[Salon] Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness

I have two uncles, one on each side.

On my mother's side, my uncle is a Quaker. Insufferably accepting and nice.

On my father's side, my uncle is a CEO, looks like the villain in an 80's movie with a suitcase mobile phone.

 

don't think the author of that article know meaning of legacy nor shameful.

Reagan will forever be known as the POTUS that landed
the punch that KO the former Soviet Union.

in my books, as POTUS, his second most noteworthy achievement was the Executive Order he issued granting amnesty,
A Reagan Legacy: Amnesty For Undocumented Residents


in Calif, it's common knowledge that

• Reagan's father was the town drunk / homeless; from there he earned a football scholarship and graduated from college.
• growing up, FDR was Reagan's hero
• Reagan was a life-long Dem who went on to become President of the labor union for actors.
  • after his experience w the labor union, in his late 40s, he changed political party to become a GOP

​

 

1963: President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act, essentially ending the era of insane asylums / mental institutions.

 

Reagan was one of the most damaging presidents of all time
His election marked the down turn of American society

Rocket River

 

He's the guy who took credit. But the USSR did that to themselves.

 

USSR was trapped by Reagan's SDI, leading to huge defense expenditures by both sides.

while the US can borrow its way to pay for the defense initiatives,
USSR could not keep up, leading to its eventual collapse
​

i don't see why you don't want to give Reagan credit

 

Above is Google's AI "opinion".

 

Reagan also Referred to USSR as the "Evil Empire": A Defining Moment in Cold War Rhetoric

 

When my sister in law went through idiopathic psychosis and schizophrenia, we found no help from the state or gov. Got fired, evicted from her apartment, couldn’t find housing assistance or food stamps in a timely manner, she was a danger to herself and others and refused to cooperate with what family she had left willing to help.

She eventually got arrested and was sitting in jail for weeks, we posted bail with her agreement that she’d sign off on rehabilitation, got her into a Houston program that took her for one week for about 2k, luckily that got her on a medication program that she followed for a year, and now she’s made almost a full recovery.

There was a very real chance of her becoming homeless and her life spiraling into the trash can. This was a woman with a masters degree in her mid 20s who had no prior issues in life.

It’s scary how easy it is to fall off, and how little help there can be. I remember my wife making endless phone calls day after day for weeks to eventually months and there was nothing she could do.

 

Soviet communism was already in a significant malaise for many many years, so the Politburo tapped this high-energy reformer guy, Gorbachev, as the new leader and he had plans to retool how communism worked. International pressures did not make his job easier, but he was going to try to fix communism regardless. In my view, he was trying to fix a plane while it was airborne, which put the government in a precarious and ultimately untenable position. But, anyway, this thread is about how Reagan screwed over Americans.

 

Reagan is also the reason we have/need student loans for college. In the early 1960's many public colleges and universities were tuition-free or near tuition-free. But after all of the student led demonstrations/marches/protests, republicans were afraid they were loosing the youth to liberalism. So they began the war on education.

"We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education." - Roger Freeman, Nixon & Reagan advisor.

So when Reagan became governor of California, he began slashing higher education budgets. He slashed them so much that colleges like Berkley were forced to begin charging tuition for the first time. Other republican governors began following suit and colleges began to be unattainable for the working class and poor. This led to the beginning of student loans.

 

as if the rising cost of higher education had nothing to do with it.

most of Calif residents knew that free tution for UC wasn't going last forever, didn't matter who the Gov was.

btw, the UC budget started to be cut in the mid-1960s, when Jerry Brown's dad was the Gov.

Reagan became Gov in 1967

Had Brown won re-election against Reagan, he'd have started to charge UC tuition as well.

 

If it's in large font bold it must be true

eta:

 

Off-topic, but I think I remember a time when I considered you to be one of the conservative posters of the forum. Which at the time wasn't a bad thing. Then when the alt right posters starting posting here, you started to look liberal by comparison. And now criticizing Reagan? Maybe I had the wrong impression, but it seems like you're coming to the light.