Reagan hardened the hearts of Americans.

[Jack Sprat]

You may disagree all you wish and I respect your own opinion. I can tell you that I spent 31 years of my life preceding his presidency interacting with other Americans and living in more than one section of the country in a military career. In all those years, from childhood to nearly middle age, I never saw the deep divisions among the people that are so prevalent now. Almost immediately upon his assumption of the presidency, this former actor delivered a message that seemed to harden the hearts of millions of formerly decent Americans. It was an underlying theme of his rhetoric that the weak and most vulnerable were the cause of any discomfort that someone was feeling and that he (the self-made millionaire) was the proto-typical success story everyone else should be. You have to assume that everyone is capable of being a professional athlete or a Hollywood actor and that anyone who fails to do so is just not worthy of respect. During that time, wedge issues were driven home to the American psyche and pumped full of a contrived anger and people consequently began turning on one another. Instead of showing empathy for one's neighbor, the theme became 'looking out for #1' and thus your neighbor suddenly became your enemy. Our people began showing disrespect for each other and rightwing talk radio was given birth to formulate opinion and that opinion was based on 'Us versus Them'.

You can believe what you will, but Ronald Reagan destroyed the humanity and goodness of a once united and mostly compassionate people. There had always been politics in the years prior but it was not hateful and in no way personal between family and neighbors. This nation has never been the same. We are now surrounded by so many hateful, jealous, and mean people that any hope of compromise or reconciliation seems nearly impossible. It's a sad state of affairs. I'm not sure this deceased president was aware of how much harm he did to the country he claimed he loved.

[grasswire]

1. I believe that George W. did the same.

I know that the selection of George W. absolutely ripped the faith a young adult family member of mine had in America, and fair play, and justice. It was a horrible thing to do to people who believed prior to the theft of that election.

[Optimistic]

102. Reagan started the 'Me Me' Generation that is now the GOP

[Ken Burch]

105. Every time I saw Dubbikins, either with that goofy smirk OR the jut-jawed pout-glare

The vibe was always "I'm a rich white man and you can't EVER touch me."

He'd have made a great debauched-but-sadistic plantation owner in a Kyle Onstott novel.

[BlueJazz]

107. I love what Mort Sahl said about Reagan.

Washington could not tell a lie; Nixon could not tell the truth; Reagan cannot tell the difference. The poor man yaks about everything and knows nothing.

[andym]

2. Reagan's success was cultural just as you say

and his influence is still strong. Since Reagan, the GOP has owned the idea of "freedom" and uses it to promote a radical individualist agenda, that strongly opposes the idea of any kind of collective good.

[DBoon]

3. You are completely right

Homelessness became widespread during his administration, and the poor and homeless were openly mocked.

Poverty was "unfashionable"

I also noticed a big jump in supposedly educated professionals using crude derogatory racial terms. During the 1970's using that sort of language was regarded as an ignorant "redneck" thing

[femrap]

45. 'Dumbing Down' began with Raygun. nt

[nahant]

97. St Ronnie

Yeah that asshole destroyed the public school system here in California when he was Gov and pushed out many mentally ill patients on to the street.. Yeah a Real Fucking Saint my ass... And that is just the tip of the iceberg of his undoings of America..

[femrap]

109. You are so right....sickening.

Welcome to DU, nahant. I lived in CA and saw his destruction. We are living The Decline of the American Empire...thanks to the likes of Raygun, etc.

[RKP5637]

4. I think you are right on track. I noticed the shift when Reagan became president. The

concept of working and teaming together for the good of the company and society started to fall apart. Splinters developed and eventually one had people fighting with each other and it shifted from win/win to win/lose, and very unpleasant.

[Sherman A1]

27. Agreed

during the 1980's people (particularly working people) became angry. They often did not know why, but they were pissed.... They didn't understand just how bad they were getting screwed and being set up to be screwed for years and years.

It was the time of the "Me" generation. Greed is good, Firing the Air Traffic Controllers, Wage Freezes, Wage Cuts, etc, etc.....

[RKP5637]

55. Yep, Americans have been conditioned and trained to be serfs for a few

decades now. The propaganda has been quite effective and now masses of Americans do all they can to enable the completion to serfdom while saying thank you. It's really in many ways more effective than the German propaganda was.

[madinmaryland]

5. I am in complete agreement with what you just said. The nation really has

become a "me-first" nation rather than one united nation of Americans.

[RKP5637]

7. People don't even construct proper sentences anymore. They put "me" first in sentence construction

rather than the other person. That came about during the Reagan era and is actually rather rude.

[BuelahWitch]

31. Remember "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard"?

That was several years before Reagan. People have talked that way for a long time. It's more their actions that have changed.

[RKP5637]

42. Yep, True!!! n/t

[PurityOfEssence]

6. The dark side of the American character was always there, but Reagan made it a virtue

The sole cowboy libertarian on the prairie taking care of himself and fighting the forces of adversity with nary a wince was always the plucky American character, but the selfish dark side was to. It was somewhat acknowledged as something we're not so proud of, but part of the deal. Reagan made it a virtue. Now, we just suck; we've become Fuckyouistan, and it's somehow funny to many.

I'm very sorry for people who don't have a memory of what this country was like in the seventies; they literally have no conscious underpinning of what the optimistic and communal group can be like.

