Sarah Palin will present the keynote speech at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara today to celebrate Ronald Reagan’s 100thbirthday. The conservative former governor of Alaska who is considering running for the Oval Office in 2012 will honor the former president for the changes brought by the Reagan Administration during his tenure as president and the legacy he provided for millions of his admirers on the right.
Given all the rhetoric about how Ronald Reagan was such a positive influence on our government, our economy, our military prowess, much is forgotten about the many failures of his administration and the negative influence his administration left as his legacy.
Reagan was not the most popular president in American history; Bill Clinton was just as popular in the several Gallop polls.
Reagan’s promotion of “supply-side economics”, which promoted the idea that tax cuts for the rich would lead them to save and invest money which would lead to increase productivity and lower unemployment…never worked the way it was supposed to as the 1980s was the worst decade of post-World War II growth. In fact, his Voodoo Economics is a key reason America suffers the huge unemployment problems and the major distribution of income that stifles economic growth today.
During his presidency Bill Casey, director of the CIA, was responsible for secretly funding the contras in Nicaragua by borrowing millions of dollars from the Saudis…supposedly without Congress or Reagan’s knowledge it was reported with a wink and a nod.
A further goal of Reaganomics was to cut back on government which is touted today by his conservative followings…in fact, during Reagan’s presidency government spending grew by 25% and the number of government employees increased, as well.
Another conservative objective of his economic program while in office was to balance the federal budget…Reagan never produced a balanced budget and ran the biggest deficit in history, up to that time.
One of Reagan’s biggest “failures” was the Iran-Contra that involved secret sales of arms to Iran to raise funds to support anti-communist fighters in Nicaragua. At first Reagan denied knowledge of the affair only to find out after a Congressional Investigation that both he and Vice President George Bush had been involved.
The World Court convicted Reagan’s administration for human rights violations in Nicaragua…the administration then chose to remove the US from participation with the World Court ending a 39 year time of US support.
As is common in politics Reagan is revered as a game changing American President because of major world change that occurred during his time…the end of the Cold War supposedly based on the huge investment in military hardware made by his administration…in fact, the Cold War ended because of the economic collapse of the Soviet Union that began during the latter stages of Reagan’s term.
What we should learn on his birthday this year is how misleading the Reagan Legacy has become when touted by the conservative right. Like Sarah Palin and other right wing conservatives who use voodoo Reaganomics as a standard for their political causes the failure of those policies remain clear in historical fact, not on politically created legend about the man and his politics. The right should learn to get their facts straight.
“Voodoo Economics”, Remark, presidential campaign (1980), George H.W. Bush
Comments
Zombie Reagan/Palin 2012!!
you sir are a weak kneed liberal who could only wish to be a fraction of the man our President was!
Which one was that?
Zombie Reagan smash!
I do not like this Palin woman ... yuck! gives me the creeps. I was once a Tea Bagger and now after seeing what that silly movement is all about...( racism and Rush Limbaugh) .... I am 100 percent in agreement with President Obama and he has the best course for
the country. I voted for Bush and been bushwhacked to death!!! I voted for McCain and all he got me was Palin... and Mitt is not at
all "it" as far as I am concerned... President Obama in his current
state is the best man for the job and I intend to support and vote for him in 2012. I am sick of TeaBaggers and Republicans... nothing but hot air and hatred. Obama in 2012!!!!! Best man for the job and is our Ronald Reagan today!!!!!
I could not agree with you more!! I am sick and tired of Republican Party/Tea Party hatred dividing and confusing our country!!! Obama's only problem was Nancy Pelosi!!! as long as she is in the back bench ... Obama will be a great president!! He needed to keep her at a distance to sufficiently govern. Now he can and is the best man for the job in 2012.
As for Palin.... I sometimes confuse her with Paris Hilton....
Scare-a-Palin would go to the opening of an envelope if that were billed as an event. .... and you better pay her $100,000 with travel and security costs to attend.... otherwise Miss Give me money Palin is not going to show up! She is a pure opportunist!
I realize this is an op-ed piece, but you should really learn how to spell important things, such as "Gallup poll," and if you want to write "newsy" things, should perhaps learn AP style. There are too many of those errors to list, but I'd be happy to, if you'd like. As a professional journalist whose industry is being rocked by the "new media" of untrained, unskilled writers and "bloggers," it pains me that this shoddy writing is allowed to be made public.
Google didn't even do a Reagan-themed logo...
Worst article ever written----give it up already
I am not a member of the Tea Party, but I have never seen one of them who was a racist! If we don"t get back to our basic values and our Constitution, then God help us.
"Our basic values' supported slavery, as did the Constitution.
This writer did his research most likely in the liberal tear factory. Reagan reduced tax rates to the lowest rates in decades, sparked business growth, and brought the idea back that government is not the answer to everything. But the writer forgot that despite his efforts, the Democrat Congress kept spending more and more. So please place the blame where it should be. He gave Americans a sense of hope and optimism again, and set the ground work for decades of growth. Clinton and Bush owe Reagan for his hard work. But man before making dumb comments, wipe your tears and grow up.
Thanks for all your comments...sorry my spell checker couldn't differentiate between Gallup and Gallop but what the hey...
What's really interesting to me is that no one ever reads American History, especially right-wingers who seem to have a need to rely on a father figure like Reagan to blend together right wing rhetoric so that they have something to bind them together trying to live in the past.
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