Reagan - myth and reality

[question everything]

First, reality - yes, he was a pleasant person with optimism that infected other people. Yes, he and Nancy loved each other very much.

Reality - he did nominate the first woman justice of the Supreme Court.

Now for the myth: He ended the cold war. Not exactly. The Chernobyl disaster, that no one mentions, was a major factor by ruining the economy of the Soviet Union and of some European nations. There, too, it was "the economy, stupid."

Reality or myth - depending on one's POV: he destroyed the employment fabric of this nation, the implied contract between employers and employees. By pushing for increasing defense expenses and tax cuts he generated the largest deficit, larger than all previous years combined (Bush is now surpassing him). This huge deficits changed the monetary economy so it was a better for corporation to buy others - and to fire the employees - than to invest in their own asset building.

Under his regime, we saw the disappearance of many good, medium size companies that were purchased by Wall Street sharks a-la Gordon Gekko "greed is good" and people lost good jobs and benefits never to recover from them. It was the beginning of changing this country from a manufacturing and farm economy to a service economy, where consumption became an important factor - 2/3 of the economy. Where good factory jobs of stability, of benefits, of good income that allowed the employees to purchase the products of their employers - as Henry Ford wanted when he started - disappeared. Instead we had "service jobs" of minimal wage and minimal benefits, or none, of job mobility.

Under his regime we saw the growth of the gap between the highest and lowest paid employee in a corporation widened from about 40 to 400 - what we have now, and growing.

Under his regime the successful captains of the industry were no longer the inventor and entrepreneurs who took the risks in starting new businesses. Instead, there were Wall Street bankers and lawyers who planned the mergers and acquisitions who, win or lose, got their millions (of dollars) while millions (people) lost their good, stable, jobs.

It was during his regime that the number of people with no access to health insurance ballooned to 35 million by the end of his terms.

All of the above might have happened anyway, but it was during the 80s. His "morning in American" pitched million of workers into pitch darkness.

And, it was his candidacy and his administration that turned the republican party from a "live and let live" a no-ideology party except for small government and not much care for the poor, the sick and the elderly, to the party of the RW. It was his candidacy that started the divisive policies of this country. It was his candidacy that ended intellectual, polite debated about policies to emotional visceral hatred of two camps. And, of course, it was under his administration that we saw the gap between "getting the government off my back" to.... except for school prayers, bedrooms of consenting adults and physicians offices.

And, for me, personally, it was the realization that there will never be a real revolution in this country the way we saw it in other countries. When I saw the shanty towns in Washington in 1981 or 1982 - don't remember - all very peaceful of people who have lost their jobs - I realized that in this country the poor and the lower classes will never climb the barricades to demand equal distribution of the nation's wealth... The lower classes WANT to be the upper class with all the spoils of the so-called free market economy.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

1. "If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."

That is how the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Governor Reagan as he was sending National Guard into Berkeley.





There was never a time that Ronald Reagan was not evil.

[DenverDem]

2. It didn't have to happen that way.

raygun was the CEO of the destruction of our country and his "leadership" laid the foundations for the coming civil war.

raygun was a treasonous tool of global corporatists and should have died in prison for the crimes of his administration.

[scisyhp]

3. Ronald Wilson Reagan - the man who made evil cool.

Carve it into his tombstone.

[namvet73]

4. Thanks - and...

I was raised in a family of Republicans. I lived in a bubble, but I had become friends with a Democrat who had the courage to persuade me to change and this was the factor that pushed me over the edge to switch party loyalty from Republican to Democrat in 1984.

And, it was his candidacy and his administration that turned the republican party from a "live and let live" a no-ideology party except for small government and not much care for the poor, the sick and the elderly, to the party of the RW.

I became more analytical over the years and have paid more attention.
We will all become old some day (if we are lucky) and continued wealth and health are not guaranteed. We have a responsibility to each other, not just to ourselves.

[question everything]

5. Thanks. And this is why it is difficult to say "something nice"

about Reagan as some ask on other threads.

We just cannot separate the man from his policies, from his time, and the great divisiveness started when the "Christian Right" decided to force the platform of the Republicans to conform with its own.