GOP Needs to Forget Reagan: Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

wsj.com:

The Republican Party's unending tale of woe sounds like a friend's account of sitting through the New York Yankees' 22-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians at the new Yankee Stadium April 18.

In the 14-run second inning, three Indians hit home runs into the right-field seats, including a grand-slam. One ball hit a woman in the head because the fans had stopped watching the game. A nasty fight broke out in the stands. After the fourth inning (16-2), the subway trains taking Yankee faithful back to Manhattan were packed. Republicans know the feeling.

Read the whole story: wsj.com

Comments

[exoevolution]

Even Ronnie Reagan had forgotten Reagan by his 2nd term!!

[goodog]

The Reagan work ethic: Screw YOU if YOU didn't get to the cheese truck before I did.

In 1986, I saw a shoving match breakout on the side of the road between a local preacher and a public school teacher over a 5 lbs block of Reagan-era government cheese.

The much-vaunted golden era of Reagan economic bliss is TOTALLY hyped.

[CRA1]

Reagan destroyed California as it's govenor and did the same as Presidnet. Reagan economics was the begining of the situation we are in.

[nolocontendre]

He raised taxes in California. He used the patients' rights movement as an excuse to close mental health facilities and gave birth to the homeless problem.

And he got upstaged by a chimp...'nuff said.

[greatlardini]

Anybody who believes that Ray-gun was responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union is either dreadfully ig.norant of our history or just has swallowed too much of the GOP brand of b.s. the last twenty years. I could give you a detailed history, but I'll just name a few of the key factors in the fight against Communism. The Marshall Plan, the Korean War, the arms race, the space race, Vietnam, satellite communications--all helped bring an end to the Soviet Union, because with the exception of the Marshall Plan they had to spend money. Wars are won with money more than anything else--ask the confederacy.

[nolocontendre]

The idea that the Soviet Union cried uncle because Reagan talked tough and shoveled money at the Pentagon has always been as laughable as it is widely accepted. In the early '70's, long before Reagan, the CIA was already noting the disintegration of the Soviet domestic economy. They predicted a collapse, but not a timetable.

High oil prices in the late seventies and early eighties gave the Soviet Union a reprieve. With the hard currency from oil exports, the politburo increased domestic spending to placate its people. When oil prices collapsed, they could not sustain that spending...the people weren't happy with renewed austerity. The Soviet Union collapsed from within.

You'd think a Party that claims to understand economics better that the rest of us would see it. Of course a rational analysis. wouldn't serve to deify Reagan

[delvis]

I have tried to forget Reagan. But I will never forget when Bonzo went to Bitburg.

[outnow]

Reagan was a former spokesperson for unions. Then he met Nancy and her family turned him into the spokesperson for the big money. He knew on which side his bread was buttered. Nancy ran the country behind the scenes after Reagan was shot (for a while), and then, after his dementia progressed, she consulted her paranormal fortune-tellers for advice in running the country - so her thinking was as messed up as Reagan's. Two heads are no as good as one good head.

Reaganomics are too easily discredited today after the crash on Wall Street and the failure of Reaganomics or moral bankruptcy has been exposed. Yes, the GOP needs another front man. Is there a second-rate actor out there? Not even Joe the Plumber wants to be a Republican. Hecka a job, "W". Both the brand and the product are no good. So why is the "champion's legacy" - meaning Ronald Reagan's legacy - worthwhile pursuing? That's how these clowns lost in 2006 and 2008.

The GOP is starting to realize that younger people couldn't care less about the GOP's former hero.

[traveler501]

funny that the only decent role Reagan ever played (except maybe Death Valley Days) was as a politician named Reagan. This Reagan character was kind of a sitcom screwup Dad...he made lousy choices, did illegal things (Iran Contra), surrounded himself with a nasty bunch who came back for a redux in the Bush II sequel, generally screwed things up...but got a happy ending in the perversely simplistic Republican memory at large. forget him, continue to expand the mythos...who cares? I am thoroughly enjoying watching the Republicans deconstruct themselves in front of a credulous nation. This may actually be the catharsis our post-Industrial Revolution culture has been gasping for. oh yeah...get over Evolution too.

[DaveyDavey]

Might as well forget Reagan. Even Reagan forgot Reagan.

[freethinkergirl]

It allowed him to die peacefully in his own ignorance.

[foreffectivegovernment]

(Ronald Reagan said “Government is not a solution to our problem, Government is the problem.”)
This is true, only if the Republican Party is running the Government.

[stickburn]

what problems have government solved? Poverty, nope. Medicare, nope. Automotive, nope. Mail, nope. Education, nope. Doesn't see to be a Republican issue, it seems to be a power issue. Whoever is in power fails.

[foreffectivegovernment]

Here is a link to the real Ronald Reagan. Required reading for all Republicans.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/06/290252.shtml

[foreffectivegovernment]

From the above article:
""Ronald Reagan, like his heir George W. Bush, was an amicable dunce. He could charm your socks off, but if you were a poor peasant with no spare socks, you were now stuck in a sockless situation and would be unlikely to afford socks or shoes."

