Why Is Reagan So Idolized By Conservatives?

[Bullet1987]

Not only was he involved in probably the biggest scandal of 20th Century America (forget the overplayed Watergate) which was Iran-Contra. But he created the FCC and had an economic policy that totally destroyed urban development for a good while. It wasn't until Clinton came into office and corrected SOME things that urban policy restarted...but it's not to say the Clinton Urban Policy was uber-great either.

[MonkeyFunk]

1. The FCC was created in 1934

so I dont' think we can blame that one on Reagan.

He's idolized by Republicans because he was charismatic and espoused simple-minded policies that appealed to simple-minded people - aka Republicans.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. I have no idea.

They just love him to death but don't know why.

[underpants]

3. He returned them to power after Watergate

and Nixon. But mostly because they are told to. I get what he represented but as usual he did almost the opposite of what he said.

The reason he is cannonized is because he brought in the conservative movement as we know it today he was the hero in the white hat as they rode in to clean up this town and get all the locals calmed down about all these rights they had just achieved and get back to what they were born to do:work and salute the flag.

[Justitia]

4. Because he made them comfortable with their bigotry. -eom

[Virginia Dare]

6. Bingo...n/t

[jobycom]

5. Look at their options.

He was the one who didn't resign in disgrace, get booted after one or fewer terms, and didn't lose a war too badly.

Plus, as Rosalyn Carter said, he made them comfortable with their prejudices. Instead of calling on them to be better people, he told them they were the bestest people alive already, and all they had to do was continue hating and being racists and all that, and God loved them for it.

[shain from kane]

7. Because he balanced the budget and ended abortion.

[Bullet1987]

9. About the FCC comment...

I'm trying to type this and do something else at the same time. The Reagan Administration was opposed to the Fairness Doctrine that they got the FCC to repeal claiming that it was unconstitutional...even though the Supreme Court ruled that it was some decades back.

[lyonn]

8. It's all they have. Who else is even worth mentioning?

He had a great smile and didn't put people down. He was a people pleaser. He caused one of our biggest depression/recession ever, until now. But, it is mind boggling to hear how Wonderful he was and how all the Johnnie come lately repubs like to fashion themselves after him. Except for bush, he is above them all, just ask him, He answers to a higher power.

[Lerkfish]

10. "teflon president" He GOT AWAY with everything. THAT is what repubs idolize

the ability to commit crimes and suffer no consequences.

[johnlal]

11. Bush is the final outcome of Reaganism

What Reagan started, Bush finished. Reagan started the revolution. Gingrich in Congress and Limbaugh on the airwaves fanned the flames. The Republicans picked up popular sentiment and power in Government. Bush enjoyed republican majorities in both houses of Congress, and built a republican majority into the Supreme Court. Most of the Governors and much of the media were behind him. Conditions couldn't have been better for him. But it was all a house of cards. There was all swagger and no substance and Reaganism imploded on itself.

[no_hypocrisy]

12. He "cured" Russia of its communist problem.

Oh, wait a minute! I forgot Poland!

[soleft]

13. Didn't he have a fucking ranch?

[LeftishBrit]

14. I assume the same reason as Maggie is idolized by right-wingers here...

successful at winning elections and at pushing the country further to the right.

Also there seems to be an attitude on the American right that Reagan almost single-handedly caused the end of the Soviet regime. I have found this hard to get my head round, since elsewhere, a lot more credit is given to Gorbachev, Walesa, and to the sheer incompetence of the old-style Kremlin bureaucrats who mismanaged and bankrupted their country. Also, outside of the American right, people are a bit more aware that, terrible as the old regime was, the Putin regime isn't all roses, perfect democracy, or effective honest government.

[fuzzyball]

15. Because HE CUT TAXES IN A MAJOR WAY....from 90% to 28%

and he was very soothing, smooth talker. He talked a good game.
But in reality, he was a big spender.

[LeftishBrit]

16. Whose taxes? - surely most people weren't paying 90% at any time?

That must have been just the really rich.

