Why does the Right love Reagan so much?

[Ardent15]

The answer to this question has eluded me.

Was it because he represented the beginning of the reversal of the liberal state into a conservative state?

Was it his "God Bless America" Midwestern Hollywood actor oratory?

Was it because he "won the Cold War?"

Was it because he was just a likable guy?

Or is there another underlying reason that I'm missing?

Because Bush II, not Reagan, was the epitome of American conservatism put into practice. Shouldn't the Right like Bush more?

[msongs]

1. he was the grandpa you always wanted but was nothing like the man you thought he was nt

[Xipe Totec]

2. Because he's an Icon

They love what the Reagan marketing department packaged as the Ronnie Reagan icon.

The real Reagan, they haven't event heard, seen, or felt.

[JDPriestly]

11. Yes. Reagan was a salesman and he was sold to the American people

by a huge marketing machine.

Also, Americans were angry because of the oil shortages and currency changes in the 1970s. The 1970s were the beginning of the decline of the United States. The middle class loved Reagan because he told them that America is still the richest and greatest even though he was ushering the very policies that would speed the decline that began under Nixon.

[mcctatas]

3. because he's dead...

they can make him into whoever they want to

[Justitia]

4. Because he made them comfortable with their bigotry. -eom

[sendero]

21. Exactly..

... the world was changing too fast for the racists and homophobes and such, and Reagan told them it was all right to be scared.

[joeybee12]

40. Exactly, he validated their ignorance...n/t

[dancingme]

47. Yes, he told white people that "welfare mothers" were taking their money

meaning black women who have children are living off the hard earned tax money of white people. The bigots loved that.

[Zoeisright]

54. +100000

And he appealed to the lowest common denominator, which, of course, defines the repuke party.

[wtmusic]

5. The economy, for most, was great during the Reagan years

nevermind that we're still paying for it now.

It's called "borrowing against your children", and like no payments for six months on that bigass plasma TV, it's a mindset that's very hard to escape.

[mnhtnbb]

33. Were you an adult in the Reagan years? My mortgage was 16% interest

taken out during the early Reagan years. That was NOT great.

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020319Hersh.html

[wtmusic]

39. When Reagan took office the prime rate was 20%

When he left, 11%. Lots of things to criticize Reagan about, but that's not one of them.

http://mortgage-x.com/general/indexes/prime.asp

[mnhtnbb]

46. Oh, well, I'm glad you think that paying 16% was an indication of a swell economy.

But all things considered, the Reagan presidency was a setback for the struggle for peace, justice and jobs. The gap between the rich and the poor widened and homelessness exploded in cities across the country under Reagan. Workers’ wages, after adjusting for the rising cost of living, were lower at the end of the Reagan presidency than they were at the beginning. The flight of U.S. corporations overseas accelerated, hitting African Americans particularly hard - in the 1980s the average income of blacks in the Midwest fell almost 20%. Deregulation of the economy opened the doors to corporate greed and fraud, leading to the great stock market crash of 1987 and the savings and loan crisis a couple of years later. Tax cuts for the rich tripled the federal debt from less than $1 trillion when Reagan came into office to almost $3 trillion eight years later.


http://www.fightbacknews.org/2004/02spring/reagan.htm

[wtmusic]

51. You have to be careful about relying on statistics from websites

with specific agendas, such as those providing "News and Views from the People's Struggle".

For example, the stat that "in the 1980s the average income of blacks in the Midwest fell almost 20%" sounded suspect, so I checked the census. Although I couldn't find any detail for the Midwest, the fact is during the Reagan years income nationwide for African-Americans rose 15% from $6,413 to $7,409.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/incfamdet.html

Whether that is equitable (it's not) is an entirely different discussion.

The national debt figure is accurate (it tripled) which is why I made it clear that any perceived personal gain during those years was at the expense of our children, and their children. No, the falsely-buoyed economy was hardly "swell".

[mnhtnbb]

69. Actually, one needs to be careful about relying on info provided by

anybody.

I went to the table you cited, and those numbers you cite are --6413 and 7409 are number of families in thousands-- not dollars-- for black population.

