If you think Reagan was a good President, why? If you think he was bad why?

Question

No one seems to be middle ground with Reagan, they love him or hate him, so which are you and why?

Answer 1

i used to think reagan was the worst president ever. before bush.

hmm. what was so bad about reagan? overthrowing democractically elected governments in south & central america because they were too liberal for his buddies' tastes and doing so via illegal wars financed through the secret, illegal selling of weapons to their (U.S.'s) enemies. (namely Iran. btw, saddam hussein was the U.S.'s good buddy at this time, they were also selling him weapons, and he was at war with who? that's right IRAN.) another way they financed those wars was that the cia imported cocaine and dumped it in black ghettoes, which lends a whole new meaning to reagan's ' war on drugs.' that's for starters.

and believe it or not, bush's gang is worse.

oh yeah. aroooooooooooooooooooooooo

Answer 2

Those people who think Reagan had anything to do with the collapse of the Sovyet Union are plain deluded or victims of propaganda. The man who caused that was Michail Gorbatshow, and even he did not plan it. It happened because theUSSR was desperately trying to hold together an overextended empire, financed by borrowed money, and that should be a lesson for today's US.
Reagan's economic policies made the poor poorer and the rich richer.
He probably WAS a figurehead for corporate interest, just like all his republican successors.
The only thing Reagan did well was wearing a suit and looking statesman-like. The present incumbent can't even do the latter.

Answer 3

My family was not rich but we should have been comfortable. Until Reagan my father paid 45% of his income to taxes. If you are able to work you should. When you go to school learn. Those were some of the things Reagan believed. If that hurt a bunch of welfare families, so what? I was tired of watching welfare families go through the grocery store checkout with steaks while our family earning $100,000 per year could only afford hamburger and chicken. I still love Ronald Reagan today the impact he made on my life is immense. I wish he could give this country a pep talk now!

Answer 4

His 1979 physical (Now Public) mentions early onset Alzheimer's.

This neither makes him good or bad. It makes him vulnerable.

Sometimes I wonder how much Joan Quigley's influence effected the Whitehouse decisions.

Between Joan and the CIA the 80's were interesting.

I liked Raygun. I liked him as the two fisted Irish Labor Boss that ran the Screen Actors Guild. I have often heard the Labor Boss character on the docks in "Water Front" was written with Raygun in mind.

Go big Red Go

Answer 5

I think he did a alright job in office, he ended the cold war, he created a stable work economy, he helped rebuild or reorganize the stock exstange and he was the reason the wall feel in Germany. On the other hand he spent way to much money on ships and subs, aircraft and military bases. he did run up the national debt and he was not a great speaker but he had charisma. so over all in the long run I would have to say i liked the guy he did alright not great not bad, just alright.

Answer 6

during that period in our history we as Americans had lost a lot of our patriotic self esteem. as a nation we had lost direction.
we were still trying to recover from Vietnam, Watergate and on top of that we were now dealing with the hostage situation in Iran.
Reagan was sworn in to office and right away was able to announce that the hostages had just cleared Iranian air space and were on their way home. he had a knack for making feel good moments like that happen [ actually it was Carter that got the Hostages released] Reagan through his use of military power made the world realize that they would be dealing with a country that was willing to push back when pushed. and that did wonders in restoring the national pride that had been lost after all the years we spent at getting pushed and no one having the guts to say push back.
as for his policy making both foreign and domestic he was adequate

Answer 7

I think he did a better job, than I would have expected. He was a good speaker and an excellent politician.

Several politicians that I use to consider Satan's spawn turned out in retrospect and after they were out of office, to just be people after all.

Answer 8

Reagan was a figurehead. He was an actor and he was the face of a big business, big military cabal that ran the country for those eight years. He was the oldest president ever, without even one strand of grey hair, and suspiciously rosey cheeks. He had advancing alzheimer's but managed to hide it effectively. His crowd were involved in lots of illegal military adventures around the world where the only objective was to make money for the corporations funding the Republican Party.

Answer 9

This revisionist history by some really bugs me.I am refering to Regan being against the poor. While no fan of the welfare state he was the working poor mans best friend since LBJ. The Graham-Rudman tax simplification act spearheaded by the Regan Admin. did more for the working poor than any president since. The wealthy actually paid a higher percentage of the tax revenues under this plan and total revenue increased into the treasury after passage. The bottom 3rd of wage earners (working poor) were taken off the tax rolls all together and paid no taxes. Other features of the plan that helped the working poor and middle classes:
-Earned Income Credit
-Child care Credit
-Traditional IRA's
Many here lauded his efforts in the collapse of the soviet block but complain about the military spending and deficit. Folks The military spending was a necessity given the neglect it had received in the post Vietnam era. and what many don't realiz that a huge chunk of that defense spending was raising the military pay to a livable wage. What many fail to grasp is that the military spending and revival of the economy in the US was what led to Gorbachev realizing they could not compete on that scale, this was stated by Gorbachev himself in his book. This was what lead to the fall of the soviet block. Believe me I served in the Military at the time.

Regan appointed Paul Voelker as Federal reserve Chairman of the Federal reserve who instituted a hawkish inflation policy later followed by Greenspan that has served us so well in growing the economy over the long term since his administration. To remind you folks prior to Regan we had 13% inflation with no real growth in wages leading to stagflation in which the real buying power of the American public was dropping dramatically. At the time interest rates were through the roof including the interest paid on the national debt. Common rates at the time
-Auto loan 18-23% for 60 months
-Home Mortgage 13%
- Credit card 21-26%
Regan's policies of controlling Inflation reduced the the largest controllable factor in our national debt. the interest paid on it. The historic low interest rates since then are what made it possible for Clinton and The Republican Congress to balance the budget yrs later. No folks he did not hate the poor he loved them and believed in them. Regan hated the welfare state which locked them in urban Ghettos with no jobs or hope for the future


Regan's biggest failures
-Iran Contra Scandal
-Early withdrawal of troops from Beruit leading to the paper tiger view. by many Muslim extremist.

Regan's Greatest achievement
Yes he restored the Military and the Economy. Hower his greatest achievement was the restoration of Americas hope and belief in itself. Regan believed in the American people genuinely and the can do spirit in return America believed in him and itself and that is his lasting legacy. For that I will always hold him in the highest esteem but not just I. America re-elected him to one of the biggest landslides in history that should tell you something. Think on it folks Greater than such landmark presidents as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin and teddy Roosevelt..

BTW Swim 38- Regan won every state except Minn. Mondale's home state and Washington DC that is 49 states

Answer 10

I simply dislike him for the fact he kept the english system here in america instead of changing to metric. The metric system is so much simplier to learn, and it is much more of a hassle to have to covert between the two, being an engineer. Oh yeah, he also stopped the building of a particle accelerator here in America... another mistake I believe