Why is Ronald Reagan such a hero to the right?

[Fear No Evil]

Why when Obama wants to give illegals amnesty and Obama triples the debt is he the great president to ever live?

 

[heyheybooboo]

While government spending increased a large amount during Reagan's admin, it did not change much by percentage of GDP since the economy grew due to the tax cuts and other reforms.

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[spidey07]

I always find it interesting, why is "the left" always more fixated on Reagan than is "the right"?

Because of his astounding economic success by touting and encouraging our, in his words, "free market capitalist economy". It flies in direct conflict to their core beliefs and disdain for capitalism and the can do spirit of America.

They despise him because of his success. It's been posted above that he instilled in people the belief that America is great and we all need to work hard to keep it that way (what any real leader could and should do), in essence reject progressive thinking, ideology and any elected official of this ilk because they only lead to tyranny.

 

[khon]

I'm sure people will come up with plenty of false reasons, but the real one is this: They loved his speeches.

It was never about what Reagan did, plenty of which the right disagrees with, it's about what he said, and how his speeches made them feel.

And you can add in a fair bit of nostalgia.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Why when Obama wants to give illegals amnesty and Obama triples the debt is he the great president to ever live?

I don't think that but the same could be said of the right wingers that worship Reagan yet scream about amnesty now.

 

[brencat]

Because he was able to articulate better than any republican at the time (or since then frankly) the conservative philosophy and what it meant in real terms.

His very election got the hostages freed from Iran..." why are 440+ Americans still being held hostage over a year later?"

20 million jobs were created during his 2 terms.

His speeches were positive and inspired the greatness of America and highlighted American exceptionalism...something Obama continuously downplays to the world and our enemies.

The soviet union was defeated without starting WW3 -- an incredible achievement, despite the bitching and cries from the Left at the time that his policies were antagonistic and would never work. The Left was proven wrong, as they often are.

One very bad thing -- all these successes came at the cost of massive deficits as that was the thing he had to bend on in order to work with the Dem Congress.

 

[preCRT]

Why is Ronald Reagan such a hero to the right?

Because people are stupid.
He gave arms for hostages.
He brought back fancy uniforms to the White House military band.
He banned jeans from the White House.
He & Nancy instituted a pretty people only White House hiring policy [Nancy was unhappy but stuck with James Brady, especially after he was shot].
He bought new purty White House china.
He made ketchup a vegetable, slighting relish in the process.
He gave good written by others speeches.
He blew up the Challenger.
He had nicely dyed hair.
He pretended to chop wood on his ranch.
Bedtime for Bonzo
He wasn't Jimmy Carter.
He left trillions in national debt.
He stopped the Soviets from killing the Taliban in Afghanistan so we could get stuck in the mire instead.

 

[classy]

- Osama bin Laden

- Saddam Hussein

Both were his buddies.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Because he was able to articulate better than any republican at the time (or since then frankly) the conservative philosophy and what it meant in real terms.

His very election got the hostages freed from Iran..." why are 440+ Americans still being held hostage over a year later?"

20 million jobs were created during his 2 terms.

His speeches were positive and inspired the greatness of America and highlighted American exceptionalism...something Obama continuously downplays to the world and our enemies.

The soviet union was defeated without starting WW3 -- an incredible achievement, despite the bitching and cries from the Left at the time that his policies were antagonistic and would never work. The Left was proven wrong, as they often are.

One very bad thing -- all these successes came at the cost of massive deficits as that was the thing he had to bend on in order to work with the Dem Congress.

Only 1 bad thing? So you don't consider letting terrorists blow up a few hundred Marines with no retaliation a bad thing?

 

[Jaskalas]

I always find it interesting, why is "the left" always more fixated on Reagan than is "the right"?

I seem to remember a Republican debate held in the Reagan Library during the primaries in 08.

 

[classy]

I always find it interesting, why is "the left" always more fixated on Reagan than is "the right"?

I know you just did not make that statement. Reagan Bluedog dems, Reagan conservatives, etc. Every chance the right gets they invoke Ronald Reagan. Its kinda of amazing because the right always portrays themselves as christians. But yet they hold and asteem Reagan as the messiah.

 

[sandorski]

He certainly had his faults, but he did some great things. The greatest thing he did was restore a sense of confidence and belief in America and it's people. .

Pretty much just this. Your other points about Carter are pretty far off IMO, as those issues began during the Oil Embargo and lasted throughout the 70's.

For Republicans specifically, he restored the Republican Party after the Nixon shenanigans.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I know you just did not make that statement. Reagan Bluedog dems, Reagan conservatives, etc. Every chance the right gets they invoke Ronald Reagan. Its kinda of amazing because the right always portrays themselves as christians. But yet they hold and asteem Reagan as the messiah.

Judging by the poll on the subject of religion in this forum it seems your statement about the right always portray themselves as christians is just a lie. I see the left invoking Reagan a lot as well. Hell, Obama himself did it.

I guess its really no different than the left who try to portray themselves as not being racists and bigots but continually look the other way when their own heros are some of the most bigoted and racist people around.

 

[Vette73]

I always find it interesting, why is "the left" always more fixated on Reagan than is "the right"?

