How The Reagan Myth Still Distorts Our National Politics
I'm reading Will "Attytood" Bunch's new book, "Tear Down This Myth: How The Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future" about how deeply ingrained the Reagan mythology is in our country's political culture (with the help, of course, of a complicit media).
Fascinating book, really thorough. (There are things in here I didn't even know, and I'm more informed about Reagan than the average bear.) The Reagan myth is so large, so unquestioned that he even gets credit for the things he didn't do: Star Wars! Stopped the Cold War! Made the economy hum like a top! (If you have a Reagan-loving in-law, this is the book you want to read before your next family get-together.)
From the first chapter:
[...] The Reagan myth isn’t just a political problem for the GOP. Increasingly, as the idealized Reagan took hold in the American imagination, Democrats seemed to struggle even harder with the question of just who was Ronald Reagan – and whether political success going forward depended upon undercutting Reagan’s legend, simply ignoring it, or embracing all or part of it. That’s why it was a political bombshell when Sen. Barack Obama made it clear in early 2008 that Reaganism was playing some role in his thinking as he mapped out his own more progressive route to the White House – but the specifics of what Obama was getting at were open to debate.
"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama told the editorial board of the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal in January 2008. Seeking to elaborate, the Democratic senator said that "[w]e want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing." Obama’s comments caused a scramble among his Democrats: Was the presidential frontrunner simply praising the political style of the twice-elected Republican, or was his comment also intended to voice support for some of Reagan’s policy ideas? Obama advisors stressed the former – that he was merely seeking to remind voters of Reagan’s “hope and optimism.”
Obama’s statements seemed to flummox the Democrats in 2008 almost as much as Reagan himself did circa 1984. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator who was appealing to the party’s more progressive wing in those early primaries, said Reagan “openly did extraordinary damage to the middle class and working people, created a tax structure that favored the very wealthiest Americans and caused the middle class and working people to struggle every single day…I can promise you this: this president will never use Ronald Reagan as an example for change."
And yet just a couple of weeks later, it was Edwards who was gone from the presidential race, and Obama who was soldiering on – leaving the unanswered questions of whether even a progressive Democrat in the White House could tackle not just the immediate problems of Iraq, record-high gasoline prices, a skyrocketing federal debt but the more ominous issues of world energy supply and climate change without doing so under the deepening shadow of the legacy of Ronald Reagan.
How did we get to this point in American politics? It would be easy to give all the credit to the Ronald Reagan myth machine, to the neo-conservatives and tax-warriors-turned-lobbyists behind the move to seemingly pave over and rename one long Ronald Reagan Boulevard from sea to shining sea. But no myth would be possible without the man. And if there was ever a man who instinctively knew how to write that screenplay – who rode in from Hollywood to create a new kind of presidency that would focus on strong words and cinematic images that would last long after people forgot the policies sometimes loosely attached to them – it was Ronald Wilson Reagan.
♪ ♪Reagan was a hero to most...motherf*ck him and John Wayne.♪ ♪
Don't forget about Elvis.
The mentioning of Reagan's name was an ingenius way to get the knuckle-draggers to vote blue due to simple product association.
obama didnt become popular because he invoked reagan...that is just plain silly
i mean look at obama's current actions
reagan would not appear on arab tv and speak as a humble servant to the people...reagan would not create a massive jobs program...reagan would not call a ceo and shame him into not buying a private jet
the reagan myth is real....but i disagree that it had an impact upon this election
obama was right in praising reagan...he knew how to communicate to the people
edwards failed, because, and allow me to be blunt....he was a fraud
succeeded in spite of it.
All you reaganite idiots stfu about this asshole...he wasn't a great president...at all.
They'll dig him back up and fly him around the country for another 2 weeks.
Didn't they do that in 1984?
ljmel
I've been voting since I was 18 and I did not vote for this lame-ass actor. Even at 18 I could see he was a total tool. Oh, by the way,
John Wayne was a terrible actor as well, but he at least knew his place.