Ronald Reagan won his presidency based on promises to dramatically increase military spending, cut taxes, and balance the Federal budget. It was all a lie, because even his future vice-President once called the plan "voodoo economics". But Reagan's handlers, the penultimate sleaze crowd of market manipulators, knew that Americans, more than anything else, are desperate to feel good about themselves. Political handlers learned under the Reagan program that since Americans love to feel good about themselves, and since the only way for Americans to feel really good about themselves is to believe lies, then the bigger the lies, the better.

George W. Bush is a political scion of the Reagan Revolution -- the Revolution of Grand Lies. No lie was too grand for Reagan, and no lie is too spectacular for George W. Bush. As a result, Americans felt good under Reagan and the deaf, dumb, and blind crowd of Reaganite Americans still tends to feel good under W. Bush.

The lies of Reagan led to financial bankruptcy of America, causing America to go from the world's largest creditor nation to the world's largest debtor nation in one eight-year term."

[freethinkergirl]

It also led to the destruction of the middle class by raising their taxes, while the promised trickle down evaporated before it ever reached them

Ronald Reagan followed his huge 1981 tax cut with two large tax increases. In fact, no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people as Reagan.

The first Reagan tax increase came in 1982 since budget projections used to justify the 1981 tax cut were wildly optimistic. In response, Mr. Reagan agreed to roll back his tax cuts. Over all, the 1982 tax increase undid about a third of the 1981 cut; as a share of G.D.P.

For many middle- and low-income families, this tax increase more than undid any gains from Mr. Reagan's income tax cuts. In 1980, middle-income families with children paid 8.2 percent of their income in income taxes, and 9.5 percent in payroll taxes. By 1988 the income tax share was down to 6.6 percent — but the payroll tax share was up to 11.8 percent, and the combined burden was up, not down.

[Phideaux]

Bingo! Proving once again, P.T. Barnum was right.

[Martampa]

There are 2 things that come to mind when I hear Ronnie's name. Air traffic controllers and his testifying against some of his fellow actors during the McCarthy era.

[dst1]

He was not a nice guy..................

[Martampa]

Reagan was the one that started the downfall of the Middle Class. If he is the best of the Repugnuts please don't show me the worst.

[BeachBubbaTex]

One thing is true: Reagan's legacy isn't as simple as either his critics or supporters claim.

Somebody posted below about Americans' hero-fetish, and RR certainly provided this. Given the context of the times (I was a teen in the 1970s) Reagan was, well, straight from central casting. So in a way, he was an important persona for the country in 1980 (check out Lary May's book, The Big Tomorrow for an interesting parallel in movies).

The problem (as with Bush Jr.) is that the idealized solutions forwarded by Reagan (and summarized here by the WSJ) ran counter to the actual problems facing this country: globalization, debt, bloated military spending, energy dependency, etc. etc.

In the long run, I think Reagan shows how much more difficult it is to sustain a real republican-democracy in an era of complex and globalized problems. In this sense I think he is a very "important" (I didn't say good) president.

[AtheistUS]

Reagan - he was just an actor. Not an inventor, scientist, thinker, teacher - he was just an actor. And very average one.

Not even a lawyer (which in my books is almost as low as an average actor).

What else - well, he was not bright. It used to be popular, to be not bright. It is still popular in GOP.

[joycehelene]

As an actor he was a very bad one, have you watched any of his pictures lately, they really stink.

[AtheistUS]

I agree. Average actor is a very bad actor. This is just statistically so.

[Ffranco]

Republicans remember Reagan as the president who cut taxes, balanced the budget, retired the national debt and destroyed the Soviet Union. Unfortunately for them, their memories are not one hundred percent accurate.

[RonGallion]

May I add the greatest President in recent history. He made people proud of being Americans. He brought honor to the oval office. Destroyed the Soviet Union without firing a shot. Just the thought of him made Iran release the hostages. We don't need to forget him, we should honor him. Was he perfect, no, but he was honorable and we should be so lucky to see another President with his love for country and respect for the office.

[Julia Bailey]

Destroyed the Soviet Union? The union collapsed because the people living under it didn't want to anymore and they collapsed the system. Regan didn't do anything to aid that.

[AtheistUS]

"Destroyed the Soviet Union without firing a shot. Just the thought of him made Iran release the hostages." - this is a myth, on border of a cynical lie.

"He made people proud of being Americans. He brought honor to the oval office." - this is an illusion or delusion.

[greatlardini]

"Destroyed the Soviet Union without firing a shot". Tell that to the families of the many brave men and women who died in Korea, Vietnam, and other God forsaken outposts where we stood up to Communism. You, sir, are ignorant of your own history.

[freethinkergirl]

Delusional!!! His comment shows that the GOP just cannot get past their Messiah's myth.

[northstar11]

you auditioning for a writers job on colbert report.???

[quietreader]

I disliked him as a president for his politics when I was in elementary school and I still do.

He was terrible. Republicans just have no shame.

[The Albany Kid]

You weren't alone, Quietreader.....I couldn't stand him when I was a kid either!

[joycehelene]

I didn't like him as a Governor of California either.

[freethinkergirl]

I couldn't stand him as an adult.

[yesshespeaks]

I was the same way. Something about him just didn't sit right with me. But I kept it to myself. My family is die hard Republican. When I got older I opened my eyes and really started questioning and investigating. To do this day it astounds me how much that gut feeling was right.