Now some great things happened in the 1980s, like the vintage porn you see below. But some really incredibly lousy things happened in the 1980s too, which all these far-right wingers seem to forget in their dewy-eyed nostalgia for an America that never was.
I loved Ronald Reagan. I do think he did a great job as President. He was a very upbeat person. You have to remember what was occurring in 1980 when he came into office. Interest rates over 20%!! alone was a killer and the hostages in Iran. As a country we were pretty down.
ReplyDeleteThere is no President that can satisfy everyone but when he passed in 2004 people came out by the thousands to mourn his passing even though he had been out of office since 1988... A classy gentlemen!!
Drew, off the top of my head, during the 1980s...
ReplyDelete--The national debt quadrupled under Reagan; we're still paying for that today with the forty- and fifty-year bonds floated during his administration.
--Reagan ignored the mushrooming AIDS crisis, even when countless members of his staff urged him to do something.
--With Reagan's blessing, the US gave countless millions to Osama Bin Laden, who openly mocked and threatened the country, thereby nurturing one of the worst terrorists in world history.
--On Reagan's watch, the Iran-Contra scandal occurred, whereby the Reagan Administration sold arms under the table to the terrorist regime in Iran so that the US could illegally support a brutal and genocidal terrorist insurgency in Latin America.
--Reagan showered billions on failed drug control programs which favored whites and blatantly discriminated against minorities.
--Reagan appointed hacks and cronies to key appointments, like appointing as Interior Secretary the avowed anti-environmentalist James Watt who never met a polluter he didn't like.
--Reagan pushed programs to benefit the wealthy while stiffing the underprivileged, with such things as tax breaks for private planes and yachts while declaring catsup a "vegetable" for school lunch programs.
I could go on...
Thank you Will, well said.
ReplyDeleteRegan also made the largest cuts to education of any president. Yesterday a study was released that America ranks 24 out of 26 industrialized nations in math. Another living legacy of his administration.
I am forever amazed at how ideology can blind the 'educated' American public.
Why some need to romanticize a president (Clinton included!) because they belong to a certain party is disturbing. Obviously math skills are not the only scores falling in America.
bell'ARGOMENTO!CERTO GLI 80 SONO ,O CI SEMBRANO MOLTO BELLI,MA RICORDI NEGLI 80 è ARRIVATO H.I.V. E POLITICAMENTE REGANE MRS THACHER STAVANO PREPARANDO IL DISASTRO ECONOMICO NEL QUALE CI TROVIAMO OGGI.TROPPO STATO ,NON è BENE,MA NIENTE STATO è ANCORA PEGGIO.
ReplyDeleteWITH LOVE VASSI