From Digby's commenters:
He should be remembered as the prototype of the vacuous "nice guy" who pursued vile, reactionary policies. Of course, we now have the production model.
re: what reagan did
I was pretty young then. All I remember was him lying to congress and playing to the soft bigotry of folksy fuddy-duddyism. For me, he started the model of "can't blame him for being a criminal, he's just incompetant" that Bush II has latched onto so profitably.
Either he degraded our country with malicious intent, or without that intent. At this point its just splitting hairs.
I was pretty young then. All I remember was him lying to congress and playing to the soft bigotry of folksy fuddy-duddyism. For me, he started the model of "can't blame him for being a criminal, he's just incompetant" that Bush II has latched onto so profitably.
Either he degraded our country with malicious intent, or without that intent. At this point its just splitting hairs.
I don't dance on peoples' graves, but let's try to remember that Reagan was a louse and a tool. This is the man who, when confronted with the nationwide university demonstrations against the vietnam war (as gov), said "if there's going to be bloodshed, let's get it over with." And even though he lacked W's extreme arrogance and destructive impulses, he was a wildly dangerous leader, and is clearly the spiritual godfather of today's knuckle-dragging wing of the Republican party. The nostalgia you may or may not be feeling right now is for a terrible president who was less of a terrible man than Bush. That's all.
Responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Central Americans. Betrayed his country to fund that secret conspiracy, for which he escaped legal punishment by lying out his ass.
Fuck his pride. Reagan was a sonofabitch liar, an utterly intolerant, cold, nasty totalitarian perfectly happy to sell himself to those with money. He was a racist and a mass-murderer. A war criminal.
Fuck his pride. Reagan was a sonofabitch liar, an utterly intolerant, cold, nasty totalitarian perfectly happy to sell himself to those with money. He was a racist and a mass-murderer. A war criminal.
To pretend sympathy for mass-murderers or those who abet and FUND mass-murder and terrorism , is disgusting. He didn't deserve Alzeimer's---he deserved to spend his last remaining years in prison. IF there was mercy. 10,000s of people died as a direct result of Ronald Reagan's racism.
Let's not forget we can thank Ronnie for the rise of Saddam Hussein!
Reagan was a very ordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. Like Warren Harding, he was an affable dumbbell who acted as a genial frontman for a multitude of greedy, reckless, brainless, and venal special interests. He was not quite aware enough to understand this, nor was the American electorate. His political legacy will be to have provided the model for how the republican party wins and exercises executive power.
Reagan never came off so much as arrogant as he did charming in the way the serpent charmed Eve. He had his share of criminals in his administration and his foreign policy was really an extension of what happened in the previous 80 years, dumbed down.
The lowlights of the Reagan years:
Shifting the tax burden almost completely on to the middle class, who for some reason cheered this on.
Iran-Contra
The dirty wars in Central America
Stifling of AIDS and communicable disease research in general.
The lowlights of the Reagan years:
Shifting the tax burden almost completely on to the middle class, who for some reason cheered this on.
Iran-Contra
The dirty wars in Central America
Stifling of AIDS and communicable disease research in general.
Let us not forget that, in fact, the Bubbleboy administration includes many people from the Reagan administration. They found a more aggressive dupe.
Read Billmon's post for today for a more thorough breakdown of Ronnie's legacy.
Okay, that's all for Ronnie.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
