Was Reagan the last great President?

He worked across the aisle

It may be hard to imagine Trump and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi kicking off their shoes after work and knocking back a glass of whiskey together, but that is exactly how Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, ended their day. And his aisle-crossing was not limited to happy hour. His immigration reform bill signed in 1986 allowed amnesty for those who entered the country before 1982. He also worked with O’Neill on a deficit reduction bill that increased taxes.

Some of these actions were not popular among Reagan’s base, but they won over the electorate at large. Reagan won both his elections by a landslide, and in his re-election came with the most electoral votes in history. And Americans’ view of the Gipper has only improved with time.

He thought it was amusing that gay men were dying of AIDS. He is the reason why the Republican party has become what it is today.

When I think of Reagan, I think of AIDS, poverty and the crack epidemic. Make of that what you will OP.

It was FDR.

Does the dead Reagan have anything to do with the stinking Turd in the White House today? NO!

Go fuck yourself with a nuclear fuel rod and die, fat skank OP.

Republicans are waxing nostalgic for their Grand Old Party now that Trump has destroyed it.

Oh My God.

Reagan was not a great president. He was the first rethuglican president to let those crazy right wingers into the administration. We can see how that's worked out for our county and the world. I saw it first hand. These were people the old normal republicans thought were nuts and wanted nothing to do with.

Reagan did not end the cold war. Gorbachev did. Reagan had no power to do it.

Reagan won over the electorate for superficial reasons. Something for which the American electorate can always be counted on for.

I cannot believe OP is asking this question on a gay board.

Oh goody - the era in history where GOP think tanks finally convinced normal middle class Americans to vote against their own interests all under the guise of patriotism and moral superiority. The introduction of organized religion forced into our politics. Extreme homophobia (let the fags die and never even acknowledge AIDS) and blatant racism. The utter failure of the "war on drugs" policy. Finally, that brilliant "trickle-down economics" gift to our society that never paid a dime (except to make the corporations richer and you poorer). He was a failure of epic proportions - it just took years for most people to grasp just how bad his reign actually was.

Obama

Yes, Obama. He led the economic recovery from a second Great Depression. He got bin Ladin, pulled troupe from Iraq. Reduced troops in Afghanistan. No major scandals. The first treaty between the us and Iran in 35 years. And the ACA.

Clinton was well loved and led a mostly peaceful and prosperous nation.

The greatest American president of all time is Donald Trump.

No. We just had the best POTUS AND FLOTUS until 4 years ago.

Nope r7. Reagan’s “Star Wars” proposal, even if unrealistic, is what ended the cold war, as was increased military spending.

This is a frauish post office ever I read one. Reagan is the soul reason we have so many homelessness in the streets of California. When he was governor he shut down all the mental health facilities.

[quote]Reagan brought an American rebirth

Give. It. A. Rest. MARY!

No, but Nancy was the last great FLOTUS

I'll Just Say No to that, R17.

The country had a stock market crash and high deficits under Reagan. So unless you lived on Dynasty or Dallas, you were fucked.

The Republicans mantra is always spend spend spend.

R17, Nancy wasn't even greatest cocksucker of US!

This thread is proof positive that the Repug trolls have invaded DL at insane levels this weekend.

Rewatching when Reagan ordered Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. It’s a very powerful speech. I don’t think we’ll ever have a president admired enough to win 49 states again.

R22, what a fucking cheesy speech. People fell for that shit?

No. Obama was.

OP is a fucking asshole.

With little knowledge about American politics, and born in 1987 on the other side of the pond, I think Reagan presented this old-school presidential personality. Awful politics, of course. But as a persona, he was an actor; after all, there was something 'classy' about him.

Clinton was well-liked until the Lewinsky-affair. Bush was considered a warmongering dumbnut. Obama had swag and style, very graceful man. It helped that he's easy on the eyes.

[quote] what a fucking cheesy speech. People fell for that shit?

It was the wall that fell. Other countries knew not to mess with Ronbo.

Reagan was a terrible president.

The end of the Cold War which sort of started with the Berlin Wall coming down was really a combination of the Soviet Union going broke and Mikhail Gorbachev who was and is very much a pragmatist. If you want to talk about great look no further than Gorbachev, who along with Gandhi & Nelson Mandela are the three great men of the 20th century.

Despite the narrative that various people like to spin Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul II & Imelda Marcus had nothing to do with the end of the Cold War or the Berlin Wall coming down.

Also, Jimmy Carter was the last great American president. He didn't really get to do much but as a human being he shits over all the others that have come after him including Obama (pretending to take a sip of 'safe' drinking water in Flint, Michigan - turned me right off him).

It will be a very sad day when Carter & Gorbachev pass away.

The cold war ended because the Soviet Union ran out of money, and was so corrupt that there was no chance to restart. It had little to do with US policy.

Reagan was the beginning of the end. He paved the way for Trump. He was every bit as evil. He just managed to disguise it better.

Reagan was beyond horrible, horrific really. He laid the foundation for the right-wing political freak show we're suffering through now. Dementia was a kindness for such an evil man.

Just FF OP. It’s an obvious troll.

Oh please, the OP is just a lazy troll.

