frankie's Journal: I come not to bury him, but ...

As a Republican who voted against Clinton & Gore, I say Rappin' Ron Reagan did a decent job as President. He got America out of the malaise. He beat the drums for smaller government and welfare reform, even if his actual efforts were misguided. He correctly gauged the Kremlin old guard's stupidity, and their willingness to follow us in an economic arms race.

Of course, Reagan's direct legacy also includes a few flaws. He added more to the national debt than all of his predecessors put together. He claimed that "trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." Iran-Contra was not exactly a shining star. And he started Star Wars missile defense, which has remained a boondoggle to this day.

... BUT ... Reagan's worst legacies by far are the indirect ones:

Among the numerous abusive "freedom fighters" that he trained and armed were islamist rebels in Afghanistan, including Osama Bin Laden and the future leaders of the Taliban. The world would probably have been better off if Reagan let the Soviet empire crumble slowly under its own weight, rather than creating new devils to stop the old one.

Last, he also created Osama's evil twin. By appointing Bush Sr as Vice President, and by setting the role model of "Buddy President" whose policies and intellect are secondary to friendliness and telegenics, Reagan was clearly Bush Jr's fairy godfather.

Our brave new world order of "Good Vs Evil(tm)" is Reagan's bastard child. Let's hope we can bury it alongside him.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Addendum, 10 June: The miseducation of G W Bush

Q: Which President pushed the following policy themes?

1. CUT TAXES. If the economy is slowing, we need a tax cut to stop the slide. If the economy is bad, we need a tax cut to stimulate it. If the economy is growing, we need a tax cut to keep it going. If the economy is great, we need a tax cut because gosh darn it we deserve one.
   And even though it's a complete lie to claim that deficits due to the cuts will be offset by revenue gains due to rising profits, just keep saying it.
2. DEFEAT INTERNATIONAL ******ISM. The ******ists are the Evil(tm) behind almost everything that's wrong with the world. Therefore we must support oppressive oligarchies (such as S**** A*****) and rebels (such as those in Afghanistan) no matter how atrocious their human rights, no matter how negligible their assistance, because they are our Good(tm) allies in the fight against ******ism. Also, they're valuable trading partners for our business buddies.
   Critics whine that these "dictators" and "terrorists" are dangerous men who could become our enemies in years to come. Well, that won't happen.
3. DEREGULATE EVERYTHING. Well, every business, actually. Regulations in the bedroom are an urgent matter of Christian decency.

Which President am I talking about? Answer:

• If ****** = "commun" and S**** A***** = "South Africa", it's Reagan
• If ****** = "terror" and S**** A***** = "Saudi Arabia", it's GWBush

Also, they both enjoyed violating civil rights, both at home (HUAC, PATRIOT Act) and abroad (School of the Americas, TortureGate).

Unfortunately, Dubya is not a good student. He gets a few of the broad concepts, but screws up a lot of the important details. Reagan really WAS "a uniter, not a divider" (except for his riff about "welfare queens"), whereas Bush has outraged more people than Clinton or even Nixon, and his campaign attack dogs are the most vicious in over a century.

The parallels are clear and the ancestry is obvious. Without Reagan being President (and appointing a certain VP), Bush Jr probably wouldn't have quit drinking, much less entered politics.

In conclusion, I must enter a split verdict. Although the Reagan era was good enough (and possibly quite necessary after the depressing events of the 70s), the after-effects of the 80s have led to new catastrophes.

Like clockwork

[Mike Hawk]

You're the second democrat today that has to tried to tie Reagan to W. They have nothing to do with each other. Reagan never endorsed W on the campaign trail. He couldn't have due to his illness. Do you guys get emails on this stuff for morning trash talking points? No wonder you all sound like parrots.

The only thing the 2 have to do with each other is that Reagan was such a successful President he left us with no obvious enemies. This created a complacent populace who twice elected Jimmy Carter 2.

Re:Like clockwork

[frankie]

Thanks for sharing, Mr Coward.

Just for the record, I'm not a Liberal (either according to my own views or according to the various online [selectsmart.com] political [politicalcompass.org] quiz gizmos [theadvocates.org] that I've used). "Rabid Centrist" is pretty close, about halfway between Libertarian [harrybrowne.com] and Green [detroitproject.com].