Blame Reagan

[Panich52]

Instead of celebrating B-movie actor Ronald Reagan's birthday, Americans should reflect, deeply regret, and grieve that they and their parents foolishly gave bad actor the power to set in motion America's thirty-year march toward theocracy and corporate fascism. A march today's conservative religion is closer to enacting than ever before.

http://politicususa.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=522f85d70e88c4caace8df597&id=d267612f68&e=b3b8b34f96

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[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. I feel sorry for Ron Jr., a great person who has to live with the endless carnage started by his

father.

I wish Ron was on a national radio show so I could hear him

[dissentient]

2. Reagan's "Morning in America"

Reagan-Carter debate "There you go again"

[11 Bravo]

21. Hey, he just forgot the "u" in "mourning". Of course ...

he was an affable old fuckwit, so I guess that's one possible excuse.

[yeoman6987]

3. Is there any Boomer who didn't vote for him?

I'm Gen X and when you see 49 states voted for him, you have to wonder. I think it is crazy for a generation that was so free in their thinking that they voted in droves for Reagan. Doesn't make much sense really.

[haikugal]

4. We didn't...

No one I knew did.

[jaysunb]

6. +1 n/t

[MBS]

13. " " " " " n/t

The "Reagan Democrats" were mostly older people freaked out by the cultural changes of the 1960's (not, however, my parents, who were more open to change, and, most importantly, were onto Reagan from Day 1) and perhaps also younger people who perhaps didn't understand what was at stake.

[haikugal]

19. I was the only liberal in my family

and I knew Reagan was running for president when he was stumping for Goldwater, and no one believed me! They wouldn't/couldn't believe that people would vote for a 'B' actor....they didn't recognize the danger until it was way too late, just like now. People refuse to realize the true nature of our situation even now.

I'm used to being called a 'pinko' etc. and 'brainwashed' by my family who continue to drink the coolaid...as far as I know anyway.

[MBS]

22. too bad not everyone is/was as perceptive as you!

I had to endure him as governor,too.
At least my family were strong Democrats-
For my dad, the fact that Reagan was a mediocre movie actor was just the last straw.
"How could they vote for a guy like this? A Grade-B movie actor? He's not even a good movie actor!"

My dad has now passed away, but he would be ranting now about the deification of Saint Ronnie.
His popularity continues to mystify and depress me. I feel like our country has become infantilized in terms of politics.

[haikugal]

24. I guess it sounded like I was tooting my horn

but it's a true story.

I really don't know what I would do without DU and the other websites I frequent. The computer has given me the opportunity to connect with like minded people in a way that wasn't possible for many, many years.

Someone here made the observation that Idiocracy was a documentary and it really seems to be true. I also think that there is a very real insanity in our country that is encouraged by the propaganda. I hate to see my son and the others coming up have so little hope for the future. I don't want to be a downer but this all makes me sad.

You were fortunate with your folks....

[MBS]

25. I was not teasing you!

I really do wish that more people could have seen what was going on, earlier, as you did!

During Ronnie's first gubernatorial race, my dad would come home from work, ranting how his colleagues and clients -Democrats all -would tell him that they were going to vote for Reagan "because he looks nice and has a nice voice."
And my dad would say, "But don't you see? That's his job-- he's an actor."

Oh, my folks were the best.

[haikugal]

27. Thanks, it's hard to tell

And that's how my brain works....

Yeah, I went and heard him give a stump speech and that's when I knew. I had gone to see George Wallace when I lived in Florida (briefly) and I got the same creepy feeling from Reagan. The people were different, Wallace supporters were full on fascist and scary, Reagan was as bad in a softer way it seemed to me.

Maybe we've been insane the whole time but now the insanity doesn't try to hide anymore.

San Francisco always made me feel better, still does.

[MBS]

30. "Reagan was as bad in a softer way ". .

Exactly!
I still remember a TV interview (60 minutes or something similar) in the early 80's with Roslynn Carter, who said, "Reagan makes us comfortable with our prejudices."

[haikugal]

32. Right on! Gotta love the Carters! n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Why would you think that you have to wonder when you could look up the numbers?

Popular vote Regan:43,903,230 Carter: 35,480,115 Anderson:5,719,850
Percentage Regan: 50.8% Carter:41.0% Anderson: 6.6%

I find your post to be a bit offensive to the various communities that opposed Reagan very strongly, such as the LGBT community and the African American community. Black voters were 82% Carter voters for example. By his second election, the LGBT community and the African American community basically considered him to be the devil incarnate. That did not stop wealth oriented white straights from voting for him, just ask Liz Warren.

[yeoman6987]

7. Wasn't offensive and very timely with his birthday.

I am gay but too young for Reagan vote.