There's hope, though: people won't put up with this kind of ugliness forever, even if it can get worse during times of strife.

I'm with ya.

[villager]

12. The 70's indeed, PoE. I remember the long walk up from campus when Reagan was elected

...wondering if it was possible to comprehend the breadth/depth of how "over" the country was, at that point.

It wasn't, as it turned out, and has been unfolding-- not always in slow motion -- ever since...

[femrap]

48. I use Dumfukistan!!!!

But I like your terminology as well! Or I might change it to Fukuistan or maybe FookUistan.

I, too, am sorry for the young people who didn't get to see America as a fine place to live. I grew up with The Beatles singing such quaint things as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.' There was kindness, Flower Power, dudes w/ long hair getting in touch w/ the Feminine, the Back to Nature Movement, a respect for Mother Nature (NO LITTERING), and Walter Cronkite on CBS.

Maybe 'Soylent Green' is the future. Fook.

[catrose]

91. absolutely!

I look at the way people act, and think that at one time most people would have been ashamed to act that way. I haven't watched TV in years. Rich old white men throwing tantrums about their difficult lives is not entertaining.

[lunatica]

8. Don't forget our long history of slavery, lynchings, and genocide of American Indians

As well as the hatred expressed towards all the immigrants. You're talking about something that may have been the case among white Christians, but this was no utopia.

Reagan just gave greed a good name. That and he wrapped himself in the flag to the point of nausea. He told Americans it was OK to be greedy and jingoists.

[maddiemom]

76. history of slavery...

Yes, our nation does have a history of slavery, wars, segregation, etc. BUT the sixties and seventies were when many of us woke up and tried to right these wrongs. This era was all too short lived. The PTB woke up and got scared at the progress starting to be made. The hammer came down and they began to turn us against one another, to the great relief of the segment of the population which used to be known as "hardhats." Remember?

[calimary]

9. That's about when we started to go wrong. I remember back then too. And I remember

before then. When it was - "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Now it's ME FIRST and SCREW YOU. IGMFU.

I thought at the time that reagan was probably the most dangerous man in America because he made greed and selfishness and getting rich above all else and plundering the earth to get that way was A-OK sound good and feel good! He was the Crown Prince of Packaging. He was about a tenth of a millimeter thick, as far as substance, but MAN could he read a cue card! LORDY LORDY could he deliver lines and sell you on stuff. He was a world class salesman who sold a galaxy-size load of shit to the American people, and many of 'em bought it, felt their deepest darkest dirty secret (of being selfish and wanting to screw your neighbor if it meant you got ahead by an inch) was validated and justified, and even elevated and then glorified.

He was the bastard who sugar-coated republi-CON shit, standing in front of 100-foot-tall American flags and Buzby Berkeley-style Hollywood staging. He was the monster who cemented "trickle-down," "supply-side," "welfare queens," and other lies deeply into our national consciousness. He was the god of "Greed is Good." He was the guy who made it okay to say government isn't the solution, it's the problem. And he wrapped it all around the bible and called it red-white-and-blue America. And people still believe fervently in it, to this very hour.

THAT'S when the America I grew up with, that I was proud of, and that I believed in, died.

[Art_from_Ark]

22. Exactly

I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the political disaster that was Ronald Wilson Reagan.

[checks-n-balances]

10. Yes, and he spoke of "do-gooders" with such derision

the likes of which I had never heard before in my life. It was discussed openly on TV for the first time in such a hateful way among commentators, but I do remember it also coming straight from Reagan's mouth. He's so idolized now, but I was there & I remember how horrible it felt every day to wake up & realize that he was President - for 8 long years.

In the eighties & nineties he was helped by the likes of Newt Gingrich & Frank Luntz with their propaganda effort which shaped public opinion and propelled the demonization of liberals & liberalism.

What a legacy of destruction he and the GOP have left our country.

[Enthusiast]

28. PLUS ONE! nt

[DeSwiss]

11. Nashua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO2_49TycdE">"I am paying for this microphone!"

- K&R

[Tumbulu]

13. agreed-

and we have regressed as a nation so much since then.

[Zax2me]

14. He most certainly did just that

K&R

[Zorra]

15. +100 zillion. You are so totally right on. I witnessed this as well. nt

[Logical]

16. Good points! n-t

[kristopher]

17. I think Reagan was only part of it - spreading Calvinism is the root.

It starts with the "Protestant work ethic" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism

And evolves into a Calvinistic evangelical movement that equates wealth with righteousness and poverty with God's punishment for sin.
http://www.theocracywatch.org/rr_economics.htm

[Enthusiast]

29. You're right, of course.

Wealth = virtue. Of course this is entirely in opposition to the very words of Jesus. This couldn't be clearer.

[anneboleyn]

85. Ah yes, I agree. I argued that it's our residual Puritanical inclinations: "the poor are bad"

Poverty equals idleness equals moral corruption and so on. Wealth means that a person has been blessed by God in this tradition and so on. This is the poison at the root of American hositility concerning the poor.

[grasswire]

110. and that ties in with the idea of the "unworthy" poor and charity

The Calvinists took charity from the hands of neighbor-to-neighbor giving and turned it into "programs" where the unworthy were/are distinguished from the worthy.