The median income figures, $30,134 for 1981 and $33,804 for 1988 in 2008 CPI URS adjusted dollars
represent 12% increase in income.

So...I have sent an e-mail to the editor of the website with the info I cited and asked whether
they could provide a source for the statistic.

It is entirely possible that there could be regional differences in the numbers.

[wtmusic]

73. Thanks for the correction. nt

[Viking12]

48. Suuuuure.... it was great, yeah that's the ticket

Unemployment was 7.5% when he took office, ballooned to 9% after his first year, then over 10% by his 18th month where it held until the nearly end of his 3rd year in office. Yeah, the economy was great in the Reagan years.

[wtmusic]

57. And then it fell to 5% by the end of his second term

http://data.bls.gov/

At the end of Reagan's third year in office unemployment was 8%. No need to gild the lily.

[Zoeisright]

55. No it wasn't.

Getting out of college in 1981, jobs were very hard to come by. And interest rates were killers. Our first mortgage was 11%.

[wtmusic]

61. I got out of college in '79

and the job situation sucked. But overall unemployment fell by about 1/3 under Reagan, and interest rates fell by almost 50%.

To anyone with the attention span of a goldfish (most Republicans) it was a wonderful era for America.

[BadgerKid]

6. He ushered in the decline of the power of labor

through the firing of the air traffic controllers.

[glinda]

7. generation that watched his movies and were stupid enough to think he was like them

[omega minimo]

8. Because they can't face that he was a lying sack of shit, the smegma sealing their house of cards

[ChicagoSuz219]

9. Are you serious??

Have you NOT seen Bedtime for Bonzo?!?

[woo me with science]

35. Bwah! nt

[AllentownJake]

10. Because he got elected twice and didn't leave office in disgrace

The last person that got elected twice was Nixon and he resigned.

Bush left office with most of the country hating him.

You don't make losers your icons, you make winners and martyrs.

[pansypoo53219]

12. cause he turned stupid

democrats into reagan democrats/republiklans.

[krispos42]

13. Because he was the most personable one.

They got sucked in. They fully committed themselves to him and his vision. And it's fucked them over, so rather than admit they were wrong, they blame Democrats for hindering Reagan and jump to his defense.

And Reagan was good at crushing Democrats electorally, so he had that going for him as well.

[Frank Cannon]

14. Because he made greed, bigotry, willful ignorance, and overall assholery fashionable

He was the new standard bearer for the glorious freedom of being a dick. And that's pretty much all that Republicans want to do.

[JCMach1]

15. Why do Democrats, like Obama, amire the a$$hat?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/16/obama-compares-himself-to_n_81835.html

[melm00se]

16. the answer is easy

Economic:

Interest rates decreased from a peak of >19% to approximately 6%
Unemployment rates decreased from a peak of ~11% to ~5%
Inflation dropped from 13% to 4%
GDP growth rates increased from -2% to 4%
Crude Oil prices dropped ~$38/bbl to $14/bbl

Foreign Policy:

End of the 'Cold War'
Intermediate range Nuclear forces treaty
Fall of the Berlin War laying the groundwork for the reunification of Germany

Intangibles:

Improvement of the perception of the USA national image
- after the Nixon resignation
- Vietnam War
- the appearance of US "malaise"
- Military success in Grenada
Survival of an assassination attempt

All of these combined to offset most, if not all, of the bad things that happened under Reagan, among them:

- PATCO strike and broken union
- Iran Contra Affair
- HUD grant rigging
- S&L crisis

The posts in this thread lead credence to my thesis that the evaluation of a president's administration requires more than 40 years to allow emotions to settle down and an honest evaluation of an administration's success or failure.

asbestos suit - check
fire extinguishers standing by - check
emotional firewall - check

[Balbus]

18. Look at you, with all your fancy research.

glad your gear is in order.

