President Ronald Reagan aged 74 (Hair by Grecian Formula)
"A superficial, disengaged, intellectually-lazy showman who didn't do his homework and clung to a naive, unrealistic, and essentially dangerous worldview. Foreign leaders have said they were appalled by Reagan's lack of knowledge of the issues." - President Gerald R. Ford speaking about President Ronald Reagan
Question: Does the fact of Ronald Reagan suffering from and dying of Alzheimer's entitle him to some respect?
Answer: Absolutely and unequivocally. His nobility in admitting to the disease, Nancy Reagan's public grace in dealing with it and her courage in subsequently supporting stem cell research - all command our respect.
Question: Does the fact that Ronald Reagan is now dead entitle his family and reputation to some respect?
Answer: Absolutely and unequivocally. Whatever one feels about the end-products of his presidency, he served his nation for 8 years. His family is entitled to be treated with respect in gratitude for his public service.
Question: Does the fact that Ronald Reagan suffered from and died of a tragic disease entitle him to be forever free from any criticism? Does it mean that astute observations about him by respected Republicans who knew him well - such as a former President of the United States - should be ignored?
Answer: No.
We can be sympathetic that Reagan suffered from a terrible disease, impressed with his courage facing it and respectful of his family's bravery in dealing with it - and STILL be honest.
President Gerald R. Ford - a life-long Republican was a decent, honest man. He knew and observed Ronald Reagan for many years.
This is what President Ford said about Ronald Reagan to Tom DeFrank who he knew and trusted for 33 years. Ford's sole condition of speaking honestly was that he wanted his words to be kept secret till after his death.
"A superficial, disengaged, intellectually-lazy showman who didn't do his homework and clung to a naive, unrealistic, and essentially dangerous worldview. Foreign leaders have said they were appalled by Reagan's lack of knowledge of the issues."
Kudos to Gerald Ford for speaking out truthfully. It's a shame that he wouldn't permit his words to be reported earlier. But better late than never.
Ford gives us all the permission to now speak out publicly about the rose-tinted, sepia-toned mythology that has been created and perpetuated about Ronald Reagan since he left the White House. A false image that - under the cover provided by his illness - has been buffed and polished for 20 years. The perpetraitors (sic) of this myth have shamelessly used his illness and subsequent death as a new Teflon shield to protect the hagiographic image they want the world to see.
And what's behind the Teflon shield? A Pravda-esque portrait straight out of the Cold War propaganda-era. The real Ronald Reagan is being hidden behind a Wall of Obsfucation.
Mrs. Reagan - Tear Down This Wall!
Follow Martin Lewis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMartinLewis
This symbolic gesture kicked off Reagan's dismantling of Carter's then recently implemented energy policies. One of Carter's goals was to have the US derive about 20% of its energy from solar by 2000.
Instead (largely but not solely thanks to Reagan)we now derive 20% of our power from nuclear energy. Think about how pathetic that is, not to mention our dependence upon foreign oil which makes us much more vulnerable to a terrorist attack (disrupting supplies overseas in a volatile area, etc.) that could really hurt our economy.
And of course we're pumping billions of dollars at the pump into indirectly funding terrorists.
theyoungturks.com
Regan destroyed communism, brough down the Berlin Wall, turned around 40 years of liberalism, and restored faith in America as a "Shining city upon a hill." And all in only eight years.
Whenever I go out to California, I make it a point to visit his spectacular presidential libary.
And I l-o-v-e Nancy!
But I should add that Reagan put the final dagger in free education at the university level as governor of California. It's crazy to think we had some level of tuition free education in this country as recently as the 60's.
And it's incredibly sad that conservatives killed it.
PS---Thomas Jefferson founded the University Of Virginia to be a free university because he correctly believed that your family's wealth (or lack thereof) shouldn't determine your educational opportunities (or lack thereof).
He also believed that we wouldn't have a true democracy with informed citizens.
Silence is an important tool. For someone like Ford it is a point of principle. Just because it annoys the nosey is their problem, not his.
The third time is usually the charm. But, in this case, it could mean a very hard landing for the United States of America, in more ways than one!
Snap out of it, y'all!
1. The breakup of the Soviet Union... something the CIA predicted for 20 years.
2. "Morning in America"--a phrase coined by the Wall St. Journal to describe Reagan's economic success. If you read Paul Krugman's book "Peddling Prosperity" you'll see that this was not an economic miracle, but actually was an average business cycle recovery with the added caveat that capital investment (the engine of increased productivity) was flat because the record Federal deficits sucked all the oxygen out of the capital markets.
