Rewriting Ronald Reagan
- Thread starter Lenny
- Start date
ImnoMensa
New Member
When I heard "The Won" try to compare himself with Reagan I almost crapped my pants I laughed so hard.
Reagan only made one mistake. Not aborting Little Ron, but Reagan was Pro-life.
BOP
Well-Known Member
Speaking of revisionist history...how quickly we forget about Reagan and Central America.
philibusters
Active Member
I do not get why conservatives love Ronald Reagan so much. Gov't spending increased and deficits went up. The nation as a whole had a good decade in the 1980's as after 1982 the economy really started to pickup and eventually got red hot, but if that is your criteria Bill Clinton could be a conservative hero as the economy heated up after 1993 during his term.
Baz
This. ------------------>
The myth of Reagan's presidency is celebrated wildly by the Righties, but the reality of it would surely have many calling him a RINO, today.
Toxick
Splat
'Cause the 80's rocked out with its #### out.
Not only was the music supercool, but miniskirts were all the rage, and white people had a dance that we could all do well.
About the only thing wrong with the 80's was the hair.
The hair was just awful.
Clinton was better than either W and Obama. I'll give him that - but He didn't seem very Presidential to me though. Anyone who dignifies a question about his skivvies on MTV needs to have their head examined. Also he plays a mean saxophone - but the PRESIDENT shouldn't be doing that publicly with his Satchmo cheeks popping out and Arsenio Hall "woofing" at him.
Cool dude to hang out with, sure... but still not very presidential.
I'll be so glad when miniskirts are back in fashion again.
Toxick
Splat
The way I understand it by Righties who were politically aware during that time (I was not), the reason Reagan is so widely celebrated was because he won the Cold War using tactics of which they heartily approve.
Even though there were no bombs being dropped and no tanks were plowing over the rubble of the city building they destroyed, we were most certainly in a far reaching and deeply rooted war. And Reagan won that war by scaring the piss out of the commies with is gung-ho demeanor, and spending way more money on defense than the Soviets ever could.
And he was big into supply-side economics, which conservatives tend to favor.
I'm not here to debate the veracity of these observations. Only relaying the reasons why conservatives still hold him in extremely high regard, despite his surface appearance of being very liberal with the checkbook. He was the president we needed at the time.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
That is about the least Reagan-esque thing you could say about him.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
PsyOps
Pixelated
This has to be one of the most horrible things I've read on this forum.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Three things;
He rebuilt our military setting us on a nation path to over come the ghosts of Vietnam and a demoralized US military.
He got the economy going and pulled us out of the post Vietnam doldrums and stagflation.
He made us feel like a good country, a good people again.
He did this all with a congress opposed to him pretty much every step of the way.
As for Clinton, I have some appreciation for him. Especially after he got himself a congress that opposed him. So, does the Dem congress deserve more credit for the Reagan years or were they wrong, too? The left never addresses that one.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Oh, come on! Not even close! You've seen the links to some of my music...
PsyOps
Pixelated
Larry Gude
Strung Out
philibusters
Active Member
Seems like a traditional conservative would support a free market. You can stimulate demand side by for example having programs like social security and trying to artificially keep employment down, and spending a lot on defense. You can stimulate supply by giving corporations tax breaks or writing off their bad debt (like a corporate bailout) and businesses will of course support that. But if you are a traditional conservative it seems you should neither support Keynesian economics (very crudely demand side economics), nor supply side economics, but support the free market. Though democrats tend get support from people who want more welfare and republicans get support from pro-business elements, so you get demand side economics from democrats and supply side economics from the republicans to some degree.
Reagan's role in winning the Cold War is up for debate, but like all historical questions it is complicated and most people's beliefs tend to be what they want history to show, rather than what they know history shows. Coming up from a liberal background my instinct is that Reagan was simply part of the Cold War Foreign Policy tradition, though perhaps slightly more aggressive. I doubt his supporters would agree. I have books about periods of time when the Cold War was ongoing, but I have never really focused on reading about the Cold War nor Reagans specific contribution to it. I think liberal historians like to give Truman a lot of credit for winning the cold war and I would be willing to bet conservatives see him playing a smaller role in setting Cold War Foreign policy.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
Baz
This. ------------------>
I get that, and agree. That's how they look back at it: "Tear down this wall."
It seems to me most glorify those aspects of Reagan's contributions, while minimilizing (if not excluding entirely) many aspects of which they may not want to acknowledge. Reagan's desire to reduce/eliminate nukes, for one. Willingness to talk/work with "the enemy". Offering to share SDI technology with the Soviets.
Not to mention completely marginalizing Mikhail Gorbachev's role. If Gorby wasn't there, that wall doesn't come down when it did.
And that seems to be the case with Reagan's entire legacy with the Righties. They glorify the things he did that they agree with, while completely ignoring the things he did which are at odds with their current views. The myth has distorted the reality.
Larry Gude
Strung Out
True. It perhaps comes down sooner absent that hapless victim of circumstances.
The romanticizing of Gorbachev was one of the more hilarious dances I've seen until Mr. "I don't know the facts but I do know the police acted stupidly..." came along. Modern liberals, the psychophant media will, in fact, court, praise and sleep with the enemy before they will give a conservative credit for spelling his own name right.
Gorbachev was a nothing, a nobody who simply did what he had no choice but to do. Reagan deserves immense credit for elevating the guy, treating him with dignity and not knocking him over with the flick of his finger it would have taken in terms of pressure that would have ended with Gorby in a freaking gulag. Or a ditch. Bleeding from the back of his head.
Gorbachev.
hvp05
Methodically disorganized
Isn't that a key tenant of your plan to bring sexy back?