[EFerrari]

29. Airbrushing Reagan.

Grenada was a lie from beginning to end. Reagan wanted a US friendly government in there and planned that destabilization for years before the invasion. Then his admin cooked a story just like Bush did to invade Iraq. That wasn't a victory. That was thuggery and it's possible that only Americans don't know it. Remembering Reagan’s Invasion of Grenada (DemocracyNow, http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/10/remembering_reagans_invasion_of_grenada )

What you call the "Iran Contra Affair" was a in fact a group of covert wars in Central America. Not only in Nicaragua but also in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. "The death toll was staggering -- an estimated 70,000 or more political killings in El Salvador, possibly 20,000 slain from the contra war in Nicaragua, about 200 political "disappearances" in Honduras and some 100,000 people eliminated during a resurgence of political violence in Guatemala, (Parry,iF magazine, May/June 1999). Reagan was also instrumental in propping up Agosto Pinochet. It may be that Americans believed Reagan made us more respected in the world. It's unclear whether the world would agree.

Reagan bloated the defense budget at the expense of social programs. He's the father of modern American homelessness:

"Reagan's supporters don't quite see it this way, of course, but his critics say the single most powerful thing Reagan did to create homelessness was to cut the budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development by three-quarters, from $32.2 billion in 1981 to $7.5 billion by 1988. The department was the main governmental supporter of subsidized housing for the poor and, combined with the administration's overhaul of tax codes to reduce incentives for private developers to create low-income homes, the nation took a hit to its stock of affordable housing from which it has yet to recover, they contend," ( Remembering Reagan, San Francisco Chronicle, June 10 04).


He ignored the AIDS epidemic for six deadly years.

'Sorry, Steven, but even on this day I'm not able to set aside the shaking anger I feel over Reagan's non-response to the AIDS epidemic or for the continuing anti-gay legacy of his administration. Is it personal? Of course. AIDS was first reported in 1981, but President Reagan could not bring himself to address the plague until March 31, 1987, at which time there were 60,000 reported cases of full-blown AIDS and 30,000 deaths. I remember that day, Steven -- you were staying round-the-clock in Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital caring for your dying partner of over 15 years, Bruce Cooper. It was another 41 days of utter agony for both of you before Bruce died. During those years of White House silence and inaction, how many other dear friends did we see sicken and die hideous deaths?" A Letter to My Best Friend, Matt Foreman on the death of Reagan, http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art4897.html

I think the Reagan legacy, which is of suffering and violence and death and destruction of democracies, is a counter example to your 40 year thesis. The more one learns about Reagan, the more an honest evaluation shows how much he damaged this country.

ETA: I managed to forget Reagan's race baiting.

Lott, Reagan and Republican Racism

"Here's some advice for Republicans eager to attract more African-American supporters: don't stop with Trent Lott. Blacks won't take their commitment to expanding the party seriously until they admit that the GOP's wrongheadedness about race goes way beyond Lott and infects their entire party. The sad truth is that many Republican leaders remain in a massive state of denial about the party's four-decade-long addiction to race-baiting. They won't make any headway with blacks by bashing Lott if they persist in giving Ronald Reagan a pass for his racial policies."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,399921,00.html#ixzz0fFAKFXck

[Overseas]

31. +100.

[wtmusic]

42. Um, the prime rate was 11% when Reagan left office

not "approximately 6%" but "approximately double that".

http://mortgage-x.com/general/indexes/prime.asp

Do we have to check all of your stats now, or could you provide links? TIA.

[melm00se]

67. ummmm....

the federal funds rate was this

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Federal_Funds_Rate_1954_thru_2009_effective.svg

as to airbrushing Reagan's legacy:

every administration has it's highlights and lowlights and the person focusing in on one to the exclusion of the other is far more guilty of "airbrushing".

of course, ideology can and usually does prevent an honest and open analysis of an event or a person.

the question was why does the right hold Reagan in such esteem? and the answers are above and where one places the weighting dictates whether he was a success or failure.

[wtmusic]

68. Fed funds reflects what the treasury wants interest rates to do

the prime rate reflects the marketplace - what people actually pay. But whatever.

It's interesting you don't even mention the gorilla in the room, which is of course tripling the national debt to nearly $3 trillion.

$3 trillion buys a lot of low taxes for everyone. It buys employment, it buys a falsely-buoyed economy. Then we start having to pay it all back. Now interest on that debt is the second biggest expenditure after defense.

Reagan's legacy is that he bought good times on our kids' backs, then retired to his ranch in Santa Barbara. Fuck him.

