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

[Marnie1]

My parents and their siblings, all life long Republicans, went to their graves in the late 1990, still hating FDR, even though he had been dead from half a century, dead more than half their lives.
They never progressed, politically beyond the mid 1940's. Neither have the Republicans.

Nixon and GHW Bush ran against FDR and Johnson’s Great Society and almost completely dismantled the work of the Civil Rights movement (Duhbya of course continued their work and disenfranchised 25M Americans in the process.).

Reagan ran against FDR and won. Something the Republican party had been trying to achieve for almost two full generations.

The Republicans have controlled American politics most of my life, for half a century, on the back of Red hating and for a quarter of a century on the backs of Pinko/hippie/university student hating.
Those students are, like me grew. up and are now middle aged and older.

They still have not convinced Blacks and Hispanics that they are trustworthy.


The party loyal have been raised on hatred and bias, and anti FDR and LBJ resentments, and now that their Bogey Man political whipping boys and antiquated platform, are less and less applicable, they have a problem, because they just lost 50 years of development that most Americans have experienced and grown with.

[rubinoff]

Bingo...they are stuck on yester-year, while the world is progressing.

[freethinkergirl]

That is why their called conservatives, they can't stand change, even if it's in their best interest. Sad, sad, angry misguided people who seem to need hatred to function. Just look who their "leaders", heroes and "news" reporters are, tripping over themselves to espouse their hatred of ANYONE who thinks differently.

[kepary]

Ronald Reagan was without a doubt one of the greatest Presidents of all time

[Openyermind]

... for showing others what NOT to do.

[SecondBase]

Greatest?

All time?

Unfortunately for you, Reagan closed down all the community mental health clinics.

[Julia Bailey]

And gave people their rights to be crazy and live on the streets.

Now we have veterans at every corner asking for money and we are all hardened by it.

[mrfreeze]

No, the conservative-think-tank, revisionist, MSM, manufactured version of R. Reagan was great. The actual accomplishments of his administration are far less impressive.

[AFAN]

Please!! Too bad black folks weren't included.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m5TMny3dQI

[Martampa]

Give some examples of his greatness.

[dst1]

There are none.............

[loki]

Ronny Ray gun was nothing more than a con man / actor who got lucky. His policy of train wrecking America into such a desperate economical collapse that there would be no choice but to give up any and all social programs for the citizens, and increase them for the capitalist is what we are experiencing today. He was the reason the Iran Hostage situation took so long, as they made a deal with the Iranians to do keep them prisoners so he could win the election. Both Ronny and Bush Daddy were the master minds behind Iran Contra and the Nicaraguan and Colombian drug trading for guns where were given to drug lords in exchange for drugs that were flown to US military bases for final destinations unknown. ITs all documents, just ignored by the radical right wingers. Oh, and lets not forget he avoided any prosecution by claiming Alzheimer ... I can remember... So he was a great president? Maybe to republicans who endorse crimes, death and destruction for fun and profit. But to anyone who is morally , ethically and just plain sane, he is not.

[mrfreeze]

I'm glad so many on this thread are writing about some of the actual "facts" regarding the Reagan years. Think about it: for 30 years now the MSM and conservative think-tanks have been re-writing history. It wouldn't surprise me if someday all of the real history of Reagan disappears and little "reagans-on-the-half-shell" shrines are at every intersection and in every national park.

[SecondBase]

This Reagan nonsense is just another smokescreen the Republican party is using to avoid taking responsibility and accountability for the damage they have done to our nation in the past eight years.

Republicans don't have an ounce or iota of integrity left - so there's no hope of this generation of Republicans ever facing the truth, and holding themselves accountable for what they've done. This is why they are so deeply involved in spinning these crazy stories and claims against Obama. Obama is their greatest fear come to life - a genuinely kind person of integrity - he is everything they are incapable of being.

Their dishonesty has condemned them to live the rest of their lives in the ridiculous fantasies of the lunatic-fringe. They are crazy, and their words and behavior confirm it.

[Openyermind]

Is it any shock the repubs worship a guy that ended up with Alzheimer's? They are kings of forgetting the bad ideas they have and come up with time and again?

[jazzman]

A Republican who can't think is just what they worship. They tried to replicate Reagan with W. and did a pretty good job of it too. To think that W. didn't even need Alzheimers to compete.

