Someday it will be crystal clear to all just what a terrible president Ronald Reagan was-

[kpete]

Someday it will be crystal clear to all just what a terrible president Ronald Reagan was--he stuck the knife in the heart of the American dream, launched us toward our polarized society, was racist, corrupt, fiscally irresponsible, bad at the job.

Link to tweet

[NewJeffCT]

1. Before Reagan, the US was a net creditor

he turned us into a net debtor. The US being a creditor was a huge stick that we could carry in our foreign policy

[dalton99a]

4. +1. Something never mentioned by fiscal 'conservatives'

[AlexSFCA]

10. the most fiscally irresponsible president

set us on unsustainable debt spiral that we could never recover from.

[exboyfil]

29. It is even worse when you consider the Social Security Trust Fund

was used to paper over some of that deficit was well. Before the 1983 law it was virtually a pay as you go system. Now we have $3T (of the $22-23T we currently owe) in the Trust Fund.

Every last Republican has sent the deficit to GDP rising. Everyone. Obama had growth in the first two years of so (because of the Great Recession he was handed). He eventually stabilized the value. Trump is now accelerating the growth again.

[DENVERPOPS]

82. He raised

the Payroll taxes by doubling them to 15%.......Then they dumped all that money in the general account, declared that we could cut income taxes because we had a surplus, and did bunches of tax cuts that only went to the rich.

Actually, it was Bush/Cheney.....Reagan was just a puppet.

Not only that, he creamed the tax deductions middle class people used for years.
Two of the biggest being: All medical expenses, even a bottle of aspirin had been a tax deduction. Next was all interest except for a home mortgage was done away with. These were two overwhelming blows to the middle class, along with the Payroll taxes double to 15%. We were in the middle of a recession and people were living off their credit cards.......He did away with the "Usury" interest tax laws. The maximum that could be charged borrowers on credit cards and car loans etc was 12% when he took office. Bush Cheney repealed that and made the top rate allowed to climb to 24%....

I could go on and on. The common thread thru the past 40 years was HWBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pearle, Wolfowitz and dozens of others in their cabal.........Over 100 were convicted in the Reagan admin, and HW Bush pardoned them all the first day in office and brought them into his admin. Same group was re-installed by Cheney during the WBush administration........

[SharonAnn]

95. Before Reagan, sales taxes were also deductible.

[Mr.Bill]

108. So was the interest on credit cards

and car loans.

[unblock]

111. poppy didn't pardon anyone on his first day in office

and the particularly odious pardons of the iran-contra crooks were all done when he was already a lame duck in december, 1992.

but yeah, they're all crooks, they all screw the middle class, and they all abuse whatever tools they have around them, whatever the consequences and whatever the principles. if it's done in the name of making the already rich richer, then it's all good as far as republicans are concerned.

[DENVERPOPS]

117. You are right....sorry

In December 1992, less than a month before he was to leave office, Bush gave full pardons to six former Reagan administration officials, including former defense secretary Cap Weinberger, presidential assistant Elliot Abrams, and national security adviser Robert McFarland, all of whom had been indicted and/or convicted of criminal charges by the independent prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh.



Republican's Manta: THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS ....Period

[DENVERPOPS]

119. Check this out unblock

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/10/17/157477/-

[shadowmayor]

50. 1980

US #1 Exporter in manufactured goods
US #1 Importer in raw materials
US #1 Lender of money

2010

US #1 Importer of manufactured goods
US #1 Exporter of raw materials
US #1 Borrower of money

or as some of us have called it - Mourning in America thanks to Ronnie Raygun

[rickyhall]

93. 1980: Leader of the Free World 2019: Not so much!

[Bev54]

137. Why has it taken so long.

I am Canadian and I have known for years how bad Reagan was and never understood why people in the US thought he was so great. It is about time everybody quits building him up to something he never was.

[Botany]

2. He took down the solar panels on the White House in 1981

Can you imagine where we and the world would be if we had stayed the course
of green energy for the past 40 years?

And he got rid of the fairness doctrine too.

[unblock]

20. one of the earlier examples of republican "triggering libs"

seriously, the practical, reasonable thing to do is just leave them up, even if you wouldn't have putt them up in the first place.

the only reason to take them down was to be a partisan ass.

[llmart]

22. Petty vindictiveness.

Now we have it on a daily basis from the GOP because this country had the nerve to put a black man in the Presidency.

[KPN]

48. Exactly!

[CaptYossarian]

26. Just as Trump destroys everything Obama did, don't forget

that President Carter had those panels installed.

Ray-gun was a slimeball. He also allowed so many to die from AIDS to please Falwell and the other sickos that influenced his poor decisions.

Nixon made me a Democrat.
Reagan made me a liberal.
Scott Walker made me an activist.

[StClone]

106. I voted for Reagan.

And, I debated liberal fellow students on, especially, war and Defense. Later when I found all the things I believed and wanted were being destroyed by Reagan's Administration, I turned with a vengeance.

Reagan made me a Democrat
Scott Walker made me an Activist Democrat
Trump makes me a militant Democrat

[Botany]

30. If we had stayed the course on renewable or no/low carbon energy how many billions of tons ...

Last edited Tue Dec 17, 2019, 12:34 PM - Edit history (1)

... of CO2 wouldn't have gone into our atmosphere which then triggered warming and the
unthawing of the permafrost in the arctic which led to the release of tons of CH4 (methane)
also a green house gas and the melting of the polar ice cap which has really fucked up our
weather .... see midwest farms under water and so on.

And how many jobs would have been created by green energy too.

[dchill]

101. There's nothing worse than an asshole in your face.

But Reagan enjoyed being just that.

