I never used to hate Ronald Reagan.

[Danger Mouse]

     Growing up, he seemed to me like a kindly and likable old
man, almost grandfatherly. I never realized what he truly was.
What he truly represented.
     I'm not sure how much of it was really HIM, and how much
was his corrupt neocon cronies...but his administration is
responsible for giving us George W. Bush and his raping of
America. 
     As we see the full brunt of the disgusting economic
policies of Bush, taken straight from Reagan's sleazy
playbook, I have just this to say:
     As much as I can find it within myself to hate someone, I
feel that for Ronald Reagan. His outlook, his views, his way
of running this country...it's a disease that still infects us
all. The fact that so many on the right still gleefully carry
his water like he's some kind of fucking saint makes me ill.
What do they admire so much? His cowboy diplomacy? His cock
waving? His disgusting disregard for the environment and for
the poor?
     This country was doomed the moment Ronald 'ratfucker'
Reagan took the oath of office. The poison will only be
expunged when Dems take back the White House and Congress and
show some fucking progressive spine for once. The Reagan
Revolution is finally in its death throes. George W. Bush was
only a pathetic shadow of the vile evil that Reagon embodied.
The evangelicals are no longer the force they once were for
the right. Now is our time, our opportunity, to destroy the
loathsome legacy of Ronald Reagan and but to rest the notion
that America admires that kind of greed-based outlook. Time to
drive a stake into the heart of St. Rollie once and for all.
     In closing: Fuck Reagan and anyone who dares try to
justify his awful presidency.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. Oh, and he didn't win the Cold War either. He prolonged it. nt

[YOY]

61. and cashed in on the inevitable demise of the Soviet Union

A SINGLE PARTY system than collapsed under it's own inability to change and accept change.

Ask a Russian. They were on their way out when Reagan demanded the wall be taken down...they knew it.

[Danger Mouse]

63. It's like coming across a road-killed buck, cutting off its head, and mounting it as a trophy.

[YOY]

67. You got it in one simple statement. Exactly.

n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

70. Oh, How Right You Are?

The economy was going bankrupt as far back as the mid-60's. The fact that they lasted another 25 years is merely testimony to the short term efficacy of a repressive regime.
The Professor

[awoke_in_2003]

71. Sounds remarkably like us. nt

[YOY]

73. In college, I took a course that cited numerous reasons for the fall of the USSR.

Although several in tandem made sense the non-plurality of the political system screamed at me. How can you adapt if there is no domestic opposition? A single capable and empowered opposition party let alone a parliamentary multi-party system would have saved them.

It's not a right or left thing as the FReeps would have it. It's a same goddamn party serving greed and supported by a pliable media thing.

Let's just hope it's not too late and we're not too much like the pugs.

If it makes you feel uneasy just remember it's going to happen to the Chinese too. Unless they change things up.

[awoke_in_2003]

96. Well, we have a pliable media,

and with the way the congressional dems consistently bend over for the administration, we may as well just have one party. There are a few dems that speak up, but leadership keeps beating them back down. They are facilitators.

[jgraz]

2. I hated Reagan before it was cool.

[Redstone]

4. Now, THERE's something we have in common. That senile old fuck did more damage

to America than anyone else, except for bushyboy, of course.

Redstone

[jgraz]

8. Also, we love Volvos.

:hi:

[ReadTomPaine]

44. That makes three of us ...

and I suspect there are many more...

[jgraz]

66. Lemme guess: you also sip lattes and read the New York Times

I'd say more but there's a tree I need to hug.

[Dogtown]

82. "Trees cause POLLUTION"

and ketchup is a vegetable.

:rofl:

[Rick Myers]

6. Same here!!! I remember HATING him on Election Night!!!

:grr:

[FiveGoodMen]

19. I remember comparing it to 476.

My dad said I was way off base, but I think the jury's still out on that.

[krkaufman]

89. "comparing it to 476"? huh? n/t

[JHB]

93. I don't get that reference either.

Elaboration would be appreciated.