Also, not only was he not a great president, he wasn't even an adequate president.
He too had "other priorities."
ray gunn looked like a lisping myth,
Did he wear rouge?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
How people could think a man who was obviously suffering from Alzheimers about midway through his first term, accomplished anything... By all accounts he was before my time, but the man seemed like such a jackass. He was like Bush but with actual charm...
I'll never forget an article in the L.A. Times when Reagan was President. He was in a cabinet meeting where the MX Missile was being discussed by a bunch of military guys and according to the article all he did during the entire meeting was sit there with his jelly bean jar and line them up by certain colors and then eat them one by one.
"A little mischief in the Spring
Is healthy even for the King
But God be with the clown
Who plays with this whole world
As if it was his own."
And one more thing:
Remember when Reagan said we could all survive a nuclear war by simply digging a hole and getting into it? Then Robert Scheer wrote his amazing book, "With Enough Shovels".
Oh boy....
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
governership
know why he was so against the uc free speech movement?
he went to some campus function where 2 rock bands were playing simultainiously in different areas of the quad
he didnt like the sound
the man was a walking retard
I worked with a man who had been the Iowa Republican Party chair at one point. We had lots of great arguments, he was fun to verbally spar with and was a smart and interesting guy. I would always make fun of Reagan and he would laugh and say that George Bush was the real Ronald Reagan, he really went to church, he really was a war hero and he really was a family man (I think he stole that quote from Brokaw, not sure).
H W and not W right?
ljmel
Let's hope so.
movies in the afternoon and then took a nap. He slept through his Presidency. Nancy would tell him what to do (now wave at the people Ronnie). I used to think that he was too dumb to be president until we got Dumya (Dumb and Dumber). He was an actor, for heavens sake, and the presidency was the best role he ever got.
Until we get some liberals or Dem's in the press we will contantly hear this total Reslug bullshit from all the partisan Reslug reporters we have presently.
...Colonial slavemasters to maintain control of their indentured slaves.
Much of this Nation's "history" is saturated with lies.
Well at least they didn't have to gum their food.
By the way indentured servitude preceded slavery, and set the model for sharecropping, but wasn't synonymous with slavery.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Indentured servitude was basically poor white slavery.
That was the effect of it, but it had the pretense of legality, paying for the passage of mostly Scottish/Irish peasants to the US, and then allowing them to work off their debt, but trapping them in inescapable debt.
However, being white they could run away and resettle undetected. So slavery became the thing, because it was harder for black Africans to blend into a different society and escape detection from those they escaped from.
Funny thing was some plantation owners claimed they would free their slaves, if someone would pay for them. It seemed to be an early version of the unfunded government mandate that would be come an issue under Clinton, and Eminent Domain issues that rose under boosh.
And then of course there were also white sharecroppers who I believe were called peckerwoods.
The fact that the average American of all races has so much debt now, who exactly are we enslaved to?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
last night. If you watch for a few minutes - you'll get your answer....from "Network" in 1976
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEcLlp_Big
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
I noticed you remarked the following... "Funny thing was some plantation owners claimed they would free their slaves, if someone would pay for them. It seemed to be an early version of the unfunded government mandate"
Do you know, or could you please give your opinion on your comment? I've heard that Abraham Lincoln signed an [executive order] that influenced our monetary policy and it was related to the war and slavery. You said they could have simply paid the slave owners', could the war have been averted in your opinion or was money a prime factor? Thanks
Study the symptoms not the virus...
reagan, like dubya, if alive should be investigated for war crimes. reagan was not only a terrible president, his "revolution" is what has kneecapped america, and spread terror in central america. the reagan ideological framework has been in effect since he took office, and we are just starting to grasp how destructive it has been to america.
how many people died to further reagan's imperial ambitions? at least 70,000 alone in el salvador... 20,000 in nicaragua... 100,000 in guatemala... which can be linked to reagan policies and those he supported.
the only thing bad about reagan's death was that he never had to stand trial for what he is responsible for.