[Botany]

154. Reagan was just a tool for the wealthy and the right* but he understood the importance of ...

... the symbolism of taking down the solar panels. I had a friend's dad almost joyful in
that act of stupidity because, "I'm not going for those stupid hippie ideas because I like
being warm in my house."


* and the fossil fuel energy companies.

[dchill]

156. Plus, he DID enjoy it.

Way too much.

[lagomorph777]

28. One of the first deliberately evil acts of the conservative revolutionaries.

They are like the Taliban; they enjoy destroying all that is good, just for the sake of destruction.

[oldsoftie]

153. We would be SO far ahead of where ANYONE is right now if we'd kept going on solar

[Ohiogal]

3. Thanks, kpete

This post shows very clearly when this country's downfall first started rolling.

I think his popular catch phrase "Government is the Problem" somehow became tattooed on every Republican forehead. I cringe every time I read or hear people say what a great leader he was.

Our life expectancy/medical spending/income inequality is just abysmal when compared to most other developed countries. The so-called "American Dream" is just that, a dream.

[live love laugh]

63. Vivid memory: Inauguration Day 1981

At home with strep throat watching the ceremony. I was very young, knew little about politics and cared less. But the contrast between the Reagans on one side of the podium all spiffed up in designer clothing and the humble Carters on the opposite side, made me cry. It was really a picture worth a thousand words and a harbinger of what was to come.

One symbol, the exclamation mark (!), captured my feelings watching Reagan’s term unfold.

! -Fired air traffic controllers
! -Exportation of American manufacturing overseas
! -Incoherent communication (“well...” “well...”)
! -Gas lines

[DENVERPOPS]

76. In 1981

I was screaming my head off about what I was seeing.

People, it wasn't Reagan per se. It was the group of HWBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.

They were in charge throughout Reagans years. Reagan was nothing but a front man, and already having mental problems when he was elected. Then HW, et al took over, pardoned all the thugs in the Reagan Administration and installed the same players in his administration. Then, W got appointed and the same crowd gave us 8 more years.

This crowd has been working on this COUP for forty years, and they are millimeters away from pulling it off.
With what is being evidenced we are nearly at a CheckMate by them.

Katie Bar The Door, everyone

WASF

[Doremus]

99. Far as I'm concerned anyone with an (R) by their name is scum, Reagan or no. nt

[live love laugh]

142. I had no clue who any of the puppeteers were then

but I’ve learned and despise them all. Sadly the majority still don’t really know. They’re just beginning to take notice and it’s almost too late.

[MontanaFarmer]

5. Anyone who has bothered to look has been aware.

The media loves to fawn all over him because of his Hollywood background and his "hopeful" rhetoric, but he never gave a shit about people. Never. He was modern conservative orthodoxy to his phony bones. The societal norms of America, where we cared about people through policy, will never be the same due to Ronald Reagan. Fuck that guy and his propped-up legacy.

[RKP5637]

7. Well Said!!! " Fuck that guy and his propped-up legacy." n/t

[KPN]

53. My thoughts as someone who's been around for 69 years

exactly. All i’ve had to do is look around to see and know the destructive impact Reagan has had. It infuriates me when I hear people say he was a “transformational” President. As if it might be something good rather than the disaster his presidency actually was. The man was an egotistical, self-serving moron just like, though not quite so transparent, the one occupying the WH now. Both put there and propped up by southern aristocrats and others in the upper .1%.

[MontanaFarmer]

55. Transformational indeed.

From a functioning democracy (albeit with warts) to a corporatocracy/oligarchy. Freedumb to farm, tax cuts, attacks on social services. The transformation has been stark, and it's ugly. Thanks for your thoughts.

[gopiscrap]

74. totally agree

[dlk]

6. For many of us, it was abundantly clear from the beginning just how awful Ronald Reagan was...

...and Americans are living the "dream" of his legacy.

[Mr.Bill]

109. Especially those of us who lived in California

while he was governor.

[DENVERPOPS]

138. We all say Reagan this and Reagan that.

Hell, on inauguration day Reagan was already feeble minded. He was merely a front man......Same with W by the way........

It was HWBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their cabal. Eight years of Reagan, Four years of HW, eight years of WBush, The people in all those administrations were HWBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pearle, Wolfowitz, etc etc etc.

The above named were the perpetrators of this entire mess that they handed off to Trump and the Republican Senators to complete the COUP. I wonder if they knew who Trump, The Republican Politicians, and Republican Party would turn to for the money to push forward.........Regardless if they knew, at this point they can do nothing but push forward. They are going for broke people........
Katie Bar the Door.

WASF

[dlk]

140. Reagan was the beginning. Those who followed were exponentially worse

And Trump, without a doubt, is the worst of all.

[marble falls]

8. Lock him up.

[RKP5637]

9. His damn funeral went on forever. I'm surprised the GOP did not mummify him and place him in

a clear vault on display for worshiping him. He was a slick actor playing a role.

[dalton99a]

12. +1. Taxpayers spent $400 million to haul his carcass around and mourn his worthless legacy

[RKP5637]

21. It's no damn wonder there is not enough money left for the rest of the population. There is so

much bullshit that goes on in the US.

[MasonDreams]

11. Don't blame me I voted to reelect Jimmy Carter.

I'll never forget my friend's two cents during his funeral. He casually said, " Reagan is not dead".
Everybody turned to him, and I said "what?" He said " They haven't driven a stake thru his heart yet".

[LittleGirl]

146. same here.

my first vote after turning 18.

[Brainstormy]

13. So TRUE!

Ronnie really f-ed us over! What he did destroying the anti-trust laws was the worst. I have friends, though, who think he was an absolute saint.

[handmade34]

14. I've known it

for 40+ years... sad day when he was elected

[AllaN01Bear]

15. before regon was a terrible prez. he was a horrible gov. took the state 30 years to recover

from his policies and also from several other republijerks.