[Zodiak]

19. No, he restructured the tax brackets

reduced taxes for a lot of people, but mostly the rich. He started the real precipitous increase in the income-gap by doing so. I do not know what the top tax bracket was, but it was not 90%. It used to be, but JFK changed it from 90% to 70% waaaaaaaay back when (1960's).

I think Reagan also reduced corporate taxes, as well. In its stead, he also introduced cuts that were pretty severe and had lasting effects on our culture (like widespread homelessness that stil exists to this day but did not exist in such huge numbers before Reagan). All in all, he still ran deficits that were considered through the roof at the time with his military spending.

This country is STILL practicing Reaganomics after 25 years. Clinton was a short and tepid respite, but the overall thrust has been increased military spending, decreased social spending, and a decline in the quality of life in the U.S. (Ipods and playstations do not count in quality of life). Reagan started it, and it has only gotten far worse over these 25 years.

[fuzzyball]

25. Thanks for the factual details.......except perhaps....

the military expenditures should be looked at as a
percentage of nation's GDP, and not as dollar number,
to get a true idea of how big or small the defense budget
really is. May be some one more proficient than me can
post the numbers?

[Zodiak]

27. No,that is what Republicans do

to make the number spent on the military look as small as possible. Actually, it is the latest meme the Republicans are putting out in our news this week because they are asking for so much in military spending this year in Bush's budget plan.

Here are two things I believe are indicative of "bigness" or "smallness" of the defense budget.

1. The percentage of the total budget of the government.

2. The comparison of our military budget with other countries whose population and/or industrial might rival our own.

3. A direct ratio of military spending to social spending.

In all three categories, Reagan started increasing military spending. It is now nearly 50% of our total budget and (in dollars) as great as the combined military budgets of the rest of the world. In the last category, it is hard to see how this ratio has gone down since social spending has been cut and the military spending has increased. By all measurements (except, apparently GDP), our culture is getting more militaristic and less humanistic.

Ask a Canadian whether they would allow their government to spend 500 billion dollars on the military each years and allows them to lose 2 trillion dollars over ten years. We don;t even bat an eye when the military does this and asks for more. Our military spending is way out of proportion and everyone seems to be afraid to say so. Well, I'm saying it.

Our military spending needs to be 1/10th what it is now to even be comparable to our closest rival.

America is a WAR society, now. That is what we export....war. And we pay too much for it and not enough to take care of our people.

[fuzzyball]

29. I think Bush just proposed a 3 Trillion dollar budget..

but I cn't recall what the military budget is, including Iraq.
My opinion is military budget should be no more than 25% of the
total. 75% for social and infrastructure is where it should be.

Also by your thinking I must be a republican because my family
budget is broken down by percentages. As the income changes,
all areas of our expenditure grow in aprox the same proportion. We
save 10% of our income no matter how high or low it is. But I am
pro-choice and pro-environment and pro-free-education for all those
who qualify. Now I am really mixed up! Thanks a lot!!

I am also totally against deficit budgets. Because we are piling
these deficits year after year and we pay more and more to service
this debt. That money could be put to better use.

[Zodiak]

31. 2.9 trillion

With over 600 billion in military spending, including Iraq. (the media discounts military non discretionary spending wwhich eats up a whole lot more....up to about half the total budget)

Where you are getting confused is this....GDP is the total output of our entire country in one year. The "budget" is what the government gets in revenue each year to spend. The pukes are comparing our military spending to GDP (remember production went up 42% by their numbers) instead of their revenue. They are counting on Americans not knowing the difference.

If you calculated your family budget in terms of what your company made, it would seem very small percent of your budget indeed. What if your company made a killing but you got a cut in salary?

But that is not the real picture...your expenditures come from your salary. The equivalent to your salary in this case would be the government's budget. That is about 1.25 trillion, I believe, and the military spending is about half of it. Not 25%. If it was where you wanted it, we would be doing a hell of a lot better than we are now. But no...the government takes half for war.

I am not accusing you of being Repuke, but if you are buying their % of GDP argument, then you are buying the latest Republican talking point sent through the media as "common knowledge". Predictably, that talking point is misleading, but it did make you feel better about our ridculous spending...did it not? Then it has done its job.