...a "Contra" once his terrorist activities in Central America were exposed. McCain surely would have been Reagan part II.
no doubt. mccain, like reagan, sees the world thru the scope of a sniper rifle. or, more like: he sees the world thru the memo from the guy that ordered the guy to order the guy to kill the labor leader in the jungle. like a true GOP beauro-warrior, war-ocrat.
..over the past couple of weeks, I've thought: Can you imagine if McCain and Miss Sarah had been elected how much Worse a mess we'd be in, even now???? (if that's even possible...)
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Samson,
Reagan wasn't the real president. Poppy CIA Bush ran these things. Reagan was out of it most of the time.
Now we know why Bush wants history to judge him. It can cast a pretty favorable light after a few years have passed.
As with Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, time heals all wounds, whether it is deserved or not.
... it should be time wounds all heels.
Comparing Truman and Carter to Nixon and Dubya. Typical American history education.
... was the myth of the 'Great Communicator.'
Reagan was president while I was in college, and I remember railing at the television screen every time some starry-eyed media type waxed poetic about his eloquence and depth.
He never said anything concrete! State of the Union speeches were filled with vague generalities. And responding to questions with feigned or real hearing problems? That's contempt, not communication.
Ultimately, even the fall of the Soviet Union was more the Soviets' own foibles coming back at them than St. Ronnie's profound exhortation to 'tear down this wall!' (Hmm - lesson to be learned: USSR gets bogged down in unwinnable war in Afghanistan, their economy and government collapses ...)
Bin Laden WINS!!!
Attytood's commenters are for the most part predictable about shouting, "SHUT UP You're so BIIIIIII-ASED," over any post like it was pudding day at the state hospital.
Even if it's about the Phillies.
On edit: The 2008 World Series Champion Phillies.
And don't you ever forget it.
Too bad the Eagles fell a little short......
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
seriously... too bad
the city would have friggin gone nutz...
Reagan was largely the triumph of image over substance. Most of his policies were horrible, certainly when it came to economics. But the press - and too many in the general public - ignored Reagan's actual extremism and irresponsibilty and cluelessness because he presented an amiable persona. Many of the so-called "liberals" on TV, with Chris Matthews probably being the most prominent example, are Reagan Democrats, with a socially conservative streak and a disdain for Dirty Friggin' Hippies and liberalism. The Republicans have pushed the Reagan model ever since - extremism sold with phony populism by rich, privileged upper class warriors. Fake cowboys remain a staple. As incurious and delusional as Reagan was (trees cause pollution) even without the onset of Alzheimer's, he had perhaps half a foot a reality. Bush the Younger was Reagan with less competence and intellectual heft.
You forgot, "Ketchup is a vegetable."
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the gipper... get the gipper high he gets hipper... not...
A Message For President Obama
If you, sir, allow republicans to use failed and wornout Bush tax cuts to jump-start the economy, the recovery will never happen. This country did it Bush's way for 8 lonnnnnnnng years and look where it got us?! Tax cuts for the rich business owners destroyed our economy. Do you actually think that these republican business owners will "trickle-down" their "welfare payments" to the working class? GIVE ME A BREAK! The GOP legislators are minorities in both Houses. Why even listen to these greedy conservative corporate whores in the first place?!
We have only 1 chance at this thing to recover from Bush's version of Reaganomics and if we lose because of a recovery package dilluted/poisoned by the remaining conservative ideologues whining about their share of corporate welfare, then it will be you, President Obama as the one who has sold out "his" base and the American people through fruitless political pandering. It's time for you, President Obama and your Merry Men in Congress to grow a pair for the citizens/peasants of this soon-to-be 3rd world country owned by corrupt corporate private business and a government that continues to cave into their every whim!
