Dear God, I knew he was the worst already, but it seems every new thing I learn only makes it even worse.
I knew he was the proto-trump, but this is perhaps the Trumpiest thing I’ve heard yet.
I had a history professor in college that once said in a lecture that it is impossible for someone who lived through something to view it historically because of perception and bias. I think of him every time I see something like this because it makes me wish I could live long enough to read historical analyses of stuff like Reagan's presidency. Hopefully history will be able to truthfully describe what he did to our country.
Reagan was a proto-Trump, Bush I was a proto-Trump, and Bush II was a proto-Trump. Trump is not some new phenomenon, he's just a somewhat more repulsive version of shit that's been going on for 45+ years now.
Reagan actually is a proto-trump. The others I'd argue aren't. Reagan was an actor who won because of a populist push using their charisma (which I don't see with Trump but it works for some reason). The Bush family were politicians who got into power through the normal political path. Sure, they were still fairly populist, but they weren't outsiders working off of only stardom. Hell, MAGA is a Reagan slogan. He's the proto-trump.
Begs the question: How are these dumbasses going to one-up this guy?
Dear God, I knew he was the worst already,
He cut off funding to Israel after their illegal attacks on Palestinians.
And he thought the tax rates on the wealthiest should be higher than most modern Democrats do now.
Still a total shitshow of a president. But "the worst" is a stretch. I mean shit, trump hasn't been out of office 4 years yet. He was a lot worse than Reagan.
If we're only allowed to use trump as a comparison these days, Reagan wasn't that bad
But only comparing a president to trump isn't logical.
Ronny "trickle down economics" Reagan thought taxes should be higher on wealthy folks? Are you insane? The top tax bracket went from 70% at the start of his presidency to 28% by the time he left office. What Democrat have you heard calling to drop the top tax rate below 28%?
He was WORSE than "that bad". Have you ever heard of something called the Iran Contra scandal?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Contra_affairAnd oh, by the way, he didn't defeat the USSR, Carter did. Funding the Taliban's war against the Soviet's started under his watch. Ronny just took credit for it.
Trump ignored covid, Reagan ignored and cheered on AIDS. So I guess that's a bit of a wash. What did trump do equivalent to or worse than colluding with Iran to keep American hostages in order to win an election. And then go on to illegally sell weapons in circumvention of a US embargo to Iran and fund terrorists in South America. Then after being caught lying to Congress had his former VP pardon them both and Olly North.
"He thought tax rates should be higher than most modern Democrats do now."
Holy shit, what a take. And, uh, why is it that modern Dems are at that point, again?
I don’t mean literally the worst as Trump absolutely holds that position. I meant it as a figure of speech in regard to how bad he was.
I would argue Trump was only able to run because Reagan walked it out first.
My point was on how remarkably and terrifyingly similar they were.
Similarly, Obama tried to set up a training exercise to show the incoming Trump people how to deal with a potential epidemic. Trump blew it off.
Donald deliberately dismantled the pandemic response specifically to spite Obama. He is one of the most fragile dimwits on the planet.
Not just Obama. The previous National Security Advisor was pals with the Admiral who ran the office; when the NSA guy called Trump an idiot Donnie retaliated by getting rid of the Admiral. Government by spite.
Nixon, Reagan, Bush1, Bush2, Trump. The GOP pattern of criminality, ineptitude, and ignorance is clear as ever.
But it keeps getting swept under the rug every election cycle. No one realizes or points out how terrible the GOP are at running anything. Like every recession starts because of a conservative idea or policy that gets cleaned up by the left.
Prescott Bush was pals with the Nazis and helped plot a little insurrection against the United States.
Can't begin to imagine how Obama felt passing the baton to the pumpkin
Fuck Ronnie R
"Hostages in Iran? Nah, that problem will go away soon. Don't ask me how I know."
guys, im starting to think that this ronald guy was kind of a shit head.
Carter had his issues but he was and intelligent and thoughtful person that was ultimately screwed over.
So he didn't help the genocidal maniacs of El Salvador? (Reagan did too)
I don't understand why anyone is ever charitable with politicians in terms of their morals. They volunteer for the job, it is extremely well compensated financially and in lifelong privileges for high offices, and yet when they display principles beforehand and then don't act on them it isn't their fault?
Sure it may not 100% be their fault but it isn't like many have the guts to resign, or fire the people under them making bad decisions, or anything of consequence.
God, if we are going to be forced to elect a goddamned fossil, could it be Carter instead of Biden or Trump? Please. He has only had one term. He was truly Tue last president who really was just a genuinely good guy. Obama was good and he did a lot of good things, Biden is really trying to push on stuff, but has a dubious history at best. I wasn't even fucking alive when Carter was president, but I know he is the only past president in my lifetime who STILL HELPS BUILD HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOUSES. Period. Full stop. That is ignoring the fact he is 99 years old. Like, can we have that energy in politics please?
Um Carter had been in hospice for some time unfortunately. He has lived an amazing life and was super active into his 90s but we are unfortunately past that. I get what you're saying though and it's sad he lost originally.
Only mark against Carter I can think of is the deregulation of air travel.
Even there Reagan was like, "Hold my Movie Script" and crushed the airline industry union, essentially leading to the post-labor era.
With all the news about Air Traffic Controllers falling asleep and making poor decisions, would be nice if Democrats connected this failure to Reagan's fuck-up, but I guess the electorate is too short-sighted to connect the dots.
The Volcker Shock, his mishandling of Iran and Afghanistan, and his heavy reliance on privatization as a means of devolving federal powers to the states all paled beside what Reagan eventually put us through. But they moved us in a similar direction.
Carter was the last President to win the votes of the segregationist south. Perhaps his brand of moderate centrism was the best the Dems could field against Ford. But I would not have called him a particular good President. A lot of what he said and did upon leaving office contradicted what he said and did while in office. Similar to LBJ in that regard.
"I'm glad Reagan dead." ~Killer Mike
Ronald Reagan? The psychopath??
Anyone have the article?
Thank you, fun read
Ronald Reagan? The fascist?
Hoover had a similar description of FDR
Which isn't to say FDR and Reagan were in any way qualitatively close. But both men had political agendas that varied substantially from the prior administrations. And they both moved rapidly away from the direction of prior administrations.
Reagan was the first real neoconservative President, the closest thing to a Libertarian president the country has had since Coolidge, and a man who had surrounded himself with leaders of the conservative congressional minority with the intent of flipping the legislature.
I'm not shocked to hear he was blind and deaf to Carter's "Top 20 issues" given that these simply didn't concern a guy whose priorities were deregulation, tax cuts, privatization, and military exports.
Fascinating I had no idea. Sounds familiar.
Which is a little funny, because Park would have just pretty recently got assassinated as a consequence of all that authoritarianism…
If only John Hinckley Jr was a better shot.
Talking to bushes out in the rose garden. He should’ve been impeached and removed. He was the beginning of the end
You know, I do think john hinckley was kinda cool, now that you mention it
Poor guy shot Reagan to try to impress Jodie Foster.
Shoulda drew it up in a script written form with his name tagged to the pertitent lines
