You do not contradict one thing I post about Reagan and his political activities from 1964 until 1981. Everything I post is the truth. You say what I am, but you do not contradict what I say Reagan was. That is because you know I can post links to Reagan's 1980 speeches.
You can say who I am but you can not contradict the truth about Ronald Reagan.
Was Reagan really a conservative? The federal budget nearly doubled during the Reagan's 8 years as president. How conservative is that? From the last Carter year to the last Reagan budget the federal deficit nearly doubled and federal spending nearly doubled. Is that conservative?
Reagan did not end government programs. in the 1980 campaign and in the Carter/Reagan debate Reagan only proposed ending fraud and waste in government spending. He did not propose any cuts. Is that conservative? Hmmmm.
What Reagan always agreed to was to limit the rate of increase in federal spending. Reagan called it limiting growth to a reasonable amount... Reagan always mentioned some percent of growth he referred to as reasonable. It was an interesting game designed to fool the foolish. The Democrats in federal departments would request twice what they wanted and Reagan would give them half of their request. "I have cut the growth of government spending to X percent from Y percent!!", Reagan would say.. as the Democratic bureaucrats smiled and remarked how tough.. the Reagan cuts were on the poor and homeless.
The number of Government employees grew substantially under Reagan. He hired them and paid them with our money.. or rather with our national debt.
Some of those who supported Reagan said he was making the deficit so high that when Democrats got into office there would be nothing left for them to spend. Which makes as much sense as curing alcoholism by giving drunks all the booze now so there is nothing left for them to drink later.
Reagan nearly doubled federal spending, nearly doubled federal debt and added lots of government workers... How much more conservative could he have been? Right!!!!
Reagan stood up to communism.. much like Harry Truman did in Korea and LBJ did in Viet Nam.. In foreign policy Reagan may have been a more effective Democrat than either HST or LBJ.
Reagan was right. The Democratic party did change. Reagan said in 1980 that the Democrats had changed and he had not. Reagan campaigned for Truman, FDR, and Hubert H. Humphreys and in the 1980 campaign praised JFK. Teddy Kennedy was steamed when Reagan praised JFK.
Reagan never changed his economic or foreign policy views.They remained the same from the 1930s to the 1990s. Those that read what Reagan said in behalf of Harry Truman or FDR will note he was saying much the same things in 1980 and 1984.
Reagan was by 1962 a Republican. The Republican party certainly adopted Reagan's positions by 1980. That means the Republicans took the old liberal positions. It is interesting to note that today's Democrats have taken the old conservative positions.
Democrats in the 1930s and 40s were for a strong defense,deficit spending, and cutting taxes while the Republicans were isolationists and in favor of less government spending and more taxes to balance the budget.
Republicans in the 1930s thought defense spending was a waste of money. The day before Pearl Harbor, the man they called Mr. Republican, Majority Leader Robert A. Taft called for a huge cut in defense spending. No troops overseas was the Republican policy the day before Pearl Harbor.
Back in the 1930s and 1940s the Democrats called their economic policy priming the pump. That meant Democrats favored cutting taxes and increasing federal spending to prime the economic pump.
JFK revived the pump priming policies in 1961 and Reagan adopted them in 1980. Reagan's economic policy was pure FDR and JFK.
Today the Democrats are echos of the Conservatives of the 1930s. They want national isolation .. the troops brought home, and taxes raised to balance the budget.
The two parties have changed sides. What used to be a Democrat is now a Republican and vice versa. Those ignorant of history fail to understand what has taken place.
As for me I agreed with what FDR stood for in economic policies as well as foreign policy. I agreed with those same policies when Harry Truman was implementing them.
In fact Truman in 1952 offered to help Eisenhower get the Democratic nomination for President. Ike just followed the Democratic policies as a Republican president. He could have been a Democratic presidenty. Ike worked well with Democratic Majority leader Lyndon Baines Johnson. Ike had mostly adopted the Democratic positions on major issues.
I agreed with Reagan when he adopted the same polices once held by the liberal party and I rejected the old Conservative policies adopted in the 1970s by the Democratic party.
I am a great Reagan fan.. Reagan was consistent. His views did not change in his life time. When the Democrats became Republicans and Republicans became Democrats, Reagan became a Republican.. So did I.
