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

[HeevenSteven]

Same ol' crapola: All government bad; privately owned oligarchy good.

[Prakosh]

"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
Ronald Reagan, March 4, 1987

This is the tip of the iceberg. Once the Reagan papers are released the Republican party will start a mad dash away from this guy. For starters even though he once claimed"If a tax hike makes it to my desk, I'll veto it in less time than it takes Vanna White to turn the letters V-E-T-O!" he in fact signed one of the biggest tax hikes in history. And then his successor was forced to raise taxes even higher, eventually costing him re-election. The Republicans cling to their heroes but their heroes are all constructions. The men they worship never actually existed.

[Libertyfan]

We'll forgot Reagan when the dems forget FDR. The man who prolong the Depression for nearly a decade.

[3dtrix]

You just can't sell that tripe in this neighborhood. You can put a sign up, you can cry out at the top of your lungs, but the only buyers are other vendors...

[AwShucks]

Reagan was not a good president. He was nothing more than a ""feel good"" president. He used his actor's abilities , albeit limited, to memorize speeches and repeat the shallow words that make people feel better while actually doing nothing. To top it all, he clearly displayed symptoms of Alzheimers while still in office allowing Nancy to run the show. And those were the "good old days " ?

[dst1]

NOT my good old days......­..........­........

[smiththomas]

I remember what it was like coming out of the Carter Era. HIgh inflation, hight interest rates and feeling embarrassed about our dealings with Iran. Reagon gaves us pride in our nation once again.
I President Obama can do the same he will be a great president. God help him

[ObamAtomic]

OMG,why you forget the Iran Contra deal?

[northstar11]

IF YOU IGNORE SUPPLYING ARMS FOR HOSTAGES ---which was against the law , thats why they did it outside of channels that would have been examined.

[smiththomas]

your probably right. i should have cared more about the details of iran contra than i did.
thats probablly because i was such a reagan fan. all i remember is North making the investigators look bad

[Hallucinocynic]

I remember the leverage OPEC used against the US, I remember the economic cycle engendered by a decade of huge defense spending (RVN) promulgated by the Nixon administration, and the general political malaise still hanging over the landscape because of Watergate. I remember Raygun's idiotic SDI moneypit; I remember illegal support for insurgents in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. I remember the WH authorizing, and overseeing, an illegal arms deal with IRAN, and a politically-botched investigation into same by the Raygun DOJ. I remember the institution of an economic program that was fed from the back end forward, and for which we will continue to pay for another generation.

Raygun was an abomination as President. Unqualified and uninterested.

Obama, unless he screws up really bad for the next seven years, will not be as much a detriment as Ronald Reagan was to the US.

[Prakosh]

All that and you didn't even mention what he did to the workers in America. His union busting his flagrant disregard for the welfare of workers, his race baiting and the Mississippi roots of his "southern strategy" that extended from his election through to the relocation of jobs from the living wage north to the slave wage south.

[ObamAtomic]

Reagan nurturer two torturer lovers,Cheney and Rumsfeld,eh! thomas

[soburntout]

being ten yrs old when regan came into office we can also add too the list of accomplishments cheap cocaine prices, crack, rise in gun and gang violence, dismantiling of child care programs, holding down of the mimimun wage (wasnt rised till clinton remeber) and the idea that it was ok to incarcerate minorites for societies ills

[smiththomas]

wow what a statement

[ObamAtomic]

True statement,proven facts,I agree with soburntout ,do you thomas?

[ObamAtomic]

What you party need is listening,trow the old rascal out,stop the drama.

Steele confusion,Specter defection,Rush implosion,
Palin diffusion,Cantor candor: Republican tour
Yoo *accused* of treason,Bush sedition,Cheney dereliction
the party of Reagan is not evolution.

[3dtrix]

Ball of confusion!

[smiththomas]

i agree, that is incoherent dribble

[micmac]

This guy must of been doing too much acid during the Reagan years. His asking the GOP to forget Reagan is like asking African Americans to forget Martin Luther King, Jr. It's not going to happen.

[Rog49Thomas]

Read the editorial.

HuffPo's editor apparently did not. You don't have to make the same mistake.

It is another delusional piece from the WSJ about an imaginary political theory. (Imaginary in that is was not practiced merely preached).

[SusanStoHelit]

Maybe they need to remember Reagan - remember who he really was and what he really supported. He'd be going the way of Specter if he tried running with his values now.

[3dtrix]

Arlen or Phil?

[northstar11]

they also need to forget the phrase--- """government is not PART of the problem , government IS the problem"--­-------whi­ch was so famously uttered by Saint Ronnie

The fact is BAD government is the problem.

for proof see BUSH REGIME.

[MyGuyO]

Amen.

Pres Reagan was not a good president, but the GOP has nothing to hang on to.

Bring on the hype. NOT.

[plages]

Who?

[finwiz]

who? you don't know who Reagan was? Good reason why we need those vouchers!

[KeysDan]

But he had such good ideas according to someone pretty important.

[camper65]

I'll make you all a deal - Conservatives will forget Reagan as soon as you NeoComs/NeoFascists forget Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, John Maynard Keynes - and Franklin and Teddy Roosevelt! Then we'll talk.

[3dtrix]

Who says we want to talk? I'm content to watch you disappear into statistical irrelevance. Look! You're getting smaller, smaller, smaller...

[chitown8]

Teddy Roosevelt was a republican!

[3dtrix]

Don't interrupt - he's just getting wound up! Now we're in for it...

[johnr49]

NeoComs/Neo Facists?

In case you didn't know, communism and fascism are NOT the same thing, so who are you referring to?.

Lumping Paul Krugman and Stalin together is just plain stupid.

Unless you can do better than that, talking with you is pointless.

[FormerReaganite]

Don't include Teddy Roosevelt. He was a strong environmentalist and fought corporate corruption, you slash-and-­burn-take-­what-you-c­an-get-scr­oo-everyon­e-else capitalist.

[OLMEQ]

It seems the Republicans have selective memory when it comes to Reagan and Bush. The destruction and spending brought on by the Reagan years is very significant which they choose to ignore. Remember his approval rating upon leaving office and the debt he left the country in. Republicans for the most part have had the luxury of riding a self deluded image of Reagan and the things they think he represented. The facts are he also was a failure and the snakes from his administration were directly responsible for the final death blow to this country with the final meltdown of the financial system. By all means, DON'T FORGET him, make sure to remember correctly and not follow that flawed leadership.

[micmac]

Democrats have a much larger selective memory. Remember the antics of the Kennedy's, Spitzer, Murtha, Frank, Cisneros, Edwards, Clinton, and Hart? I did not think so.

[ObamAtomic]

Who was there,airport stall?
Who is Vitter?
Who like to drag?
There are more and more,can we get along? :)
For the good of the nation,,,,,,:)