Why was Ronald Reagan considered a great Pres?

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,356
16,900
136
Um, you realized you linked to a wikipedia article that has a bunch of different polls listed, and you didn't specify which one you're talking about?
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
He was popular for his first 5-6 years in office, and has been given much of the credit (right or wrong) for the fall of the USSR.
In retrospect though, most of his policies turned out to bad ideas. Trickle down may have inflated the stock market, but it harmed the middle class while ballooning the debt. Given huge sums of govt money during de facto peacetime, the military-industrial complex effectively took control of the govt and remains in power to this day. And his war on drugs became the biggest social policy failure in US history, leading to an explosion in the crime rate through the next decade.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126
Um, you realized you linked to a wikipedia article that has a bunch of different polls listed, and you didn't specify which one you're talking about?
ah.. edited op to say latest poll (Scholar survey results)
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,356
16,900
136
He was popular for his first 5-6 years in office, and has been given much of the credit (right or wrong) for the fall of the USSR.
In retrospect though, most of his policies turned out to bad ideas. Trickle down may have inflated the stock market, but it harmed the middle class while ballooning the debt. Given huge sums of govt money during de facto peacetime, the military-industrial complex effectively took control of the govt and remains in power to this day. And his war on drugs became the biggest social policy failure in US history, leading to an explosion in the crime rate through the next decade.
Don't forget his administration's impact on the burgeoning HIV epidemic!
 

pauldun170

Diamond Member
Sep 26, 2011
9,272
5,328
136

He's ranked top 25%.

His trickle down policy has decimated the middle class.
Why is he considered a great Pres?

He was considered a great president by "who"?
The people who try and pull the Reagan card are starting to die off.

Performance art, evangelicals and after his presidency, Republican leadership needed an Idol to counter an evolving America.
Americans like myths and Reagan's camp is filled with lots of religious people. Toss in the changes in GOP during the 90's in regards to marketing and propaganda and you had an entire industry dedicated to craeting the "Hero" in the face of Clinton, Blacks, Homosexuals and women who don't know their place.
 

woolfe9998

Lifer
Apr 8, 2013
16,236
14,236
136
You are asking the wrong choir.

Not sure what choir is applicable here anymore. Conservatives used to worship him, but now they elected Trump and for those who remember, Reagan made a deal to legalize all the undocumenteds in exchange for more guards at the border. This is not something even remotely palatable to conservatives today.
 

hal2kilo

Lifer
Feb 24, 2009
25,469
11,849
136
Not sure what choir is applicable here anymore. Conservatives used to worship him, but now they elected Trump and for those who remember, Reagan made a deal to legalize all the undocumenteds in exchange for more guards at the border. This is not something even remotely palatable to conservatives today.
Yea, I thought about that after my response. He'd be thrown on the Bush family bonfire with the rest of the "swamp" creatures like Barr (I'm laughing histerically at this moment).
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,291
9,787
136

In latest poll (Scholar survey results), he's ranked top 25%.

His trickle down policy has decimated the middle class.
Why is he considered a great Pres?

edit:
talking about latest poll (Scholar survey results)

Basically, he gets credit for “winning” the Cold War more than Gorbachev gets credit for conceding. Also, our media wasn’t as divisive and generally presented a pro-Reagan front during the Cold War. Reagan definitely took advantage of his “Great Communicator” moniker. Things only changed after Iran Contra, but he still emerged from that fiasco without a scratch.

Hindsight is 20/20 though, and Reagan’s legacy now includes enabling Saddam, the disastrous war on drugs, destabilizing central and South America, a war on poverty that was really a war on poor people, setting up the 90s recession and doubling the wealth gap. But hey, Russia’s no longer a threat*, so all’s well that ends well!
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
25,887
24,223
136
The mythos of Ronald Regan is a lot of fairy tale and right-wing marketing, plus the whole need of American males to feel machismo, so they give one guy the credit for everything before him that actually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
 

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,187
4,871
136
The gipper was great......Iran contra, illegal amnesty without closing the border, trickle down economics which was reverse psychology for bleeding the working people and so much more!
 
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Nov 8, 2012
20,842
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In latest poll (Scholar survey results), he's ranked top 25%.

His trickle down policy has decimated the middle class.
Why is he considered a great Pres?

edit:
talking about latest poll (Scholar survey results)
Lol the middle class has crumbled more in the last 6 months from our Covid response alone.

Feed the plebian poor to be dependent upon the government, and always feed the rich that pay your bills. It's the American political party way.

But don't worry, they CARE about you. They tell you that. They don't actually do so, but it's the thought that counts, right?
 

ivwshane

Lifer
May 15, 2000
33,244
16,559
136
Yeah I consider Reagan one of the worst presidents policy wise with negative marks for his corruption. His policies still negatively affect us today. I’d put bush sr above Reagan. I think bush jr still beats Reagan as a worse president only because of his disastrous Middle East policy and the amount of people who died fighting his stupid war. Of course trump gets top honors as the worst but besides the 500k dead under his watch, his policies won’t have anywhere near the negative impact as Reagan, however his rhetoric and destruction of norms, institutions, and his unwillingness to peacefully transfer power are what will make him the worst.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,842
4,785
146
Yeah I consider Reagan one of the worst presidents policy wise with negative marks for his corruption. His policies still negatively affect us today. I’d put bush sr above Reagan. I think bush jr still beats Reagan as a worse president only because of his disastrous Middle East policy and the amount of people who died fighting his stupid war. Of course trump gets top honors as the worst but besides the 500k dead under his watch, his policies won’t have anywhere near the negative impact as Reagan, however his rhetoric and destruction of norms, institutions, and his unwillingness to peacefully transfer power are what will make him the worst.

You mean the middle-east policy of military industrial complex that was carried out and exponentially exploded it over the next 8 years? You mean that one, sugar tits?
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,684
136
Lol the middle class has crumbled more in the last 6 months from our Covid response alone.

Feed the plebian poor to be dependent upon the government, and always feed the rich that pay your bills. It's the American political party way.

But don't worry, they CARE about you. They tell you that. They don't actually do so, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Yeh, not feeding the plebian poor obviously would have been more compassionate, at least somewhere in bootstrappy Libertopia.