How did you feel when Reagan was elected?

[Joe the Liberal]

To all of the older DUers on here, how did you feel when Reagan got elected? how did you feel about his presidency? What were some of your thoughts during his time in office. I wasn't even alive at the time (born in 89) which is why I'm asking.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Pretty much the same as when that last...

asshole got elected.

Deep depression on election night over what might happen.

Deepening depression over the next eight years of bullshit and criminality.

Relief after eight years that the republic had actually survived.


OOPS!

Cancel that last one, since we're not sure yet that it really has survived the past eight years.

[flor de jasmim]

10. I felt exactly the same.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

13. I wasn't alive when Reagan got elected, but at least you knew on election night.

For *both* of the bush elections, we had to wait.

[Joe the Liberal]

18. As I thought........

I had always heard he was a good president but I know now that it's all a big lie and his whole legacy is just a giant illusion as well.

[willing dwarf]

26. Mostly he kick started the flagging economy by military spending

He cut taxes to the wealthiest and ran up the deficit while at the same time complained about big government. He was in la la land and his handlers loved it. They could run any game under his nose, and they did -- the whole Iran Contra thing was thanks to his being out to lunch. But if he'd been with it, they would have convinced him that it was necessary to save the country.

Really he and W were both like pet monkeys, kept men.

[NorthCarolina]

44. He was an actor, and one ability he did have was to instill a sense of Deep Patriotism n/t

[D-Lee]

49. Ditto! Let me add my observations ...

If you were around, you will remember all those collections of Regan's silly remarks, which showed clearly the direction in which he would head -- downward from our policy point of view.

And, even though he was a lot like Bush II, he had a couple of important differences which were to the good (I know, yuk, nonetheless overall).

First, he did not want to look bad to the American people and that was an actual constraint on how far he would go. Bush II just didn't care what people thought in general, except for his "core" minority interest group.

Second, Regan really valued competence in his appointees -- rarely saw anyone like Brownie in his administration.

My favorite Regan trivia: He gloried in the fact that California's welfare rolls were "reduced" (i.e. did not grow as much as originally projected) when he was governor. The reason? Roe v. Wade. Less children and fewer unwed mothers without means of financial support were added to the welfare rolls.

[Naturyl]

2. Was basically clueless the first time

I was 5 or 6 years old. Second time, I recall supporting Mondale.

That being said, I basically admired Reagan until I became an independent-thinking adult. The media presented him as the best thing since sliced bread, and what kid would disagree?

I do remember seeing the Iran-Contra hearings on the little black and white TV we had, but I had little interest in what it was about.

[LeftishBrit]

3. Horrified!

I remember being afraid that he would blow the world up. I never trusted him an inch, even all the way from here.

He soon became Maggie's best pal, and I hated him even more.

[Hissyspit]

4. I cried when I saw Carter conceding.

I guess I was 16 or 17. The repubs were so ugly in victory. I was very worried about what would happen.

[Hannah Bell]

24. they were, weren't they? similar to the bush years. i don't remember them being

so arrogant in victory with bush 1, though.

[Hissyspit]

5. delete - dupe

[valerief]

6. Disappointed, for sure. nt

[elleng]

7. Lousy

but not surprised.

Good Dem friends had baby that night so we were in a Georgetown bar at the time near the hospital; we've always remembered his birthday!

[Raine]

8. Sick to my stomach

I'd already had him 8years as Governor here in CA so I knew what we were in for. :puke:

[willing dwarf]

9. I was just starting high school

so I wasn't real clear on politics -- my parents were mainline (FDR, JFK) liberals, so they were strongly against his red baiting and his blaming the so-called welfare queens . Above all I remember feeling like we were being sold a bill of goods and it felt a lot like Disney. -- At the time it was just an impression, but I could tell that something was being packaged and foisted on us.

Around that time, if I recall rightly, Michael Jackson was on the top of the charts with his Thriller album. His appearance at one of the awards ceremonies in a pseudo military outfit and weird surgically altered face seemed like an image of the period we were heading into. Everything was surface and the surface was fake. What was behind the image was unclear, but the surface was designed to be something for everyone.-- While Reagan spun a folksy image, it was like Michael Jackson, all image.