So un-Christian. Jesus' teachings were to give sacrificially without any expectation of return, without any qualifications. If someone asks for your coat, give him your shirt as well. Give freely, over and above.

Damn.

[tblue37]

18. He was just an affable mouthpiece. The fact is that the right wing

has waged a 30-year propaganda war, backed by multimillionaires and billionaires, to indoctrinate Americans with false beliefs, as well as a concerted campaign to buy off politicians and journalists, as well as buying up all the major media outlets. Reagan was just a face. He didn't design the policies or orchestrate the propaganda campaign, though he is culpable for going along with it and even buying into it. But if it had not been him, it would have been someone else. The pieces were already in place for the right wing's long con to pay off.

[JFN1]

19. Oh please, he did not. He legitimized a heart already hard.

n/t

[anneboleyn]

82. I think you are right. Americans have a long (Puritanical) history of hostility concerning the poor

and anyone who needs help is suspect in this worldview. I think this is still part of America's collective Puritanical psyche -- "God punishes the bad by making them poor and sick (therefore the poor and sick deserve to be so); God rewards the good by making them wealthy and comfortable (therefore the rich deserve our favor)." In reality vs. the rhetoric Americans have never been a particularly welcoming bunch as far as the poor are concerned, and we haven't been all that great about public programs for the poor, sick, and elderly either.

[Initech]

20. Worst president ever.

[femrap]

47. I gotta go w/

W as Worst. Prez. Ever.

May the two of them duel it out for the top spot in hell!!!!

[Initech]

54. Hmm, tough decision.

[donheld]

21. Rush Limpballs made them like stone.

[madamesilverspurs]

23. "Welfare queens" --

Reagan coined that term for his war on the poor, specifically poor women. Reagan's republicans had a field day with it, saving special vitriol for single mothers who were blamed for any and all economic woes in the country. That attitude lingers, recast as anti-abortion/anti-Planned Parenthood.

And he threw the drive against education into high gear, and we are going to be generations rebuilding that obligation to our children.

Reagan was the embodiment of the greed that is the cause of every bit of our economic devastation. He was the perfect front man for the Bush's evil aspirations.


-

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. absolutely 100% agree!! Ronald Reagan tore the heart out of America

and brought the forces of economic progress to a screeching halt. He turned selfishness into a virtue and compassion into a vice and convinced much of the world that critical thinking is harmful to society.

Most probably Ronald Reagan convinced more people in America and around the world that evil is good and good is evil.

Ronald = 6

Wilson = 6

Reagan = 6

The deceiver of nations.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. Remember the Welfare Queen driving a Cadillac? Never forget he IGNORED the Aids warnings

he received and blew it off as a gay disease. By the time he decided to even acknowledge there was a problem, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases. ALL UNDER HIS WATCH.

I'd have to say I agree with you. Though, I believe, he just opened the door for the bigots and racists and let them loose on society. He, as the President of the United States, gave them permission to be who they always were...BIGOTS and RACISTS. After he opened that door, they were free to be open with their hatred.

His trickle down economics is STILL destroying this country.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. I had a long chat with my parents and their friends at their anniversary party last year

Basically my question was at what point did America turn hard right?

And they were all more or less in agreement it began with the media frenzy around the Watts Riots which was used by the right to undermine all LBJ's domestic policies. Reagan was the result rather than the cause.

[NOLALady]

84. Interesting.

I have to wonder how many had a problem with the causes of the Watts riots.

[madokie]

30. No doubt about it Jack

I still know people who think he was the greatest pResident of all time when in reality he wasn't a president at all in the true sense. He was like the worm from texas, W, a place holder only.

[mdmc]

33. yupyup

[Codeine]

32. I think you've confused cause and effect.

Reagan was a symptom of a cultural change, not the underlying root cause of the change. Reagan did not harden our hearts, our hardened hearts elected Reagan.

[no_hypocrisy]

34. OTOH, Baby Boomers let themselves get played. They went from

Woodstock to Yuppieville.

Reagan and his ilk played my generation with artistic cynicism, knowing that many would replace their choice of drug from pot to money. The Establishment they marched against, eschewed now became their beacon, their Siren Song. They went along like Lemmings.

Not all, but enough to change the culture.

[Cetacea]

40. Might have turned out differently

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tS77cPJAPJE/TT6MyytNbEI/AAAAAAAAGmk/jzfEiNthRR4/s640/John+Lennon.jpg


The timing was auspicious.

[femrap]

49. Very.....I'll

always believe the gov't had him murdered.

Can't have a man who is absolutely adored by millions preaching Love and Peace....and wearing 'girlie' hair.

John Lennon and his followers SCARED THE HELL OUT OF THE 'ESTABLISHMENT.'

[MedleyMisty]

52. Thank you

I was born in 1980, and I get so tired of the sanctimonious Baby Boomers. It's like - look at the age of the people who destroyed everything for their own gain and wrecked my future. They are Baby Boomers.

Believe me, I get that you can't paint a whole generation with the same brush. But that goes both ways. I can't say that all Baby Boomers are selfish greedy fascists, but you also can't say that all Baby Boomers are lovely nice peaceful progressive hippies.

