Reagan did NOTHING to address the real problems facing this country. He deregulated banking and was at the root of the S&L disaster. He did nothing to stop or stem the outflow of manufacturing jobs from America. In spite of Congress' restrictions, he illegally sold arms to Iran to fund an illegal intervention in Nicaragua. He did undermine the Soviet Union, but so what? They were never a real threat and their system was destined to fail anyway.
Reagan, the great communicator, cobbled together a new conservative movement in this country linking the Goldwater conservatives with the right-wing religious establishment, undermining race-relations and labeling Democrats as tax and spend liberals while he increased the deficit by a huge amount when every Democratic President LOWERED it. He skewed understanding so that the poor and uneducated were made into villains, and he closed the mental hospitals, putting crazy people out on the street and turning them into homeless people.
He was a likable affable fellow, but he made terrible decisions and did nothing to put the US on the right track again. Japan gave him 2 Million for a speech after he left office, a small price for all the US jobs that were destroyed while enabling Japan to increase it's manufacturing base. He was a disaster as a president and the fact that people still think he was a good one, shows just how little people understand about what a President can and should do, and what he should not do.
I agree that he set the stage for Bush 1 and the idiot Prince George Bush, who stole an election thanks to the republican cronies (appointed by Regan) on the Supreme Court who over-ruled the Fla. Supreme Court when they HAD NO LEGAL STANDING according to the US Constitution. The Republican revolution Regan started has led us to a financial abyss and the financial collapse of the US. Had Regan addressed the underlying problems in the US, we might have averted the disaster that is now inevitable. Had he closed the Federal Reserve and returned us to a gold standard, China would never have been able to grow so rapidly, undermining business after business in the US. Had he renovated trade laws so that countries could not do business with the US unless they allowed their currencies to trade freely, America would still have been on a growth path, instead of encouraging people to speculate in real estate and other financial instruments which has led directly to our downfall as a nation.
As for Obama, he has been dealt the worst hand of any President since the last depression. Our freedom and independence have been so undermined that honest people have a hard time making a living. The world is far more dangerous and the US is far weaker and unable to protect itself than at any time since the end of WW2. I support him because I sense that he truly understands the real problems we face. I'm afraid he will have to resort to massive public works projects to enable people to put food on the table, destroying what is left of true private enterprise and true capitalism. We are on a path to hyperinflation now as the banksters have sold us their useless toxic derivatives, which caused their bankruptsy in the first place. The last people who should have been bailed out, these incompetents and crooks have taken $350 billion dollars which could have gone to infrastructure and roads and health care into god knows where and refuse to tell Congress what they did with it.
Obama is our only hope, and I can only hope that he gets a break here and there as he tries to keep this society from disintegrating. No jobs and no opportunity will encourage lawlessness as people struggle to survive. How can you not steal when you are starving with no recourse? Sorry to be such a bummer, but really, this situation is so bad that I am ashamed of what we have done, or allowed to happen.