I still cannot get over the fact that we spend the same amount of money on our military as the entire rest of the world combined. That statistic alone floors me and tells me that our priorities are WAAAAY off.

[fuzzyball]

37. And what's worse is that the current "war on terror" should not require

highly intricate & expensive weapons such as stealth bombers,
star war type weapons, and nuclear subs. You can't use any of
those in streets of Baghdad.

Realistically the only major powers in the world who could go
to war with us is China and Russia. Our military expenditures
should ne in line with theirs.

[Hawkowl]

33. MORE than the entire world

The U.S. military budget is greater than every other country in the world COMBINED! That's fucking insane and we will become a third world country if we keep this up for much longer.

[fuzzyball]

38. What's the matter with you? Don't you wanna be the LONE

super power? Don't you enjoy flexing your muscles and
thumping your chest and shouting "YEEEE HAAAAA"?
:sarcasm:

[Greyhound]

49. Excellent, but one minor correction, Clinton was no respite from raygunomics,

all he did was to slightly alter the technique.

[Zodiak]

17. Lots of reasons

Some true, and some imaginary

TRUE:

1. Reagan ushered in a new era of "feel good" politics that reinforced American exceptionalism myths
2. Reagan brought back the Republicans into vogue after its "death" due to Nixon
3. Reagan was so charismatic that he got Democrats to vote with him (and against themselves)
4. Reagan is what turned the South truly Republican...before it was fairly split on the local level, leaning Democratic
5. Reagan brought God back into politics

FALSE:

1. Reagan ran a great economy (he ran a deficit economy that still floundered)
2. Reagan defeated communism (he did not such thing, but he was the first to take claim for it)
3. Reagan worked hard to get our crime problem in line (he kicked people out of state hospitals, ran cocaine into poor neighborhoods, and ran an anti-drug policy that landed thousands of non-violent offenders in jail for long periods).

The fact that Reagan is so liked by Americans on both sides of the aisle is not a testament to his successes, but the successes of "deep politics". The media has created a post-hoc narrative of the Reagan administration and Americans, by and large, have bought it. Reagan worship from the right taps into that narrative and serves to make righties look "reasonable" to the average American.

[Mr Rabble]

41. Very astute observations Zodiak.

The real question here is why would the right try to turn this absolute loser into a hero?

Reagan made Bush possible. Without the relentless onslaught of propaganda about how great Reagan was, he would likely be seen as most historians see him: a utter failure. His approval ratings were in the tank at the end of his occupancy. We, the american public massively disapproved of the way he ran things.

So, it was important that we collectively forget. It's taken 25 years, but it seems that a large % of the population has done just that.

Which clears the way for Bush.

He promised much the same policies which ruined the country the first time- perhaps renamed this time- and followed them exactly to the T. So here we are.

This time, we need to control the narrative after Bush is removed and convicted. This time, we have the internet.

Great points Zodiak, kudos.

[zbdent]

18. Because he was the first repuke pres after the 76 debacle ...

Remember his running mate, without whom he couldn't have won the 80 election - the Ayatollah Khomeni ...

[leftofthedial]

20. he was the first neocon idiot figurehead in power

and has been relentlessly lionized by the neocon propaganda machine. The picture they paint of a leader (utter bullshit), a pure conservative ideologue (further bullshit) and a beloved American patriot (two lies in one) has been endlessly replayed and parroted by the neocon media. Conservatives, by definition, are shallow and incurious and likely to accept whatever Rush or Fox tell them without question. They are gullible beyond belief and basically hate the truth because it thoroughly contradicts their world view. This leaves a cognitive vacuum that the neocon media are constantly available to fill with palatable lies. One of those lies has been the "greatness of Reagan."

[mtnsnake]

21. He went out of his way for them, unlike Bush who only sucked up to them for elections

[FogerRox]

22. Reagan is all they have to hold on to.

Nixon crashed & Burnt

We have Clinton, Carter, JFK, FDR.