[CaptYossarian]

27. Plus how he felt about the student protesters.

[pecosbob]

16. No objective truth will ever overcome a lie that makes people money

[MarcA]

91. Agreed. And this is why the MSM is so bothsiderist. Unless someone

is really a threat to corporate rule.

[G_j]

17. K&R!!!

[RicROC]

18. hid the Alzheimers

not to mention, that Reagan had the beginnings of Alzheimers during his term, which was covered up by his close circle of 'friends'. The government was headed and run by people who were not elected.

Same this is happening right now. Trump has definite 'disabilites' which are again being cloaked from the American people.

Maybe time to rethink the 25th Amendment, which is unworkable, as conceived.

[Raster]

19. Ronnie Raygun* was the harbinger of death for the American middle class...

...and the American way of life. A shitty B-grade actor that was upstaged by a chimp, and made the decision to discard his supposed morals and standards and become the frontman for the slow-motion coup staged by big business and the uber-wealthy.

[llmart]

25. "the harbinger of death for the American middle class..."

I will never forget how he busted the air traffic controllers' union and went on to do the same to other unions. Unfortunately for our country, there are lots of people alive today who weren't back then to see how drastic the differences were from Carter to him. I despised him from the beginning when he thought catsup was a vegetable and senior citizens would be grateful to him for a huge block of government cheese.

[CaptYossarian]

31. He was even a union leader when he was sane. The Screen Actors' Guild.

I love telling that to neocons as much as I love telling Wisconsin's anti-union morons that their beloved Packers are in the NFLPA.

[llmart]

57. Wasn't he also a Democrat at one time?

But then again, so was the Dump. Shows you how "committed" they were to any principles other than the principle of self-interest.

[CaptYossarian]

103. He said he was a Dem until JFK.

All that hope for the future was foreign to him. I think he was born an old man.

[Freddie]

136. He "saw the light"

And converted to the “conservative” side thanks to Nancy’s father, a doctor who complained bitterly about taxes. Making sure the rich got to keep their $$ became his pet cause.

[SharonAnn]

96. He was a union leader when it was to his advantage. It was a personal benefit thing.

[DENVERPOPS]

139. And went on to do in other unions

I was an apprentice to become an electrician. Immediately after the PATCO people got trashed, every union across the U.S. was in jeopardy. Before Reagan did the PATCO workers, a journeyman was earning 22 bucks an hour (1981) and 26% fringe. You could support your family, buy a car, buy a home, put your kids thru college, have medical insurance that covered nearly anything, etc etc. MIDDLE CLASS AMERICA !!!!!!!

After the PATCO, the Denver Electrical Union was busted wide open. Suddenly, Journeymen were paid 12 bucks an hour with no fringe whatsoever.

In a way, it was the shot heard round the world figuratively speaking. And things just got worse and worse for the entire Middle Class and Lower Class from then on......

[llmart]

155. Your story is the story of many.

My brother was a truck driver - Teamster's union. During Reagan's years, he and the other drivers had to take drastic pay cuts and benefit cuts and his company found ways to get rid of the union drivers and hire non-union. My brother's pay was rolled back to what he was making when he first started, and this was after 15 years on the job. His wages and benefits never recovered.

Interesting, how some people have forgotten what Reagan's policies did to the middle class and now some of them still vote GOP and still can't see the handwriting on the wall.

Denial is such an interesting coping mechanism.

[Newest Reality]

102. Yes...

From what I have read, prior to Regan the uppity nature of the kind of response the government and big business was dealing with from a more stable and prosperous middle-class was not going to fly. They made a point not to let that happen again and here it is.

I have always seen the Raygun Era as the deliberate and carefully planned decision by those at the top of the MIC to bring us to where we are at now. My prognostications have not been incorrect, it seems.

It is easy for people to attribute the end of the middle-class as we knew it, safety nets, along with a rapidly increasing wealth inequity that is sucking us dry, as based more on current events, global issues and such. They are a factor, but our internal degradation, (now approaching 3rd-World in some cases) has been a long, slow effort to bring us to our knees. It has been successful.

If that point is going to be collectively ignored or dismissed, this downfall for the vast majority who are not in the winner's club will continue unabated and an oligarchy/theocracy/fascist/Neo-Feudal United States is the outcome, all controlled and directed by the next wave of AI/Automation that is primarily and tightly controlled by techno-monopolies, (Google, Apple, et al) who are among the wealthiest entities on the planet. They represent the elite and they have primary access to and control of new and powerful technologies that they can leverage to achieve this goal.

Our current debacle is not new or a cyclic outcome, it is a direct and obvious result of the hubris of the wealthy in this country and how dare we try to oppose or stop it. Simple.

[jalan48]

23. I agree. A real acting President.

[Gothmog]

24. I also feel that Reagan was a horrible POTUS

[dalton99a]

32. He was America's first fake president

https://timeline.com/ronald-reagan-astrology-quigley-aa81632662d9
Ronald Reagan actually used this San Francisco astrologist to make presidential decisions
Joan Quigley said she could even have predicted when the president got shot
Allen McDuffee
May 29, 2017

Ronald Reagan nearly got through his presidency without his secret adviser exposed.

But Donald Regan, Reagan’s chief of staff until he was ousted amid the Iran-Contra scandal, spilled in his 1988 book, For The Record, what he viewed as “the most closely guarded domestic secret of the Reagan White House.” He wrote that “Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.”

Before long, the astrologer who was advising the White House was identified as Joan Quigley.

