ronald reagan ruined conservatism

christiefan915

christiefan915

Catalyst
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
 
christiefan915 said:
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
Click to expand...


cover_tear_down_this_myth_1.jpg


Summary

Conservative ideologues have airbrushed Reagan's legacy for their own political ends. Here's the truth behind the convenient fantasy.

In this provocative new book, award-winning political journalist Will Bunch unravels the story of how a right-wing cabal hijacked the mixed legacy of Ronald Reagan, a personally popular but hugely divisive 1980s president, and turned him into an icon to revive their fading ideology. They succeeded to the point where all the GOP candidates for president in 2008 scurried to claim his mantle, no matter how preposterous the fit.

With clear eyes and an ever-present wit, Bunch reveals the truth about the Ronald Reagan legacy, including the following:

Despite the idolatry of the last fifteen years, Reagan's average popularity as president was only, well, average, lower than that of a half-dozen modern presidents. More important, while he was in office, a majority of Americans opposed most of his policies and by 1988 felt strongly that the nation was on the wrong track. Reagan's 1981 tax cut, weighted heavily toward the rich, did not cause the economic recovery of the 1980s. It was fueled instead by dropping oil prices, the normal business cycle, and the tight fiscal policies of the chairman of the Federal Reserve appointed by Jimmy Carter. Reagan's tax cut did, however, help usher in the deregulated modern era of CEO and Wall Street greed.

Most historians agree that Reagan's waste-ridden military buildup didn't actually "win the Cold War." And Reagan mythmakers ignore his real contributions — his willingness to talk to his Soviet adversaries, his genuine desire to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the surprising role of a "liberal" Hollywood-produced TV movie.

George H. W. Bush's and Bill Clinton's rolling back of Reaganomics during the1990s spurred a decade of peace and prosperity as well as the reactionary campaign to pump up the myth of Ronald Reagan and restore right-wing hegemony over Washington. This effort has led to war, bankrupt energy policies, and coming generations of debt.

With masterful insight, Bunch exposes this dangerous effort to reshape America's future by rewriting its past. As the Obama administration charts its course, he argues, it should do so unencumbered by the dead weight of misplaced and unearned reverence.

Excerpt: Tear Down This Myth, by Will Bunch

The present was January 30, 2008, when four powerful men walked onto a freshly built debate stage in Simi Valley, California, seeking to control the past — most ironically, the American past that was at its peak in that very "Morning in America" year of 1984. They knew that whoever controlled the past on this night would have a real shot at controlling the future of the United States of America. Lest there be any doubt of that, the large block letters UNITED STATES OF AMERICA hovered for ninety minutes over the heads of these men — the last four Republican candidates for president in 2008 — who had made the pilgrimage to the cavernous main hall inside Simi Valley's Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. This was the final debate of a primary campaign that had basically started in this very room nine months ago and now was about to essentially end here — in what was becoming a kind of National Cathedral to Ronald Reagan, even complete with his burial vault. The block letters were stenciled across the hulking blue and white frame of a modified Boeing 707 jetliner that officially carried the bland bureaucratic title of SAM (Special Air Mission) 27000, but bore the title of Air Force One from 1972 through 1990 — a remarkable era of highs and lows for the American presidency.

To many baby boomers, this jet's place in history was burnished on August 9, 1974, when it carried the disgraced Richard Nixon home to California on his first day as a private citizen. But that was before SAM 27000 was passed down to Ronald Reagan and now to the Ronald Reagan legacy factory, which flew it back here to the Golden State, power-washed it clean, and reassembled it as the visual centerpiece of Reagan's presidential library. It was now part American aviation icon and part political reliquary, suspended all deus ex machine from the roof in its new final resting place, with Reagan's notepads and even his beloved jelly beans as its holy artifacts.
 
christiefan915 said:
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
Click to expand...



Outstanding.
 
This is what drives me nuts about the Reagan mythologies.

"And Reagan mythmakers ignore his real contributions — his willingness to talk to his Soviet adversaries, his genuine desire to eliminate nuclear weapons, and the surprising role of a "liberal" Hollywood-produced TV movie."

But they still persist on believing the mythologies of the Fox News proven theory that if you say something often enough people will believe it to be the truth.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
very amusing, that even after 30 years, libs are still trying to demonize his presidency.
Click to expand...
OH please. Lay that line of horse shit on someone else. I voted for the man twice. He was a good and decent president but his presidency was a mix. Reagan had his failings too and only a moron who is utterly ignorant of our recent history buys into the Reagan mythology bull shit.

Reagan's legacy won't be for economics. Most of what he tried failed and his one significant success, controlling inflation via the Federal Reserve, was masterminded by a Carter appointee and he left this nation with a mountain of debt. Reagan may have created wealth for the all ready wealthy but he did nothing for the average tax payer but to stradle them with debt that has still not been paid off.

Reagan didn't win the cold war either. The architect for winning the cold war was Truman who developed the strategy of containment by which Soviet Imperialism eventually collapsed (Why do you think historians refer to the successful US strategy for containing the Soviets as "The Truman Doctrine" and not "The Reagan Doctrine"?). Reagan made significant contributions to containing the soviets, as did all his predecessors coming after Truman.

Reagan's greatest accomplishment was in opening a dialogue with the Soviet Union to negotiate the destruction of nuclear arms. By doing so he greatly reduced the nuclear arms race, the potential for nuclear arms proliferation and the threat of nuclear war to both sides. An accomplishment all Americans, but the far right, appreciate and which they try to ignore because it contradicts their isolationist "Go It Alone" cowboy foreign policy.

