What the fuck is with the cult of Ronald Regan?

[insanity]

Every time someone says his name people go apeshit and give long applause. If I was a republican speech writer I'd write this:
Ronald Regan, America.
9/11, Tax and Spend, Ronald Regan, 9/11, God Bless You.

I mean what was so special about the jelly bean president? W

[pauldp]

1. A senile old movie actor who "inspired the country's imagination". Go figure?

He barely did anything - his brain was pretty much gorked his whole second term. We actually had 8 years of Bush 1.

I don't get it either.

[SteppingRazor]

2. He's the best they've got.

Seriously, think about it -- Bush Jr? Obviously not. Bush Sr.? One-termer. Ford? One-termer. Nixon? Puh-lease.

Every other Republican administration of the post-Eisenhower era has ended in humiliation.

[TexasObserver]

3. Now you're talking CULT!! A bad actor and a worse president.

But he did know how to play the typical American voter, who snoozes for 46 out of every 48 months.

[Straight Shooter]

4. You bet that's a cult. Wanting to put his ugly mug on U.S. currency.

"Morning in America," what crap. Invoking his name at the Repub debates in the apparent vain hope his spirit would possess one of their bodies and all of America would be healed if they just believed in the power of Reagan.

Look what all that adoration got America. It started the downward slide from which we will never recuperate, that rat bastard.

[Dr.Phool]

5. He acted like everyone's old grandfather.

Or crazy old uncle up in the attic. And when you get down to it, maybe ketchup was a vegetable. That was Casey and Bush going behind his back startin' up all them death squads and stuff when he was takin a nap. Besides, what's a dead nun here and there when you're fighting the evil empire, and arming Saddam and Osama to the teeth?

[kentuck]

6. In a way, it's the Democrats' fault...

All those years they were naming airports and buildings after the Gipper, not enough stood up to say that he was not deserving. By their silence, Reagan became a God to the conservatives. They remember nothing bad about the man. Everything he did was a masterful stroke of genius. After all, he was the Great Communicator.

Never mind that he used the energy policies created by Jimmy Carter to keep the US free from more oil boycotts during his eight years. Never mind that he was the perfect puppet for the Big Business/Big Money people of the Republican Party. Never mind that he was the first President to reach that daunting deficit of over $200 billion dollars, after he preached the merits of his supply-side economics. But he did recognize it's failure and agreed to raise taxes. Although much of the taxes were raised thru the Social Security reform of 1983.

Never mind that he decided it was a good idea to tax unemployment checks of the most vulnerable in our society. Never mind that he allowed Ollie North and Robert McFarland to run secret wars out of the basement of the White House. Or that he embraced the Ayatollahs of Iran with a cake and a Bible in hopes they would buy some of our weapons, off the books, so he could have the money to fund an illegal war against the Contras in Central America. Or that he stuck our Marines in a high-rise building in Beirut and they were blown up and 241 died in the massacre. He then retreated and bombed the heck out of the Lebanon hillsides.

He should have been impeached. Next to George W Bush, he was the worst President of my lifetime, contrary to the propaganda that has been spread like bullshit about the man. All the while, the Democrats permitted the right-wingers to build up the myth. Unfortunately, the myth is how he will be remembered.