LimpBalls
that tax cuts bring in more money. It is a myth that Congress will decrease spending. Had spending cuts accompanied the tax cuts, we wouldn't be in this problem. Both sides at fault. Need a third party.
yeah, your prescription is exactly what we need to move away from. this isn't 1981, and neoliberalism isn't a new shiny toy to play with. it is all rusty with sharp edges. danger.
although, i 10000000% agree with your call for the a third party, and the complicity of both parties in today's troubles...
Thanks for the book tip. I've put it on my reading list. I've thought for a long time that someone should write a book called "What Reagan Did" that goes over exactly what Reagan did as governor, president, and radio show host; that would surely go a long way toward undoing the hagiography. Noam Chomsky has said in recent years that he wishes some researcher would look into the early 90s strategy of remaking Reagan as a sacrosanct demigod. Chomsky occasionally cites end-of-the-80s public polls that show that at the end of the 80s Reagan was one of the least popular presidents of all time. And now young people, who know little or no history, rank Reagan as high as or higher than Lincoln in some polls. Disgusting.
is unbelievable to me. I was born in 1955, so I have seen a few Presidents come and go, but Reagan's legacy has been blown so far out of proportion by today's wingnuts, that his time in office is unrecognizable! We had major inflation, brought under control by Paul Volker(sic), a huge Savings and Loan mess (that brought us the Keating 5) dealing with IRAN to get weapons for the Contras (an unelected goon squad masquerading as 'freedom fighters') and massive, massive federal deficit spending. Let's not forget, we also had massive tax cuts for the rich that brought about those huge deficits. The 1980s were a time of considerable anxiety in this country, not Happy Days.
sorry about the typo
I'm definitely going to pick this up. Just as Naomi Klein's *Shock Doctrine* struck at the core issue of the Republican ideology (the free market), so too does this book. So much of the GOP's current philosophy centers around their glorified messiah, Ronald Reagan, that any book that exposes the truth behind this wretched president is worth picking up.
I'd say that if you ever plan to argue with right-wingers, you should be more than willing to demystify the three scaffolds that prop up this crazy party:
- the infallible system: the unfettered free market
- the infallible religion: Christianity
- the infallible man: Ronald Reagan
Words are our most potent weapons. It's high time we expose these lunatics for who they really are: misguided fundamentalists of a philosophy debunked decades ago.
Reagan conservatives are nothing more then empty ideologues who adhere to a very noble ideology that has always failed to perform for the masses when applied to real life situations. Thus, the economic disaster we all live with now.
I
trusthope that President Obama can shake free of such dogmas.LimpBalls
and get to the bottom of his real past. He contradicts himself about Viet Nam, and there is a remarkable lack of corroboration of his claims. Although he is a self-admitted collaborator and self-described war criminal, the media treats it as an undisputed fact that he was a genuine hero.
Of course McInSain was a war hero. He bombed civilyuns, all in the name of the Vaderland and speading freedumb, didn't he?
Reagan was nothing at all about hope and optimism. He was selling pretend Leave-It-To-Beaver Americana that never existed. A lie. His handlers used him to peddle pleasant platitudes for cover while they went about the serious business of fucking every last person in the country who wasn't rich and privileged. If Reagan was anything (aside from a corrupt, slack-witted simpleton) he was Orwellian. No wonder the GOPers loved him, he was Al Capone playing a lovable Father Knows Best role. A lovable puppet with the ethical and moral maliability and also with the empty-headed stage presence to serve as the perfect instrument for taking the nation to the cleaners. People ate it up.
Please, Sir! May I have another?
If that is what Obama had in mind, he can just stuff the whole idea back into the box from whence he found it. If there's going to be cause for hope and optimism it is going to have to be based on genuine causes, not cynical and slick marketing undertaken with a presumption that the public is stupid enough to buy it.
that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar?
I don't he was.
Ronald Reagan was not the solution- Ronald Reagan was (and is) the problem.