The New York Post ran a story with the headline, “Astrologer Runs The White House” and the disclosure became fodder for jokes in Washington. On Capitol Hill, Representative Tony Coelho, the Democratic whip from California, blamed astrology for Republicans backing out of a revised trade bill. “Maybe an astrologer is telling them to object today.” Speaker of the House Jim Wright shot back, “It’s all right with me. I’m glad he consults somebody.”

[3catwoman3]

125. Truly mind-boggling,

[Kid Berwyn]

33. Pruneface, Friend of Fascists and Mafia alike.

EXCLUSIVE: Revealed, how the MAFIA helped Ronald Reagan get to the White House. Shocking documentary reveals Mob connections that catapulted him to the presidency - and how a probe was thwarted at 'the highest levels'

President Reagan owed his acting and political career to Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, chief of entertainment behemoth MCA, who was in bed with the Mob

An investigation into the relationship between MCA and the Mafia was halted and Federal prosecutors believe it was one of the 'political favors' that can be traced back to Reagan's White House

'Ronald Reagan is a complete slave of MCA who would do their bidding on anything,' one secret Justice Department document revealed

According to the producer of the documentary, Wages of Spin II: Bring Down The Wall, one MCA executive had ties to Mob boss John Gotti

'Reagan's whole career in politics was subsidized by MCA,' he asserts, and helped him financially because for a long time he was living above his means

The Mob was probably working Nancy Reagan too, according to the producer. 'She was a driving force behind Reagan'

By JERRY OPPENHEIMER
Daily Mail, PUBLISHED: 13:22 EST, 21 May 2014 | UPDATED: 03:42 EST, 22 May 2014

A shocking new documentary screened exclusively by MailOnline exposes the chilling conncections between the Mafia, one of Hollywood's most powerful entertainment companies and its head honcho Lew Wasserman and President Ronald Reagan and his Justice Department.

SNIP...

But there was a dark side to Wasserman - and to Reagan - all of which is revealed in a shocking new documentary, Wages of Spin II: Bring Down The Wall, that, according to the film's producer and those interviewed, links both of them in darkly shadowed ways to the Mafia, and the killing of a U.S. Department of Justice organized crime Strike Force investigation into Mob influence and infiltration at the highest levels of MCA.

SNIP...

Richard Stavin, a former veteran federal prosecutor who was assigned to the Justice Department's Organized Crime Strike Force in Los Angeles and was an integral member of the MCA-Mafia probe team, declared in the film for the first time:

'It's my belief that MCA and its' involvement with Mafia individuals, Mafia-dominated companies and our inability to pursue those was not happenstance. I believe it was an organized, orchestrated effort on the part of certain individuals within Washington, D.C. to keep a hands-off policy towards MCA.

'At the time, Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States and Edwin Meese was the Attorney General of the United States (Stavin's ultimate boss). A little known fact was MCA and Lew Wasserman supported Ronald Reagan when he wanted to become president of the Screen Actors Guild, which was the launch of Mr. Reagan's political career.

'I would like to think that the people in the highest levels of this government were not protective of MCA...But I'm not so sure about that.'


SNIP...

SAG's bylaws had always banned talent agencies like MCA from producing any form of entertainment, such as TV programs and movies. But during Reagan's fifth year as the guild's president a secret blanket waiver was negotiated with SAG, and it gave MCA and Wasserman the platinum opportunity to not only market talent as agents but also to move into TV and film making.

CONTINUED...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2635094/EXCLUSIVE-Revealed-MAFIA-helped-Ronald-Reagan-White-House-Shocking-documentary-reveals-Mob-connections-catapulted-presidency-probe-thwarted-highest-levels.html


A dull, but useful tool. A real “wow.”

[ananda]

34. People wanted to be fooled by a nice, avuncular white guy.

Like them.

Today they want a white bully wanting to destroy lives and
everything good in this country just for money and power.

[Stainless]

66. I used the term "Affable Oaf"........

To describe Reagan when he was POTUS. It still is an apt description of the POS he truly was.

[3catwoman3]

127. Very apt indeed.

Oaf is one of those fine words that we don’t get much chance to use.

[bitterross]

35. It has been clear to me for some time.

I remember times before Reagan and, now, after Reagan. My family was in much better shape before his term in office. There were noticeable differences after. We could no longer afford to do many things we used to do. Like dental care. Also, family vacations.

He's their patron saint because he started all the pain and suffering they think we all deserve.

[BlueMTexpat]

36. As someone who voted to re-elect

President Jimmy Carter in 1980, I had a sneaking suspicion that Reagan would be BAD.

I underestimated just how bad he was.

[gibraltar72]

37. It was never a question.

[Hortensis]

38. Strong conservatives think differently from the liberals and

moderate conservatives who created liberal democracy.

After 40 years of conservative-dominated government, starting with reaganism, and reading about how conservatives tend to think, I've come to the conclusion that strong conservatives are unfit to hold power in our liberal democracy. For that matter, they tend to be bad leaders of conservative societies as well.

The saying that power corrupts holds very true for strong conservatives (and also for extremists on both sides who by nature are very bad at defining limits), but far less for liberals.

As everyone should be seeing so clearly by just looking at what's happening in our nation. It's as binary as politics could ever be.

Our new plutocrat/wannabe kleptocrat classes didn't corrupt and work through the Democratic Party, but not because they wouldn't have been eager to corrupt both parties. Only the Republicans, taken over by strong/extremist conservatives, were their natural allies/victims. Liberal Democrats instead opposed their growth over the past 40 years and their very existence. ("We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Liberal Nancy Pelosi to the nation at the opening of congress)

Putin couldn't destroy America fastest and easiest by going after both parties. Only the strong-conservative Republican party was amenable to his methods of destroying nations by infiltrating corruption through them.

Democrats, unfortunately for his ambitions, said a big no and will make attacking us a very big mistake when the electorate gives us the power.

