Why do Republicans like Reagan so much?

[giblets]

I don't get it.

[DaShi]

The same reason the republicans think the 1950s is the ideal time period to live in.

[korn469]

I really wish somebody would make a game where society was stuck in 1950's. I wouldn't even care if a nuclear war between the United States and China wrecked most of the world. Maybe I could explore it in a suit of armor that along with my dog. I'd probably wouldn't even mind finding out what happened to Boston.

[Dinner]

They literally have no other decent modern President to point to. He is the only game conservatives have. Eisenhower was great but had the top marginal tax rate at 90% so he could pay for infrastructure, public education, public health and other such programs. Nixon was forced to resign in disgrace, Ford never was elected President, Bush Sr was a one termer, while Bush Jr is widely accepted to be a complete disaster. That only leaves Reagan who was a mediocre President who blew up the national debt and who probably couldn't even win a Republican primary these days as he was largely moderate on many issues.

Thus they lie, pretend he is a man god whom they worship, and then normally do the exact opposite of what Reagan actually did. That is just how extreme the modern Republican party has become.

[Lorizael]

Why do Republicans like Reagan so much?

Dead people make great puppets.

[rah]

I guess you had to be alive at the time (and older than 10).
At the time, the common citizen was down on the US as a whole.
The 70's ushered the end of the Vietnam War. (and we all know how that turned out)
Carter had been president and while he was basically a good man, he didn't do much for fostering the US as a world power.

Reagan was exactly what the country needed at the time. (in terms of image and not anything else).
He was charismatic and made people feel good about American where it hadn't been that easy before.
Most people are remembering that and not any particular policy issue.
They also remember the fall of the USSR which had been the boogey man for an entire generation.
(which he gets credit for regardless of the realities at the time)

[Dinner]

1991 was long after Reagan was out of office and his brain was rotted away. Hell, by 1986 Reagan had obvious Alzheimer's and could not remember the names of people he had known for 30 years and worked with on a daily basis. His staff pretty much hide him from the world and took over while he drooled into his cheerios.

[giblets]

The last two years of his presidency were probably the best

[OneFootInTheGrave]

I am not sure why would anyone be proud of a president who:

*raised taxes four times
*increased the number of employees in federal gov by 60,000
*bailed out Social Security
*closed 300bn worth of corporate tax loopholes
*empted millions of low-wage earners from income taxes

[giblets]

He cut income tax for top earners from 70% to 28%, a true American hero

[Dinner]

The last two years of his presidency were probably the best

Really? The 1987 SNL Crisis and the Iran Contract Affair doesn't fact in for you? BTW it was entirely believable that Reagan really did not know anything about Iran Contract because he really was deep into dementia by that time. Reagan was lucid in 1979 and 1980 though so he was involved with arms for hostages and guilty of telling the Iranian don't release the American hostages to Carter because I will give you a better deal if I win. That was pure treason where he conspired with a foreign government to harm the US and keep hostages in captivity. That was completely unforgivable and taints everything else Reagan did.

I cannot blame him for the CIA bringing in drugs from central America and then using the money to buy arms for Iran as his brain was rotted away by then even if he set the deal in motion.

[giblets]

Iran-"Contract" happened in 85/86

[loinburger]

I was pissed at him for pre-empting Dumbo to talk about the war on drugs when I was five years old

[Elok]

It would have been entirely appropriate to interrupt Pink Elephants on Parade for that.

[PLATO]

I guess you had to be alive at the time (and older than 10).
At the time, the common citizen was down on the US as a whole.
The 70's ushered the end of the Vietnam War. (and we all know how that turned out)
Carter had been president and while he was basically a good man, he didn't do much for fostering the US as a world power.

Reagan was exactly what the country needed at the time. (in terms of image and not anything else).
He was charismatic and made people feel good about American where it hadn't been that easy before.
Most people are remembering that and not any particular policy issue.
They also remember the fall of the USSR which had been the boogey man for an entire generation.
(which he gets credit for regardless of the realities at the time)

This is fact. Regardless of his policies, Reagan was the personality that America needed at the time.

As I get older it is interesting to see how the way people are viewed changes. A lot of Reagan's policies and achievements may have become questionable viewed through the lens of history. There is one thing that almost no one who was an adult at that time will disagree on however. America had lost its confidence in itself and Reagan restored it. That, in my opinion, is what makes him a great President...in spite of any policy failures.