Let' s not forget what was going on the world when Reagan "took" the Presidency

We had just come off of a Carter presidency who tried to wean us off of foreign oil, who tried to get us to conserve, who initiated CAFE standards for automakers. He encouraged people to turn back their thermostats, wear sweaters, and CONSERVE our precious energy and resources. He encouraged us to be good stewards and leave the world better for others. We are all in this together.
Along came Reagan. Undid all of the good things that Carter did. Conservation out the window. Encouraged us to consume as much whenever and wherever we wanted. Use all the oil you can! Drive the biggest car you can! Consume Consume Consume! rang out through the land. Our country turned from shared sacrifice to ME ME ME ME!
I'd like for some stupid fucker to come along and say NOW who was right and who was wrong? Goddamned this pisses me off.:mad:

even though I don't agree with hardly any of his policies.

That's what Obama said, for anybody who cares to look at the actual quote.

And maybe you had a job in 1980. I was unemployed for the only time in my life, for months on end. Michigan, only national. People forget. Things didn't get truly good again until the 90's.

He capped the price of milk and but didn't cap the price of feed. He is responsible for running the majority of family dairy farms out of business. My dad REFUSED to file bankruptcy. Sold off every asset and drained every account he and my mom had to pay his bills. He was raised to pay his bills. Figured he had time to rebuild.
The next year, he got cancer. Capped out his insurance policy and had nothing left to fall back on. My mom ended up selling their LAST asset (their home) to pay THOSE bills. She had to start completely over when my dad died when she was 45 years old with NOTHING.
Ronald Reagan is THE reason I became a Democrat.

it was that way for everybody. So yes, people were absolutely looking for some kind of change.

I didn't say I thought the change was good. I just said things were really awful in 1980 and Reagan communicated his vision of the US very successfully, and that's all Obama said.

I don't think we've had an FDR President since FDR.

clearly state that what they did is a no no.

He's attempting to point to what he wants to do, transit the country away from all of that onto a completely new path, a completely new paradigm. It's kind of hard to make that case without pointing to the people who did that before you, for better or worse.

People need to grow up and quit using every utterance as a political excuse to attack.

then Reagan came along and told us it was okay to be selfish and act like spoiled children. After the sacrificing we had done, the country (collectively) was ready to give in to our pleasure principle. THAT is the change people were looking for.

I spent the 80's raising kids.

:shrug:

I spent the 80's working--2 jobs at a time sometimes..going to college...and raising kids.
Reagan was not MY President.

Because that's exactly what Obama also said in that interview. Bill Clinton didn't manage to get the country united around him so we could set ourselves on a new trajectory. All Republicans want to do is cut taxes and that doesn't work. We need a new philosophy of looking at government.

that made people feel good about themselves. I cannot understand why people were hoodwinked by that.
Obama has already likened himself to JFK--so now why is he invoking Reagan? JFK didn't get him enough of a poll bounce?
It makes me absolutely sick that ANY Democratic candidate for President would use Reagan--even if he/she is just pandering.

Obama is not "change" look at his history. Look at his policies. Look at the people he has advising him--entrenched Washingtonians.

And now this. I just shake my head and wonder how it is that America keeps getting hoodwinked.

We didn't do farming but many businesses tied into farming. It was bad.

the oil shocks from the early and mid 70's were what tanked the economy (carter didn't take office until january 1977). they just left carter to hold the bag.

remember ford's naively idiotic 'whip inflation now' buttons???

carter didn't invent inflation, it was a republican bequest to him. and the worst of the unemployment was under reagan, not carter.


reagan took credit for carter appointee paul volker fixing (albeit painfully) the economy that nixon/ford screwed up.

I am well aware of what went on. That does not mean I'm not capable of reminding people what the REST OF THE COUNTRY believed. Objectivity is not a strong suit at DU.

Ollie North can bring his Fox News bus and they can reminisce about the good old days.

Fair and Obama can tell the crowd just like Reagan he too believes in "states rights".....and he can tell the crowd of how "INSPIRATIONAL" reagan was and is to him....

Then maybe a long haired old hippie like myself carrying a big Hillary banner will shout out to Obama, "Hey Obama, did you know you are speaking at a place where several miles down the road three civil rights workers were killed by a bunch of racists and do you know that Reagan was a damn racist?


Yes reagan was racist. Reagan was a damn racist! Racist is as racist does. I care, how Reagan mistreated African American in his personal life and in his budgets. I care that prominent people seem to think that he wasn’t really a racist and maybe obama doesn't either. What I care about is that Ronald Reagan, the patron saint of the Conservative Movement, made a career out of deliberately appealing to the racist vote. it brought him to power,and it was a constant tool throughout his career. Ronald Reagan acted in public as a racist acts. He deliberately set out to appeal to racists and continue the odious Southern Strategy. In doing so, he helped to mainstream racism in the GOP and thus the country.

wtf? why?

he just got screwed over because he held less power than the folks who wished to screw us all ... thanks to their friends in high political places. Doesn't mean he wasn't great and a true visionary.

If his policies had been left intact, I have no doubt that we wouldn't be paying $3+ a gallon for gas right now.

According to the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car", Reagan made war on the sun.

I have to google that.

I sure do. I was THERE.

He told everyone in the US that he'd light up Teheran like a Christmas tree...and they believed it.

And they LIKED the idea, the stupid fuckers...

With pleasure.

squads, his financially supported death squads, "freedom fighters." Bush deceives us just like the sweet talk of this evil man. Let us not be deceived by the guile of such republican politicians ever again.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4091247

The "Fuck everyone else and fuck responsibility! I want mine right now!!! Gimme!"

If corporations with global market aspirations had not deliberately sabotaged his presidency for their profit, this country would still be a major economic power/creditor nation respected as a beacon of democracy and social progress.

and the shrubs and Zany get their fascist oligarchy well established. People still see some kind of fairy-tale about him that was swallowed a long time ago about him being a great uniter and peoples' president and returner of decency and patriotism and all of that which is complete nonsense. He did nothing good for anyone but the few and we are all suffering because of his and his friends' actions RIGHT NOW!

And now that I am looking into Obama and watching these videos about him I like him even less. Not just because he refered to Reagan, but because I see glaring incompetencies, and dangers in the prospect of him being propped into power. I do not feel secure by his empty words of hope, and it doesn't help when he says things like he does about how great he thinks Reagan was.

And before him, there was... what? Abe Lincoln? Maybe Theodore Roosevelt, if you dig the whole "socially aware but more macho than Burt Reynolds at a sausage festival" thing.

That's why Reagan got elected in the first place. Obama's quote doesn't take anything away from Carter's accomplishments.

If America had embraced Carter's Energy Policies, and continued with them, we wouldn't be in the trouble we are today.
The FIRST thing Bill Clinton should have done when elected was to put the Solar Panels back on the White House roof!