[wryter2000]

39. Lord, I hope

But reality doesn’t register with people anymore.

[Recursion]

40. No, it will not. Nixon is still popular among conservatives

There's never going to be a moment when conservatives realize they were wrong.

[Caliman73]

81. They can't

Being a liberal or progressive is a mindset. There are certain principles, but support for policies and ideas are typically based on evidence and information over time.

It is different for conservatism. That ideology is based on emotion, and identity more than anything.

Not that liberals and progressives are not emotional or have very defined identities which guide some of their decision making, the major difference is that as new information comes out and is supported by evidence, we tend to adapt our views and even identities to the new information. Conservative don't and can't because to them it is about some nostalgic and authority based belief system that cannot be challenged.

The worst that can ever happen to Nixon, Reagan, and Trump is that they will be called, "Not true conservatives" like GW Bush. That is the claim for him. He wasn't really conservative. Conservatism cannot fail, you can only fail conservatism.

[Javaman]

41. I think he was a do nothing speach-afying idiot. who was a figure head for the assholes

who purposely ran this country into the ground.

I think he was brain addled long before the public was finally allowed to know.

knowing from my own mom's dementia, I think he was already on that road when he was elected.

but unlike the orange asshole, he wasn't the combative type, he just rolled along because he could no longer tell reality from his mediocre hollywood career. he thought he was just playing a part.

[FailureToCommunicate]

42. I still have my Impeach Reagan button somewhere. Actors, and TV personalities, make

terrible Presidents. Boy, he sure fooled so many gullible voters with his Aw shucks manners. But ANYONE who had payed attention to what he did as Governor of California knew he'd be awful as President.

We just didn't know how awful:

_Sent National Guard to UC Berkeley campus (People's Park)
_On first day in office, lied that HE, not Carter, secured the release of hostages from Iran
_As new President, took down solar panels on WH and ended alternative energy incentives
_Supply Side economics
_Tax cuts for rich, eliminated middle class tax breaks
_1982 Recession
_Sent weapons to Iraq, Saddam Hussein
_Invaded Grenada as a distraction
_busted unions like the Air Traffic Controllers
_Funded Star Wars nonsense
_Iran Contra scandal - arms for hostages
_Reignighted Cold War with USSR
_Supported the Mujahideen (Osama bin Laden)
_Supported dictators like Noriega, Hussein, Marcos, El Salvadore regime...
_"Trees polute more than automobiles"
_138 Reagon officials indicted, or convicted of crimes
_Tripled National Debt
_Savings and Loans collapse
_Ignored the A.I.D.S. epidemic
_ etc. etc

And much more...that I have probably forgotten.
No, NOT a good President.

[TommyCelt]

71. Ahh yes, "Impeach Reagan"!

I remember that as a crowd chant led by HR of Bad Brains during a NYC show (Circle Jerks opened) during the Raygun Administration.

#punksnotdead

[Bradshaw3]

43. Let's not forget his disastrous foreign policies, especially in Central America

Thousands died thanks to his interventions in Central America, and the effects are still being felt today in terms of what is happening with the violence there and the migrant crisis. Also, he did NOT cause the fall of the Soviet Union as his propagandists like to claim; it crumbled from the inside while the U.S. began its unecessary spending spree on the military that continues unabated to this day.

Great post, kpete!

[Thunderbeast]

44. He conspired with a hostile foreign government to fix the election

The American embassy workers imprisoned by Iran could have been released weeks earlier had Reagan not cut a pre-election deal to hold them until inauguration. Iran eventually got missles and other secret support.

Nixon had a similar history with North Vietnam.

Illegal foreign entanglements for electoral advantage is a standard practice for the Republican Party. Has been for generations.

[IndyOp]

49. I've been thinking about GOP holding off release of hostages since the Ukrainian bribery story

reared its ugly head.

I grew up in St. Louis. The newspaper printed an image of one of the hostages with a blindfold over his face at the top of the front page every day with Day #____ - I don't think that that happened only in St. Louis papers. It had a huge impact on the 1980 elections - if the hostages had been freed before the elections, Carter would've won, I think.

[lonely bird]

45. Hell, I knew he was an asshat from the word go.

He was a chicken hawk as well. He made movies during WW2 as did notorious chicken hawk, John Wayne. Fuck both of them.

[eppur_se_muova]

46. Absolutely damning. nt

[IndyOp]

47. Kicked off his campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, Mississippi

"As part of his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan made an appearance at the Neshoba County Fair where he gave a speech on August 3, 1980. Critics claim that Reagan's choice of location for the speech (the fairgrounds were about 7 miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town associated with the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in 1964) was evidence of racial bias."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan%27s_Neshoba_County_Fair_%22states%27_rights%22_speech


"On July 31st, just days before Reagan went to Neshoba County, the New York Times reported that the Ku Klux Klan had endorsed Reagan. In its newspaper, the Klan said that the Republican platform “reads as if it were written by a Klansman.” Reagan rejected the endorsement, but only after a Carter cabinet official brought it up in a campaign speech. The dubious connection did not stop Reagan from using segregationist language in Neshoba County."

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/44535

[Aquaria]

65. This is nonsense

His Presidential campaign started in New York City in November of 1979.

All he did in Nebosha was conduct his first appearance after winning the nomination at the RNC convention. A speaking engagement is hardly anyone's idea of starting a campaign.

What was controversial about the appearance wasn't when he held it, but what he said in that particular place, namely blathering the old segregationist "state's rights" nonsense only miles from where three civil rights workers were murdered.

THAT is why it was controversial.

We knew it for the racist filth it was.

[IndyOp]

110. Thanks for correcting it was not his first event. The rest,

including the "state's rights" theme is explained in the two articles to which I linked.