[EFerrari]

70. Oh, baloney. Those bodies aren't "ideology".

In order to do the math and come to the product you did, you have to disappear all those dead people from the minus column as you did.

So, your "open and honest equation" doesn't work, does it, precisely because it is unbalanced.

[Zywiec]

17. Just to piss off the left. n/t

[lunatica]

19. There is no simple talking point to answer with

You would have to remember what it was like at the time. We were not over our humiliating and ignominious defeat in Vietnam and we had lived through years of the Iran Hostage crisis and our attempt to take them back was another humiliating failure. OPEC had flexed it's oil power muscles making us wait in line to get gas for our guzzlers. As a country we were getting a smack down and it could have been a time to do some serious inner contemplation, but along came Reagan with the image making machine that had him wrapped in the flag and telling us that he would save our empire and our kick ass image.

Carter negotiated the release of the Iran hostages, but the Reagan people secretly negotiated it so their release came on the day Reagan was inaugurated so naturally everyone was lead to believe that Iran was so fucking afraid of Reagan that they rushed to appease him by letting the hostages go.

It was image making at it's most effective.

[Overseas]

32. +1

[Fuzz]

20. I wrote this on another board a few days ago.

One thing that I think fed this whole Reagan myth was CNN. We for the first time had 24/7 news to fill, and the administration had an actor to help. Put him on a horse, get him to clear brush, give a speech ’morning in America’. Look what a great man’s man he is. Not like that "pussy" Carter /sarc. And the country ate it up.

Then he got shot. Who’s not going to pull for a President who gets shot? Holy crap. Of course we all did. And all the narratives about how cool he was about it, telling jokes on the way to the hospital, etc.

It was the first reality show presidency. People had a hero and the administration played it up. But their policies screwed most of the country.

That’s why most of the praise you hear about Reagan is stuff like that. Nothing to do about his policies, just ’he beat russia’, ’he made us feel good’, ’he brought America back’. Stuff like that. It’s paper thin veneer with no substance.

[HughBeaumont]

22. That whole "Carter wuz weak" shit always angered me.

Carter never gave an INCH to the Ayatollah, unlike Mr. Iran/Contra.

[melm00se]

23. it's the appearance

at the time that was the yard stick.

plus Carter got painted with the "down image" brush. His "malaise" speech really damaged Carter's presidency. What Carter intended and what the interpretation of that speech was were 2 completely different animals.

that speech was interpreted as almost an eulogy of the American society, Presidents are not supposed to appear to sound that down and when he did, he really did a number on the collective psyche of the American people, regardless of what the immediate post-speech poll numbers showed. Then, when he all but fired a good chunk (5) of his cabinet, that really set off the alarm bells in the American people.

What Carter asked in his speech was, in the long run, the right things to ask but it was how he asked them ("crisis in confidence") that was a killer. Presidents are supposed to sound..well..presidential and mainly hopeful (which is what really helped carry the Reagan image), Carter sounded and appeared to be an almost beaten dog and that, in the long run, heavily damaged his image and his chance at a second term.

[mysticalchick]

24. I have NO idea

To me ... he always seemed like the actor he was. All I see is a big facade. I really haven't read much about his term because of that. It feels to me like he was the vessel much like Bush Jr. was and Palin is now. So, I don't get the Reagan love at all.

[Toots]

25. Because he won by such a huge margin that it makes their ideology somewhat credible.

Republicans are not used to having a real Majority of Americans actually like them. Reagan received that response and they idolize him for it.

[bridgit]

26. He read exactly what they put on his teleprompter with the flair of an Irish smart-ass

[begin_within]

44. His talent was delivering one-liners.

Because of his experience as a paid actor, he knew how to memorize a line that was supplied to him, and he had the skill to deliver that line at the right moment and with the right expression, in such a way that the canned one-liner became the takeaway moment from whatever event it was delivered at. That's really all he could do, and he basically delegated everything else to other people. I see Reagan as a professional actor for his entire career and being POTUS was merely his last role.