[FiveGoodMen]

99. Traditionally cited as the year the Roman Empire fell

[RoseMead]

11. I actually asked to stay in at lunch to watch him sworn in

I was in middle school at the time. The hostage release thing was going on, and I just knew there was something wrong with the whole thing. I believe the hate started there and just progressed through the rest of the 80's.

I also hated Pappy, and never in my wildest dreams thought Idiot Son would become president. I didn't even bother to vote the in 2000, because it was so obvious to me who was the better candidate. Needless to say I won't make that mistake again.

[jgraz]

14. Without Unca Ronnie, there would be no Dubya.

Can you imagine where we'd be if Carter had won in 1980? It's like we've had a mini-Dark Ages.

[RoseMead]

22. Yep, and we're all praying for the mini-Renaissance.

Well, maybe not so mini. :)

[CrispyQ]

53. While you were sleeping - my story:

1980 was my first presidential election. I was impressed by Carter's conservation policies & thrilled to have a president who was forward thinking. I was so disgusted by the whole hostage release thing - I knew the American public had been manipulated & duped. I couldn't believe a second rate actor was now our CIC. I was so pissed I just said fuck it & dropped out of politics until boosh reneged on the Kyoto treaty. I finally woke up & started paying attention. It was quite a shock when I discovered that SCOTUS selected that fucking dipshit & he wasn't actually elected. I was stunned to realize how far right my country had gone while I had been sleeping.

[barbtries]

26. took the words right out of my mouth

i held him in contempt from way back when. i hated fucking nixon too. and this administration makes them look like boy scouts for gawdsake.

[BuelahWitch]

29. Me too! Hated him in 1976

when he tried to steal the Republican nomination from Ford. My Mom and Grandma hated him too. Noni called him "old turkey neck." We all knew he was dangerous.

[noiretextatique]

52. me too...always destested him

and i never understood why anyone voted for him.

[krkaufman]

87. Is it time to update your signature....?

... to account for Barack the primary candidate, as opposed to Barack the presumptive nominee?

[jgraz]

94. Maybe... though this week I'd drop his ass down to about 50%.

[Blue_In_AK]

100. Absolutely.

I used to live in California when Reagan was governor, and I've hated him since those days. I'll never forget his "bloodbath" comments and "if you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all." He was one gigantic asshole.

[RoseMead]

3. I always used to hate Ronald Reagan

and still do, for all the reasons you listed. Welcome to the club. :hi:

edited because I hate him so much I apparently can't even spell his name. lol

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Asshole can be both one word or two. n/t

[RoseMead]

12. LOL n/t

[asjr]

5. The media created Ronald Reagan.

[wryter2000]

7. Yup

Maybe you were too young to realize what a bastard he was. Worse, he put a sweet face on bigotry and got people to love him while he robbed them blind. He was the foundation for all the evil that has followed since he was inaugurated.

Actually, the original source for all of this crap was George Wallace. It never got him too far, but people learned from the lessons of his fake "populism."

[Danger Mouse]

13. That's what amazes me to this day...what a benign face he puts on all of his evil.

At least people like Stalin and Hitler LOOK evil.

[wryter2000]

17. The best acting job he ever did. n/t

n/t

[Danger Mouse]

39. The part he was born to play...puppet to the neocons just like Dubya.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. I never used to like Nancy...

..but, now I just feel sorry for her.

That movie the GOP hated because James Brolin was playing their Saint Ronnie made me empathize a bit with her. Then when I heard that she asked the GOP not to replace FDR's portrait on the dime with Ronnie'sI warmed a little more.

Ronnie? Well, he can go to hell.

[rateyes]

16. I think that maybe he did. nt

[jwirr]

15. All too many people are failing to connect RR's economic policies

with what is happening now. Hopefully we can get the word out.

[ColbertWatcher]

21. The GOP work hard to make their sleeper cells appear independent...

...from their Party machinery.

[Dogtown]

83. Very nice phrasing

Succinct and economical.