Oh they have Lincoln too, but he was gay.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

23. He proved you can win the presidency on total bullshit. eom

[CRH]

24. He is a conservative icon because ...

he was very successful at an 'aw shucks' flim flam that soothed the unthinking un critical cold war fear driven mentality, of us vs the commies. That was the show for the unthinking knee jerk 'America is first, foremost and perfect, love it or leave it, but don't you dare criticize it', crowd.

His administration was able to shut down all investigations and much of the oversight of the government excesses of the CIA, FBI, and State Department, that the Carter administration was pursuing.

For the 'inside money' that rules the politics his heroics were deregulation of government restraints on banking, S&L's, and the like, while underfunding regulatory agencies to the level of impotence as junk bonds, corporate raiders, and pension fund robbers did their magic. He was able to cut taxes while running hitherto unheard of budget deficits, shift federal burdens onto states, use the Social Security trust fund as a bailout for fiscal malfeasance, busted labor with the Air Traffic Controllers strike and appointed an administration full of scoundrels that economically terrorized the third world while reaping or was it raping their labor and resources. He prepared the world for the final stages of neolib globalization and NAFTA.

And while doing all this he was able to cultivate an appearance of ignorance so he could deny knowledge of the actions of the rascals he appointed, as they ignored the laws of the land, and common decency.

The charisma most people talk of was his ability to say nothing of substance while making the mainstream feel honored for listening, while his policies were fleecing the middles class and poor, adding to corporate profits. And he would always leave behind a one line quip or an ole recycled fish story like 'Elmer and the game warden', for a great closing segment to Paul Harvey, to endear the conservative comatose.

[Ronnie Roach]

26. Gen X kids embraced Reagan because...

To piss off babyboomers. I'll tell you one things, a lot of Gen Xers are either pollitically naive or just outright stupid. They absolutely have no idea what Liberalism is.

[Cosmocat]

32. They were ...

brainwashed, in entirety by the Limbaugh era of radio talking heads ...

I remember back in 93, I had heard him maybe three, four times for a bit on the radio, and I came away thinking, "who the F are these liberals" ... I mean, I didn't get the pole of "conservatives republicans, liberals democrats" ...

All in all, I could tell, cause I just have common sense, that he was a disingenious gasbag ... But, these liberals he was describing were like these incredibly evil characters from a movie ... I remember thinking, I had been around a bit, but I had NEVER in my life even came close to meeting a liberal ... Basically, anything that was wrong with the world in any way, real or imagined was because of these evil liberal creatures ...

He and his ilk VERY successfully have permanently reframed the term liberal ...

[Efilroft Sul]

34. Reagan's appeal to certain members of Generation X.

Most Xers were too young to know anything about politics during the time of Watergate, Ford, and Carter. But during eight years of Reagan, Xers became politically aware and chose sides, one way or the other.

With Bush Sr. cutting a deal with Iran prior to the 1980 election, there was no way Jimmy Carter was going to be returned to the Oval Office. The Iranian hostage crisis made his administration impotent, Ted Kennedy wasn't seen as a viable alternative, and voters were looking for a change. Most voters didn't know anything about independent candidate John Anderson, so that left Ronald Reagan as the remaining option. In the 1980 election, nobody from Generation X was old enough to vote for Reagan, but the Great Communicator's influence on and by popular culture at the time would shape Generation X in the years to come.

By 1984, the first-born Baby Boomers were approaching age 40 and hitting their prime earning years. Seeing their taxes cut was a winning Reagan theme. It played well with many blue-collar Boomers (and their parents who still worked then) who became Reagan Democrats and white-collar Boomers who were the prototypical Yuppies. As for Generation X, born after 1964? Those who could vote for Reagan did; but they were only 19 or 20 years old then, and the vanguard of that generation didn't make much of an impact at the polls. It wasn't until 1988, when Bush Sr. ran for president, that those of Generation X who described themselves as conservatives and/or Republicans actually affirmed Reaganism. Talk radio's rise has only solidified Reagan's appeal to these particular Xers in the years since.

