"I'm a Ronald Reagan Republican..."

[kentuck]

So it has come down to this? Republicans are going to try and distance themselves from George W Bush by calling themselves "Reagan Republicans"? After rubberstamping everything that George W Bush has requested, after trying to kill Social Security, after running up the largest debt in the history of the world, they want to connect themselves to Ronald Reagan. "Small government", indeed.

At the same time, they want to tell us how "resolute" George W. Bush is and that he sticks to his principles? As if that alone is some great positive accomplishment? Even if he is "resolute" and sticks to his decisions long after they have been proven wrong and disastrous. That is not "resolute" - that is inflexible, bull-headed, and stupid. That is not anything to brag about.

So, is this all they have for the November elections? Is this their new "strategy"? They are going to brag about how they stick with their disasters and how the Democrats wish to "cut and run"? Word games? Propaganda? Is that their plan??

[pinto]

1. Politically, that's their best shot.

[rasputin1952]

2. It's their ONLY shot...and it will be a misfire as well...

[pinto]

31. Yep. I agree. The "Ooops didn't mean to undermine the Constitution"

won't play and the Gipper won't pull this one out.

[PassingFair]

21. Where are they getting this *hit from?

I live in Michigan, and I've been getting this bull*hit for
about a year now.

"Reagan was THE best president."
They don't have ANYTHING to back it up with, they
just sort of DECLARE it, then look at you.

I just say "Why?".

They honestly can't answer!

They are being fed this
stuff from talk radio (I assume), because I don't
know where the hell else they're getting it.

If I really feel like toying with them, after I ask
"Why?",
I'll follow it up with something like,
"Because he began the destruction of the middle class
with his attack on the unions?"; or

"Because he created economic crisis with soaring deficits?"...

I can do this with my co-workers, but needless to say,
I cannot do this with my clients. Very frustrating....

[pinto]

35. LOL. Good point. (R)'s love him though. Small government

guy. Anti-union - he busted the Federal air controllers' union strike (which is odd, since he was the Pres at one time, as a Democrat, of the actors' union in Hollywood). Here in CA he managed to put lot of borderline mentally ill folks on the streets by closing some state run residential psych facilities. Government was the problem. They're the walking Reaganites today.

[LostInAnomie]

39. Don't forget, St. Ronnie used his position...

... as the Screen Actors Guild to turn in other actors and actresses to HUAC. Nothing spells loyalty to those who trust you like selling them out in a witch-hunt.

Fuck you, Raygun.

[JeffR]

3. Reagan Republicans are just W Republicans with training wheels

eom

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

4. Hee, I just posted about that today

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1993756

[sweetheart]

5. pacific palisades

You perfect man, living in a warm climate by the sea with all your
rich and upper middle class neighbors whilst the travails of racism and
centuries of racism, ghettoes, slavery and war are buried to the east whilst
the reagan's cultists worship the cutting down of all trees to pay for
the debt of inept vision.

[ClassWarrior]

6. In other words, they're senile puppets of the Bush Crime Family?

NGU.

[eccles12]

7. The Fed government expanded under Reagan and spending deficits

increased. So is that the kind of Republican we have here?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. Interesting they need to tie to a specific pub.

Will the GOP split into
Reagan Republicans?
Goldwater Republicans?
Eisenhower Republicans?

Is the GOP now just a cult of personality?

[IChing]

9. A Ronald Reagan Republican can mean they either have

Political Alzheimer's or have died from it.

Political dementia or Ronald Reagan Republicanism
is just like regular dementia which is
a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease
or injury and marked by memory disorders,
personality changes, and impaired reasoning..
which can be cured only when they become progressives.

[Deja Q]

10. At least they're not saying they are Eisenhower Republicans...

[glitch]

13. If they were they'd stand a chance of getting back their credibility

Reagan Republican won't cut it all that much better than Bush Republican.
Dumb squanderer vs shifty looter?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Kinda like saying, "I'm not an idiot! I'm an imbecile!"

I've long thought that Reagan was unbeatable in the "Stupidest President" category, but Dumbya has "resolutely" and "steadfastly" displayed his talents for outdoing even Reagan at being a drooling moron.

[glitch]

14. Lol! nt

[ThomWV]

12. George Bush Is A Reagan Republican Too

It was the birthing place of the tops of his entire Administration. Reaganites every damned one of them.

[Marr]

42. Exactly- I don't see the distinction.

Same group of criminals.

[liberal N proud]

15. Raygun - The president with the second largest deficit, next to bu$h

Reagan wasn't so hot either, I sat most of the raygun years without a decent job. Graduated college and ended up working part time and odd jobs to make ends meet.

[n2doc]

16. Reagan was evil

But I din't know the true meaning of Evil until w....

[Rainscents]

17. I can't believe, so many democrats bought into Reagan crap...

He was out of control on spending, hated middle class, poor and HATED Union. People bought into his shit.

[Neecy]

22. I've never gotten that either...

The press still harps about the "Reagan Democrats", the affable lunchbucket guy angry at the Democratic party for apparently not being racist enough or cruel enough to poor people.

What I don't understand is why the press has never harped on the "Clinton Republicans", who also existed probably in similar numbers. Oh, that's right - we can only talk about former Democrats (ever notice that commercial for some financial services company that narrates some broad's life in single words? "Democrat. Republican." barf and not former Republicans since these people don't exist to the corpo-whores.

[NewJeffCT]

45. but...

He single-handedly defeated the evil empire of the USSR with one hand tied behind his back. He conquered Grenada and didn't lose nearly 3,000 soldiers in doing it.