[DragonMama]

"Why be postwar Japan?"

Well, gee, maybe because they've totally taken over the automotive innovation thing and are by pretty much all measures better off than we are - they're happier, healthier, and have longer life expectancies. Gee, why the heck would we want to try to emulate any of THAT?!? At least, that was true until they started literally working themselves to death in the last few years. Maybe Japan needs to return to being more like postwar Japan too.

Me, I'd like to see America return a bit toward the we're-all-in-this-together-so-we'll-sacrifice-a-bit-so-those-less-well-off-can-survive mentality of the Great Depression era, preferably without having to go through an actual Depression first. We can't avoid a Depression through individual responsibility and grit, it'll take all of us pulling together and cutting through the B $.

[haval2]

Just another get the rich richer Prez. and AIDS was a "gay" disease...out of touch. Loved him in the movies though. Nasty Rethug after that.

[joycehelene]

He couldn't mention the word AIDS for a long long time, he was so biased against homosexuals. Perhaps if he recognized it as the disease as it is it never would have spread so much all over, we might have a vaccine by now. He was one of the biggest phonies I ever saw.

[Outofnowhere]

Misleading headline - again. The article was mainly about how the GOP should NOT forget Reagan.

[CoreyGens]

Reagan was a bum. He didn't defeat communist Russia or help bring them down. Russia was in an arms race with the U.S., if they hadn't went to war with Afghanistan and try to keep their nuclear arms developing they would be a lot better off then they are today. Reagan was a man who knew little about running a country but knew the right men to screw with the banking system.

[loki]

Also, the Catholic church well advertises that the Pope was the reason Russia fell and the wall came down. So which false idol will the republicans follow? the Pope, or an actor named Reagan?

[Pammy2]

The reason Republicans can't come up with any new ideas, is because all their ideas involve ways to further destroy the middle class. And Reagan pretty much ran the table on that idea, so today's Repubs have no where to go. No wonder they're having trouble coming up with anything new.

[AwShucks]

What an utterly selfish, shortsighted, egotisical person she is.

[Wild West]

Overrated republican hype. Bedtime for bonzo.

[HekmabaJuzimax]

Monkey see, monkey rule.

[finwiz]

stop referring to Obama like that!

[the964kid]

Most conservatives didn't like Reagan by the late 80s, in the end Reagan had raised taxes many many times, to the highest point in decades. They also forget that Reagan secretly gave US weapons to people we now call TERRORISTS. Reagan's foreign policy launched the careers of, and supported, villains like Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, all Reagan allies at the time - how'd that ultimately work out for the USA?? Reagan also put together the coalition of social and fiscal conservatives which is exactly why the GOP is in tatters today. It's laughable that they keep propping up this ultra-revised legacy.

[loki]

well said. But conservatives like to ignore the facts, and focus on the fantasy.

[mrfreeze]

My oh my, it's wonderful to read a post that actually reflects some "real history" regarding the Reagan years rather than the revisionist baloney the MSM and Republicans have been peddling for over 30 years now. To this day, I still don't understand why conservatives (or anyone for that matter) are so fixated on R. Reagan. As so many on this thread have mentioned, during the 1980's, Reagan's policies allowed the dismantling of a perfectly fine middle-class while at the same time encouraged the very deregulatory attitudes that led us to our current economic disaster. The wealthy classes were allowed to prosper at the expense of everyone else. His administration secretly sold arms to our enemies, he played loose with the facts regarding the "freedom fighters" in Central America, he led most family farms into bankruptcy and he (and that hideous wife of his) made being condescending and mean-spirited fashionable. Even his "victory over Communism" was nothing more than good timing. I'll give him one-gram of credit for that.

The fact that the MSM spent a whole week worshiping the man after his death was pathetic. It reminded me of those old fashioned funerals they did in the Soviet Union years ago.

[springsm]

I think Jebby said that the other day at the pizza party. Yes, we should..but we do have to remember that RR was a nice guy..except when he wasn't.

[Prakosh]

It's too bad that the editorial policy here is so confused and confusing. Someone needs to read the articles and write headlines that reflect what the article says. The actual story here is more outlandish than the misleading headline. The article asks "should the GOP forget Reagan" and the answer is a resounding no!!! Now that is funny! The GOP still clinging to a single ideologue 30 years after his first race-baiting campaign.