:applause:

[petgoat]

18. Ronald Reagan has blood on his hands from the Central American death squads

(Of course Bill Clinton's got the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children on
his hands, but that's another story.)

[RoseMead]

23. Just re-read The Massacre at El Mozote recently. n/t

[Danger Mouse]

40. Heh, Clinton has plenty of warts on his legacy that many at DU seem to turn a blind eye to.

[CrispyQ]

55. Like Michael Moore says in his book "Stupid White Men"

Bill Clinton was the most popular republican president of all time.

[Danger Mouse]

57. How are MM's books anyway?

[CrispyQ]

62. I like them.

He's got an easy going style of writing -- kind of like he's just talking. If your library has that book, read chapter 10 - Democrats - DOA. The first two pages of that chapter are . . . surprising. That's where he makes that comment.

Jim Hightower is really good, too. He's got a great sense of humor & really goes after the corporatists.

[Initech]

20. Reagan was a fucking asshole.

He took our once-abundant education system and reduced it to nothing, giving the money to his asshole criminal conspirators in the military industrial complex, who used it to provoke an unnecessary attack on Nicaragua.

[Frank Cannon]

24. Reagan, like Dubya, was a stupid puppet...

being controlled by evil string pullers. I don't believe he ever had an original thought outside of what flavor jelly bean he was going to eat at any given time.

Unlike Dubya, though, I think he actually meant well in his own delusional way. I think Dubya knows very well the damage he is helping to cause, and I think he kind of gets off on it.

[tabasco]

25. That's right. Does anyone believe Reagan or AWOL made a single decision

while President? Maybe when to take a shit but AWOL probably needed to ask Condi to decide that for him.

Reagan was perfect for them because he was a half-assed actor. They are trying to replicate the grandfather appeal with puppet McLame but that idiot is barely any smarter than AWOL and a pretty shitty actor. It's no wonder they were proposing a constitutional amendment to run Ahhnuld. They need a f***king actor, not a leader.

[jimshoes]

32. You can just tell McSame has

trying for that reagan warmth and he sucks at it. "My friends" as opposed to "My fellow Americans" ... blech.. :puke:

[Danger Mouse]

42. McSame couldn't be Reagan if he tried for a billion years.

That he's a pale shadow of Reagan doesn't say much for Reagan and says even less for McSame.

[Frank Cannon]

68. They tried for the "grandpa" thing with Fred Thompson too.

Unfortunately, good actors are hard to find. And finding good right-wing actors has become almost impossible. Even Bruce Willis has expressed his dissatisfaction with the Chimp and the war in Iraq.

[Selatius]

27. Can you tell me where the Democrats can find some fucking spine? Because they don't know where it is

A few like Russ Feingold have got spines, but others are still looking.

[Danger Mouse]

38. Maybe it's less lack of spine and more...

willing cooperation.

[unsavedtrash]

28. AIDS

Who knows if my friends would still be here but he could have helped so much in the early days.
Yes, I still hate him.

[bunkerbuster1]

30. I never liked him

I never thought he was kindly or fatherly or any of that crap. From the first time I was ever even vaguely aware of him, I could tell he was a bought-and-paid for, warmongering, heartless jerk.

I never laughed at his stupid, scripted jokes.

He was a rotten father, a rotten husband, a rotten citizen, an evil Governor and a horrible President.

And yeah, it's time to drive a stake through his legacy.

[T Monk]

31. prez bonzo went to bitberg and laid a wreath on an ss memorial

[NAO]

33. Mourning in America - Reagan only PLAYED President on TV

The "Regan Revolution" was an unprecedented disaster - largely because it was plutocracy sold as populism - if you can believe that.

However, I do not believe Reagan was a bad guy. He was an actor, and he was hired by neo-con thugs to play the president on TV. I doubt he ever crafted or even understood any policy. His "role" was cowboy/hero/US President and he played it well and everyone ate it up. His "lines" included plenty of (vapid) "feel-good", "warm apple pie" themes which only increased his popularity.