And yeah - Americans have never been nice. The system has always been a feudal pyramid. It's just that the people who used to be in the middle are now getting their toys taken away. I'm sure the Native Americans didn't think Americans were all nice and sweet and had empathy. Neither did the slaves, or their descendants. I've seen postcards made with pictures of lynchings, from well before Reagan.

No one gave workers the rights and benefits that are being taken away out of the goodness of their hearts. Workers had to fight and die for them. They had to fight a system just like the one the corporations want to take us back to. This isn't something new in our history. This is going back a hundred years, to how Americans used to be.

So tired of white middle class exceptionalism, i.e. "Well, I've always been comfortable in my white middle class life, so therefore everything was all fine and perfect and wonderful before my white middle class life was threatened."

[Zorra]

53. Yuppieville was always there, there before Woodstock, and it's still here.

It's just that Reagan and the RW wealthy special interests that pulled his strings mounted an aggressive and effective anti-hippie campaign that demeaned and consequently diminuated the pro-democratic hippie movement.

They never wanted to see anything remotely resembling an energized and active pro-democratic movement happen again, and they took measures to stop it. And they are still taking measures to stop any alternative pro-democratic movement from spreading.

The yuppies just pretty much do as they are told to do by the establishment just like they always have and always will, as long as they can have their toys and shiny things to make them feel like they have some type of substance.

IMO, the film "American Beauty" captures the very essence of the true yuppie very well.

Yeah, it's true that yuppies mixed in with the movement, but they were there because it was hip, and it attracted them because they sensed in it the passion, soul, and substance that they lacked. As soon as disco became vogue, they dropped the hippie pretense and put on their polyester bell-bottoms, and danced all night as they swept Reagan into office.

Real hippies still believe in the same ideals, whether they are 17 or 70 years old. The establishment can take a lot of things from us, but they can't take our integrity.

[livetohike]

70. Well said

:toast:

[oldhippydude]

61. YES

I remember the Carter administration was waiting for the innovative stuff about energy, anybody else remember?.. and all of sudden getting rich was the new model regardless of any ethical considerations..

funny thing about Reagan his chief economic guru David Stockman was a fierce advocate of supply side, conceded 18 months in, that it wouldn't work.. and 30 years later we are still fighting the "don't tax the rich" battle..

[Octafish]

35. He made "Liberal" into a dirty word.

Reagan was a mafia puppet.

Then, to make sure he understood where the money goes, GE made him into an anti-union puppet.

Gangster and NAZI is about the best that can be said.

[ThatsMyBarack]

36. He certainly hardened mine....

Damn RAYgun wouldn't get his finger off the button! :grr:

[Reader Rabbit]

37. Reagan re-introduced Social Darwinism.

Kind of ironic, when so many of the people who love Reagan don't believe in Darwinism from an evolutionary standpoint.

[Politicub]

38. Reagan was a mirror

His administration damaged the nation seemingly beyond repair. It also set us on a course to facilitate the largest wealth transfer from the poor and middle class to the ultra rich in American history.

But his systematic dismantling of the United States would have never occurred as successfully as it did if the people didn't go along with the deal.

I came of age in the 80's and remember that he was a popular figure. Whatever dark hearted evil he brought to the table, millions of Americans ate it up. Of course he wasn't popular with everyone. I imagine it felt to the opposition like it does now with the GOP majority in congress holding our country's bedrock principles hostage - helpless and stunned.

The Supreme Court's gaming of the vote in 2000 set us on a collision course with history. In hindsight, that hideous decision was the straw that broke the camel's back. The logic of our system of government was done away with in an instant. And then 8 years of Bush sealed the deal. And now the right wing majority on the Supreme Court regularly adds fuel to the fire. Last week it legitimized the government funding of religion. And before that, the Citizens United decision removed the restrictions of the the people who have limitless stores of money to use it to manipulate public opinion.

I don't understand the end game of the GOP. If they want the U.S. to become a theocracy, they are doing a fine job of achieving that goal inch by inch.

The brutality of the GOP boggles the mind. They trade in fear, suffering and violence with the utter destruction of the middle class and the poor topping its agenda.

[femrap]

50. I think they're setting us up for the

BIG WW3 CRUSADES.

I worry about the Middle East, Northern Africa (MENA) and the outcome. I know our military is over there....and I think they want the Muslim Fundies to win so there will be a huge Crusade....the ultimate Job Creator.

I just want to :hide:

I don't trust a word of the MSM on what's going on in MENA.

I truly pray that the people of MENA develop a secular democracy for themselves that tolerates all people and faiths.

[Cetacea]

39. The real "Great Communicator" had been "neutralized"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_tS77cPJAPJE/TT6MyytNbEI/AAAAAAAAGmk/jzfEiNthRR4/s640/John+Lennon.jpg

[unblock]

41. the "me" generation. which became the "i got mine" generation, and then the "fuck you" generation.

thank you ronnie, patron saint of greed and selfishness.

[felix_numinous]

43. Yes, I remember hospital management

morph from a having a humanitarian focus into being a business, clearly. My experience was but a microcosm of what was happening to institutions across the country. The business model was ruthless and cold, and I NEVER wanted to be a part of that in my life, which is why I chose the medical profession.

The Reagan Era, combined with Bush Sr's influence don't forget, began an acceleration to the right that has not slowed since.