But, the real reason that Reagan is still so popular is that Grover Norquist, and other fellow Reaganites, have been on a quest since Reagan left office to rename everything in the country after Reagan. Anything or anybody that challenges Reagan's image is viciously attacked, while the RW still pumps out the myth of St. Ronnie.

[cosmicdot]

18. "By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials ...

... had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever."

So, they want to be Reagan Republicans, eh?

Today's vegetable: ketchup


http://liberalslikechrist.org/about/Reagan.html

[madmunchie]

19. Ugh, what happened to the 2 Republican Presidents since then?

Do you not support them? Do you not want to be associated with them? Did you stand up and fight them on their policies?

ADDED: That is what I will ask when, I hear that from somebody's lips

[Maat]

20. I wouldn't be proud of being a Reagan Republican.

I worked in aerospace during the time in which we were apparently furnishing Sadaam and Bin Ladin with weapons (I say "apparently" because I didn't get my information from work - hint, hint - it was from the "internets," of course). Reagan's policies were pretty much completely irresponsible.

Now, in a related topic ... I heard Ed Schultz refer to himself as a "Reagan Democrat." I don't think that I will be listening to him anymore (listened to him rarely before, primarily for reasons other DUers have cited, but THAT was it, for me). I think he was trying to play up his backing the "union man," but I'm not liking his saying that he could understand the warrantless domestic spying program (which he did say). I wrote him an email, stating that I had two words for him: "probable cause," and then proceeded to tell him that there was absolutely NO viable reason for failure to go through the FISA court (no legal, moral reason). The only reason that Bush was failing to do so was that he wanted to FISH (engage in data-mining), and that was EXACTLY what our founders wanted to prevent with the Bill of Rights. I never received a reply to my email.

But, I digress ...

[PaDem]

23. is there a difference??

I'm lost here. Reagan laid the foundation for the Bush catastrophe.

[Aviation Pro]

24. Even further back...

...Prescott Bush laid the foundation for the whole Bush Crime Family.

[Atman]

25. What does "Ronald Reagan Republican" actually mean?

You know, like the young, hip Elvis and the fat, banana-fluffer-nutter-eating television-shooting-bat-shit-crazy Elvis?

Ask,"Oh, doddering old man Reagan, or bat-shit-crazy old old Reagan? Must be the latter if you voted for anything Bush has proposed."

[Telly Savalas]

36. It means they advocate bloated defence budgets to counter the USSR

I can't think of a political philosophy better suited for our time.

[eShirl]

26. reagan = bush2 lite

[ikojo]

27. I loathed Reagan with the same intensity as I loath

George W. Reagan is the one who made self interest the defining philosophy of the US. He made it cool to only think of yourself and not care about the greater good.

[Dogmudgeon]

28. It says, "I'm not corrupt, I'm just STUPID"

Voting for Reagan was just as stupid as voting for Bush; only, Reagan wasn't quite as corrupt.

The Republican Party needs a massive overhaul. They ought to have several decades to do it, starting in about two months.

--p!

[GOPBasher]

29. Yeah, it seems that way. n/t

[Drifter]

30. That's OK ... I'm a Reagan Democrat

If it wasn't for Reagan, I wouldn't be a Democrat

Cheers
Drifter

[Earth_First]

32. LOL! very nice! n/t

[Cleita]

33. Maybe it's time to really expose RR for the

tool he was. Then they might not be so anxious to align themselves with him. The real problem with all Repukes since DDE is that they are doing their best to destroy the Constitution and Reagan is no exception.

[ComerPerro]

34. are these those "true conservatives" that people here on DU have

been lusting over for the past year?

[Swamp Rat]

37. "I'm a woodenhead, jus' like Raygun!"

[Vidar]

38. Reagan was a likable puppet who could read his lines, unlike W.

[bumblebee1]

40. Towards the end of his administration, Reagan couldn't remember his lines.

[Vidar]

49. You're right. My dad came down with alzheimer's about the

same time as Reagan.

[Ravy]

41. Maybe they just mean they are dead.

A lot of polling seems to indicate so.

[Skittles]

43. note to those people: Reagan was a f***ing asshole too

just a better actor

[Art_from_Ark]

44. You said it

The only thing that kept Raygun from being bu$h was the fact that he didn't have total control over Congress (although the %&@# boll weevil "Democrats" sure went out of their way to enable him), the Supreme Court wasn't totally in the pocket of the executive branch, and the mass media had at least a modicum of integrity.

bu$h is the result of "letting Raygun be Raygun".

[NewJeffCT]

46. The problem is also...

That since Reagan left office in 1988, the RW has been very hard at work to try & deify St. Ronnie - renaming the Washington airport to "Reagan National", the move to put his face on the dime instead of FDR (Nancy Reagan's wishes be damned!), the talk of putting his face on Mt. Rushmore, renaming countless schools, parks, gov't buildings, etc after Reagan.

We've been busy fighting off impeachment over a blowjob and didn't notice a lot of this deification.

Meanwhile, the RW has consolidated their control of the media, which was already in the process of tilting right when Reagan was in office.

[Skittles]

50. they worked hard to prop that piece of shit up while he was in office too

anyone with any sense could see the man was deteriorating badly before our eyes

[JHB]

47. Declaration: "I am a Reagan Republican"; Counterpoint:...

..."So were Saddam and Osama".

[lonestarnot]

48. One is just as ignorant as the other so no gain there.

[samsingh]

51. should also have more differentiators

'i'm a human republican - definitely will be a minority within the gop gang.