OP, are you serious? Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had organized a strike for better pay and working conditions. He then banned them from federal service for life. Reagan's order threw the nation's air traffic control system into chaos. The civil service ban on the remaining strike participants was lifted by President Bill Clinton on August 12, 1993. Reagan also had the distinction, until he was surpassed by George W. Bush, of spending much of his term in office away from Washington and at his private residence. In Reagan's case, he and Nancy spent one-eighth of his presidency at Rancho del Cielo, a bare bones ranch high in the California mountains. It was dubbed "The Western White House." Reagan was so old and addled, he occasionally fell asleep during Cabinet meetings. Yeah, a great president.

Q: What was Nancy Reagan’s favorite vegetable?

A: Ronnie.

Nancy had such a gross anorexic deformed little body

R35 - anorexia requires both hard work and will power. Cunty Nancy was a speed freak pure and simple.

I lived in the USSR, as a foreigner, before the collapse. Gorbachev was not a pragmatist. He was a very devoted communist idiot put into power by the KGB as a second Khrushchev. Many of the same policies as in the early 1960’s were implemented in the USSR, including contrived shortages and a leader with an accent that annoyed every ear.

I think the USSR would have collapsed even without Reagan, but it would have been much later.

No OP.

r37 is Putin's Boris in Moscow, trying to change the narrative on Gorbachev.

[quote]Republicans are waxing nostalgic for their Grand Old Party now that Trump has destroyed it.

Yep. Larry Hogan, the Republican Gov. of Maryland, revealed this week that instead of voting for Trump this year, he wrote in Ronald Reagan, as he jockeys for a 2024 presidential run.

HAHA r39. I am ethnically Ukrainian, with a Ukrainian Jewish grandfather. My relatives were persecuted by the commies. I am no lover of former KGB agents or idiot commies like Gorbachev, for that matter. I saw the history first hand. You did not. So grow up.

This thread reminds me that CNN has a new series on Sunday nights called First Ladies. Each episode examines the influence and legacy of one of the first ladies and tonight's episode covers Nancy Reagan. Last week, they covered Jackie and the first episode was on Michelle Obama. It's a pretty good series so far and gives you a fascinating glimpse into how these women impacted their husband's presidencies, usually for the better.

It irks me to write this but I believe that a Reagan and Pope John Paul II played a role in freeing Eastern Europe. Bear in mind that the Pope was Polish and there became a very strong labor movement in Poland in the 1980s that was antithetical to the Communist leaders. There was much going on behind the scenes to destabilize the Polish government, and the authorities were afraid to massacre the protesters or arrest them all, for fear of inflaming tension and making things worse.

Gorbachev was a true believer in Communism but wasn’t raised after the Revolution and WWII, which hardened the hearts of his predecessors. I don’t think he had it in him to commit mass murder if civilians.

I recently learned that the East Germans arose in revolt in the 1940s. I knew the Hungarians did so in 1956, and the Czech’s in 1968. Then Poland in the 1980s. It was as if almost all the conquered countries were not loyal to the Russians.

I also give Gorbachev the lion’s share of the credit for the fall of Communism but, I don’t think there is any way to parce out credit and discount Reagan and the Pope. Just the Pope’s visit to Poland emboldened the populous.

"Reagan won over the electorate for superficial reasons. Something for which the American electorate can always be counted on for."

You mean like voting for a game show host for President?

Obama actually saved the country from plunging into a Depression. He will be remembered as a great president for that alone. I say this as someone who preferred Hillary.

FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF OP And a hearty fuck you for good measure.

He was too bad for the room.

No r43. In 1989, Gorbachev gave the order to attack protesters twice, once in Georgia ( where protesters were merely praying), and once in Latvia. Latvia was exceptionally brutal-protesters were killed with axes to the head. Gorbachev also ordered the slaughter of pigs in the Chernobyl’ zone right after Chernobyl’. The contaminated meat from those pigs was mixed with other meat and sold in Russia and Ukraine. Parts if Siberia that hadn’t seen meat on store shelves for a couple of years were groaning with radioactive sausage.

Gorbachev wanted to preserve the USSR, not dismantle it. The KGB planned his fate to follow that of Khrushchev.

R9 is correct, but so is r2 and so is r25. He did know how to work across the aisle and that along with this “Presidential” sort of personality was how he won in two landslides and the majority of the middle/centrists, middle class, suburbs, etc. Behind the scenes Tip O’Neill thought he was a fucking idiot but no matter. You can’t underestimate that kind of civility when it comes to the country’s morale.

Clinton (whom I still consider the greatest President at least of my lifetime) had to work like hell to win all that back.

No. The last great President was Barack Obama.

I work with the number two man in our county’s republican party and one day while we were talking I said some thing mildly complementary about Reagan.

This man lost his shit and went off on me about Reagan.

He said Reagan was by far the worst Republican president of his lifetime (he was born in ‘58) because Reagan was too willing to compromise and not hard enough on the Democrats.

He said thankfully most Republicans today realize what a weak President Reagan was and they learned their lesson and would not be voting for anyone that wasn’t a hardline conservative.

I was surprised when I learned that Gorbachev's mother, whom he was close to, was a Christian. I always wondered how deep, other than his desire to get ahead and serve his country, was his so called devotion to communism.

^ Evangelical Caucasian Cultist

This Divine9 piece of shit is posting hate all over the DL.