[felinetta]

44. Welcome to the new mutation of Repigs. No humanity, no compassion, no decency.

[femrap]

46. Fabulous post....

All progress stopped with the election of Raygun. We have been in Backlash Mode ever since. I detested that man and it was something to see that Karma gave him a kick in the arse. I really wouldn't have wished that on anyone.

I believe he was a puppet and did as he was told by TPTB. He was, after all, an actor.

When he was elected I was flabbergasted to realize how stupid and how easily manipulated Americans were. I was lucky at the time to be living in San Francisco so I enjoyed living in my Progressive Bubble. Also at that time, AIDS emerged....it was life-changing heartbreak for me.

Raygun....no RIP for you.

He brought out the worst in people....and it's still out there. I just want to :hide:

[Taitertots]

51. "hardened the hearts" is a meaningless aphorism

Reagan got people to believe his policies were good for them and other people, when they are clearly not. Thus, we see that people who are otherwise sane are believing total non-sense.

These people are still mostly compassionate, caring, and benevolent. The problem is that they believe flawed processes will help people. Reagan exacerbated this problem.

[robdogbucky]

56. My take:

As others above have said, the element was always there, behind the curtain. It just took the 60s and 70s to push them into spreading the disaster capitalism used elsewhere to their domestic enemies. Reagan wasn't a strategist or thinker, he was a mouthpiece and figurehead, or as Will Durst used to say, "Most presidents are figureheads, Reagan is a hood ornament."

The reactionary TPTB, giants of industry, banksters, Pentagon, etc., had gotten the scare of their lives when the 60s broke out and challenged everyone to have the courage to change. For the very first time, the citizens questioned war and eventually forced a pullout of that war. Popular opinion, once it was cemented by years of war reporting, had stopped the MIC in SE Asia for a while at least. The other social changes, civil rights movement being the biggest also brought great change to their control and this combined with feminism, the sexual revolution, birth control pills, etc., gave too many people the idea that they could be free on their own terms in this country. People discovered their power and this was not good for TPTB. Then the Pukes suffered the embarrassment of Watergate, not to last very long though, as it was this one event that I feel really pushed them to accelerate the agenda they had been cooking up. They only had to wait out the Carter years, which was easy as he was portrayed as a bumpkin and then Iran hostage situation sealed his fate and opened the door, post-Watergate for the GOP to regain full control of the processes.

Hence, they hatched plans to re-design our "democracy." They instituted PACs, which cemented the influence of big money special interests in DC over our reps, they abolished the fairness doctrine, they popularized right wing think tanks and then purchased the lion's share of the media outlets. Quietly, but persistently, subtley, almost without notice.

Reagan Timeline:

Jan 4, 1966, Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for California Governor

Jan 9, 1966, Ronald Reagan appeared on Meet the Press and was asked why he had not disavowed the John Birch Society. Reagan said a committee had looked into the group and found “nothing of a subversive nature.” In 1960 an informer reported to the FBI that Reagan was a Beverly Hills chapter member.

- August, 1966, John McCone, former CIA director, joined Ronald Reagan’s campaign as head of an executive policy advice committee.

- Nov 8, 1966, Ronald Reagan defeated Pat Brown by over a million votes to become governor of California. Reagan had defeated former SF Mayor George Christopher in the primary.

- Jan 5, 1967, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as Gov. of California.

- Jan 16, 1967, Gov. Reagan met with FBI agents at his governor’s mansion in Sacramento, Ca., for information on UC campus radicals.

- Jan 20, 1967, Clark Kerr, president of the UC system, was fired by Gov. Reagan and the UC Regents for being too soft on student protesters at Berkeley.

- Aug 5, 1968, The Republican national convention convened in Miami Beach. Ronald Reagan announced that he would seek the GOP nomination for president. He soon threw his support to Nixon.

- Jul 17, 1969, An FBI memo titled "New Left and Extremist Movements" revealed Gov. Reagan’s plans for the destruction of disruptive elements on California college campuses through "psychological warfare" and other methods.

- 1969 The Young America’s Foundation was founded at Vanderbilt University to teach patriotism, limited, government and other values espoused by later Pres. Ronald Reagan. In 1998 the foundation purchased the 680-acre Reagan ranch north of Santa Barbara.

- Nov 3, 1970, California Gov. Reagan won a 2nd term. He defeated Jesse Unruh.

- 1974 California state spending under Gov. Reagan increased from $4.6 to $10.2 billion when he left office.

- Nov 20, 1975 Ronald Reagan announced his intention to battle Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination.

-1976 Feb 18, Pres. Gerald Ford signed an executive order prohibiting US officials from plotting or engaging in political assassination. The order was later broadened by Presidents Carter and Reagan. Ford issued Executive Order 11905 to clarify U.S. foreign-intelligence activities. In a section of the order labeled "Restrictions on Intelligence Activities," Ford concisely but explicitly outlawed political assassination. It became effective on March 1.



I put this last thing in to show how subverted the changes that had come, were being undone in subsequent years. As we all know, this has been changed to just the opposite. This highlights how much has changed in the last 30 years. But it was a calculated campaign, as one can see from the grooming of Reagan, first by GE, then the Cal Repubs, then the RNC. To be the spokesperson, the frontman, the lovable idiot, to lead the charge into darkness.

