The celebration of Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday doesn't come until early March, but the devotions have been going on for years. For conservatives, Reagan is the lodestar, the genial demigod to whom all must avow fealty. In a Time cover story, Michael Scherer and Michael Duffy suggest that Obama considers Reagan "The Role Model." Richard Norton Smith, writing about the "Reagan Revelation," attributes Obama's uptick in the polls because he's been "acting positively Reaganesque," reaching out to the business community, scoring bipartisan victories on tax cuts, delivering a sermon in Tucson that Smith calls "worthy of the Great Communicator at his most consoling."
This is more than a bit ridiculous. (Who knew that Bill Daley, most recently JP Morgan's lead lobbyist," and GE's Jeffrey Immelt, who has shipped more jobs abroad than most CEOs, had such sway on public opinion?). But it will get much worse, as conservatives weigh in to suggest Reagan revived America, brought us together, dispatched communism with a speech and a lot of military spending, etc.
Before we go too far down this road, it is worth a reality check. Reagan, no doubt, was a transformational president. His presidency marked the beginning of 30 years of conservative domination of our politics, although Rick Perlstein argues persuasively that Nixonland tilled the soil of racial and cultural division that Reagan cultivated. (Not by accident did Reagan open his campaign in the unreachable Philadelphia, Mississippi, previously known only as the site of the infamous murders of civil rights workers Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, where he announced his belief in "state's rights").
But take a good look at the conservative mantra that Reagan championed: less spending, low taxes, deregulation, free trade, strong military, family values. On all of these, the Gipper and conservatives got it wrong.
Less spending was perverted, since Reagan doubled the military budget in peacetime (up 50 percent in real terms). He somehow didn't believe military spending added to deficits. (Reagan never introduced a balanced budget in his presidency.) Less spending turned out to mean slash programs that support the weak and the vulnerable. Reagan opened the campaign against government domestic spending that leaves us with an aged infrastructure that is dangerous to our health, schools that put children at risk, and record numbers struggling simply to feed their families. Poverty levels began rising under Reagan and have remained high, other than in the couple years of the Clinton presidency when full employment began to lift all boats.
Low taxes turned into successive tax cuts for the rich. Reagan believed in the voodoo of the Laffer Curve, that cutting top-end taxes would generate more revenue. One thing it generated was inequality. The great leveling that marked the post-Cold War years came to an end under Reagan, as the wealthiest Americans began capturing ever greater portions of the nation's income. Today, the wealthiest 1 percent captures about 23 percent of the income, and control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of Americans, and captured a staggering two-thirds of the rewards of growth in the last "recovery" form 2002-2007. This is the true Reagan legacy.
Free trade was the label affixed to a trade policy defined by and for multinational companies and banks. Under Reagan, America began shipping jobs rather than goods abroad. When Reagan fired the PATCO strikers, he signaled to corporate America that it was open season on unions. The combination was lethal for America's manufacturing base -- and for the family wage that was the signature of America's broad middle class.
Deregulation gutted consumer protection, environmental protection, workplace safety and the right to organize under Reagan. It led to many scandals that made his administration one of the most corrupt in history, with a record 138 officials investigated, indicted or convicted. But the biggest change was deregulation of banking, which led to successive financial wildings and crashes that have cost taxpayers literally trillions. The first was the Savings and Loan debacle that followed on Reagan's reforms that empowered banksters to gamble with other people's money, with their losses guaranteed by the federal government.
Strong military entailed wasting literally hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons we did not need and could not use, from reviving battleships to building new generations of missiles. The most notable folly was Reagan's Star Wars fantasy, which continues to waste tens of billions each year, throwing money into a program that does not work against a threat that does not exist. It is heresy for any Republican to question this folly (Rand Paul, the world awaits). The military remains the largest source of waste, fraud and abuse in the nation's budget -- yet even Barack Obama promises a freeze to domestic discretionary spending, leaving out the military, even though we're spending about as much as the rest of the world combined.