Above all, I'd say I was amazed how distinctly out of touch Reagan was with the hard reality of poverty which I saw around me in Philadelphia. People said he was a man of the people, and all I could think was that he was a man of a different crowd of people than the people I saw in my city.

[Joe the Liberal]

20. Exactly..........

He was all image, I wasn't real clear on politics until I got into high school as well. That's when a lot of things started becoming clear about the republican party.

[Berry Cool]

47. When did you graduate from high school? "Thriller" didn't come out until late '82.

"Thriller" was big in '83, not when Reagan was first elected. Maybe your memory is mashing your Reagan images and your MJ images together. By the time MJ went all Thriller (as in, began wearing the sparkly military jacket and the single glove and doing serious freaky plastic surgery to his face), Reagan was already firmly in office.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. Absolutely mortified

I'm a Californian and I knew what that bastard was about.

[EFerrari]

12. Sort of the way I did when Bush was "elected".

I couldn't believe it -- he was such a dope. And I knew he'd be terrible for us but really, I had no idea HOW bad he would be for us and the world. I was 23.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. I had just turned 17 when Bush got elected. I thought he'd be bad, but a 1 termer for sure.

[Why Syzygy]

15. Fear and trepidation.

I voted for him, but wish I hadn't. At the time, I didn't really want to, but the economy was in the crapper. Carter wasn't very successful at sorting out foreign policy, either. I love him dearly, and I had to steel myself to vote to replace him. (I've always been an Independent voter.) I was a Realtor during Carter's administration. Interest rates were 20%+. The best deal I contracted was for a 14% assumption loan.

During Reagan's' administration, I switched careers and was a tax preparer for a former employer. They were in the tax business, and were launching the first ever computerized tax preparation retail locations. We had the Challenger disaster that first year of the new business. A disaster of that magnitude bolsters faith in Presidents, as we witnessed in 2001.

Reagan's financial policy was terrible. He cut out a lot of deductions that self employed people needed. My husband at the time could no longer deduct his business mileage, etc. Each passing year, the tax clients' situations worsened. The higher tax rates had discernible effects.

Reagan turned out the mental institutions. That was the beginning of homelessness for Americans.
Office buildings went vacant. Strip malls closed.

Reagan did do a lot to make the President more visible. He was a charismatic guy.
His Star Wars initiative was about the most controversial thing I remember. But, with a guy like Reagan, it seemed perfectly rational that he would pursue such a course.

Mondale could hardly mount a challenge to Reagan's popularity.

When he made his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Mondale said: "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."<2> While this was meant to show that Mondale would be honest with voters, it was largely interpreted as a campaign pledge to raise taxes, which was unappealing to many voters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mondale#Presidential_nominee_of_1984

He successfully passed his crown to his Vice President, GHW. Just one more thing to thank him for.
:sarcasm:

Naturyl reminded me of Iran/Contra. Imagine Ollie North on tv every day. :hurts:

[Urban Prairie]

16. I was 23 and I knew that we were in trouble

I remember not knowing what Reagan's middle name was.

I mentioned it to a co-worker and he didn't know either. I said that it would be scary if Reagan's middle name was 6 letters as well as his first and last name was, ie..666 or the mark of the beast in the Bible. The next day he came into work and told me that Ronald's middle name was Wilson...ewwwww!!!!

Ironically Pink Floyd's magnum opus, The Wall came out at the same time, that album reflected a bit on what we were getting into, especially The Thin Ice:

Momma loves her baby,
And daddy loves you, too.
And the sea may look warm to ya, babe,
And the sky may look blue.

Oooooo babe.
Oooooooo baby blue.
Oooooo ooohh babe.

If you should go skating,
On the thin ice of modern life,
Dragging behind you the silent reproach,
Of a million tear-stained eyes,
Dont be surprised when a crack in the ice,
Appears under your feet.
You slip out of your depth and out of your mind,
With your fear flowing out from behind you,
As you claw the thin ice.

A year and a half later, I was laid off from my job, and spent the next three unemployed and nearly penniless in the last year and a half.

