollar to the yen at rate of 262 yen to 1 dollar.

11. First to have served as Governor and increase STATE SPENDING by 112%

12. First to have HOME LOAN INTEREST RATES as high as 16%

13. First to CUT TAXES by 60% for his rich pals

14. First to allow the SAVINGS AND LOAN INDUSTRY to be raided after signing a deregulatory bill and proclaiming “I think we have hit the jackpot”. Come and get it the vaults are unguarded.

15. First to deal with TERRORISTS

16. First to send an AUTOGRAPHED BIBLE to a man he called “The Satan of Terrorists”.

17. First to have an ADMIRAL plead the Fifth Amendment.

18. First to have a stealing, lying, gutless wife abusing MARINE LT. COLONEL plead the Fifth Amendment.

19. First to have a “sitting” CABINET MEMBER INDICTED

20. First to have an ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE INDICTED.

21. First to have an ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE SENT TO PRISON.

22. First to have over 100 MEMBERS OF AN ADMINISTRATION CHARGED WITH CRIMES.

23. First to have more members of his administration charged with crimes than CUMULATIVE TOTAL OF ALL OTHER PRESIDENTS in the twentieth century

24. First to set a record for the LARGEST ONE DAY PERCENTAGE DECLINE in the DOW in history. 10-19-87

25. First to have over $10,000,000 INCREASE IN WEALTH from serving for 8 years as president.

26. First to testify ”under oath” 130 times that ”I DON’T REMEMBER”.

27. First to have an Admiral with a photographic memory testify 128 times “ I DON’T REMEMBER”.

28. First to undergo BRAIN SURGERY a few months after leaving office. No pain no gain.

29. First to, repeatedly, FALSIFY HIS WIFE’S AGE. As tho anyone cared.

30. First to promote his religious faith and never have an ACTIVE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.

31. First to never use the term JESUS CHRIST in speeches.

32. First to seek GUIDANCE FROM THE STARS not from God

33. First to have had a SHOTGUN WEDDING.

34. First to have worked as a SHILL in Las Vegas.

35. First to call a Stealing, Lying, Psychotic, wife abusing Marine a “LIAR.”

36. First to have been OPENLY ALIENATED from his children.

37. First To have served with ALZHIMERS

38. First to have UNEMPLOYMENT AT 10.8% since great depression.

39. First to attack a small unprotected nation with 88,000 inhabitants and 10,000 bb guns then PROCLAIM -“America stands tall again”— “we have whipped the Vietnam Syndrome”-we have defeated communism”. Gosh! What if we had whipped Cyprus?.

40. #1-in FARM FORECLOSURES

41. #1-In BANK FAILURES

42. #1-In SAVINGS AND LOAN FAILURES

43. #1-In Percent increase in PERSONAL BANKRUPTCIES

44. #1-In recorded MISSTATEMENTS

45. #1-In never having a single press conference in which he did not make at least one or more INCORRECT STATEMENTS.

46. #1-In needing a staff person standby during press conferences to tell the press “WHAT HE REALLY MEANT”.

47. #1-In having SERVICEMEN KILLED during peacetime.

48. #1-In largest DROP IN POPULARITY in one week.

49. #1-In being first to HONOR NAZI STORM TROOPERS by calling them ”Innocent Victims”

50. #1-In being first to be labeled “BRAIN DEAD AFFABLE DUNCE’ by this writer.

51. First to lie-over and over-to reporters “I DO NOT DYE MY HAIR my barber uses a special shampoo”

52. First to have a wife who ”forced” him to WEAR THREE SUITS in one day

53. First to boast “Not bad for a DUMB GUY who worked only 20 hours per week”.

54. First to have his wife sit nearby and WHISPER ANSWERS to questions

55. First to FALL ASLEEP while the Pope spoke

56. First to invite the Pope to visit the White House and “BRING THE WIFE AND KIDS”

57. First to have his press secretary remove him from the microphone because he could not answer questions. Then, as the reporter yelled out “answer my question” he replied “MY HANDLERS WON’T LET ME SPEAK”. Quick get the white coat.

58. First 20th Century president to have historians RATE HIM BELOW every president of the 20th except for Richard Nixon. 1994 Poll.

59. First to give us a First Lady with a past reputation for giving the BEST BJ in Hollywood.

60. First to suggest his eldest son undergo PSYCHIATRIC examination

61. First to have been voted in British polls (twice) as the ”MOST FEARED LEADER IN THE WORLD” sic em Rambo.

62. First to serve as Governor on a ”conservative” platform and INCREASE SPENDING BY 112%.

63. First Governor TO INCREASE personal income taxes by 60%, tax increase on cigarettes by 200%, state tax collections by 152%.

64. First to have a Special Assistant say on national TV “sometimes you had to HIT HIM ON THE HEAD with a 2 x 4 to get his attention”

65. First to have his official biographer state on national TV ‘After he was shot in 1981 he GOT SLOWER AND SLOWER EACH YEAR. His speech got slower. He deliberated more and he hesitated more when he spoke. He lost his physical quickness and would not make decisions on the spot. It was a very, very slow and steady mental and physical decline”.