Nuff said
was a really bad actor (if you ever saw any of his films, you'd know that)and an even worse President. His role was to speak platitudes while his guys did the dirty work undercover in Central and South America and in the Middle East. He should have been investigated and impeached for war crimes.
And, let us not forget that Ronnie was the genius who appointed Alan Greenspan to run the Federal Reserve and perpetuate the Repug "free market" ideology. We see now how well that's worked out.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
He was just a forerunner of George Bush. He almost destroyed the middle class and 4 more years of Daddy Bush proved it. Clinton got the middle class off life support and back on shakey feet and then George Bush. So here we are almost dead again. I am starting to feel it is hopeless.
Right now I am wondering who really did win this election. All I have seen on T.V. for three days is Republicans. Obama spends more time worried about Republicans than Democrats and absolutely no time at all on his base.
What we absolutely know now is that what began with Reagan ended in the destruction of free-market capitalism right now. Reagan was overrated, this we now know.
Frankly, I never saw him as anything much more than a senile, dangerous old geyser myself.
But now we know how horrendously wrong his ideologies were! The proof is what we have facing us today.
You're a senile, dangerous old geezer?
If you're a geyser you'd really need Depends.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I recall the man as one you either loved or despised.
Personally I couldn't stomach the man.
I thought he was cynical and ruthless.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
Isn't this the way it always is with Obama?
Started out in California as an FDR admirer (registered Democrat)...then was corrupted by corporatists into a 'free marketeer'...
Worst presidents in history in order:
W Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Hoover....they all have something in common...
We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children - Native American proverb
If being cold means there's no such thing as global warming, does being full mean there's no such thing as world hunger?
Arguably the worst presidents are:
1. W
2. James Buchanan
3. Andrew Johnson
4. Woodrow Wilson
4. Richard Nixon
when he explicitly lionized Raygun and explicitly 'dissed' the several generations of protestors--for peace, civil rights, women's rights, for a non-nuclear world--to whom Raygun was an explicit rebuke--and of whcich, not incidentally, I was an active member, from 1968 on...
I said then, and I shall say again: Fuck You, bubba! When were you last tear-gassed, clubbed, trod on by horses, threatened with a bayonet-wielding national guard? I can give you the dates and times when those things happened to me, AFTER my time in the War...I say again: Fuck You, and your Ronnie Raygun...
is in a movie called King's Road (Row?). He plays an athlete who gets his legs cut off by a train. He recovers, and when he regains consciouness, surrounded by docs, and his chums, he looks down, realizes the amputation, and asks, plaintively, "Where's the REST of me?"
To me that question emblematizes every facet of the 'reality' of Raygun, the politician.
He was so proud of the movie and that line. Reportedly, that was one of the reasons Jane Wyman divorced him. He wanted to put that movie on everytime they had friends over. Sort of a discount Sunst Boulevard.
I do remember well the Reagan years. That was a time of farm bankruptcies and forced farm auctions. My brother sent a post card home while traveling in Wisconsin and something to the effect that those farmers would be really glad they voted for Reagan by the time Reagan got done with them.
I also remember some wealthy Reagan fan boys trying very hard to make sure every county seat in America had a statue of Reagan. Since I haven't seen too many, I take it they failed.
One of the reasons I shall [probably] not again fly into the nation's capitol.
My thoughts about the carrier (and it's 'sister ship,' the George H.W. Bush) are likely seditious in the wrong ears...
it is going to have to be based on genuine causes, not cynical and slick marketing undertaken with a presumption that the public is stupid enough to buy it.
You want what cannot be.
I was having breakfast today with a young houseguest, and he expressed is anger to me at the blatant appeals to primal self-interest which is the fundamental value in the contrived "reality" tv programs which have become implausibly perfused across the whole spectrum of channel choices there exist today. "All they do is demonstrate how, if you want to win, you have to be willing to form and break alliances at the drop of a hat, and no matter the cost," he said. "What kind of a lesson is that?"
Business, I said.