Combined with the strong military was a lawless devotion to the national security state, the belief captured by Nixon, that in the area of national security, when the president does it, it is legal. This doctrine of presidential license found expression under Reagan most notably in the Iran-Contra scandals, where the president created a secret fund and a secret army in direct violation of the laws of the land. He avoided accountability by professing ignorance and confusion.
Family values, the Republican reach to the evangelical right, were cynically used to divide Americans, not unite them, targeting blacks, women (or feminazis in Rush Limbaugh's lingo), and gays. Reagan, steeped in the ways of Hollywood, was the utter cynic. He was the only divorced man to occupy the White House, was at best a distant parent, and generally avoided going to church. While he pandered to the Christian right, he was never very serious about pursuing their agenda.
Today, America is more unequal, its middle class is weaker, its manufacturing sector is hollowed out, its bloated military, laden with baroque weaponry, can start wars but not win them. Under the banner of conservatism, predatory corporate interests -- Big Oil, Big Pharma, Wall Street, global corporations, agribusiness -- have fleeced taxpayers while feathering the nests of the few.
So let's celebrate Ronald Reagan's style. He was a great communicator, an aw shucks American original, a genial optimist. He was a transformational president who launched America on a misguided, 30-year experiment with market fundamentalism. But let's not forget the reality. His race bait politics of division were inherited from the dark side of Nixon. And his conservatism has cost this country dearly.
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Since there is no God, this life is all there is, so we BETTER worry about consequences. You don't see any atheist suicide bombers, because atheists know that the consequences of our actions in this life is all that matters.
Would Reagan have approved of Clinton's National Homeownership Strategy, which directed Fannie and Freddie to buy more and more subprime loans and inflate the housing market? That and Federal Reserve monetary policy is what caused this collapse. You can't blame that on Reagan 30 years ago!
This blame freedom for the affects of government control thing is an old trick played by those who want still more government. It sounds equally insane to me every time I hear it.
And let me know when Ronald Reagan didn't spend with huge deficits during his time in office. Even Dick Cheney was quoted "Reagan proved deficits don't matter".
The real cause of our economic mess is liberal policies and other government interventions like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with the Federal Reserve's blind, stupid monetary policy causing the business cycle and our depressions and recessions.
If by blaming "conservativism" for our present problems, you are trying to blame free markets, that is something we have not had. We had both conservatives and liberals pushing banks to lend more money to people trying to buy homes, inflating housing prices and motivating lenders to disregard risk. Low interest rates from the Fed provided the money to inflate the housing market. Both liberals and conservatives are to blame for this mess.
What he has achieved is a smaller but not less powerful Russia (which has been able to shed some of the troublesome non Russian members of the union) and now sits on full coffers from ist' energy sales to Western Europe. Through the energy deals Russia de facto controls the policies of Western Europe especially the core nation Germany. Two generations of Germans have not forgotten that RR was willing to lure the Soviet Union into a nuclear war in central Europe with all of Germany being the battlefield.
Reagan fought the war he had which was the Cold War and won all of Europe is better for it even Russia!
Under these circumstances it was the right choice! Bush tried the same thing in a non tariff protected nation during a time of low inflation and relatively low interest and the money was invested in Asia! Or the housing bubble.
True -- but the PRINCIPAL CAUSE of both conditions back then was the following: RUNAWAY OIL PRICES -- not out-of-control government spending. This MASSIVE OIL PRICE SHOCK was triggered by the Iranian revolution in January 1979, a revolution that toppled the U.S. backed Shah Reza Pahlavi from his throne. Keep in mind: this revolution was well underway at the time Reagan's predecessor (Jimmy Carter) moved into the White House in January 1977. In my opinion, the MASSIVE OIL PRICE SHOCK that took place after G.W. Bush launched his DISASTROUS invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was JUST AS SEVERE, if not worse, than the 1979 oil price shock. Remember the $4.50/gal. and up gas pump prices (and yes, I know that in some southern U.S. regions -- especially regions that are not served by public transportation -- gas pump prices exceeded $6.00/gal.)?
"...so by lowering taxes the rich were forced to invest here in America."