[wnylib]

51. Reagan was part of a Republican pattern in

Presidential politics. Select a figurehead whose ability to appeal to the lowest common denominator of the public will get them votes. Let him be the puppet showman for the party while the VP, cabinet, and other members of the party actually make policies and decisions.

Bush the Elder won on the coattails of his association with Reagan but could not appeal to the public on his own against a Dem candidate who had both ability and
personal appeal.

So they repeated the Reagan formula with Bush the Younger as the frontman while his VP Cheney and the cabinet ran the country.

Some thought that Trump would follow the pattern. But he had his own puppetmaster. He rejected the people that the establishment Republicans sent him. The party went along since they still got much of their agenda with Trump. And as we know now, some of them were/are as committed to the Trump puppetmaster as he is.

[GeorgeGist]

52. That assumes ...

there will be survivors of this CATASTROPHE OF THE S T U P I D.

[Pepsidog]

54. As a young man I voted for Reagan. It took years of maturing and learning about politics to

understand how foolish I was back then.

[AJT]

56. Can someone explain why the Federal Debt chart is bad?

Shouldn't public debt as a percentage of GDP be low?

[Aquaria]

67. He increased the debt by 186%

https://www.thebalance.com/us-debt-by-president-by-dollar-and-percent-3306296

And not in a way that helped suffering Americans, or to fight a real war, unlike FDR. He spent it on tax breaks to the rich, massive increases in defense spending, and ridiculous programs like Star Wars. All while stealing from Social Security to make his numbers look less horrific than they actually were.

How is any of that a good thing?

[AJT]

89. The chart just looks off, that's what bothered me.

[ProfessorGAC]

112. See If This Helps

The bottom of that chart is 30%. It hovered around that for about 20 years. His term is where the upward trend begins, meaning the supposed economic growth was fomented by borrowing.
You see that trend continue until Clinton's 2nd term
But, GDP growth has been hindered by the same maldistribution of wealth/income starting at that same time.
The spike during Obama's first 5 years was caused by negative net growth and severe recession. A legitimate stimulus package was put in place and put the train back on the rails.
The most current data still shows a strong upward trend, although the economy didn't need to be juiced.
The issue really seems to be a suppression of wage growth and artificial concentration of wealth that lowers potential GDP growth.
So, borrowing continues upward, but GDP can't keep up, so debt now hits 100% of GDP
Sorry, that was windier than I intended.
Did I help any?

[Freddie]

58. Corrupt before he even took office

With the hostage deal to undermine Carter and it went from there. Teflon President indeed, with Teflon Don continuing the vile tradition. My town has a Ronald Reagan Drive I have to drive on every day to take my grandson to school. Makes my blood boil just to see the sign.

[Aquaria]

68. If you have a pet or farm animal

I believe those signs would make a fine repository for their solid waste products.

[Freddie]

73. Hmmm...I sift the litter boxes daily

[BlueIdaho]

59. Long before his Alzheimer's kicked in...

He was a cruel mean spirited son of a bitch. Looking back - it’s telling that Republicans worship him while Jimmy Carter is and was a much better President and human being.

[Scalded Nun]

60. I believe he has been the most dangerous and destructive president in our history

[UpInArms]

61. My fervent desire is for reincarnation

So that he can be returned as a poor old black woman

[spike jones]

62. I have always said that future generations will make pilgrimages to piss on his grave. n/t

[lastlib]

64. K & R! Bookmarked.

[flamingdem]

69. Agree

I remember the dread I felt when he was elected.

[hunter]

70. He was a mean, ignorant meat puppet who would do anything for a blow job.

I've never thought any better of him.

[quarbis]

72. I knew it. I still say

Reagan is the reason we are in the mess we face now

[moondust]

75. In 1980 it wasn't hard to see that

"Reaganomics" was going to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. And sure enough, within a couple years studies were showing exactly that.

"Neoliberalism"

...is also commonly associated with the economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States.
~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

It's not an accident that "greed is good" became popular during the Reagan years. That's what it was all about. The U.S. was still quite dominant in the 80s so other Western countries more or less adopted or at least played along with the U.S./U.K. neoliberal model. Forty years later the greed and inequality have spread far and wide and lots of people in a number of countries are in the streets protesting and in some cases dying because of it. Too bad a more egalitarian economic model more like the Nordic model didn't take hold and spread back then instead of unbridled greed as a way of life.

[dajoki]

77. This is not said enough...

he was horrible!!! Even before he was elected I knew he was going to be trouble.

[Garrett78]

78. Never Trumpers haven't yet made this realization. So, I wrote a poem:

Blood On Their Hands


Never Trumpers may like you to consume

The notion that Trump happened in a vacuum


But the groundwork had been laid going back to Nixon

The Southern Strategy and a racist depiction


Then came the Powell Memo and Moral Majority

Code words, a drug war, cultural uniformity


Welfare queens and the Willie Horton ad

Reagan, Bush and the anti-government fad


With Dubya, you see, people wanted to have a beer

SCOTUS gave anti-intellectualism the all clear


A terrorist attack then opened the door

To torture, spying and endless war


The nerve to elect and re-elect a Black man

They lost their shit when his suit was tan


He must not be Christian or an American

We’ll be damned if he’s followed by a woman


And poof there was Trump, or so we’re told

Revisionist history is what we’re sold


Their party has long been ethically void

But prior to Trump they were happily employed


They continue to worship at the altar of Saint Ronnie

While making no connection to the rise of Saint Donny


Their denial is strong, but conscience commands

They should acknowledge the blood on their hands


Garrett S
12/14/19

[Loge23]

79. Amen, now do the Bushes. (nt)

[captdemo]

80. If Jimmy Carter would have won in 1980....

My Social Security check would be over $200 higher every month.

We would have had an additional 40 years to improve the environment.