It was things like this on which Reagan's legacy stands and not some bogus mythology based upon a pack of lies.
 
SmarterThanYou said:
very amusing, that even after 30 years, libs are still trying to demonize his presidency.
Click to expand...

It's true that I have a lot of issues with the reagan administration, but none as much as Iran-Contra. reagan and bush41 walked away scot-free from that debacle. reagan apologists will say that "...[there was] no evidence that President Reagan himself knew of the extent of the multiple programs" ... all the while ignoring that reagan himself appointed the three-man Tower Commission that investigated the affair. Well duh... two out of three were Republicans and they were close to both bush 41 and reagan, am I to think this was an unbiased, party-neutral investigation? And what about the pardons and reinstatements of the other stooges involved?

Starting in 2003, conservatives were real quick to call any Iraq war dissenters "traitors" just for speaking out, yet they ignored the very real illegal actions of reagan and his gang of shysters operating in the guise of patriotism and support for a South American group of rebels.

Then to add insult to injury, one of bush 43's first acts was to slow the scheduled release of his father's papers from the Reagan-Bush and Bush-Quayle administrations. The younger Bush later asserted executive privilege to maintain the secrecy of several Reagan-era documents related to the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the extent of his father's role remains murky, historians say.

A pox on all their houses. Their actions were indefensible.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/a...sidential_dynasties_can_add_layer_of_secrecy/
 
christiefan915 said:
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
Click to expand...

My dad cut this article out of the financial times for me this past week. Interesting take from the author. There was a good letter to the editor two days later in the FT from a women from San Francisco of all places that questioned some of the author's assumptions. This article made for an interesting discussion at home.
 
christiefan915 said:
How has this woman become the darling of the American right?
Click to expand...

I've been wondering the same thing. This article is the best explanation I've seen so far.

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christiefan915 said:
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
Click to expand...
 
christiefan915 said:
It's true that I have a lot of issues with the reagan administration, but none as much as Iran-Contra. reagan and bush41 walked away scot-free from that debacle. reagan apologists will say that "...[there was] no evidence that President Reagan himself knew of the extent of the multiple programs" ... all the while ignoring that reagan himself appointed the three-man Tower Commission that investigated the affair. Well duh... two out of three were Republicans and they were close to both bush 41 and reagan, am I to think this was an unbiased, party-neutral investigation? And what about the pardons and reinstatements of the other stooges involved?
Click to expand...

I'm one of the last ones you'll find 'apologizing' for reagan. I believe he ordered iran contra as well. I also have my animosity for oliver north because of his duplicity in the coverup. My biggest issue with reagan is his signing of FOPA with a huge giant poison pill amendment that effectively neutered the american people and their sovereignty.
 
Yurt said:
threads like these amuse me, must be a slow down at the dem talking points headquarters
Click to expand...

They give themselves away in such an obvious manner. The immediate connection of Palin and Reagan was the "tell". Palin and Reagan share the common sense approach that the majority of American's want in government. You see, we are told that up must be down and spending what we don't have is saving money. We have become the elitist state where average American's are too stupid to know how to govern or be governed.
 
Yurt said:
threads like these amuse me, must be a slow down at the dem talking points headquarters
Click to expand...
You would rather I praise the man for his imaginary accomplishments as opposed to his real oneS? Yea...someone it using talking points here and it aint me.
 
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christiefan915 said:
The other side of the reagan myth.

The Reagan myth suggests dummies are smart, deficits don't matter and the world can be divided neatly into good vs. evil, writes GIDEON RACHMAN of the Financial Times
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, "Going Rogue," I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms. Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favorite to win the Republican Party nomination in 2012?

And then I realized -- the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as "Reaganism" are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values.

Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government's books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas -- and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy."

Mr. D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals -- even conservative intellectuals -- disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend Cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colors, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr. D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.

A dangerous chain of reasoning flows from this popular version of history. Reagan was apparently stupid and often startlingly ignorant -- but he was vindicated by history. Therefore, goes the theory, ignorance and stupidity are good signs. They show that a politician is in tune with the deeper wisdom of the people. Once you start thinking like that, it is but a short step to Sarah Palin.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10066/1040592-109.stm#ixzz0hVFvpQxA
Click to expand...

You have it backwards.

Real conservatives are not the dishonest, elitist, and deceptive "corporatism as a public good" globalists reagan represented.

Real conservatism says no to the bad deals of idiot globalization.
 
Have you guy's seen what the average woman running conservative looks like, get back to me on that on. You Becha!!!
 
Southern Man said:
The fact that you libtards hate Reagan so much is proof enough that he was a great man. :)
Click to expand...
Who said we hated him? I admire the man, were just laughing at all the rediculous nonsense you believe about the man. It's truely scary how if Fox News or Rush Limbaugh say's something often enough ya'll believe it.

I personally think Reagan did more to reduce the risk of nuclear war then any post war President and that's a staggering legacy. Reagan was a good man but we was, like all of us, a flawed and limited person. His legacy is a mixed one and he never faced the trial of adversity to be considered truely great. Did Regan make some big mistakes? He sure did. Was his ideology of policy deeply flawed in many areas? Yes of course they were. But he didn't make a complete travesty of his Presidency as Nixon and W did.
 
the reason the repubs sank so far is they keep wheeling out old retreads of Ronnie!!!
Here's a clue, it's a new century!!!
 
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