The entire decade was not kind to me job-wise or financially, thankfully I wasn't married with children. I might not have survived it, if not for my family.

[BlueMTexpat]

17. As if there had been a gravitational shift in the political world ...

and when his hangers-on began arriving in DC, it was actually frightening. There were some pretty scary people, the likes of whom had not been seen since Nixon. And many of them are still there and still in positions of power. And yes, many SHOULD be in prison cells.

I literally could not believe it and could not believe that others could not see what was happening. Bush I was a continuation of Reagan, but with a fixation on Saddam Hussein (remember, under Reagan, Saddam was a "friend"). That culminated in Gulf War I (Saddam fell for the Bush trap) and I was afraid that so-called "glorious victory" would make Bush I invincible. Thank God for Ross Perot (not that I ever would have voted for him or admire him in any way) because otherwise Clinton would not have won in 1992. Perot got many votes that otherwise would have been for Bush I.

Of course, the Dems were their own worst enemy and fought Clinton every step of the way until the "Gingrich Revolution." They never got things back together until politicans like Howard Dean effectively forced them to listen to their base once again ... even for just a little while.

Lest we forget ... we MUST keep reminding them. They have a tendency to forget us.

[argyl]

19. Like hammered shit. And John Lennon being assassinated a month after that SOB won really hurt.

One of his first symbolic acts was to get rid of the White House solar panels Carter had had installed. He then declared his love for big,gas guzzling American cars.And it was off we went into the "Greed is Good" consumer crazy 80's.

His administration was a prelude to the horrors of Bush II.I was outraged at the Iran/Contra affair.Whereas Watergate was an impeachable act because of the subsequent coverup Iran/Contra should have been an impeachable offense on its own. And nothing was done.
And then an administration lied to the world to attack a nation that had done us no harm. This was no impeachable offense,this was a crime against humanity. And the bastards who perpetrated this were so arrogant about what they'd done. Maybe they'll pay for their crimes in this world but I wouldn't bet on it.

In Oliver Stone's excellent film "Salvador" James Belushi's character says to James Wood's character,paraphrasing," I can't believe we just elected a president who was a straight man to a chimp."
Well,20 years later we elected the chimp.

Reagan was a dunce,but he was an amiable,avuncular sort of dunce. Bush II was stupid,but he was a smirking,mean drunk type as well.Nothing remotely pleasant about him.

And what we got 20 years after Reagan was elected was exponentially worse.
But 12 years of Reagan/Bush Sr. laid the groundwork.

[SoCalDem]

21. Truthfully, very little

In 1980, we were quite busy with 3 kids under 8, one of whom made 3 trips a year to mayo Clinic (stayed 6 weeks at a clip), and we moved 5 times, encompassing 4 states from 1977-1981, so we were oblivious to politics..

reagan was an insidious force too, since many of his policies did not really start to hurt immediately,, They unfolded over years....like amputating a leg by starting toe by toe, and then the foot, followed by the lower leg, and finally the whole leg..

[leftofthedial]

22. like the world was ending. Disbelief. He was a wack job.

It took them only 28 years to kill America.

[Hannah Bell]

23. i felt disbelief & dismay. i took a day off work. i couldn't believe

so many people'd bought his schtick, he always seemed phoney to me.

that year lennon was killed & mt st helens (i spent a lot of time there) blew.

the world changed for the worse in 1980. it's a big dividing line in my personal history.

[billyoc]

25. I was ecstatic. He had promised all active duty military a pay raise.

Then he threw my whole ship in jail for Zero Tolerance on smoking pot. Live and learn. :rofl:

[ProfessorGAC]

27. I Clearly Remembering "Feeling" That People Are Stupid

I mean, goodness, he beat Carter handily. All i thought was "Man are people clueless."
GAC

[ThomWV]

51. That was exactly it - it was just stunning stupidity and there was no other way to describe it

It was as if the entire country had gone to Jonestown and I was standing there in utter disbelief watching them march away. If the evening news had announced that 2+2=5 I would not have been more dumbfounded. But there we were, 49 states out of 50 went for the buffoon. The first time around the election was called before 9:00 eastern, the polls had not even closed in California.