I voted for Jimmy Carter.

[gopiscrap]

83. welcome to DU

[captdemo]

86. Thank You for the Welcome post!

Thank you for the welcome! It was because of this thread that I decided I had to join. It seems to me that Reagan got us in the mess we're in today more than any other president and the reason we all need to vote Democratic as much as we can.

By switching full retirement to 67 from 65, Reagan and the Republicans are stealing from all of us. I wish the news media people would remind people of that! Warren has mentioned a $200 a month raise for all of those on Social Security. That would return the money to the people who are robbed every month by the Republican party.

I also wish we would have followed Jimmy Carter on environmentalist issues.

[gopiscrap]

107. my God, I couldn't agree with you more

have a great time on this forum

[Boomerproud]

84. It's already too late to fix the damage he did.

My niece, a GenXer adores him.

[Caliman73]

85. I have not seen this on this thread yet, but Reagan and his people also committed treason to win.

Like Nixon before him and Trump after him, Reagan and his people went behind the backs of the Carter administration and made a deal with Iran, the country that was holding Americans hostage after storming our embassy. Reagan and his people sold Iran missiles in exchange for them releasing the hostages after the election. Selling missiles to Iran was illegal as they were identified as a hostile country and state sponsor of terror. Then to compound things, Reagan and his people used the proceeds from the arms sales to fund the right wing Contra death squads in Nicaragua also illegal by act of Congress. Iran Contra was a major scandal but seems to have been swept into the dustbin of history. William Barr was a prominent figure in the scandal, advising Reagan's VP and president following Reagan to pardon the major players to sweep the scandal from American consciousness.

[BlueTexasMan]

87. Amen!

I always wondered why people thought he was great. Movie star maybe. I voted for him thinking he would be tougher on Russia than Mondale. That puts me in the same category as him, idiot.

[MarcA]

88. Some knew at the time who his owners were but too many

bought the government-is-bad and stick-it-to-the-other propaganda,
and still do.

[mudstump]

90. Reagan was the beginning of the downward spiral.

[DFW]

92. He was everything you say he was. What he was NOT was "conservative."

That is just a word that was--very successfully, I might add--hijacked by the radical right. Just like their framing "liberal" to be a negative term for them, they have somehow convinced their minions (and, apparently, half of us) that they are "conservative," despite the definition of the word in English. They are NO SUCH THING. I can only repeat:

I am your classic conservative, at least as defined in a dictionary of the English language (as opposed to Republicanese).

I still work for the same outfit that recruited me out of college in 1975. I have been with the same wonderful woman since 1974. We have raised two solid, intelligent children who have grown up, think independently, did well in their respective colleges, are both in monogamous, long-term relationships, and have jobs in which they earn their own living and are well-respected in their chosen fields.

I am risk-averse, and do not like to make rash, un-thought-out decisions. I have no debts. I have no addictions, not even to alcohol, religion, gambling, or nicotine. My favorite American philosopher is 18th century Thomas Jefferson.

In other words, I am the epitome of “conservative.” Why am I a Democrat? Simple: It is not my opinion that having a different skin color, belief, or income makes one a superior or an inferior being to myself.

[cannabis_flower]

94. They forgot

Homophobic.

[Faux pas]

97. I knew he'd be a rotten

president. He was a rotten govenor of Cali. Closing down the mental facilities, ruining the universities, union busting, and so much more. He was an ASSHOLE DELUXE.

[lambchopp59]

128. Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Right here, Faux pas has zeroed in on one of the major issues Reagan created, then RWNJ's and Fox Noise nowadays blame the Dems for not fixing:
The Gipper began dismantling mental health care under his governorship.
Ray Gun's 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repealed Carter's community health legislation, established block grants for the states, effectively killing the federal government's role in providing services to the mentally ill. Federal mental-health spending decreases by 30 percent
Forward 40 years, and we have hoardes of barking-at-moon schizophrenics who were given "Greyhound therapy" from dozens of western states (to San Francisco) wandering the streets who have no more capacity caring for themselves than helpless pre-schoolers.
It would take a cargo ship chock full of cash to fix the problem at this point. Potential patches have met with total cock-blocking by Repuglican congressional greed ever since.
I'm going to copy/paste this as a response to the OP as well. It's something that needs to be stripped down for what it is, and we need to blast these MAGA hats with the conundrum their great historical hero largely created.

[Faux pas]

157. It all comes down to

CRUELTY. Purposeful and aimed at the weak among us. If you can't eff over the ones who have no power, where's the fun? My brain doesn't compute things like this lambchopp59. It's just soul crushing.

[ThoughtCriminal]

98. Seem like history is just now catching up

to Andrew Jackson. And he's still on the $20 bill

[VOX]

100. He was a flaming asshole of a governor in California; loud, angry and petty

During a time of social upheaval, Reagan clamped down HARD on the University of California Regents, unceremoniously fired those who didn’t “toe the line,” and instituted tuition in the UCs. He was a sworn enemy of higher education.

I knew *exactly* the kind of bastard that man was before he became president. Interesting that both kids he sired with Nancy grew up to be liberals.

[Raine]

104. Absolutely THE WORST

President ever, where we are now is all because of him!!!

[BigmanPigman]

105. My 103 year old grandmother was yelling

Italian profanities every time she heard his name up until she died 3 years ago. Nancy Reagun had the same effect on her too.

[Skittles]

113. Reagan made greed and idiocy fashionable

it sickened me now many people fell for his feel-good garbage.

[MuseRider]

114. I just saw this post

and other than agreeing with you 100% I just wanted to add my me too. He was a disgusting, doddering old fool and I have never figured out what anyone saw in him.

