Reagan's economic policies have been proven out as a complete disaster, so yeah...beginning of the downfall
O lawd I just saw these. W as 19th is ****ing out of this world obscene. Invalidates the whole damn thing. Knowingly lied us into wars, millions of deaths in the Middle East, also flushing $7 trillion in the name of those wars, the financial crisis, and of course 30,000 or whatever American military members wounded or dead.
That's gotta hurt. The Rs know that Dementia Don sucked at being POTUS, but still want to return him to office. Go figure.
W will not be well thought of by more and more historians as time goes by ... for the reasons you gave. I suspect that Obama will suffer a similar fate and will be thought of as a completely average POTUS decades from now.
Iran Contra is another f*ckup that historians will make Reagan own. I voted for Reagan in 1980 (ducks and covers). At the time, I wanted a more forward leaning foreign policy (which I now think was a mistake on my part). What I did not understand in 1980 was all of the racist dog whistles that Reagan was blowing. As I got older, I have come to understand those dog whistles and have zero tolerance for them.
Oh I didn't even get into Reagan social policy. Iran Contra was such a "larger" deal than anything since, probably bigger than Watergate, and it's just kind of glossed over.
ETA: By the middle of Reagan's second after refusing to regulate S&Ls (say 1985-6), everyone knew there was a big problem with S&Ls, but no one in Congress or the WH would address. Bush the Elder caught the falling knife and bailed out the S&Ls. To no one's surprise, very few old rich white men went to jail.
IIRC Reagan privately had compassion for those the gays and AIDS. He just didn't add his public support, since he did not want to go against his base. I think the same could be said for W. Reagan's and W's silence is what we remember though.
Nearly the entire US steel industry died under Reagan’s leadership costing hundreds of thousands of jobs and turning working class cities into ghost towns.
I've read the same thing about Reagan's veto of sanctions for South Africa. Supposedly he did it solely for political reasons but personally wanted to support sanctions. But what you do in the Oval office is what matters, not how you personally feel about it.
Every single G'damn time i look up a republican calling someone else elite, or as this video said "in their ivory towers. I look up their background and it's right there. Kayleigh M. Harvard grad....... It's so tiresome.
The best thing I can say about Reagan and W is that they were well-meaning people (I believe this) who were surrounded by others who gave them bad, bad advice. LBJ falls under that umbrella too wrt Vietnam.
That's a very difficult thing to place blame on. But yes, it should have been seen coming and the government should have stepped in.
I'd like to add a Harvard grad saying this in a studio in the middle of NYC. That's a millionaire who was a white house correspondent. Saying a president should be ranked higher that is likely the most or one of the most responsible for income inequality being as extreme as it is. If you don't think he is great though, you're in a "ivory tower" apparently and "education is low these days" @basso doesn't care though. He just eats it up yum yum Twilight Zone upside down BS that makes zero sense.