[ProfessorGAC]

71. I Recall That Too

Hey, Thom!

IIRC, they justified calling the election while the polls were still open because Reagan was heavily favored in his home state. I don't remember if that was true or not.

In 1980 i was only 24, but was out of college for 5 years, and had gotten my grad degree 19 months before that election. I thought i was pretty damned clever and educated. Then Reagan got elected, and it made me worse, 'cuz now i was sure everybody was stupid! LOL!

GAC

[Individualist]

58. Same here

I was incredulous that Reagan was elected. That, more than anything else, convinced me that the dumbing down of America was a fact.

[SeattleGirl]

28. Absolutely sickened.

No question.

[izzie]

29. I was a voter in the GOP and took my name off the list

I was really sad he made it in. He did me in with the GOP. I was not to happy with them at the time and this was the end for me. My first vote was for Ike.

[old mark]

30. I was very depressed - Reagan seemed to lift the entire right

wing out of the hole they had been dug by Nixon. I was amazed at the GOP's recovery after the Nixon debacle. I honestly was not expecting them to win for many years to come, but then - as now - they had a GREAT publicity and disinformation machine. They swept the country with their simplistic bullshit, and Reagan was nothing if not a bullshiter supreme!

I am still amazed how many people think he was a good - even great President, and I am watching to see what happens to W's reputation over the years....He might be on Mt. Rushmore before the 2020's.

Remember this about the GOP's; they lie, not always well, but often and always and they get a lot of people to believe it, even themselves.

mark

[Iterate]

31. Somber, with a sense of foreboding.

We knew it was coming and I had even voted for Barry Commoner. In my state it didn’t matter.

I don’t recall having a good sense of knowing exactly what he would do, just that it wouldn’t be good. I underestimated then how effective he would be in destroying blue-collar life. In that sense, his re-election in 1984 was even more disturbing. It's still difficult to understand how people were charmed by him.

In 2000, dire predictions about Bush were quite detailed and accurate with one exception: no one that I can recall predicted the astonishing level of incompetence. I guess it's about time to admit that I will never understand the appeal of either of them.

[saltpoint]

32. Reagan's election represented for me the triumph of things I distrusted in

my nation's cultural and political life.

I personally felt that Carter's administration was wobbly from the start. I supported Kennedy's primary challenge for the nomination. I liked Carter the man. I thought he had done poorly as president.

On the Left, Barry Commoner and LaDonna Harris made vivid observations in the election campaign about our country that intellectually eclipsed both Carter and Reagan. And Rep. John Anderson drew a serious % of votes, considering how under-funded he was.

It was not a happy election from the middle leftward. The fundie nutbags, of course, were elated.

As grim as Reagan's election was, what it meant then would get worse still when we learned of the death squads in Central America.

There was very little to like or respect about Ronald Reagan from the point of view of voters in the middle going leftward. He was an imbecilic demogogue.

[Jeep789]

33. Disappointed but not nearly as stunned or horrified as by the

election of the unmentionable and associates (twice).

[greenbird]

34. Same feeling in the pit of my stomach as when Nixon got elected.

Having experienced Reagan as governor of my home state of California, though, it was actually worse.

[H2O Man]

35. Oh, it was terrible.

It was hard to believe that, at a time so close to when serious "secret government" abuses had become known (the Watergate scandal resulted in several Congressional investigations), that a man who clearly fronted for the dark forces could be elected. I wasn't that impressed with Jimmy Carter, though I voted for him twice; I've come to have far more respect for him in the role of ex-President. But Reagan? He was shallow, callous, and dangerous. It was like a commercial had been elected.

[Papagoose]

36. I was in fourth grade, but remember it pretty well.

At the time, both my parents were Republicans - well, not so much Republicans, but ANTI-CARTER to the core. My dad was a boat dealer and was hurt pretty bad financially by the gas crisis - no gas, then no boating. He, like many people blamed Carter, and to his credit, by the early 2000s, he realized the error of this assumption.

