I read biographies about Reagan, and it stated Reagan considered Franklin Delano Roosevelt one of the greatest Presidents ever, and Reagan was originally a Democrat and voted for Roosevelt every time he could. Apparently, Reagan eventually left the Democrat Party because he believed it was being hijacked by communists, so he joined the Republican Party.
2007-07-13 06:25:02 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
Some of that is historically correct as far as I know. Reagan came from an era where public officials were supposed to be benevolent. His Presidency was in an era when the media saw its job as reporting the bizarre and making wild accusations. If you read the newspapers printed in days past you will see how much better the quality of journalism was and how much information was contained in key articles. And you never have to find out about what kind of hair gel, or music, or girl friends or kids behavior, etc. that passes for journalism. Reagan was a union oriented person but did not like the idea that Hollywood had become anti American, and in fact very foreign based in its views during the 50's so he left that party and went to the party of Eisenhower. He was a pretty interesting person as it turns out. Good question.
2007-07-13 06:32:11 · answer #1 · answered by Tom W 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
He claimed to be indebted to Roosevelt, but his ideology turned 180 degrees away from the New Deal. In the 1930s and 40s he may have supported Roosevelt because he was a good leader, but I don't know that he ever really understood or agreed with the man's philosophy of government. By the time he became president and started working to reverse all the social reforms that were FDR's legacy, he clearly was not a Roosevelt Democrat at heart, whatever he wanted to claim. I'm not a fan of Reagan, but I will say this about him, he was able to work with people he didn't agree with politically and treat them with some respect, unlike, oh...I don't know...most of the modern GOP. I think Reagan truly admired Roosevelt the man, but I don't think they shared similar visions for America at all.
2007-07-13 06:41:49 · answer #2 · answered by Edward K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The problem with this question is that 'Democrat' means something different today from what it once meant. REAL Democrats, like FDR and JFK, believed that the success of our economy was judged by the standard of living of your average working person. Democrats today are more like Republicans were before Reagan, in fact Clinton and Obama are considerably to the right of presidents like Eisenhower and even Nixon. One problem I have in discussing politics today is that most people today don't remember any president before Reagan, so Reagan becomes the 'gold standard', and every president is compared to him. But Reagan moved not just the Republican Party way to the right, but the 'center' moved to the right also. Both parties moved to the right. Reagan said he admired the New Deal, but his entire political career was aimed at undoing it, canceling it, rolling it back. Reagan was the start of a movement that today is sometimes called 'program conservatism', which basically has tried to cancel the New Deal. For eight years, between the time he retired as gov. of CA and became president, Reagan traveled around the country making speeches. Actually it was the same speech over and over. I saw it myself several times. The speech had two main points: (1) that a 900 billion dollar debt was totally unacceptable, even if it was for defense, because no nation could truly be strong with that much debt, and (2) that Social Security was a ponzi scheme and it should be abolished or at least made voluntary. These two points were his entire political perspective! But when he ran for president, he claimed he'd never said that about Social Security, and of course as president he doubled the entire pre-existing debt in one term. The Republican Party has abdicated its title as The Party of Fiscal Responsibility. Now it's the Democrats who are the responsible party. So yes, in a way they've changed places. Reagan turned the GOP from the party of responsibility to the party of big business, concentration of wealth, and every kind of intolerance.
2016-05-17 04:05:06 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
FDR is easily one of the greatest Presidents in the 20th century, maybe even the best. It's not far fetched that Reagan would hold him in high regard. But the FDR democrats were not the same as the Humphrey and Carter democrats of the 70s. I'd bet if FDR had seen the Iran Hostage crisis, after beating Jimmy Carter with a stick and running him over with his wheelchair he would have got on the phone and would have got the hostages home even if the entire 1st Marine Expeditionary force needed to be used to cut a path to Tehran.
2007-07-13 06:42:07 · answer #4 · answered by Deep Thought 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Reagan did like Roosevelt. And you are right. Reagan left the party because the people running the party changed the direction it was going. He didn't think they were communists.
2007-07-13 06:31:05 · answer #5 · answered by namsaev 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Absolutely! He was also a trade unionist. His conversion to Trotskyite, neo-con principles was a short step for him.
His phony "anti-communist" position was the result of the McCarthy hearings. Nancy was subject to being called before the committee because of her alleged involvement with organizations that had been labeled as "subversive." Her father pressured Ronny to go along with the committee, ratting out his colleagues (regardless of whether they were "guilty" or not), to draw attention away from Nancy.
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2007-07-13 07:03:49 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
And what part of that was wrong. I also believe that FDR was one of the best. Just like President Reagan, I believe that the Democratic Party was hijacked by the secular progressive left and went horribly astray, especially when they voted that criminal from Arkansas into the White House, knowing full well that he was dirty.
2007-07-13 06:32:04 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
He often said so. He started as a Democrat in the 30's, and as that party continually moved to the left, he finally found himself with much more in common with Republicans. As he said of the Democrats, "they've gone so far left, they've left America."
2007-07-13 06:29:48 · answer #8 · answered by B.Kevorkian 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
He was a Roosevelt democrat at the time, but by the 60's he was disillusioned by them and switched parties.
2007-07-13 06:35:40 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Reagan had Alzheimers by the time he got to the White House, so I don't think you could really link him to any sort of political ideology.
2007-07-13 07:11:06 · answer #10 · answered by Matt M 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