[Skittles]

130. you know it, MuseRider

it the first time I realized how many Americans were so freaking gullible

[MuseRider]

131. I had always been interested

as an adult in politics but this fucker made me stand up and pay real attention and do some things finally. It was so damned embarrassing and watching him destroy what we thought we had accomplished with civil rights, the way we addressed other people, the way we wanted the world to be and how we could lead and he came in like a wrecking ball. I remember distinctly when he said something along the lines that it did not matter, you are who you are and that is OK. There stopped the progress we had made trying to better our society and then all the walls keeping things relatively easy to live here for most people came smashing down all around us. I hate him to this day for how he changed everything and none of it was good. He is the reason we are here. Even freaking Nixon, as horrible as he was, did not change things as badly as Reagan.

[Skittles]

132. absolutely

to me, Reaganomics boiled down to "You can feel much better, have more money, if you just don't CARE about anyone else!" That was it. America has never recovered from Reagan.

[MuseRider]

134. + 100

[Awsi Dooger]

147. My dad emphasized it immediately

I was shocked how quickly he picked up on it, that Reagan's policies would destroy the middle class and divide the country

[Doitnow]

115. y'all ought to read or hear the Thom Hartmann rant on RR. How he can viewed as a

Grand daddy of Republicanism is beyond me. Such a white-wash. Just watch, they'll do the same for DT.

[mntleo2]

116. Reagan was horrible

He cut support for low-income families and seniors, he charged my generation with Social Security payments that all but doubled. My generation was the only generation who paid for BOTH our parents and ourselves, while most generations paid for their parents.

The constantly raided the SS slush fund to "balance the budgets" when in fact the *only* thing it "balanced" was their wallets.

I was not surprised when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. He was sounding kind of bizarre the last couple years or so. I also heard from my relatives in CA that he was a real SOB as a governor too.

So I cannot understand why these nimrods thought he was so great. He was not a good president. They did not call the budget that killed so many good programs "Reaganomics" for nuttin'.

He and all his admirers were nothing but citizen hating tools.

Cat in Seattle

[Cetacea]

118. All these things and much, much more.

I love telling Christians repigs that he was the Anti-Christ. Ronald(6)Wilson(6) Reagan(6). He certainly initiated and ushered in the dark days of America. It's amazing that the masses are still spellbound by him.

[Sherman A1]

120. K&R

He was the absolute worst president that we ever had.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

121. I use the term Voodoo Economics when expressing where we went wrong.

It was a G H W Bush description of Reagan monetary policy. Even Fox viewers ought to remember that.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

122. Rotten Ronnie and the Reaganites plague us still

[pansypoo53219]

123. i was a kid & i knew it. i said his trickle down was bullshit. but they have been selling the same

theory for decades. we need to kill zombie reagan. we need to dig up FDR.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

124. I hated Reagan in the 80's

And I hate him now.

He got rid of the fairness doctrine which opened the door to right-wing hate radio and faux tv,and infotainment and opinion crap peddled as news.

But there is plenty more reasons to dispise him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

126. It was as clear as gin at the time!

[lambchopp59]

129. Albeit RWNJ's ignore inconvenient facts:

One of the major issues Reagan created, then RWNJ's and Fox Noise nowadays blame the Dems for not fixing:
The Gipper began dismantling mental health care under his governorship.
Ray Gun's 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repealed Carter's community health legislation, established block grants for the states, effectively killing the federal government's role in providing services to the mentally ill. Federal mental-health spending decreased by 30 percent
Forward 40 years, and we have hoardes of barking-at-moon schizophrenics who were given "Greyhound therapy" from dozens of western states (to San Francisco) wandering the streets who have no more capacity caring for themselves than helpless pre-schoolers.
It would take a cargo ship chock full of cash to fix the problem at this point. Potential patches have met with total cock-blocking by Repuglican congressional greed ever since.
We need to blast these MAGA hats with the conundrum their great historical hero largely created every time they bring up the "homeless problem" in that "lib-rul, democrat state".

[warmfeet]

133. Ray gun

made pond scum look quite attractive, by comparison.

I hope these fuckers can fight.

No point, otherwise.

[Ferrets are Cool]

135. Thank you for this wonderful post. He was the impetus

it all points back to that bastard.

[Prosper]

141. There is no more reality than spending cuts cuts lives.

[ck4829]

143. K&R

[RainCaster]

144. Someday, Reagan will look like a fucking genius compared to DFT

Reagan is ancient history.

I want to focus on the immediate future of our country.

[C Moon]

145. Hurray kpete! I despise when people refer to this man up as a great President.

[budkin]

148. Been saying this for years. He was AWFUL.

He single-handedly began the destruction of the middle class.

[Prof.Higgins]

149. Yes, the great wealth distributor ..... upward to his richest friends. Nt

[srobertss]

150. Does anyone else remember

that Reagan announced that unemployment was taxable income during Thanksgiving holidays? My husband and I both remember this but I haven’t been able to find any reference to it. I was also very aware that he most likely delayed the release of hostages in Iran with a promise of an arms deal once he got in office. And my mother never forgave him for raiding the teachers retirement fund when he was governor of California. I remember New Years Eve after his election when it felt as though the country had taken a dark turn.

[calimary]

151. That bastard started us down the road toward Pox Noise. He screwed broadcasting.

Did away with the Fairness Doctrine and Equal Time provisions that made news coverage truly and actually fair and balanced. In a real, genuine, legitimate sense, NOT how Pox defines it.

[mwb970]

152. I had assumed that Reagan would forever remain the worst president of my lifetime.

Now I'm not so sure.

[Dorn]

158. During both of his campaigns he showed signs of alzheimer's disease

And he was elected anyway.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

159. another graph from 'The Ward on Christmas' ...

[czarjak]

161. It's all good...

The right people were hurt?