Cynical, slick marketing plans and promotions (i.e., propagandas) are the ONLY way by which the modern State is capable of communication with its constituents.
The public is not per se "stupid" enough to buy it. It is, however" schooled to 'buy' it, has been thoroughly and systematically taught to buy it. It's the product--still undergoinig perfection and modification--of a conscious project begun almost 100 years ago to "engineer" the consent of the governed for any public path that the elites wish to follow.
The corporate media have been an almost infallible instrument in this program, as have been the schools--public and private, pre-K through Grad school. That the people "buy" the crap they do is part and parcel with their actual ignorance about most of what they have been conscientiously TAUGHT by every institution and information source around them, repeatedly, was acceptable and or normative behavior.
They tell me that he came from Illinois
They say he was the all American boy
Then he went out to Hollywood to make himself a name
And he went on to minor motion picture fame
They called him Ron
Ronald Reagan
He started movies with a chimpanzee
And in a western series on TV
He spoke for Goldwater with rhetorical zip
And he coasted to the California governorship
They called him Ron
Ronald Reagan
Taxes got entirely out of hand
But he was held over by popular demand
If it took a blood bath to stop student unrest
Then that’s what the ungrateful little bastards would get
‘Cause he was Ron
Ronald Reagan
Big Ron
Ronald Reagan
The Democrats had them a candidate
Destined to go down in flames
He said that Ronald would drop the bomb
While imitating Jon Wayne
He wanted to be LBJ
Or Harry Truman at least
But with his partner Mondale
Jimmy Carter suffered defeat
The military budget grew obese
And justice was entrusted to Ed Meese
He supported South Africa, sold missiles to Iran
A strategic initiative he killed his fellow man
He was Ron
Ronald Reagan
The lobbyists are counting their loot
From the man with the dyed hair and Teflon suit
He’s our good old president and I am so pleased
‘Cause he knows that pollution comes mainly from trees
Yes he’s Ron
Ronald Reagan
He’s our good old President the star of the show
He’ll balance the budget in a billion years or so
Yes he’s Ron
Ronald Reagan
He’s our good old President
I think it’s really swell
But if he wants me in Nicaragua then he can go to hell
Yes he’s Ron
Ronald Reagan
Yes he’s our gun running president he’s slippery as a squid
He’s stupid if he didn’t know, dishonest if he did
Yes he’s Ron
Ronald Reagan
He’s our good old president his policies I curse
But at least he isn’t Nixon— he’s even worse
Yes he’s Ron
Ronald Reagan
Big Ron
Worst. President. Ever.
until 2001-2009.
me-oww!
Ok, we call ourselves a "Christian nation", but many love Ronald666Wilson Reagan! As a "spiritual Christian (Messanic)", I don't get the reason the far-right(demonic Christians)fellowship like this guy. Reagan 1)Traded weapons for hostages with Iran. 2)Cut and ran out of Lebanon. 3) Raised taxes the higest ever . 4) Created our first "debtor nation" status by putting us so far in debt, only the Bush's have done WORSE! The myth is DEAD! Ronald666Wilson Reagan is DEAD. And so are all of the GOP policies!
We could turn our economy around if we repeal Reagans tax plan. Restore all of the deductions for ie; state sales tax, credit card interest, automobile interest, and quit subsidizing all of the Fortune 500 corporations Reagan gave tax breaks to.
Reagan's administration was the most corrupted in our history until Bush Jr...
But both are let go free as a bird and their crimes never investigated..
Conservative Republicans are such paragons of virtue and truth that they claim that Bill Clinton's administration was "the most corrupt administration in American history" despite the fact that history contradicts everything about that statement.
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/Reaga...
None
Tell the big lies to each other long enough and you create a "truth."
ljmel
I'll just point out that the statement:
"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not"
is not an endorsement, it is a (somewhat subjective) statement of fact.
There is no mystery here.