Through most of his presidency, I was as much of a fan of Reagan that a child could be. I was taught at home that he was a real hero - that he was facing down Communism and making the world safe for freedom, Democracy, etc. I began to accept suppositions such as that nuclear war was inevitable and winnable (and maybe even desirable)- that brutal dictators were better than Communists that won elections - that religion trumped science - that the relentless pursuit of wealth WAS the American dream ("Greed is good").

Ironically, my parents sent me to a private Quaker elementary school - which presented difficulties. I remember my school presented a film about Nicaragua which was very sympathetic to the Ortega government and critical of the Contras. I got myself in a whole mess of trouble defending the "freedom fighters" and asking my teacher is she was a Socialist and if she hated America. I got asked to leave the classroom once when I passionately spoke about the reasons why Castro should be assassinated and my parents were called into school over concern for my advocacy of joining the army to "kill communists". In my 8th grade yearbook, I tried to have the words "better dead than red" printed in my little blurb. I was happy when Reagan was reelected, but by the end of the second term and as I got older, I began to see through the mystique. Reagan started to seem like a confused old man being led by other, much more dangerous men. I began to see his policies as misguided, inept, outdated and self-destructive, yet I remained a Republican through George Bush I's and Clinton's first term. If you asked me then why I was a Republican, I would have told you "because of Ronald Reagan" - he held such a high place in my heart and mind that I felt like I was betraying him by even acknowledging my own feelings.

Even though I am now a Democrat - a bleeding heart, liberal, tree-hugging Democrat at that - I cried when Ronald Reagan died.

Wow - a lot has changed in my life since the spell of Ronald Reagan finally wore off.

[etherealtruth]

37. Not as bad as I should have

I was young (18) and naive. I did not fully understand that a presidency could have such long lasting consequences and far reaching damage.
I understood by the time he was re-elected.

[marmar]

38. I was 8.......I just remember that my mayor at that time, Coleman Young of Detroit.....

..... called him "Old Prune Face".

[dynasaw]

39. Very Discouraged

Particularly because there were so many cross overs known then as "Reagan democrats."

I remember some of my friends who were democrats who seemed to have temporarily lost their minds and got sucked in by Reagan's so-called charisma, his affability and avuncular persona. Ugh!

Sometimes dems get the attacks of the stupids--like the ones in California who suddenly decided they liked the terminator. :crazy:

[KharmaTrain]

40. The Sign In My Office....

At a radio station circa 1980...had a picture of Raygun with a gun pointed at a blindfolded "libruls'" head and a running calendar saying "This is Day XX of Our Liberal Hostages In America"...we kept that counter up-to-date until I left the station in December '81.

One day someone will ask you about booooosh, it'll be interesting to see how you and your generation (my son is around your age) and how they look back at both boooshie & the rushpublicans.

Raygun won as a hang-over of Vietnam and the 70's...inflation and rising oil prices. The Democrats has divided themselves...especially after Carter was elected. IMHO, he caught the short end of the stick as the billions squandered in Vietnam led to the first wave of inflation in the early 70s and then the mismanagement of the oil crisis by Nixon & Ford (with a BIG assist by Hank Kissinger) all fell in Carter's lap. Like Clinton, he was set up as a "goober", a yokel from the outset and the lies and ridicule of him continues to this day.

Iran is what cost Carter the re-election...just like in the wake of 9/11, people wanted revenge and through that Raygun would put on a cape and become "captain America"...of course the PR and the revisionist rushpublicans paint it in glorious terms...for the rest of us, it was the start of the real destruction of this country...a 30 year slide that we're paying for now.

Cheers...

[blindpig]

41. Astonished.

I could not believe that such a bogus hack could get elected.

I wasn't no pollyanna back then, but I had some learning to do.

Reagan fouled the air of discourse, somehow coarsened the country in a way I still cannot put my finger on. I hated that bastard, and I still do, a smiling, congenial murderer.

I piss on his grave.

[FudaFuda]

42. Mostly just horny. I was 13 at the time, horny was all I had time for.

But I had enough to sense to know something fishy was going on when the hostages in Iran got released as he was being inaugurated.

[cobalt1999]

43. Unease but curious

I thought the odds where high we'd be in a major shooting war with him in power, but I was curious to see what changes he'd make.