No Malcolm, THE EXACT OPPOSITE happened. While taxes for the rich folks were going down, PAYROLL TAXES (also called Social Security taxes) -- one of the MOST REGRESSIVE TAXES levied today -- were SKYROCKETING INTO OUTER SPACE! Do YOU pay payroll taxes EVERY SINGLE WEEK OF THE YEAR like I do? It wouldn't surprise me if your answer is NO.
'Nuff said.
1. First to turn America into a DEBTOR nation
2. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of national income in eight years
3. First to increase DEBT faster than growth of gdp over eight years
4. First to double the deficit in just eigh t years
5. First to "almost": triple the national DEBT in just eight years
6. First to increase SPENDING by 80%--over 8 years.
7. First to SPEND more in eight years than was spent in prior 50 years.
8. First to have "real" INTEREST RATES of 8% after averaging 1% over 35 years.
9. First to keep PRIME INTEREST RATES at 20%.
10.First to over value the dollar to the yen at rate of 262 yen to 1 dollar.
-AJB
President Reagan's solution was to lower taxes to get capitol back into the economy! Genus! It worked.
President Reagan presided over the most potentially dangerous war there ever was! That could have in a moment resulted in more deaths that all other wars combined! Remember they called it the Cold War! You must think President Roosevelt was a terrible President with all that deficit spending during WWII!
The problem with the Right is they try to apply things that worked when President Reagan was President; that were unique for the time, a tariff protected nation, high inflation, high interest rates, high unemployment! When Bush tried the same thing during relatively low inflation, low interest rates, a non tariff protected economy which ended in a greater spread between the haves and the haves nots, Don't blame President Reagan blame the dummies who can't tell a difference in the times!
Don't blame President Reagan because the Republicans of today can think on their own!
Are you referring to the big snowball fight? ;-)
[from the "Not Found in Webster's Dictionary" book]
"Don't blame President Reagan because the Republicans of today can think on their own!"
Uh, excuse me Malcolm -- the Republicans of today DO NOT think on their own -- they have Roger Ailes and his minions at Faux Spews Channel doing their thinking for them.
'Nuff said.
Don't blame President Reagan because the Republicans of today can think on their own!”
Should have been -
Don't blame President Reagan because the Republicans of today can't think on their own!”
-AJB
http://www.kansas.com/2011/01/19/1679684/five-myths-about-defense-spending.html
Building overpriced and infective weapons systems that leave our solderer in harms way.
Armed Hummers $100,000 each, profit for Lockheed $0 -> By far the best dollar for dollar protection for our solders.
Missie Defense profit for Lockheed $100,000,000.00 -> Zero proven defense for our solders.
Low taxes
Free trade
Deregulation
Strong military
Family values
-It seems to me that America still wants all that.
Less spending = Kill Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Food Stamps, Fannie and Freddy
Low taxes = Extending Bush Tax Giveaways, "Throwing even more money" at people who are doing just fine.”
Free trade = Virtually Free Labor of the 3rd World for Corporations, no pesky Unions and Regulations or EPA. See, Globalization = Slave Labor, for GOP's benefactors, Big Business. Idea of unrestricted hiring practices to have a population BID on jobs starting at a few pennies an hour. Then sell them in another Industrialized Country at 1st world prices.
Deregulation = Fox Henhouse Oversight, Corporate governance, no oversight, no Regulations, no consumer protections
Strong military = American Exceptiona¬lism = More Pre-Emptiv¬e war = Pre-Emptiv¬e War = Imperialism
Family values = Belief in time Travel, that if just Abortion was illegal, Segregation and Prayer in School was not, and Gays were placed back in the Closet, we are all transported back to 1950 and Ozzie and Harriot
Free Trade, really? Free and unfair trade has been the biggest job killer of all time. The ony people wanting this are the CEO's that are getting rich off of sending jobs out of the country.
Deregulation - Did you notice what happend to the financial and mortgage industry lately?
Strong military but a lot of waste at a large cost.
Family values - I'm seeing a lot of hate from the family values crowd lately. Plus they are synonymous with anti-science which is holding us back now.