Think of it as follows: if you see a ball strike a lamp post, it will change the trajectory of the ball. That does not mean you admire the lamp post or want to adopt its politcal philosophy. It's just an observation not unlike: why are we all so quick to create controversy where none really exists?
Rant over...
-ek
...this is the book you want to read before your next family get-together.
Nonsense. As anyone who has spoken to a Republican lately already knows, facts are irrelevant. It doesn't matter what this (or any) book says about Reagan. The myths will endure. And they have to, because Wingnuts have nothing left but myths (and lies).
So, if you want to fight with an in-law (and possibly alienate him or her forever), just show up at the next family gathering and "prove" that Reagan's legacy is not what they believe it to be. The true believers won't be persuaded, but they will hate you even more than they do already.
A better idea might be to pass on this suggestion and marry someone with better genes.
If you are a progressive liberal, you need to add Clinton's name to the myth buster category as well. Fiscally, he continued what Reagan started, and was a precursor to all of Bush's major fiascoes. We've got to be honest about this if we want things to change under Obama, and we need to keep this in mind as we watch his actions.
Whenever I think of Reagan, (or hear right wingers get all weepy over him) I hear this song playing in my head:
http://www.last.fm/music/James+Kochalka+Super...
He-e-e-e-e-y, Ronald Reagan!
Living large in hearts of men!
He-e-e-e-e-y, Ronald Reagan!
Are you coming back again?
Hey, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie Reagan!
Hey, Nanee-nanee-nanee-ho!
Hey, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie Reagan!
Where did you go?
He-e-e-e-e-y, Ronald Reagan!
Hidey-hey! Hidey-ho!
He-e-e-e-e-y, Ronald Reagan!
Whe-e-e-e-e-re did you go?
Hey, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie Reagan!
Hey, Nanee-nanee-nanee-ho!
Hey, Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie Reagan!
Where did you go?
incredible how the Reagan myth has not been exposed
he raised taxes more then any peacetime president before him, he did not "lower taxes"
worse then that, not only did he raise taxes overall, those taxes rose exponentially for the middle class, a redistribution of tax load so that the incredibly few who did wind up with these tax gifts were funded by the people who needed the money the most
then, while increasing taxes over all AND for the majority of people, he proceeded to dismantle vital services so that states had to add taxes on top of the tax increases in order to keep funding these vital services
Reagan grew government more then any democrat before him
Reagan increased unemployment
Reagan almost eliminated the middle class with his robber baron economic strategy
Reagan removed the important policies that forces business into paying their bills.
most regulations arise from issues industry creates itself, for instance they refused to clean up the bronchitis they dumped in my kids air and the cancer they poured in my moms water
because they wouldn't clean up their own crap regulations were put into place by the ultra liberal Richard Nixon who created the EPA
Reagan eliminated as many of these bill paying safeguards as possible and the middle class is paying for corporate bills today
Reagan increased industry's power over labor exponentially
Reagan made it possible for industry to export jobs and allow these depraved corporations to use slave labor, child labor which is obviously contraband
Reagan armed the terrorists today, if not for Reagan it is not likely bin laden would have existed.
the list goes on and on, if not for bush Reagan would have CLEARLY been argualbly the most damaging president in American history
of course bush trumps any other consideration in that regard
That's quite a list. I wonder what other horrors lie within the book?
When Ronnie is mentioned, I always think of the lyric:
Go nuclear the cowboy told us
And who am I to disagree
But when the madman pulls the switch
The nuclear will go for me
The lunatics have taken over the asylum...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmtX9CYIAnY
Funny how applicable this song is to our present circumstance..
-ek
I always picture Alex P. Keaton when someone mentions the gipper.
Lowest common denominator, that is.
It's too bad it has taken multiple crises for Americans to realize they really should be led by someone smarter than they are.
Reagan didn't know this shit, his handlers did. When Reagan had to speak extemperaneously, he couldn't make complete sentences. Period. He was very good at reading a script. Which, frankly, WAS ALL HE EVER DID.
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