[yeoman6987]

8. I read the thread again and you are right

Offensive. I am just frustrated he was President. Sorry to upset you.

[HubertHeaver]

9. At least two (2) that I know of did not.

Reagan was first and foremost an actor who was playing the part of President of the U. S. using John Kennedy as his role model. People loved him for and voted for his portrayal of the murdered president. Actually, he was hostile to anything the Kennedy administration stood for--so much so that Ted Kennedy called him out for his misrepresentations of himself.

[yeoman6987]

10. Thanks! I shouldnt have said it that way.

I should of said "I am frustrated Reagan was ever President" and left it at that.

[HubertHeaver]

12. As we all are.

It is a worthwhile activity to explore the how and why he was able to be elected.

[mulsh]

14. A great deal of us Californians who grew up under his two terms as Governor didn't vote for Reagan.

I don't know a single boomer who voted for Reagan but most of them are from California. It may be the propaganda was thicker out of state.

[haikugal]

20. That may be true, I'm from California also.

When I moved here it was like the 60's never happened...talk about culture shock...but it's better now.

[gopiscrap]

15. I sure as fuck didn't vote for him

I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said: Happiness is a new president. A friend had one that said: John Hinckly was right!

[haikugal]

31. I liked the bumper sticker

that had a picture of Reagan and a bottle of catsup and asked "which ones the vegetable".

[onethatcares]

16. I didn't

I knew it was going to be one disaster and war after another along with a beating for the working man,which I am.

[JDPriestly]

17. There was terrible inflation beginning in the 1970s.

It was partly due to the Viet Nam war but mostly due to the fact that OPEC nations realized that they were selling a commodity -- oil -- which they could not replace and that they would have very little once that oil had been exhausted.

The OPEC nations raised the price of oil. Nixon let the dollar go from the controls that had kept its value.

The inflation in the oil prices trickled down. That did trickle down.

Americans' incomes would not stretch as far as they had. Americans rebelled against the inflation and blamed Jimmy Carter. He was of course not at all at fault.

I happened to be a regular reader of the London Times and the Financial Times (British) in the early 1970s as well as oil industry publications and am very familiar with this history and the chain of events it set off.

The first years of the Reagan administration were terrible in economic terms. Just awful. People voted for him anyway.

[hifiguy]

33. i sure as hell never voted for the senile old fraud

and I am a boomer.

[cordelia]

36. I didn't vote for the bastard. Twice.

[Panich52]

37. None I know, incld myself, did. Knew early on if he got nomination he'd win. Thought abt emigrating

[hunter]

11. Reagan was a venal meat puppet. Wiggle his dick to make his mouth move.

That makes me sad. The majority of American voters were fooled.

I first campaigned for Jimmy Carter, not my ideal candidate as a radical left wing environmentalist, but Carter, much like Obama, still towered magnitudes above the grim alternatives.

If I'm ever forced by some horrible circumstance to visit Saint Ronald's grave I will deposit my own urine there like a bad dog marking for the other bad dogs a stench unworthy; nothing good here, rotten meat that will make you sick.

[pansypoo53219]

18. 1 of my grandpas hated reagan + i was on his side as a kid. i may not have read greider then

but even as a kid, tinkle down made no sense, + his welfare queens sounded like BS. of course my school class applauded when they heard he was shot.

[LWolf]

23. I blame his supporters and apologists,

and I blame Reagan Democrats.

[Thinkingabout]

26. Unfortunately the family had to face lots of realities. Reagan cut the funds for

Alzheimers research, perhaps not cutting the funding may not have helped him but it slowed things down. At one time Reagan was a union leader and then busted the air traffic controllers union which has went on to other unions. The trickle down economics went up instead of down.

Then we got W, we will be suffering his administration for a long time. Probably the worse happening was getting a Republican Congress, what Reagan and W did not ruin a Republican Congress sure has.

[LiberalElite]

28. I still remember

the pain in my chest when I learned he'd won.

[Bigmack]

29. But...but...but...

... he made Murikans feel good about themselves.

Kinda like those ribbons they give the kids in sports... when the kid couldn't hit, pass, throw, kick, run, jump, or even chew gum.

Personal note: My mother died just before the 1980 election. It was a mercy. She'd have died raging and foaming at the mouth at the thought of Ray-gun as president.

[3catwoman3]

34. And his act is...

...still fooling people long after the final curtain rang down. He may have been a B list actor (generous IMO), but he was a big old F as a president.

[MyOwnPeace]

35. I voted.......

that year - for John Anderson.

I know, perhaps if he had not won there would have been more support for Carter - but I have my doubts about that.

Here's the Anderson quote I loved:

When asked about choosing between his opponents (Carter and Raygun) John Anderson said," That's not a choice, that's a dilemma!"