I got some comments covering the past 50 years of Presidents from an e-pal that he picked up on a blog somewhere and wanted my opinion -- so: First, interesting -- a good starting point, but I thought the commentator played arm-chair psychiatrist too much -- I'm more interested in what each President did or did not do in office. This is Pt. II. My additional responses and additions... in [brackets]....
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REAGAN - Today almost beatified by Conservatives and other admirers, in office Ronald Reagan was extremely controversial, widely disliked, and inconsistent. He began in 1976 attempting to build a coalition to revitalize the Republic Party, which had been (incorrectly) declared at death's door as the Presidential returns were counted. Reagan made a number of alliances with very conservative faction leaders and fundamentalist Christian leaders - making promises on issues that he did not keep once in office.
During the Iranian hostage crisis, Reagan violated the spirit, if not also the letter, of the law by making secret arrangements to deliver arms and other benefits to Iran if the American hostages were kept until after the election - assuming, of course, that Reagan won that election. As he completed his oath of office in January, 1981, the airplanes carrying the released hostages touched down in northwest Africa, payoff for a despicable act that opened an Administration marked by corruption and criminal convictions and many more international adventures in defiance of Amecan laws and customs.
[Did Reagan cheat to win? Well, he was certainly trading arms for hostages in violation of official policy and funding 'the Contras' in violation of the law -- only unlike Richard Nixon, he was not exposed until it was too late, late in his second term when it was considered too politically damaging to have an impeachment.]
[You know me, damn politics -- let's follow the law. I would have loved to have seen the Gipper on trial -- maybe he would not be so revered today if peeps had of seen him put on his 'out-of-the-loop' defense.]
Reagan did not end the Cold War, as some claim (Gorbachev did that). His investments in military technology and reorganization were indeed vital, and unmatched by the Soviet Union, but they were also corrupt contracts in many cases.
[I have no problem with giving Reagan his due in defeating 'the bear in the woods' -- as long as it is recognized that 'the bear' was wounded and bleeding from its misadventure in Afghanistan. Reagan lucked into the right time to try "Peace through Strength" -- but it worked out. All's well. :)]
Reagan's massive deficits were, by one account published in the 1990's, a deliberate attempt to bankrupt the country so that Libertarian conservatives could succeed in closing down much of the government and eliminating every social program from Medicare to welfare and the Public Health Service.
[Just because something bad happens -- or almost happens, does not mean there is a conspiracy behind it. Libertarian conservatives are not that stupid. Before you shut down government and eliminate social programs, you'd better shut down the 2nd Amendment. "When in the course of human events..."]
Reagan's adoption of Milton Friedman's concept of "free market" policies led to deregulation which resulted in 30 years' worth of economic disaster, business collapses, and the current global economic crisis. In 1988, the greastest single-day drop in stock prices almost precipitated another Depression, and did eventually lead to the Reagan-Bush recession that lasted for more than two years.
[For me, the economy is personal -- how much I add to my own private retirement account. I have been adding a small steady amount for the past 20 years -- the only time I've had enough disposable cash to significantly increase my contribution was during the balanced budgets of the Clinton years. There is a lesson there. What I've learned about "trickle-down" is that the benefits do not trickle down but the bills sure do.]
[No, I do not think much of Reagan. Unfortunately, Republicans think they've hit on a winning formula -- "anti-minorities" for those non-minority voters and "free money" for those wealthy voters in the form of tax cuts, deregulation and deficits. When it all goes belly-up -- as it always does, google 'ronald reagan black monday,' guess who pays?]
BUSH I - This President was entirely disconnected from American society. He revealed he never went grocery shopping when he was astonished at a supermarket checkout laser reader. His social policies were driven entirely by a desire to continue in the Reagan path, his failure to support environmental protection, workplace protection and many other initiatives opposed by business nearly devastated the EPA, OSHA and other agencies, and his persistent inability to pursue economic policies to help end the recession led to the ruin of millions of American families and small businesses. The cities of Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, St. Louis and others especially affected by this recession took nearly a decade to recover.
[I do not put much stock in his failure to go grocery shopping, but, boy, his following of Reagan's social policies sure hurt. But he broke with Reagan by signing 'the largest tax increase in history' -- well, then. Oh, sure, it offended many Reaganites, but I give him credit for recognizing that "voodoo economics does not work -- and he gets credit for coining the phrase "voodoo economics."]
Bush's mixed signals to Saddam Hussein in the period leading up to the first Gulf War resulted in Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in the belief the U.S. would not actually do anything about it.
[I criticize Bush for launching a unConstitutional war -- then and now. But I always thought Bush was the better half of Reagan/Bush.]