[bridgit]

74. No doubt about it, "We begin bombing in five minutes" comes to mind...

"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." is the very admission of intent that comes from the mouths of corporate pitch men http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-06-01/news/death-of-a-salesman/1
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4IqAMwAGn1w/Sm0L9mf7GhI/AAAAAAAAR3k/Q0y8YnwpnIE/s400/reagan+chesterfield.jpg.jpeg

[hatrack]

27. Mostly infantile longing - he resembles the Strong, Wise Father they never had . . .

Let me emphasize the word "resembles", lest my meaning be misunderstood.

[EFerrari]

43. Makes you wonder if he prepared by watching episodes of

"Father Knows Best", doesn't it? You make a great point, hatrack.

[Berry Cool]

28. Because he had so much hat, they didn't care when they found out he had no cattle

and they forgave him for it or just ignored it.

It began the second he threw his hat in the ring. He presented himself as the sunny optimist vs. the dour pessimist that was Carter. He told people what they wanted to hear: America is still great, America is fantastic, America has no problems that can't be solved without my plans. And he told the ones afraid of change and afraid of people and beliefs not like their own that they didn't have to worry, he would make the change and the scary people and scary ideas go away.

I could tell from second one that a) he was going to win and b) he was going to be an utter disaster. It was horrible having to watch it happen and not being able to do anything to stop it.

[TransitJohn]

30. They're confused and thought he was John Wayne.

:shrug:

[begin_within]

34. Tax cuts?

[old mark]

36. He had a "folksy" humor and was a good, comfortable public speaker

which many on the right seemed to confuse with competent and dependable. He was a mid level actor and radio/tv show host who at one time had semi-liberal politics. He has a political blank slate who was run by very conservative very rich people for his entire political career because he would do what he was told. (The mirror image of this is what the right thinks of Obama - he is "controlled" by secret liberal interests. But in Reagan's case it's true and documented.)

mark

[EFerrari]

41. He's Sarah Palin's political grandaddy, and she points that out

as often as possible.

[old mark]

64. Well, they are both full of shit and have very little grasp of reality, so.......nt

[handmade34]

37. because they can

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020319Hersh.html

[ThomThom]

38. because they have been told to

[Joanne98]

45. Because he handed over the country to Wall Street.

Michael Moore's movie capitalism. "Speed it up"

[davekriss]

49. Gil Scott-Heron nailed it in the eighties

From his B-Movie rap & lyrics:

...The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can – even if it's only as far as last week. Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards. And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse - or the man who always came to save America at the last moment – someone always came to save America at the last moment – especially in "B" movies. And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future, they looked for people like John Wayne. But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan – and it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at – like a "B" movie.

...A theme song for saber-rallying and selling wars door-to-door. Remember, we're looking for the closest thing we can find to John Wayne. Cliches abound like kangaroos – courtesy of some spaced out Marlin Perkins, a Reagan contemporary. Cliches like, "itchy trigger finger" and "tall in the saddle" and "riding off or on into the sunset." Cliches like, "Get off of my planet by sundown!" More so than cliches like, "he died with his boots on." Marine tough the man is. Bogart tough the man is. Cagney tough the man is. Hollywood tough the man is. Cheap steak tough. And Bonzo's substantial. The ultimate in synthetic selling: A Madison Avenue masterpiece – a miracle – a cotton-candy politician...Presto! Macho!

...Nostalgia, that's what we want...the good ol' days...when we gave'em hell. When the buck stopped somewhere and you could still buy something with it. To a time when movies were in black and white – and so was everything else. Even if we go back to the campaign trail, before six-gun Ron shot off his face and developed hoof-in-mouth. Before the free press went down before full-court press. And were reluctant to review the menu because they knew the only thing available was – Crow.

...As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation. And here's a look at the closing numbers – racism's up, human rights are down, peace is shaky, war items are hot - the House claims all ties. Jobs are down, money is scarce – and common sense is at an all-time low with heavy trading. Movies were looking better than ever and now no one is looking because, we're starring in a "B" movie. And we would rather have John Wayne...we would rather have John Wayne.

You don't need to be in no hurry.
You ain't never really got to worry.
And you don't need to check on how you feel.
Just keep repeating that none of this is real.
And if you're sensing, that something's wrong,
Well just remember, that it won't be too long
Before the director cuts the scene...yea.

This ain't really your life,
Ain't really your life,
Ain't really ain't nothing but a movie.