My parents, who were depression-era democrats, got ALL excited about Reagan and voted for him and pined for him...for about 1 year. Then, they (who had only rural high-school educations) saw right thru his programs of massive social service cuts, tax breaks for companies and the wealthy, and they were disgusted and hated him.

They saw thru his crap before anybody else I knew. They told me of pre-depression plutocracy, of the oppression of massive private wealth, and how it could be wielded against people who were really struggling to eak out a meager existence. I didn't REALLY understand what they meant, about plutocracy, economic coercion, and aversion to Reagan, until after a year of W.

Sadly, some people STILL don't get it.

[Danger Mouse]

37. Have you ever seen 'The Power of Nightmares'?

Originally, Reagan favored a less hard-line stance in dealing with the Soviets. It was the neocons who pushed him into what he became...or portrayed.
I guess it's easy to resent Reagan because he puts a face on a movement when in reality it was the same bad guys then as today...Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney...

[madrchsod]

41. you are correct that he played president.....

after he was shot it was "the boys in the basement" that ran the country. his ideas were the direct opposite of his ideas during the depression. after his father and brother started working for the wpa he became a "fdr democrat" and was one until he married nancy.. my dad went to school with him so i know a lot about his personality during his days in his "hometown"

[tbyg52]

34. The only difference between W and Ronnie

is that Ronnie could fake likability better.

[Danger Mouse]

36. No...Ronnie pulled off the 'scumbag criminal' much better than W.

[tbyg52]

110. Hmmmm..... Shall we call it a tie....? ;-> nt

[Lint Head]

35. He gave Iran the missiles and the technology they are

supposedly threatening us with. He was a liar and a lousy actor, perfect credentials for President. :dem:

[Danger Mouse]

43. Just one of his many, many evil deeds. Or more appropriately...the neocons.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

45. may he rot

[Danger Mouse]

50. as foul as he was, the true evil were the people pulling his strings.

people that still live today and are pulling Bush's strings, too.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

51. their day will come to RIH too....not soon enough

[La Lioness Priyanka]

46. the aids crisis is why i hate reagan

[Danger Mouse]

49. a very good reason for it, too.

he and his ilk.

[glitch]

47. Welcome to the world I have been living in since 1980.

Spine is the answer.

[leftofthedial]

48. welcome.

glad you're here.

[TheFarseer]

54. He had a stated policy of

getting rid of farmers and all the idiots in my little rural corner of the world loved him! Why? Couldn't say. :shrug:

[Danger Mouse]

56. They fell for the folksy charm. The acting.

[ismnotwasm]

58. He was a back-stabbing sociopath

There is a very, very bad horror movie called "The Society" (Not worth watching)The premise; members of a small town's upper society, the elite and the rich are a group of some sort of evil not-quite-human creatures (who pass though) who kill and consume lesser individuals in a very weird body melding orgy. The orgy was secondary to the killing, it's how they got their kicks. They felt it was their just due.

Always reminded me of Ronald Reagan. I don't hate Reagan, but I remember clearly what a disgusting human being he was and what a shitty excuse for a president. Made some nostalgic for Nixon. I used to a tee shirt with his face on it, with his finger in his nose. The caption was "Who picked this man?"

[tilsammans]

59. "MOURNING in America"

The day after the 1980 election, I wore all black to work. No jewelry -- all black from head to foot. I knew the beginning of the end had arrived, and I was right.


St. Ronnie and his puppeteers set the stage for our current debacle and laughed all the way to the bank. :grr:

[Beausoleil]

72. I was so disgusted by the '80 election

I was actually very depressed about it.

I even quit my job and moved to another town 200 miles away. Don't exactly know what was going through my mind, but I knew something needed a fresh start. I didn't know it was the beginning of the end, as you put it, but I knew at least the next 4 years were going to be a disaster. It didn't bode well for the country.

After moving, I was unemployed for five months but I ended up getting a new job and started work the day Raygun got shot. Needless to say I was excited ... about the new job, of course.