66. First to have a POPULARITY RATING OF ONLY 35% after his first two years in office.

67. First president to have been DIVORCED

68. First president to have the Geriatrics Department of a major university study his behavior and conclude that AFTER THREE YEARS IN OFFICE HE HAD ALZHIMERS.

-------------------------------- THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE---------------------------------------

Arming terrorists to fund illegal wars, raising payroll taxes...

"he believed the opposite of everything we believed and did the opposite..

Edited on Thu Apr-29-04 07:00 AM by leftyandproud
of what we wanted him to do...on every issue...consistently...and was vindicated...turns out he and the old bag Thatcher were right about the oppressive nature of the USSR, but many on the left just couldn't bring themselves to admit it...We saw it as our last best hope for world socialism and it failed, thanks largely to him subverting it at every turn, including funding EVERYONE who was fighting the communists (which turned out not to be legal, but that is beside the point...he still sucked as!!). He also funded an arms race that democrats tried to freeze..put offensive missles in Europe and did all kinds of scary things to keep the world on edge. The USSR tried to match him dollar for dollar but couldn't sustain it. Yes, they probably would have collapsed anyway but there is no question he accelerated the process. Bottom line..We lost he won...by 44 states, then by FORTY NINE STATES in 84'...an absolute blowout over an openly liberal candidate. This was devastating to the left...Bottom line: He was EFFECTIVE in crushing communism overseas and dealing a severe blow to socialism in America. THIS is the true reason why many here hate and loathe him. Let's just be honest about it."



I don't know why this post bothered me.

Perhaps it's because it makes me wonder whether you'd rather live in a state like the USSR?

Johnson's account of the 1980s and the Reagan administration gives a feel for the greed and mendacity (and general lack of moral leadership from the administration) of the time.

It also puts the lie to silly Sean Hannity claims that Iran-contra was an attempt to smear Oliver North. Haynes Johnson gets into the bipartisan outrage over Iran-contra and even quotes a juicy letter from an angry Barry Goldwater.

And as for supply-side economics "working," no, I don't believe you can make that claim. We wound up with a huge deficit after 12 years of Bush and Reagan, and spent most of the '90s digging ourselves out. In addition, the supposedly great tax changes in the 1980s actually meant higher tax burdens on the working class and middle class. In other words, the income tax rates were reduced, but Social Security taxes and the like increased at a faster rate than they were originally supposed to. That meant a lighter burden for those with the highest incomes and a tougher burden for the rest of us.

The theory behind supply side economics was that, left to themselves, the wealthy would solve all of our problems. Reagan's biggest issue in his 1980 campaign was his plan to eliminate the deficit via supply-side economics.

Of course, the exact opposite occured. The deficit sky-rocketed. We went through the worst recession since the last depression. We then went through a second and (under Bush) a third nearly as bad.

The Reagan/Bush era was one of boom and bust. Everybody I knew in that era spent a good part of it with jobs making good money. And every one of these people spent an even larger part of it unemployed. I know people who moved to Texas specifically because Texas provided the largest unemployment checks in the contiguous forty-eight states. You went into your job assuming you would be laid off shortly thereafter.

As for Keynes not working, Reagan also launched the largest peace time increases in government spending in this country's history. This is where much of the boom came from which is the very definition of Keynesian Economics. Reagan may have talked down Keynes, but he practiced it a great deal.

Clinton brought in two major changes. First, he raised taxes on those making a couple hundred thousand a year while lowering taxes on the rest of us. Second, he appointed the right people as the SEC.

How did raising taxes help the economy?

Dunno. But I have a really simple guess. How do you avoid paying taxes on your investment? Reinvest it! Then cash out when taxes are lowered. This may explain why there has been a recession during every Republican administration since World War II. Knowing someday a Reaganite would be elected, the investors kept their money in the market.

How does increased SEC regulations help?

That's not what I meant. I'm talking about "hostile takeover". Now there is a nice horrid backflash to the 80s. While corporate mergers INCREASED under Clinton, these were mutually agreed upon mergers. The Reagan/Bush SEC permitted "hostile takeovers". The difference is in the time and money spent, not on producing whatever it is your company is supposed to produce, but on launching or fighting takeover bids. The single most important factor in fighting either side of a takeover bid is cash. When W was appointed the first thing General Electric did was lay off a bunch of their employees in preparation for a hostile takeover. This is not conjecture. They made that a public announcement. Now, did anybody in their right minds thing that General Electric would fare badly under a Republican administration? Of course not. In fact, that is what made them so attractive. So you have a major corporation LAYING OFF their employees while anticipating increased sales. But they need that cash in their hand. You see the boom-bust cycle starting before W is even sworn in.

The single worst thing about Reagan wasn't Reagan, but the devils with whom he made a deal. He, in the words of one pundit of the era, "made racism okay again".

I doubt Reagan was more than middling racist. I believe he was more indifferent than hostile. But his indifference was enough to unleash the bottled up racists. I graduated high school in 1980 and, frankly, couldn't have pointed out a single member of my graduating class whom I knew as racist. By the mid 80s everyone with whom I was still in contact were openly racist and failed to understand why I was not since it was now okay to be so.

That was a rather depressing discovery.

Is he worse than Bush*?

many economists. Bush I referred to Reagan's economics as 'voodoo economics' but Bush II has resurrected supply-side thinking and has disguised it as populist tax cuts for the common man.