That is what it looked like from my point of view. Reagan becomes president in 1980, we get homelessness on a massive scale, AIDS epidemic left unchecked for years, crack epidemic takes hold and decimates minority neighborhoods.


rdb

[stubtoe]

57. The Reagan era is when health care costs started to go relentlessly up.

Deregulation of energy, financial sectors also got started then.

[harun]

58. Hardened the hearts or the fruit of hardened hearts? Hard to say.

[upi402]

59. He took us from biggest lender to biggest debtor nation

and the exploitation of religious folks pitted Americans against each other. I still resent Xtians after all the repression and venom from their side - their fictitious, delusional, abusive, controlling side.

The media gave him a pass for trading missile to Iranian terrorists to cheat Carter out of re-election. Crminal!

[drokhole]

60. It's the difference between "Ich-Du" and "Ich-Es"...

"Ich-Du ("I-Thou" or "I-You") is a relationship that stresses the mutual, holistic existence of two beings. It is a concrete encounter, because these beings meet one another in their authentic existence, without any qualification or objectification of one another. Even imagination and ideas do not play a role in this relation. In an I-Thou encounter, infinity and universality are made actual (rather than being merely concepts).

...

The Ich-Es ("I-It") relationship is nearly the opposite of Ich-Du. Whereas in Ich-Du the two beings encounter one another, in an Ich-Es relationship the beings do not actually meet. Instead, the "I" confronts and qualifies an idea, or conceptualization, of the being in its presence and treats that being as an object. All such objects are considered merely mental representations, created and sustained by the individual mind. This is based partly on Kant's theory of phenomenon, in that these objects reside in the cognitive agent’s mind, existing only as thoughts. Therefore, the Ich-Es relationship is in fact a relationship with oneself; it is not a dialogue, but a monologue.

In the Ich-Es relationship, an individual treats other things, people, etc., as objects to be used and experienced. Essentially, this form of objectivity relates to the world in terms of the self - how an object can serve the individual’s interest."



The Gipper and his demented ilk clearly fall in the latter category, and have dragged the rest of the world down with them. Words can't express what kind of horrible pieces of shit these people are.

[anneboleyn]

83. Kant! I love philosophy (Wittgenstein!) Interesting, thanks, drokhole.

[drokhole]

95. My pleasure, and same here!!!

I had actually chanced across this particular concept shortly before seeing this thread (though, I feel like I've read it somewhere before...), and found it too interesting not to share. It comes from a guy named Martin Buber, whose work was in fact influenced by Kant (and Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, among others).

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I hadn't yet heard of Wittgenstein before you mentioned him (which is surprising, considering - on cursory glance - his focus on language and "language-games," which is one of my favorite things to consider). I'm sure I've encountered him before, but just wasn't paying attention. Either way, thanks for the heads up - will definitely have to look into his work!

My personal favorites are probably Robert Anton Wilson (whose subject matter was broad, but a main focus was the danger of the "is" of language) and Alan Watts, who said of philosophy:

"I wonder about the universe, but it is not a question that I wonder about, it is a feeling I have...As Aristotle said, 'Wonder is the beginning of philosophy.'"

(there are some great audio clips on YouTube of talks given by Alan Watts, highly recommended!)

[BOG PERSON]

62. you're totally wrong

I have walked the streets in many countries of the world but nowhere have I felt so degraded and humiliated as in America. I think of all the streets in American combined as forming a huge cesspool, a cesspool of the spirit in which everything is sucked down and drained away to everlasting shit. Over this cesspool the spirit of work weaves a magic wand; palaces and factories spring up side by side, and munition plants and chemical works and steel mills and sanatoriums and prisons and insane asylums. The whole continent is a nightmare producing the greatest misery of the greatest number... I am the evil product of an evil soil.

[silverweb]

63. Not quite true.

"There had always been politics in the years prior but it was not hateful and in no way personal between family and neighbors."

Unfortunately, bitter squabbles of neighbor against neighbor, prejudice against immigrants and minorities, greed, and corruption have run quite rampant in this country before. It was not all sweetness and light before, not by a long shot.

We're just seeing a new resurgence, with flames of hatred fanned by the puppetmasters, the wealthy overlords who get idiots to do their dirty work for them. Nothing is really different except the names of the individual players and some of their techniques.

[Honeycombe8]

64. You're right about there being a lot of mean people these days, but I think it's more complicated

But I think the cause is more complicated than "it was Reagan."

Reagan gave a voice to a certain segment that is like that. But that segment was already there, and growing. It grew with the civil rights movement, with women's rights, with "others" competing with white men for what they viewed as their superior working skills and entitlement to those jobs. It grew with the increases in welfare over the decades before Reagan...resentment against those on welfare vs. those who faced hard times while trying to work for a living. The economy. Inflation, so that once middle class families had to struggle more to make ends meet. Women working, once a negative, then a luxury for some women, became a necessity for the average family. All these things, I think, caused an increase in that hateful, mean segment of our society, as resentment built up. I'm sure there were other things, too.

But for sure, Reagan was the beginning of the decline of the middle class. He was good at faking it, that that wasn't happening, and people were too dumb to see through it, or they placed their hatred of others ahead of their own financial health. I'm not sure. But there's no doubt that Reagan heralded in the age of the decline of the middle class. It continues even to this day.