[Fire Walk With Me]

60. Righties like Reagan -because he got away with it-.

He mocked us to our faces and did what he/they wanted, just like Bush.

Definitely a favorite Republican past-time...

[Danger Mouse]

64. Smiling while they fuck the country.

[struggle4progress]

65. He was like a senile old uncle with a surprising number of fascist and ganster pals

[lpbk2713]

69. He was a 'B' grade actor and he was a 'D' grade President.

:thumbsdown: RayGun :thumbsdown:

[LWolf]

74. I never had any illusions about Ronald Reagan.

It's ironic that you would say, "Fuck Reagan and anyone who dares try to justify his awful presidency," when the Democratic nominee for president speaks so admiringly of him, and of his presidency.

I don't disagree with the statement. I also don't have any illusions about many Democratic "leaders." :(

[raccoon]

75. I hate Reagan too. I was as taken in by him as you were.

I also hate Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and some others.

When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to say that. If I'd said to my parents, "I hate you," I'd have gotten my effing head shot off :hyperbole:.

So I'll say it now.

[dembotoz]

76. hated ronnie ray-guns then, still hate him now.

[JerseygirlCT]

77. Oh I did

I'm not proud to admit it, but when I saw that he'd been shot, but survived, my first thought was NOT "oh good".

I'm trying not to go there, but I refuse to believe that he was anything but a horrible president who did great harm to this country. I'm sure there are those who genuinely loved the man; I'm not and never have been, among them.

[LeftishBrit]

104. My reaction WAS 'oh good' but not for the reason you'd think.

It was 'At least the world won't have to deal with that bloody Bush as American president'! By that point, I hated him too.

[JerseygirlCT]

105. Yes, there was that! nt

[HughMoran]

78. I didn't hate him 'till he fired the air traffic controllers

I've hated him ever since - for a lot more reasons than that too.

[usaftmo]

98. Amen!

I still can't believe the right-wingers in Congress changed the name of the airport in Arlington (VA) to show praise of sir ronald of raygun.

It was already named after George Washington; they must think that raygun was a lot better than him.
:grr:

[Danger Mouse]

107. one of his most loathesomely evil acts.

a big 'fuck you' to the little guy.

[mitchum]

79. I piss on his grave

[PerpetuallyDazed]

80. I agree; Reagan sucked big time...

but I don't quite understand the "ratfucker" thing. Can someone explain it to me?

[AngryOldDem]

81. Reagan was evil. Period.

Evil dressed up as a nice old Grandpa everyone could like. No wonder he snowed so many people.

He is a big reason why we are in the mess we are right now.

But my personal reason for hating the man has been his deinstitutionalization of many mentally ill people who are now homeless. That is truly unforgivable, and I have converted some previous Reagan lovers to my side with that argument alone.

[Brewman_Jax]

84. Where do I start...

Supply-side economics, which had been soundly denounced, became social norm and political policy. He made racism, bigotry, and freeperism in vogue--I am in one of those targeted demographic groups. He helped make my father make the final jump to freeperism; not that that he wasn't already corrupted, but he could now feel good about it.

I pissed on his grave. May he rot in the hell of his own construction.

[LeftishBrit]

85. I hated him from the moment I ever heard about him!

This was in 1976 when he ran against Ford in the primary. I was very young then, and thousands of miles away, but I worked out that he was a dangerous man and liable to 'blow up the world' if he got the chance, and I cheered when he lost. I thought that was it for him - little did I know!

[krkaufman]

86. Sure would be interesting to be able to see where this country would be ...

... had Jimmy Carter's alternative energy initiatives not been derailed. Sadly, that election may have been, in retrospect, our moment to adapt, but too many people chose to cling to a fantasy of the past that Reagan promised.

[LeftishBrit]

88. Well, you should hear me on the subject of Maggie Thatcher!

[mulsh]

90. reagan supporters are lower than child moletsters,

child molesters tend to have to look at their victims. I started making that statement about 2 years ago to anyone who praised the meat puppet to me. I suffered through 16 years of Reagan malgovernance. 8 years as Governor, watching the destruction of CA' school and mental health structure, sending national guard to patrol the streets of Berkeley, etc, 8 years as pres.