I had no idea how he'd deeply he'd gut the EPA and all environmental laws at the time.

[ThomWV]

45. Shattered

That is the only word I can find to describe it. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I did not understand how my fellow countrymen could have been so totally fooled by such an obvious charlatan.

[NoPasaran]

46. Crushed. Shattered. Defeated. Gobsmacked. Kicked in the head with an iron boot

Astonished. Terrified. Horrified. Despairing. Frightened. Dumbfounded. Disgusted. Sickened.

About a week after the election I predicted that his time in office would be characterized by arrogance, cruelty and stupidity. Nothing that happened during the next eight years made me rethink that one iota.

[Hepburn]

48. I was in college ~~ University of Calif ~~ when the asshole was elected governor...

...and I hated him then. I voted against him when he ran for POTUS and I felt he was an embarrassment. His mental condition was questionable when he was Gov of Calif...and I could not imagine anyone not noticing this.

I hated the SOB for what he did to the mentally disabled and the education system in California. The rotten RW bastard picked on those least able to help themselves.

And talk about Karma? He set out as Gov to demolish the mental health day care centers in Calif for those who had conditions such as Alzheimer's and he succeeded in doing this. Talk about paybacks being hell.

JMHO

[JSK]

50. Not too great

I had just had a baby a month before. But I dragged myself down to vote for Carter! Thankfully, I was very busy with my kids during the 80's and didn't have as much time as I do now to agonize over the insanity of politics.

[Neecy]

52. Repulsed...shocked...pissed

I was 20 and it was my first presidential vote - was pretty excited to cast it for Carter.

Reagan was exactly like Bush jr - a stuffed suit, a frontman for the shadow government, a useful idiot. I was appalled by his ignorance ("trees cause air pollution") and by his blatant use of racism ("welfare queens").

As upset as I was by his election in 1980, I was even more disgusted by his re-election in 1984. The guy was clearly senile, he had already screwed the working and middle class at the expense of the wealthy (sound familiar?) and I couldn't believe that the American public was so fucking stupid as to vote for this shit *again*.

I never thought I'd see a worse president in my lifetime. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

[TankLV]

53. Worst President Ever until bush* - but at least he was "elected"

the whole country was DELUSIONAL - and I was dumbstruck at how STUPID they all were...

but bush* changed all that perspective - ronnie Ray Gun was just another spoiled hack...

[Diclotican]

54. Joe the Liberal

Joe the Liberal

I am not sure all the time I was 4-5 when he was elected.. Was not exactly into politic then:evilgrin: But I know that in my home, mr Reagan was NOT a popular person... Specially the SDI thing, and the rhetoric about the cold war was scaring the hell out of a generation who had experienced the WW2 firsthand..

When I was more "grown up" I have to say that I am a little confused about the whole man. On the one side I was seeing he more and more as an "grandfather" type of person. On the other side when I got to know little about what he had been doing the 8 year he was President I would say he is also a man who should have been hold accountable for many of the actions who originated from the White House.. Maybe he is been hold accountable now, in the afterlife.. He was a actor, and as such played the actor role, as President with some good performers.. Even that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer already in the first term in office.. He was an old man, 70 year old... I would say US need a "age limit" or at least a really healt check update on your president on a regular basis. Specially when they are passing the big 70s.. Regardness of who are in office.. And that the medical records are public knowlegde - or at least that the information can be some public knowlegde..

Diclotican

[Berry Cool]

55. Depressed, but I could see it coming down Broadway with both doors open.

I was a sophomore at a private university that, as a poor single-parent kid, I was able to afford only by dint of scholarships, grants and loans, and aside from the constant red tape I had to deal with (I had to travel physically from one campus office to another to ensure all this stuff was taken care of before I registered, because the campus computers were not yet networked), I absolutely loved it there. I had friends, I loved the campus, I was starting to get an idea of what I wanted to major in. But Reagan took all that away, by cutting my student loans so I couldn't afford to go there anymore. I had to transfer to a state school just to finish my degree. I count myself lucky, because at least I could still do that. Some kids in my position might have had to quit college altogether.