I heard on TV recently that the real wages of the average American worker is the same now as it was in the 1980's, while the income of the wealthiest has increased a lot during that same time period (I think the pundit said it was over 30%, or was it more? I forget.) That is so shocking.

[LWolf]

65. I don't disagree at all.

Unfortunately, you have described that time too well. :(

Frankly, the current President's expressions of admiration and respect for Ronald Reagan were a big part of why he was never able to inspire me with the hope/change rhetoric.

[Chorophyll]

66. I agree with you, but I would add that the country had

gone through a lot of turmoil in the 60s and 70s. Black people had won some significant rights. So had women. Gay people were making their voices heard. Abortion became legal. Reagan (and those that "brung" him) skillfully used the fear of change that was brewing among some Americans to get into power and wreak the havoc that we see now.

I mean, he couldn't have done it if there wasn't a base of fear and prejudice to work from.

[road2000]

67. I believe Reagan ruined the country economically,

and fanned the flames of the jealousy, greed and hatred that had always been there. The appeal to our baser natures was a smoke-and-mirrors trick to distract us from what was really going on: the systematic destruction of a democratic form of government, which is still happening now. I don't think he, personally, was the root cause. He was the agreeable mask that cloaked the machinery.

We are fighting the Civil War, the Gilded Age and the Depression all over again -- on somewhat different battlefields. Only this time, we don't have a Lincoln, a TR or an FDR. And we won't have any Atwater-esque deathbed confessions.

[XanaDUer]

68. And their brains.

nt.

[KT2000]

69. And as Roselyn Carter said

He makes people feel comfortable with their prejudices.

[Change Happens]

71. Listen to Steve Forbes, says the same thing over and over every single day!!!

I agree with you 100%!!!

You realize there is no going back...Right?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

72. You captured the shift very well.

I wasn't paying attention to politics at the time, but I can remember the zeitgeist



sad KnR here

[ewagner]

73. You're right...and...

...a good Democratic friend of mine in rural, rural, rural Wisconsin summed it up this way....

Reagan made us feel comfortable with our prejudices!

IOW...It was okay to hate..

poor people because they were "stealing" your money
welfare recipients, because they were dishonest and "stealing" your money
the unemployed because they are lazy..because they don't want to work...because they are stealing your money

Reagan taught us it was okay to hate...

and it was all about money

[ProgressIn2008]

74. I don't believe a politician has that kind of control

I have no philosophical problem with hating on Reagan, heh, but I don't think it does any good to strip people of their agency. If there was a cultural turn towards cruelty, then that ultimately is the responsibility of those who chose cruelty. Otherwise, there's no hope of people choosing a different course in the future.

[ewagner]

75. Remember the context

we were coming out of a recession and there was an oil embargo that made us feel helpless and then, of course, there was the Iran Hostage Crisis (which Reagan possibly manipulated to make Jimmy Carter appear weak)....America as a whole felt helpless and Reagan gave the public what they wanted: scapegoats for all their problems. It's an old, tried and true political technique and Reagan played his role; spoke his lines;played his part to perfection.

[NewJeffCT]

78. It wasn't just the oil embargo & recession

The country had gone through a decade of turmoil over Vietnam, and then we had a nearly unprecedented scandal at the presidential level in Watergate and nearly a decade of high inflation & high interest rates. It was Stagflation - stagnant economy & high inflation - through most of Carter's presidency, which were the by-product of Nixon's policies & the Arab oil embargo of '73.

The country was down and dour and Reagan gave the people what they wanted - a positive voice and he blamed those who didn't have the voice to fight back (minorities and the poor)

[ewagner]

80. Yes you are right

It was all that ...and the result was exactly as you said...

[NOLALady]

86. I agree.

We do have choices.

[NewJeffCT]

77. Under Reagan, people were homeless by choice

I remember saying to a person that told me that something like, "Do you really think a person would choose to live in a cardboard box on the street if they could have a roof over their head?" I walked away from them before they could respond, but they never said that to me again.

[Taverner]

79. You know - now that you mention it, you're right

I never looked at it that way before, but yeah - I saw this happen

I was born in 1970, and I remember really liking Jimmy Carter, and adults thinking that was so cute

Then Ronald Reagan becomes president, and the level of friendly dialogue just went down

Oh, and everything had become political

Everything from buying candy (inflation) to going to Chuck E Cheese (video games are from the devil, some neighbor kids told us - and back then they had a real video game arcade)

Now, this may have been the case since I was changing from 9 to 10 - but I don't think so

Because it happened all of a sudden

[leeroysphitz]

81. Reagan also made us swallow our tears. n/t

[russspeakeasy]

87. He was an early version of John Mccain.

Except that he could read...The U.S. elected a mentally
disabled man.

[mckara]

88. I Agree, But the Story Goes Deeper...

Neoliberal economic philosophy became a dominate factor in our lives, and Reagan helped it become instituted into our economic system.

Please permit me to recommend some research material:

Chang, Ha-Joon. 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Curtis, Adam. The Trap: Whatever Happened to Our Dream of Freedom

[patrice]

89. He made materialism the virtue, THE source of ALL other virtues & anything else a sin

[pnwmom]

90. Reagan brought a warm, cheery face to selfishness and greed.

You're right. I think he was the turning point.