Everything you post is the truth? Reagan was a RINO... no he was Goldwater conservative... no he was RINO. LOL Come on CT. You can't make up your mind. You may have yourself convinced that everything you post is the truth. You haven't convinced me anything you post is the truth. The rhetoric you offer on US political history is mainly built on your perception of events, but is really nothing more then your opinion. And you're entitled to your opinion. You're a self-professed ex-Democrat. From the sounds of your multiple anti-Reagan rants, I don't think you changed as much as you thought you did. Maybe you've fallen off the politcal wagon and landed on your head one too many times. Sorry. You can't be taken seriously.
Btw, I posted a 1977 speech by Reagan where he called himself a conservative on several occasions. A full four years before you said he accepted the conservative label. Did you refute it? No. You ignored it.
It's quite obvious that Reagan and his advisors made calculated decisions to advance his agenda and further his success throughout a long career in the public eye and the political arena. The fact that Reagan mentioned FDR and JFK in some of his speeches should come as no surprise to anyone. When it suited his needs, Reagan also mentioned Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, TR, Coolidge and few other Chief Executives. Reagan was a master of the spoken and written word. He evoked the words of many famous people from throughout history in an effort to further his agenda, make his points and connect with the American voters.
I'm not interested in reviewing the Reagan record as Governor of California. That was Reagan's first elected position and it offered him many opportunities to experiment with a lifetime of ideas he formulated over a 35 year career as a radio sports announcer, movie/TV actor, union leader and spokesman for GE. Reagan's two terms as Governor gave him some serious on the job training that came in handy down the road. Thereby, making it more relevent what Reagan did as POTUS, then what he did as Governor.
I'm focused on the Reagan Presidency and keeping the facts straight about the Reagan record while he served as President of the United States. Reagan was a strong leader working under extremely difficult conditions to advance a conservative agenda for America. Throughout his two terms in office Reagan had to deal with a hostile Democrat House led by Speaker Tip O'neill and later on, Speaker Jim Wright. Unlike today, with Bush43 very fortunate to have the GOP controlling all of Congress, back in the 1980`s Reagan was forced to negotiate and compromise if he expected his policies to see the light of day. Reagan dealt wisely with Speaker O'Neill and was successful in getting major parts of his agenda passed into law.
Faced with the worst economy since the Great Depression, Reagan governed boldly. He was successful in getting his economic recovery plan, tax reform, defense buildup and reductions in the welfare state enacted in his first term. Reagan's second term was highlighted by serious bilateral agreements for reductions in strategic nuclear weapons of both the US and the USSR. Reagan made the world a safer place for everyone. Reagan also found time to win the Cold War, dismantle the USSR, vanquish Euro-communism and free 500 million people from the once powerful totalitarian regimes of the Eastern Bloc.
>>>>Reagan was right. The Democratic party did change. Reagan said in 1980 that the Democrats had changed and he had not.
Reagan said he never changed? Reagan was famous for saying, 'the Democratic Party left me, I didn't leave the Democratic Party'. The man who once supported FDR`s New Deal and Truman's Fair Deal became an Eisenhower Republican and didn't look back. All the while, becoming more and more of a fiscal and social conservative. In 1976 Reagan also said, "fascism was really the basis of the New Deal." Your revisionism is quite extraordinary.
>>>>Reagan only proposed ending fraud and waste in government spending. He did not propose any cuts. Is that conservative?
Fact. In Reagan's first term, domestic spending was restrained, real cuts occured in non-defense related discretionary spending and throughout his eight years in office, welfare entitlement spending was reduced from the Carter years. I gave you the OMB.gov figures once before, if you want me to post them again, just say so. Reagan also seriously rolled back government regulations and employed his veto pen 78 times! Bush43 doesn't know what the word veto means.
You may call that "an interesting game designed to fool the foolish", I call it successful leadership under adverse conditions.
>>>>>I am a great Reagan fan.. Reagan was consistent. His views did not change in his life time. When the Democrats became Republicans and Republicans became Democrats, Reagan became a Republican.. So did I.
In my book, no one that goes around obfuscating the Reagan record and undermining the Reagan legacy is a Reagan fan.