I could tell people were going to go for Reagan big-time, though. Carter was realistic and morose and depressing, and he hadn't been successful in getting the hostages out of Iran, which in those days was like capturing Osama bin Laden was in 2001 if not today. Everyone was angry that he hadn't found a way to do it, and everyone was angry that he was so realistic and morose about the country's problems. Then Reagan would come walking in, all broad-shouldered and dark-haired (even if it came out of a bottle--he NEVER let a TOUCH of gray show) and looking like a movie hero, and he would open his mouth and out would come all these platitudes about Mom, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and whatnot. About how America is the greatest country in the world, and I will help set you free from the bonds of evil Government that are holding you back from being what you should be, and I will win the Cold War because we are better than those godless Commie Soviets, and when you elect me it will be like going back to the 1950s when every Dad had a nice job and every Mom stayed home baking cookies and every kid grew up healthy and strong on Wonder Bread and everyone was white and nobody got abortions and nobody was gay and everything was perfect.

And people bought that shit. And I knew they would. Because every time you offer Americans a choice between dour pessimism and sunny optimism, they will buy the sunny optimism every time--even if the sunny optimism is 100% pure bullshit.

A while ago I posted here what it was like watching the Cleveland Reagan-Carter debate in the dorm room of someone with a TV (people with TVs in their dorm room were rare back then because TVs were still expensive). Most of us were against Reagan because we honestly thought he was so gung-ho for a showdown with the Soviets that we could not trust him not to push the nuclear button and just end it all. But one guy was really obnoxiously gung-ho FOR him, and blathering on and on about how great he was. Annoyed the hell out of the rest of us. I remember seeing how Reagan handled that debate and thinking "He's gonna win. Dammit, he's gonna win. It doesn't matter how disastrous it will be if he wins, because he's gonna win."

I voted for Anderson, so sadly, maybe I helped him win. What can I say? It was my first presidential election and I really didn't want to play games with my vote and say "I have to vote for Carter or otherwise Reagan will win." I didn't like Carter either. I liked Anderson best, so I voted for him. I believed that third-party candidates should be viable and wanted to see him at least recoup his campaign expenses by getting enough of the vote to do so (3%, I think--which he did). Now I think of 2000 and think of how those Nader votes contributed to the nightmare of what we got then. (At least I don't have to confess to voting for Nader. OK, I admit, I sat that one out. But I lived in New York at the time, and New York was going for Gore anyway.)

I'll wrap with one more story. One night in our dorm lounge, four of us found a Reagan campaign flyer lying around and read it for laughs. It said things like "Ronald Reagan is a family man!" and "Ronald Reagan will create an America in which you and your family can face the future proudly and without fear!" One of us--a guy who could make comedy out of anything--began, out of nowhere, singing "Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan" to the tune of "Frere Jacques."

Another of us--this happened to be a gay guy, which made it better in a way--picked up on it and began singing a second line for the song: "Family man, family man..."

A third one (leaving me last) invented a third line: "Face the future proudly, face the future proudly..."

I knew I had to finish, so I'd better come up with something good. I smiled and sang: "Nuke Iran! Nuke Iran!"

We all laughed. But it was the last laugh we had on that topic.

[Stellabella]

56. Ill.

n/t

[Stevenmarc]

57. The words Hell and Handbasket came to mind

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

59. Incredulous that the American people could be so stupid.

[G_j]

60. I don't think I've ever fully recovered the optimism I once felt

But it all started to go to hell, when MLK and RFK were killed. Reagan's election to me signified that those forces were being embraced and blessed by the American people. America deliberately chose the dark side.

..

[surrealAmerican]

61. I remember being very concerned that he was just crazy enough ...

... to start a war with the Soviet Union. All that tough talk about an "evil empire" sounded so reckless. I was about 17 at the time, and figured we might all be dead before I got to college. If we managed to avoid a nuclear war, I figured that "trickle-down" economics would probably cause another depression.

[LWolf]

62. 1. Dismayed. 2. Appalled.