Another indicator of his economic "success": When Reagan came into office, the U.S. was the world's largest creditor nation. When he left office, it was the largest debtor.
As an added bonus, David Stockman (recently indicted for fraud!), Reagan's budget director famously confessed after leaving office that "Reaganomics" or "supply-side" economics was simply a scam to try to lower the top tax rates.
3. "Honesty" -- You really have to step back and admire this one. Lies have a press agent, but honesty is barely heard above a whisper.
The so-called crooked "Slick Willie" Clinton administration had zero indictments for malfeasance in office while Reagan's administration had 29 (second only to Nixon's).
And finally, Reagan's deregulatory policies (in collusion with a Democratic congress) were responsible for the largest financial and political scandal in American history.
"The theft from the taxpayer by the community that fattened on the growth of the savings and loan (S&L) industry in the 1980's is the worst public scandal in American history. Teapot Dome in the Harding administration and the Credit Mobilier in the times of Ulysses S. Grant have been taken as the ultimate horror stories of capitalist democracy gone to seed. Measuring by money, [or] by the misallocation of national resources...the S&L outrage makes Teapot Dome and Credit Mobilier seem minor episodes." (Martin Mayer in "The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery")
Let's call the Reagan years what they were: a scam.
Just where have you been for the last six-plus years? Reagan comes in a distant second, and has since 2001. Richard Milhous Nixon manages a third-place showing...
The Republicans are desperately searching for a President that is as highly regarded as FDR or JFK, even Clinton with his peccadilloes has a high approval rating. Reagan is the best they can come up with and that’s only because of Fox News type revisionist history and selective memory. If I was a Republican, I’d stick with Ike and Teddy Roosevelt. I wouldn’t mention Lincoln, you know the Southern vote and all.
With people like that in power for much of the last 30 years, it's no wonder so many government programs have been underfunded, defunded and mismanaged. After all, if you don't believe in the idea of government (for purposes other than defense) what incentive do you have to ensure these programs are in fact properly funded and well managed?
Notice that Reagan put in a man who didn't believe we should have a Dep. of Education in charge of (drumroll) the Department of Education. There are numerous examples of this questionable practice, a more recent one being Bush's (luckily failed) attempt to have John "I hate the UN" Bolton be a UN ambassador.
Social security is the best example. People say it's a "failed" program because it can't possibly continue, and the reason is it's either inherently flawed and or the baby-boomers ruined it.
That's an interesting take that leaves out how presidents (primarily republicans) have raided the social security trust fund. Reagan and Bush have both spent hundreds of billions of dollars from this nation's "savings account" as if it were cash in the "checking account" (i.e. traditional tax revenue).
And we could fix social security tomorrow if laws were passed to prevent spending any money from that fund on anything OTHER than social security and if the cap was raised up from the first $90k of income.
Why should people making $90,000 a year or less be taxed on 100% of their income for social security but someone making $360,000 a year is only taxed on the first 25% of their income for social security?
The bottom line is if you don't believe in government, you have no business running for its highest office.
theyoungturks.com
The Social Security trust fund was never a savings account and has never been raided by anyone. The trust fund is held in non negotiable government bonds, a vehicle specific to the trust fund. The cash flow into the fund was tapped from the get go to fund the operation of government with the idea that these bonds would be redeemed when the baby boom hit. The whole scheme is based on the notion that the tax base would be there to pay the fund back when it was needed.
Problem is that no one seems to have thought it through. When the trust super fund was created, there was no better investment than U.S. government securities. This optimism seems not to have accounted for the political willingness of the Republican party to disregard the obligation.
Indeed, all the old money is gone. It will take new tax revenues to support the benefits of boomers. But when you talk about paying for it, remember that you are the ones that have already benefited from spending the money.
It is a big chunk of the national debt now.
But I think this article by Thom Hartmann sums it up well:
buzzflash.com/hartmann/05/07/har05007.html
Still, compared to George W. Bush, a noble stateman in excellent mental health.
It is true that the Savings & Loan crisis and the current Subprime Home Loan fiasco are the results of supply side economics. Reagan needs to be held accountable as the salesman for this bill of goods. It was snake oil in theory and has proved to be snake oil in practice.