Yea like Palin and any other republican never uses Reagan in speechs, and republicans did not rename National Airport after Reagan, or republicans tried to get Reagan on the $50, etc...

Yep just the left talking about him, nobody else.

 

[Vette73]

The Soyuz was already well on the way to collapse before Saint Ronald took office. How great an economic power was it when the finest hotels catering to the international trade couldn't even manage a reliable supply of toilet paper?

This.

A lot of the military stuff the Soviets were showing off during Reagans time were either not working or just hollow setups that looked nice.

 

[woolfe9999]

He certainly had his faults, but he did some great things. The greatest thing he did was restore a sense of confidence and belief in America and it's people. After Carter turned it into a crappy country full of doubt in itself, Reagan came back and brought back the American spirit.

He also was largely responsible for ending the cold war without any violence or bloodshed, and he crushed the air traffic controller union.

That's why many overlook some of the bad stuff, like amnesty, big government spending, weapon sales to Iran etc.

The trouble is that what is bolded from your "good" list is inexcricably linked to what is bolded from your "bad" list. Reagan "ended the cold war" through unprecedented levels of defense spending, which in turn the Soviets were unable to keep up with, and they went bankrupt trying. Consequently, we had a massively expanding deficit, and it set a precedent for future excessive defense spending which continues to this day. The question is, was the USSR on a trajectory to collapse anyway, with the Reagan/Bush defense spending only having affected the timing of it by 3-10 years? The truth is, there is no way to really analyze the net impact of these policies without delving into historically counter-factual scenarios, which are always very tricky.

- wolf

 

[Infohawk]

Simple answer: the hyper-partisan core of the right wing love him because he is one of them. There is no reason. It's just blind faith like with most of their issues.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Mainly because of ending the cold war

Except he didn't...it just occurred during his watch. The help he did give in ending it resulted in devastating long term harms to us as well. The only shining achievement involving wars with Reagan was nuclear. He did a LOT to quell the nuke threat. No question about that.

and cleaning up Carter's mess.

Which wasn't much of a mess really, and should be overshadowed by the far worse things he did, which are already discussed above.

People's lives greatly improved during the Reagan years like no other time before.

Outright lie. Crime was skyrocketing, incomes were flat, poverty increased, access to social programs declined, etc. The only improvements were from long term systemic shifts that just happened to come to fruition under him, and tech improvements that finally matured.

That and his staunch defense of the freedoms America stands for.

*PUKE* New guy, same government growing and infringing bs.


I've said it before and I'll say it again: Reagan was the second worst president in US history.

 

[Red Dawn]

He was the last Republican President that wasn't part of the ruling class who despised him. Hell he had to make one of them his VP just to get their support.

One real bad thing that happened under his watch and was primarily due to his policy in Central America was the Crack epidemc that hit the inner cities

 

[Pens1566]

Like I said, lots of revisionist history.

 

[brencat]

Only 1 bad thing? So you don't consider letting terrorists blow up a few hundred Marines with no retaliation a bad thing?

What were the strategic alternatives? Retaliate to make a point...and get what else in return? As I remember, we were already considering withdrawal long before the attack. While tragic, that event just sealed the deal.

In any event, Reagan's greatest gift was his ability to inspire...through speeches and clear articulation that we all possess what it takes to achieve greatness and success, and that govt is the problem not the solution. Even Democrats respected his ability to communicate effectively with the public, despite some bitter disagreements on policy. Admittedly however, it was also a different time -- I would argue a more civilized tone prevailed in Washington rather than the winner-take-all entitlement mentality that has crept into both parties since the 80s.

 

[PrinceofWands]

In any event, Reagan's greatest gift was his ability to inspire...through speeches and clear articulation that we all possess what it takes to achieve greatness and success, and that govt is the problem not the solution. Even Democrats respected his ability to communicate effectively with the public, despite some bitter disagreements on policy. Admittedly however, it was also a different time -- I would argue a more civilized tone prevailed in Washington rather than the winner-take-all entitlement mentality that has crept into both parties since the 80s.

This also.

 

[brencat]

One real bad thing that happened under his watch and was primarily due to his policy in Central America was the Crack epidemc that hit the inner cities

So you're blaming the crack outbreak on the war on drugs, rather than a lack of effective law enforcement and weak sentencing guidelines for drug dealers?

 

[PrinceofWands]

So you're blaming the crack outbreak on the war on drugs, rather than a lack of effective law enforcement and weak sentencing guidelines for drug dealers?

You can't treat problems top down. Everything in life happens bottom up. You can pour 100% of the national resources into enforcement, it won't stop the problem (though yeah, it would cut it down for a while). You stop the problem by treating the causes. In this case, the war on drugs was a major contributor to the drug problem not getting any better.

 

[Red Dawn]

So you're blaming the crack outbreak on the war on drugs, rather than a lack of effective law enforcement and weak sentencing guidelines for drug dealers?

Actually I'm blaming it on his policy of letting Contras or those who supported the Contras in our government fund their war against the Salvdorians and the Leftist Ortega/Sandinistas with proceeds by flooding the States with cheap cocaine