Get History right: Reagan didn't cut spending and he didn't go to church either.

[Captain Hilts]

Really, he ran up huge deficits and he just about NEVER went to church, yet 'conservative' and religious voters loved him.

[LisaM]

1. The myth of Ronald Reagan never ceases to mystify me

I don't see how anyone could even stand his persona, much less what he supposedly stood for.

[tridim]

3. I must admit that I liked him initially

But only because I was 9 and he reminded me of my grandfather. I had no idea that it was all an act until several years later when I started paying attention to politics.

Actually, that's probably the same reason why so many repukes still love him today. Their brain development ceased around 9 years old.

[8 track mind]

14. even as a kid i couldn't understand was his appeal was

those were dark days back in the early 80's

[Norrin Radd]

18. Great music back then, though. Not all dark.

[8 track mind]

28. You have a very good point.... n/t

[Jennicut]

2. Reagan and Bush both were big spenders.

We did get major deficits from both, did we not?

[Captain Hilts]

4. GHWB actually did some cleaning up after Reagan. Lowered the deficit

and restored money to HUD, etc.

I know GWB spent a lot, but the war was usually 'supplementary' spending, and I'm not sure how that fits into the budget because it was done on a charge card, essentially.

[Jennicut]

6. Yeah, I meant W. because HW actually saw through Reagan's

voodoo economics.

[tigereye]

27. yes, but people endlessly persist in thinking the Reps are more fiscally

responsible. It's a bunch of bull.

[MidwestTransplant]

5. Republicans are all form and no substance....that's why the love Palin. She is a female Reagan but

even dumber and more dangerous because she doesn't realize what a moron she is and is also highly paranoid.

[Mudoria]

8. Reagan was Einstein compared to Palin.

I still can't believe people being interviewed in McCain-Palin rallies talking about how great she was because "she's just like us". Really, I want a President to be a lot smarter than I am. After 8 years of a President "you could have a beer with" you would think the Repub crowd would have wised up about having a dumbass for President.

[troubledamerican]

7. "Ended the Cold War"? No. Mikhail Gorbachev ended the Cold War.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

12. Don't get me started....

I pretty much use that line as an intellectual litmus test. If you tell me that Reagan ended the Cold War, I'm pretty much sure that you're a friggin' idiot.

Not you personally, of course!

[Captain Hilts]

13. If folks think RR "won" the Cold War, it's a sign they don't read history or know Russia. nt

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

15. Reagan PROLONGED the Cold War....

The Soviet Union was pretty much ready to call it quits in 1980, but then Reagan started spending a trillion dollars on military hardware. The hardliners in the Kremlin couldn't have been more pleased.

[Captain Hilts]

16. Perhaps, but their leadership was certainly not ready to call it quits.

Sad, but true. Gorbachev is very much under-valued for being willing to bring it to an end.

Economically, the SU was in decline starting in the mid 1960s. They'd squeezed all they could out of that turnip.

[Dr.Phool]

25. Actually, in a recent interview in the Nation, Gorbachev gave Reagan a lot of credit.

I think it was the Jan 4th issue.

He said that it would have been impossible for a Democrat to do it, because the right would have been screaming non-stop.

I'm no fan of Ray-gun, but, that's what Gorbachev said.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

30. There's something to be said for that....

But did he have to waste billions on defense and unnecessarily antagonize the Russians along the way?

[Drunken Irishman]

22. The Pope had more of a hand in ending the Cold War than Reagan.

[depakid]

9. In fact, his wife was so obsessed with the occult, she ran minutae of his schedule by an astrologer!

:rofl:

Fundies are so easily duped....

[Tippy]

10. K&R for truth...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. In reality....

Congress almost always CUT the budgets that Reagan submitted (because he wanted to build a brazillion nuclear submarines) and the budget deficits under Reagan, bad as they were, would have been WORSE if Tip O'Neil hadn't been trimming back some of the worst excesses.

And nearly as I can tell, the closest he came to a religious experience was that time that he fell asleep during an audience with the Pope.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. Largest tax increase in history.

Funny how that one has been spun.

[Arkansas Granny]

19. The conservative and religious voters loved Reagan because he could act like

the President they thought they wanted. They didn't want to look behind the curtain to see who was actually there, they just wanted someone to play the part and Reagan obliged.

[Phx_Dem]

20. HUGE deficits!!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

21. HUGE!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. ...AND he raised taxes on small businesses!!! n/t

[apocalypsehow]

24. Yeah...and? What's the context for this OP? I don't see anyone claiming anything different on DU.

:shrug:

[Joe the Liberal]

26. One of the worst presidents in American history......

He gave us Bush 1 which led to Bush 2, he was at the root of a lot of the troubles this country currently finds itself in.

[bullwinkle428]

29. Thom Hartmann calls him the biggest con man in American political history!

A boatload of evidence to back that up, too, in my opinion!