3. Repulsed by the hypocrisy of the christian-sanctioned wallowing in self-gratification, the "it's all about me" mentality, the brainless "shop 'til you drop" consumerism, the shallow patriotic propaganda, and the apparent determination by the american masses to embrace media soundbites and flash over substance.

[Name removed]

63. Deleted message

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[Hepburn]

65. You feel old?

LOL...in 1989, I was over 40 years old ~~ I cudda been your mom! :hi:

[Name removed]

68. Deleted message

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[MiniMe]

64. That was the year that the stretch limo came to DC

Seriously, before Reagan came, DC was pretty much a small town. Yes, it was the nation's capital, but it didn't have a big town feel. But when Ronnie came, the limos and fur coats came out, and they haven't gone away since. It was a distinct change to a "big money" feel to the town.

[NoSheep]

66. Like he'd bought it and the country had gone insane.

[catzies]

67. I had just turned 18, and had a new baby. Being a child of Watergate, I thought

that Nixon was the Worst President Ever, and that the people who worked for and with him were evil soulless scumbags.

I was also a nely transplanted Californian, and heard about what it was like there when Reagan was governor. I was afraid of his new No. 2 as I thought Nixon had appointed him to be head of the CIA. I was terrified that old man Reagan was going to croak and the CIA would run the White House and start more wars.

Looking back on it, what I did know as a scared teenager almost thirty years ago was not too far away from the truth as we know it to be today. Wow.

[RandomKoolzip]

69. I was only 5 at the time, but i do remember disliking his image on TV a great deal.

Even as a small child, i could sense that this old man meant to do me harm. I had a visceral revulsion, without knowing anything about politics. I also remember seeing Carter on TV before that - just a very vague memory - and thinking, wow, this guy seems like a very nice person. Reagan seemed to be his opposite - I have no earthly idea what the fuck America was thinking at this point, but it was obvious they were making a terrible, terrible error, and history has borne this out. Reagan played a big part in getting us to where we are today: mired in debt and jingoism, proud to be stupid and bellicose for no reason, and intolerant of non-entrepreneurs.

[L. Coyote]

70. As if a bad actor had been cast for the job of pretending to run the country.

It was very disheartening to see an obvious neurological defective on a killing rampage
in Central and South America, on the heels of Carter, the human rights champion who was
altering the old way of doing US business in the Americas.

[Skittles]

72. absolutely fucking disgusted

I couldn't believe so many Americans fell for his pathetic act

[timtom]

73. Betrayed by the American intellect

Despair. Disbelief. Everything good since 1976 going up in smoke. Reversal of fortune for America and me.

But it became quite clear to me that it was all never about supremacy of ideas, but of perception.

[peekaloo]

74. Does anyone remember Cronkite's reaction that night?

I swear he looked baffled and stated "I don't believe it." (could be my imagination)

It was my first time voting for President (Carter) and I could not believe this crappy actor person had won.

One of the independent tee vee stations ran 'Dr. Strangelove' that night to counter election results viewing. I now know why.


p.s. When I moved to Houston 5 years later I was shocked at the number of homeless people stretched out on the downtown sidewalks. When I asked how long has this been happening the response was always "Thank Ronald Reagan".

[TWiley]

75. I was pissed. Bush / Reagan sabotaged Carter (treason) to win

dirty bastards both of them. The largest drug dealers in the 1980's with ollie north. They sold tons of narcotics to fund their dirty little wars. Bush armed bin laden against the russians, bush gave hussien the chemicals to kill the kurds.

dirty bastards both of them

[Bluenorthwest]

76. Angry

The Reagan years were years of vapid dishonesty and open contempt for the American people. Most everyone I knew spent those years protesting, organizing, and more than anything dealing with the mass public health crisis of AIDS which Rapmaster Ronny ignored for years. Dozens of good people I know paid with their own hard earned money to buy medicines and nurses, to cover rents and bills for those who were dying. Reagan and his America were of less than no help, they were a hinderence to all good works.
I expected much of the Reagan bs, as I grew up in CA, and he was our Gov. The first time I was involved in an organized and personal political action was in elementary school when Reagan spiked the price of milk and cut the program that paid for milk for kids who could not afford it.