|
Most of you are also forgetting that it takes, on average, about 4 years for any "change" to take effect. You can then thank Reagan for the economic "successes" everyone had under Clinton and you can thank Clinton, for the most part, for all that is shitty now.
hahahaha=>
Off the best list.. All my writing is choppy but you?ll catch my drift. The most important is historical perspective, this isn?t just the 20th century with some founding fathers tossed in.
Reagan for economic successes? You've conviently forgotten about the S&L scandals, Junk Bond scandals and huge federal deficit under his watch.
Not to mention the Iran-contra scandal which trumps anything Clinton did, and is worse than Watergate as an abuse of executive power.
The fall of the Soviet Union was a by product of U.S. spending on defense ? namely star wars, but there were deep deep issues with the soviet military complex that started with Afghanistan and ironically the oil crisis. So, a strong argument can be made that the Soviets were headed towards collapse as the market for oil pumpleted?they simply couldn?t keep spending.
Reagan?s greatest accomplishment imho was reversing his stance on the ?evil empire,? and opening a dialogue with Gorbechev that led to Glasnost?but it was Gorbechov who took the far far great risk so he deserves most of the credit for that. In fact, Gorby was over taken by Yelstin who demolished the U.S.S.R. and made Gorby a piraha.
I think you're significantly overrating him based on the current conservative movement to operate with presidents that fit the mold of "the communicator," while increasing the powers of the executive branch like under Nixon. This has proven to be a dangerous mix under Reagan and G.W. Bush. The Elder Bush is actually quite accomplished in many ways.
GW Bush and Reagan lack the intellect, quality of ideas and personal skill Nixon had.
People are simply romantizing him because it has led to a rebirth of conservative politics after Nixon.
Also you'd have to thank Bush for the economy, using your biz cycle theory, as he was 4 years back .
Nixon => Watergate,?he was caught cheating in a systematic way by trying to manipulate the electoral process by actively subverting the nomination of the democratic nominee. Watergate wasn?t an isolated event, Nixon/Kissenger consolidated the power of the executive branch and abused it?this lead to things like bombing Cambodia. However, the same use of back-channel political maneuvering opened China. That connection helped us limit the soviets to some extent. Nixon symbolizes a consolidated strong executive branch at best and worst. He?s off the best, but his dealing with China/USSR saves him from the worst.
Critique on worst in a sec?
|