[Overseas]

50. Revisionist historians have been hard at work, just as they are doing with Bush.

Republican revisionist historians have worked hard to pretend that Reagan was a great guy who defeated the Soviet Union and brought prosperity to all with lovely stories about that and repeated clips of his "tear down that wall" quote to drown out the truth about his running up the biggest deficits in US history while slashing taxes for the rich, running illegal wars and trading arms with our enemies.

Just as Republicans are now delighted with the bipartisan approach of Democrats because it gives them time to pretend their Bush Gang did not commit lots of war crimes, allow our infrastructure to deteriorate, engage in war profiteering, and fill our supreme court with pro-corporate judicial activists, among its other blunders.

They work their revisionist history hard. Never mind videotape showing they never complained about the Shoe Bomber's handling, they'll go rant and rail against Obama's handling of the Underwear Guy. Never mind that they handed over a trillion plus deficit, they'll complain that Obama is a wild spender.

Right wingers own most of our major media so they give the GOP a great platform to run their lies and hypocrisy unchallenged.

Reagan did a great deal by putting a "Morning in America" jingoistic America is Great overlay to distract the public while the right wing furthered the goals described in the Powell Memo on how to combat all of that darned democratic ecology and community talk of the 60's and get back to Survival of the Richest.

Introduction
In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell's nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powell's legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell "might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice...in behalf of business interests."

Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administration's "hands-off business" philosophy.

Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building - a focus we share, though usually with contrasting goals. One of our great frustrations is that "progressive" foundations and funders have failed to learn from the success of these corporate institutions and decline to fund the Democracy Movement that we and a number of similarly-focused organizations are attempting to build. Instead, they overwhelmingly focus on damage control, band-aids and short-term results which provide little hope of the systemic change we so desperately need to reverse the trend of growing corporate dominance.
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/powell_memo_lewis.html

[EFerrari]

52. It's so odd that the Republicans do well at working on long term

political goals but short term public policy where the Democrats do the opposite.

[Overseas]

63. Sadly, that seems due to the ever-increasing power of the corporations.

If Democrats had a long term policy, they'd have been ready to seize the Bush Crash and Bush Bailout as the perfect time to introduce a new 21st Century FDR regime-- uniting the new Green Democrats with the older good government crowd.

It is sad to realize that corporate power is so strong that it prevents Democrats from reclaiming their most potent attributes-- compassionate, responsible, democratic government. Medicare for All would have been an excellent bottom line for them all to support without wavering. They could have forced Republicans to carry out full filibusters against the public that was desperate after the Bush Crash and the Bush Bailout. They could have forced them to carry out their filibusters while Democrats reminded the public that 44,000 die early due to unattainably expensive health insurance. How different 2010 would look today, if Democrats had done that.

Regarding long-term strategy, Republicans have hated FDR for decades so you'd think Dems would have jumped at the chance that the Bush Crash provided, to demonstrate unequivocally that compassionate government can also be good for the economy. Open up Medicare and pour in the millions of green jobs. When Republicans oppose spending, remind them of the trillion plus debt you were handed on day one... My 21st Century Green FDR would have been the most practical solution to our country's economic and moral emergency after the Bush Years. And my party wasn't ready for it. Again.

Instead we pretended that the party which handed over trillions in debt and a brazen torture regime still had something to say. They should have been forced to do penance. Shut up for 5 years in shame for what they did to our country. That's what most of us and the independent crossover voters had hoped.

[Arugula Latte]

53. They admired a simpleton who allowed them to shut off their brains

and parrot "patriotic" propaganda that allowed them to feel good about themselves for no reason.

[oldlib]

56. Reagan was a lousy actor,

but good enough to act like a president. I heard a lady remark in those days that "He just makes me feel good."

[phasma ex machina]

78. Ronald Reagan: America's Leading Man

Excerpts from the Reagan chapter of Air Force One - A History of the Presidents and Their Planes.

... extremely disciplined ... could almost never be cajoled, bullied, or sweet-talked by the media into departing from his script. ... an excellent salesman for his policies, especially in the all-important medium of television ...

