The GOP's selective memory on Ronald Reagan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020705639.html

Eugene Robinson

Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, February 8, 2011

As we mark the centennial of Ronald Reagan's birth, one of our major political parties has become imbued with the Gipper's political philosophy and governing style. I mean the Democrats, of course.

The Republican Party tries to claim the Reagan mantle but has moved so far to the right that it now inhabits its own parallel universe. On the planet that today's GOP leaders call home, Reagan would qualify as one of those big-government, tax-and-spend liberals who are trying so hard to destroy the American way of life.

Some Republicans, I suppose, might be so enraptured by the Reagan legend that they are unaware of his actual record. I hate to break it to Sarah Palin, but Reagan raised taxes. Often. Sometimes by a lot.

[boobooday]

1. Reagan traded arms for hostages!

Reagan cut and ran from Libya.

Reagan trampled students in California.

But shhhhhhhh . . . he was SO charming.

These guys could rehabilitate Ghengis Khan, they are so delusional.

[rfranklin]

2. I think the same delusional process goes on with Reagan as with...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4725057&mesg_id=4725261

[liberal N proud]

3. The GOP worships the image of Reagan more than anything

[Avant Guardian]

4. Selective or invented?

[JoePhilly]

5. The GOP yerns for the Mythical Reagan, not the actual Reagan.

[Bandit]

6. Reagan was the LAST popular Republican

He was the Last Republican to gain favor across Partisan lines..When he first ran he gained a huge Democratic swing in his favor..No other Republican since Ike has been able to do that. Sarah only dreams of such. Republicans in this day and age are only popular among the very far right and a few Independents that hold their nose when they vote..Democrats are such whimps though that not many will vote for them until they stand up for at least a few Democratic ideals..

[Rogue Boner]

7. Reagan's legacy

It is important for the republicans to create an image of 'The
Great man", and to reinvent him. He is like their saint
and their standard. It is imperative for any candidate to draw
a link from themselves to him, and and create the mythology of
a great leader, and conservative crusader.

 Conservative reformer is an oxymoronic term, so he is a
semantic vehicle they have created to fabricate the concept.

To find another conservative reformer you have to go back to
Cotton Mather or Pope Gregory IX. His success and achievements
are a complete fabrication, other than winning elections. That
is really the only thing that is of any importance to
conservatives anyway.

Every division of the Administration from the department of
defense to the Secretary of education brought their post to
near ruin, they gave away the resources of the united States
to corporations, or mismanaged their departments to neglect
and institutional ineptitude, by putting people who don't
believe in government into positions of authority in the
government.

That everything he did was right is an article of faith it is
a structure of unsupportable facts. Runny bullshit holds
together as mortar, so they have to use a lot of it. 

[DemocratAholic]

8. things i remember about Reagan presidency

1. Reagan invigorated anti-gay sentiment in the country and put an end to any progress we had made on the issue with his statements about homosexuality - claiming it was not natural, unacceptable, and things such as that

2. Reagan solidified the Republican party as the party of racists, turning the south into what would forevermore be known as the solid Republican south.

3. While many in the Republican party were taking a pro-business, but moderate stance on social issues, Reagan turned the party to the right. He took an "anti-intellectual" stance, criticizing academics, speaking against evolution and for biblical fundamentalism

Reagan is basically the "founder" of the Republican party as we now know it. Totally hypocritical, he was campaigning against deficits, but racked up the largest deficits in the history of the USA after he became president.

[justiceischeap]

9. He introduced Theofascism to politics.

Prior to him things were fairly "religion" free in politics (well, unlike it is now). He blurred the lines between church and state that has further been eroded in the passing years since his Presidency ended.

[Sal Minella]

10. How well I remember, when the Supreme Court decision came down

against forced prayer in taxpayer-supported schools, Reagan whined, "Why have they kicked God out of our schools?"

I wondered then (and wonder now) why anybody would trouble himself to believe in a "God" so wimpy that a decision by a few people sitting around in black robes could "kick Him out" of buildings all over the country.