He had a very complicit mainstream press

by the way guess which president holds the record for most administration officials convicted? At a total of 131 that would be Ronnie Rodent, North and Poindexter's convictions were overruled, blame the corrupt republican prosecutor for fucking that one up.

[LWolf]

106. Be careful.

The current nominee is a fan of RR.

:hide:

[B.S. Lewis]

108. I try not to make my whole contribution to a board be posting article links but

Obama's capitulation to far-right neoliberal economics is pretty clear in his nominations of economic advisers:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein">Obama's Chicago Boys by Naomi Klein

http://socialistworker.org/2008/06/27/candidate-makes-right-turns">Warning: This candidate makes wide right turns by Alan Maass

I don't exult in hating Obama. I wish the facts didn't compel me to do so. :(

I have been thinking about going to a custom bumper sticker website and making one that says something like "Obama '08: restoring the status quo, hopefully, at least, temporarily". (Except few people would get it).

It's all about the framing that the two-party system has imposed on this country's political mind. In a Republican-free world, most of the posters on this site would hate Obama. He only looks good next to a goon like the ones the Republicans put up.

And frankly, I think it is inexcusable for anyone who lives in a safe state to vote for him (or any Dem). There's no better way to say you're satisfied with the status quo--oscillation between administrations or center-right Dems and far-right Republicans--than to vote for a Democratic candidate in a safe state. We safe-staters should be voting Nader or McKinney without question.

If you live in a possible swing state, I can't tell you what to do.

[LWolf]

109. Unfortunately, I agree. n/t

[krkaufman]

91. One more gift from Reagan, remembered...

... I just came across this snippet in another thread, here:

Justice Scalia, a conservative justice who was appointed to America's highest court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986,

[jackster]

92. if there's a hell, he's rotting there

I watched horrified in '80 when he was elected. I was stunned. I knew then that nothing good would come of it. How anyone with a brain can't see that the reason we're in the mess we'er in today can be contributed directly back to Reagan. It was the beginning of the end. 30 years of Republican rule (including the GOP-lite Clinton) have brought us practically to our knees. This election may be our last change. We can't blow it.

[Blue_Tires]

95. i was a kid at the time and thought he was cool

not that i knew much about politics then anyways...

[Blue_In_AK]

97. Watching a George Carlin show last night from 1988 or so,

I was amazed at how topical the political rants were. He could just as easily have substituted **'s name for Reagan's. Same with a later special taped at the time of Gulf War I. This stupid conservative mindset has held us back from any progress for almost 30 years now. I'm just sick and tired of it.

[4_TN_TITANS]

101. Michael Reagan is ten times worse...

I can't believe our local paper publishes his steaming piles resembling columns.

How such a fine person like Ron Jr. came out of that family is beyond me.

[moondust]

102. Reagan derailed critical energy policy and we now suffer the consequences.

Published on Tuesday, May 3, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Carter Tried To Stop Bush's Energy Disasters - 28 Years Ago

by Thom Hartmann

~snip~

And Ronald Reagan's first official acts of office included removing Jimmy Carter's solar panels from the roof of the White House, and reversing most of Carter's conservation and alternative energy policies.

~more~

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-22.htm.

[Arugula Latte]

103. I was 14 when that shithead Reagan became president (arms for hostages, anyone?)

I knew in my bones that the country had taken a turn towards the dark side. I was a young teen, and I recognized that he was an evil old imbecile, spouting bullshit. I couldn't believe how many people bought into his anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-poor crap. He clarified my political beliefs for me instantly. He's the reason I became a staunch liberal. My father voted for that piece of shit, and that was the first time I'd ever stood up to my father and called him on BS. We began to argue politics. (Luckily, after the 80s ended, my father began a slide toward the left, and was a moderate Democrat by the time he died ... I'd like to take credit for a lot of that change).