[catrose]

92. OUCH!

but spot on.

[Mosaic]

93. reagan

was the best front for an ideology that dates back to the birch society of radicals. It is an ideology of hate, racism, individualism, classism, and is deeply inhumane and unAmerican. You are right he divided the nation, greed took over in that fateful decade and the decay into 3rd world fascism that is occurring now were the outcome of the radicals. The answer to all that planning and decay is a very deep and strong, bulletproof liberalism, enhanced democracy, and constitutional amendments protecting equality, reparations for slavery, repayment of land to the natives, and outlawing personhood for corporations.

[GreenTea]

94. Reagan told people to just think about themselves fuck the other people in our society-Reagan always

lied, outright made up stories to convince average hard working caring people that greed was a good & better philosophy to live by - Consume, that corporations were for the good of all of us - What bullshit! But it was easy for people to eat it up, not feel guilty or care for others and allowed that part of themselves (greed & selfishness to go unchecked - and out of control was encouraged) as to be their defining trait.

Reagan (as this country's "leader") was the master at divide & conquer turning the working the poor, workers and middle-class against each other - Lying to them telling them others were getting more than them trying to steal what little they had....But it was not each other....it was the republicans and their greedy corporations and their subsidies (corporate welfare) government give-aways, huge government contracts and all the tax cuts & loop holes corporations lobbyist can buy!

Reagan was no different than any republican - Sick Selfishness, Obsessively Greedy! Reagan constantly pushed greed as an attribute, preaching no government for you & me but government and our taxes should go to their corporations and it might "trickle down" to us workers peons middle class peasants no different than Gekko or any other Wall Street shark or corporations insatiable greed - You can't have a fair caring functioning society if everyone is saying fuck everyone else.

We ALL have to give a little to the less fortunate, to the progress of our society & country as a whole. Republicans prefer to say fuck everyone else - They don't believe in helping or giving even a anything me, me, me is all they care about - it's truly a sickness but they have no clue they'll just point to some one else who has more and that's what they live their life for - sick greedy Republicans fuck everyone else philosophy from the beginning to the ugly end of their bitter, lying conniving selfish greedy racist lives.....DIE Republican assholes ASAP!!

[rasputin1952]

96. Reagan was a cheesy simple-minded fool that made moeney by fooling

people into believing that there was "a greater America", one that he saw from the smoke and mirrors from Hollywood. Everything to him was a script with a happy ending in about an hour and a half.

He was a shitty actor, a shitty governor, a shitty president...to him, it was all about greed and avarice. He divorced his first wife because Nancy was rumored to give better oral sex. He cared nothing of his children, he cared nothing of the nation...it was all about more Hollywood pomp and a disgusting show of pure unadulterated quasi-Victorian bullshit.

He vindicated the thieves of Wall Street and helped deregulate banks so they could steal the hard earned cash of depositors. If there is a hell, I hope he is saying, "Mr. Satan, tear down this wall!" (While satan laughs gleefully stoking a few more tons of coal on the rotten bastard).

The bastard never worked an honest day in his life...and was upstaged by a chimp!

[mochajava666]

98. You're right.The beginning of the end began with Reagan.

This country has never recovered from that horrible asshole.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

99. Monied and corporate interests dictated all of Reagan's and Bush's moves.

We have had far too many figureheads as the CIC for far too long.

[Joey Liberal]

100. Ronnie Raygun was a conservative evangelical

I can't think of a better insult for the man.

[snot]

101. If you want to understand what happened more precisely, watch

Adam Curtis's "Century of the Self," a brilliant documentary that aired on the BBC. Reagan (or those who ran him) was/were actually the first US administration to deliberately apply the manipulative p.r. techniques invented by Edward Bernays and previously adopted in corporate advertising. You can watch Curtis's series at http://centuryself.blogspot.com . Seriously, WATCH IT -- it's a classic on the order of "Manufacturing Consent."

Reagan said it's your money, you earned it; the subliminal message was, it's ok to be selfish.

[RedCloud]

103. He built a wall between reason and politics. Mr Reagan! Tear down that wall!

[BillyJack]

104. When Reagan broke up the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union

I was only 21 y/o. I didn't quite understand it all at the time, but I KNEW something BIG/SOMETHING WRONG had just happened. I didn't fully understand, so I stayed quiet. I felt at the time that it might have BIG ramifications, but I wasn't that knowledgeable enough and *trusted* that other EXPERTS could/would set it all straight.

Here it is. 30 years later and, YES there have been HUGE ramifications.

In retrospect, I wish that I would have questioned more, stood up more, NOT trusted the "experts" and trusted my neighbor who worked for International Harvester, and was soon to retire, see his pension "pfffft" right before his eyes...and wanted my father/my family to realize/stand up more. I think International Harvester was one of the very first to destroy their long term employee's retirement benefits and promised-but-never-delivered securities.

[Ken Burch]

106. Reagan taught the country that it was ok to be a selfish bastard

That it was charming and witty to mock idealism or suffering. That a smile, a Stetson and forty-year-old jokes made it ok to break unions, starve the homeless and slaughter Central Americans.

Why did anyone EVER think this guy was "folksy"?

[TatonkaJames]

108. And Cantor is continuing his legacy

A video of him saying this is posted on todays DU