IN KEEPING WITH his emphasis on stagecraft, Air Force One became a fabulous prop. ... just about everything was done by the Reagan White House for the three broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC in those years. ...

... always tried to act the role of president ... believed in wrapping himself in a cloak of mystery, always holding something back. He learned this as a performer, when he was told to leave the stage while the audience still wanted more. That way, the crowd would look forward to seeing him again. ...

... he inspires people to do their best ...

Time and again, members of his Air Force One crew and his White House aides told me that Reagan somehow made them feel better about themselves, with a joke, an attaboy, or a wink and a pat on the back. "He always had a smile on his face, and he always had a good word for you," says Jim Bull. "He was always 'up.'"

... As the plane pulled to a stop precisely on time, as it almost always did, Reagan would theatrically check his watch and congratulate whichever crew member was nearby. "You did it again," he would say with a grin. ...

"He just had a way of making you feel better."

Veteran flight steward Howie Franklin says Reagan didn't associate with the staff very much, "but he would always come in and say hello. . . . If I went in to give him a glass of water while he was doing presidential work, he did something non-verbally or verbally to raise my self-esteem. I mean, I tried to catch this guy being a phony politician for eight years, and I couldn't do it. He was the same guy all the time."

One homey touch was that Reagan insisted that the crew always have a birthday cake on board. That way, when he found out a staff member or guest was celebrating a birthday, he could hold an impromptu celebration, which he enjoyed. ...

... Like Franklin Roosevelt, his boyhood hero, Reagan enjoyed the slower pace of first-class railroad because it allowed him to relax and ruminate. ...

... at heart a nostalgist who believed in the idealized America ... at peace when his wife was at his side and unsettled when she wasn't ...

REAGAN WAS MORE SUPERSTITIOUS than most Americans suspected. His wife shared that trait, especially after the assassination attempt

[fascisthunter]

58. because he acted like the character he played while in Hollywood

and they like that phony shit.

[laureloak]

59. They love their idealized version of Reagan, not the real one.

Reagan is the only Republican who hasn't fallen off their pedestal yet, but his accomplishments are imagined and his mistakes ignored. As I remember,
he did NOT end the cold war.
he did NOT tear down the Berlin Wall.
he IS the father of runaway deficit spending.
he IS the father of unbalanced budgets.
he IS the father of trickle-down economics.
he IS the father of military waste.

His most famous words were, "Tear down this wall." and it wasn't even mentioned in the recent anniversary ceremonies.

[berttheturk]

60. I think he was viewed as good for American buisnesses. I work in a

place where there are several picutures of him on the walls - put there by the president of the company.

[asdjrocky]

71. I bet you do.

[wtmusic]

62. The end of the Fairness Doctrine

and the advent of using mass media for blatant corporate propagandizing will be Reagan's most odious legacy.

[Green_Lantern]

65. because he was the first modern conservative President...

And the other 20th century Republican Presidents weren't hardcore conservative ideologues. Eisenhower is considered weak on defense, Nixon was a crook but he created the EPA and other regulatory bodies.

Reagan was everything modern conservatives stand for unlike other modern GOP Presidents of modern America.

[EFerrari]

66. And in order to do that, he had to be a front man, not a statesman.

He could sell, you have to give him that.

[asdjrocky]

72. He told people what they wanted to hear.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

75. I Formed This Theory In College, And It Seems To Hold Up

Most people who like Reagan can't give you any solid, well-thought-out reason WHY. My theory is that he reminds of them of their grandpas. And who hates their grandpa? And because whenever you see him on TV or in a picture, he's smiling, so people just assume he's a nice guy.

It's the same deal with Barbara Bush. Everyone thinks that just because she looks like Aunt Bea that she's this nice, matronly, always-baking-cookies-for-the-children type. People are taken aback when you confront them with the FACT that she's a mean, bitter, NASTY woman with a hateful outlook on life.

It's all about the IMAGE. The image is always more important to righties than the substance.

[KonaKane]

76. RayGun signed the Brady Bill

Funny, you can never get the wingnuts to acknowledge that one. If a Democrat had done it, they would be burning tires in the streets.

[OnionPatch]

77. Because he was able to screw us all with a smile.

It won over a lot of independents that way, you see. :)