I don't think conservative Republican Xers embraced St. Ronnie to piss off the Baby Boomers; rather, these Xers emulated the Baby Boomers who already embraced Reagan because they cynically knew his values were what could get them a leg up with their careers. Patriotism and conservative values were fig leafs for embracing Reagan. In truth, this was the era when greed became good, you dressed for success, and it was all about you being seen as a winner.

Those values, made popular during the Reagan era, were siren calls to every prick born after 1964.

[Vidar]

28. He made the people feel good about getting fucked over.

[rock]

30. Unreality based thinking

is my guess.

[Javaman]

35. Because he called his wife...Mommy??????

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Auntie Bush]

36. Because he's just like bush*. Robbed the poor and middle class

and showered it on the wealthy and cooperations. He also robber the US treasury. Maybe I might like someone who made me rich too... if I didn't have a heart or soul.

[KansDem]

39. They needed a "hero"

But Bonzo had previous commitments so they chose his sidekick instead...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

40. Because conservatives are 'effing morons

Every last one of them. No exceptions. No qualifications. If you're a conservative, you're a moron.

[A wise Man]

42. In their eyes

he was "THE GREAT REPUBLICAN HOPE".

[EndElectoral]

43. The guy threw the mentally ill out on the street. One became President in this century.

[pink-o]

44. Reagan's entire political career was based on lies.

...I was an 11 year old child in California when he was elected in 1966--and by the time I was 13 I understood how heinous he was. My mom was a psychiatric nurse and saw firsthand how the bastard closed the state mental hospitals, leaving schizophenic and psychotic people to wander the streets (the first homelessness--then the bastard took his gig "national")

In 1980, I would never have believed anyone would elect him president. But as the poster before me reminded us, it was all about the Iran hostage crisis. The fact that no one seemed to understand how orchestrated that was (the release of the hostages happening just before Reagan's inauguration) was a harbinger of far worse things to come in this century.

Reagan's disdain for the poor and sick, his stubbornly ignoring the spread of AIDS because it supposedly only affected the dregs of society are the absolute worst, most hideous legacies of his time in office.

Now....as for his career being based on lies....

In 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a set of articles that took 17 years to attain, due to the FBI's obstructing the Freedom of Information Act. The data prove that J Edgar Hoover, fearful that the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley was getting out of control, wanted Gov Pat Brown out of office. Hoover thought Brown wasn't hard enough on the Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr to shut up those nuisance kids in Sproul Plaza. The FBI deliberately trolled the right-wing fundraisers, who recommended Reagan--even though Reagan in his democrat days had once been a member of an organisation tied to the Communist Party. It was California law at the time that this membership should have made it illegal for Reagan to hold political office. But wife Nancy's powerful Repug father, Loyall Davis, persuaded the FBI to expunge this little fact from Ronnie's record.

And the rest is history.

There is so much more to the story, it would take all night to explain it. Instead, if anyone is futher interested, here's the link to one of the articles.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/09/MNCFLEADIN.DTL&hw=the+campus+files&sn=006&sc=408

[baldguy]

45. He made them feel good about being greedy, uncompassionate pigs.

[Bullet1987]

46. Didn't...

Reagan refer to Black women as "Welfare Queens?"

[mikelewis]

47. Because the TV told them to love him....

[Greyhound]

48. Because he was given a pass by everybody on both, or all, sides.

We were scared and tired, the bill had come due and we didn't want to pay the price for our crimes. Along came this asshole that the old people knew from his shitty movies and said "that's alright, you don't have to pay for the mistakes yet, we can put it off for another generation to clean up" and it was like water to a person dying of thirst.

And that is what's wrong with us.

[Vinca]

50. Reagan, more than most of them, was intent on dismantling

social programs and safety nets. The "any government is too much government" mentality. For whatever reason, the 'pukes worship that notion, which makes it even more puzzling why they stick by Idiot Son who expanded government by leaps and bounds (his giant, flawed, Big Pharma-authored, prescription drug plan).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. Studs Terkel's remark sums it up for me:

"He made it okay to be stupid."