In the 1980s, one of the most famous, and most reliable, AIDS-activist applause lines was, "Ronald Reagan has never mentioned the word AIDS".
This later metastasized into, "Reagan could have stopped AIDS, Reagan is ignoring AIDS, Reagan is not spending enough money on AIDS..."
in fact, President Reagan spent wildly disproportionate sums on AIDS research (which paid off, BTW, with the development of effective therapy from a standing start within twelve years-an amazing accomplishment).
If anyone understands the psychological mechanism behind this Reagan fixation, which is today echoed by poor BS and her boy with AIDS, I would like to hear it.
If anything was responsible for setting the AIDS research trajectory in motion, it was Reagan's appointment of Tony Fauci to organize the national effort along with years and years of excessive funds chasing the few good ideas around at the time.
Reagan's fault, indeed!