Why is President Reagan still so popular?

Question

President Reagan turned the greatest creditor nation into the biggest debtor and gave away every penny of that to a handful of wealthy and he is still one of the most popular in the country. How do you explain this? Do you think the people in this country like a government giving freebees to the wealthy and hammering the needy on the head until they get going and make it on their own to the top or breakdown, in a survival of the fittest rage?

Answer 1

Well mainly because hindsight being 20/20 shows us the difference between GOP and neocons. I am a liberal and I never thought of how I felt about Reagan before (I was a pre-teen when he was in office) but looking at whats going on today, I miss him and George Sr too. I want the GOP and good politics where the sides tried to at least listen to each other instead of trying to be the best at the insults and trumping each other like 3 year olds and get back to the business of running this country. That goes for cons and libs. Its getting old and nothing's being accomplished because everyone is too busy taking sides and trying to be more right than the guy next to him. And we pay them to do this.

Answer 2

I think you are repeating what you may have been taught in school or someone that dislikes Reagan. If you are looking at debt, his did not compare to most after him. There was no rage that you speak of. He brought hope, and American pride and spirit that had faded during the late 70's and early 80's. Yes he was not perfect however, he could communicate well, took accountability for his administration (yes even iran/contra). He built a military second to none, the economy recovered and more middle class seemed to be better off with increased wages and wealth. Yes, the rich got richer however, many in the middle did as well....unlike today. He created ties with the old soviet union and signed a nuclear treaty deal and eventually would have helped bring down the soviet union. Most people just felt more proud to be an American during that time and felt good about how the world was changing (reduction of arms, better ties with the USSR, end of communism and berlin wall, better overall middle class, patriotic feelings and allowed people to do more with less government.

Answer 3

Well all those "freebies" were very likely money that was unjustly taken from those wealthy by incredibly high taxation; Reagan just returned a lot of the money to them. Reagan didn't make the national debt go so high -- he helped to cut the amount of money that the government spent, but it still needed a massive amount of money to continue all of the unnecessary programs that had come into existence over time (Social Security, Medicare, subsidies, etc.). With lower tax rates (don't you want to keep more of what you earn?), the government had no way to support these programs, so it began borrowing money from itself. THAT is why the national debt went so high during Reagan's administration, not because of the President himself.

One arm of the government alone cannot so drastically affect the economy, unless it has gathered far more power to itself than it should. You can't blame the entire economy, which actually seemed quite healthy during the 1980s, on the actions of one person, even if he is the President.

Answer 4

Because in the past 42 years (since Nov. 64) he was the only half way decent president we have had!

Answer 5

Well there was that Cold War, Berlin Wall, Fall of Communism thing.

Answer 6

People still like his movies with him and George W Bush

Answer 7

Huh?

Do you even remember the malaise of Carter?

Answer 8

He didn't start the fire, it's been always burning since the world's been turning. ~Billy Joel

Answer 9

I Roosevelt better.

Answer 10

he's not your lying to yourself 2 points