# Conservative Republicans want to replace FDR with Reagan on dime **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 5, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229 "2003-12-05T20:26:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/81 "2003-12-07T03:57:19Z")
> [@](#): > > There is a specific reason for FDR being on the dime. Remember The March of Dimes? I don’t much care whether Reagan goes on a coin or not (though at this point it would be especially tasteless to do it over the objections of his wife, speaking for him), but this bit is just unbelievably stupid: [http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/05/dime/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/05/dime/index.html) > [@](#): > > Supporters of both men said each has a special connection to the dime. McGovern argued Roosevelt belongs on the dime because he inspired the March of Dimes effort to stamp out polio after the U.S. mint put the crippled president on the dime in 1946. > > And Souder said, “It is particularly fitting to honor the freedom president on this particular piece of coinage” because he was “wounded under the left arm by a bullet that had ricocheted and flattened to the size of a dime.” WHAT? And I’m not talking about his new name “the freedom president,” I’m talking about the stretch of idiocy this guy makes to try and top the connection FDR had to dimes. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/82 "2003-12-07T05:18:17Z")
> [@](#): > > that there was one entire state he didn’t carry in his re-election bid Don’t blame me! I’m from Minnesota! I agree that Reagan is popular. But he just doesn’t quite make the threshold of the other coin heads of the twentieth century. He just didn’t have the same impact. And impact was what got the heads on the coin, both literally and figuratively. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/83 "2003-12-07T06:54:11Z")
Hmmmm. I would recommend putting up more resistance than the issue deserves, then “caving in”. Gotta give 'em something. Otherwise they’ll be carving him on Mt. Rushmore. What? You think I’m kidding? I hope you’re right. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/84 "2003-12-07T21:53:57Z")
> [@](#): > > On the bright side, paperbackwriter, they are right now in the process of crushing the last of the rubble that was the Ronald Reagan Institute of Emergency Medicine building. Well, they’ve transferred the name across the street to the new G.W. hospital’s emergency room. ---
**Author:** ![captainQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/85 "2003-12-07T23:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > …committed treason. I’m just curious, but How did reagan commit treason? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/86 "2003-12-07T23:33:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by captainQwark \* > \*\*I’m just curious, but How did reagan commit treason? \*\* Because his administration sold arms (“gave aid and comfort”) to Iran, our enemy at the time? Not saying I necessarily agree with that interpretation of events, just noting where s/he may have gotten the idea… ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/87 "2003-12-08T21:43:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Stoid \* > \*\*The news reported this evening that Nancy had issued a press release stating that she did not want this to occur. \*\* Now, i will say she has a very good reason for this… …she wants _her_ face on the dime. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/88 "2003-12-08T21:53:02Z")
An interesting view. . Nancy as the scheming Livia and Ronnie as the unsuspecting Augustus. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/89 "2003-12-08T21:58:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by captainQwark \* > \*\*I’m just curious, but How did reagan commit treason? \*\* He sold weapons to a sworn enemy of the US, namely Iran. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/90 "2003-12-08T22:02:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*An interesting view. . Nancy as the scheming Livia and Ronnie as the unsuspecting Augustus. \*\* I think that would make GHWB Tiberius, Clinton would be Caligula and GWB would be Claudius, the idiot man-child (except that Clasudius was just pretending). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/91 "2003-12-08T23:20:12Z")
How about these ideas for the fine coinage of the United States: 1. a mocked-up version of a Mt. Rushmore with a fifth Reagan head. 2. a whiskey drinking, chain-smoking chimpanzee 3. some sort of coin/image storing and display device that holds thousands of pictures, and onto which anyone can upload whatever the hell they’d like (in full color) 4. a Wal-Mart subsidized Wal-Mart emblem emblazed quarter (only costs 24cents to obtain). This idea might work for any mega-corporation or rich individual/nation that wants to appear on a limited run of our circulating coinage 5. A many-headed Reagan-hydra chimera. Each side of the coin could depict, say, 5-7 representations of Ronnie with different fanciful facial expressions 6. nothing except a smooth reflective surface, not unlike a mirror ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/92 "2003-12-08T23:31:06Z")
— No, I’m honest. What the hell did JFK ever do? Flowbark agrees that JFK is possibly the most over-rated President in US history, at least by the public (historians apparently take a subtler stance). Still, you asked for a list. Kennedy managed the Cuban Missile Crisis fairly well. Kennedy secured the above-ground nuclear test ban. A lot of the ground work was done for the Civil Rights Act in the year preceding Kennedy’s death. Still, Johnson was the President who pushed it through. There’s a pattern here: Kennedy also proposed Medicare in 1963, but it was Johnson who delivered it. Kennedy also created the Peace Corp. Personally, I’d like to see Mark Twain, John Von Neumann or maybe Richard Feynman on the $20. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/93 "2003-12-09T02:17:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*He sold weapons to a sworn enemy of the US, namely Iran. \*\* That’s only half of it. His administration then took the money made from the sale of the weapons and used it to illegally fund a group of terrorists in Central America, the contras, for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua. AFTER Congress had made two laws prohibiting this. ---
**Author:** ![RNWebner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@RNWebner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RNWebner)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/94 "2003-12-09T02:46:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Let’s see. . FDR preserved the United States economy during the Great Depression and and secured victory over fascism in WWII. > > Ronald Reagan invaded a tinpot Caribbean dictatorship and ran up the federal deficit to unprecedented amount. > > Oh, yes, and he ignored the AIDS crisis and left US marines as sitting ducks in Lebanon. > > Yep, Reagan sure was a much worthier candidate to be made immortal on a coin. > > And, uh GOP hacks, rough luck about the Alzheimer’s, but that doesn’t make Reagan a retroactive saint. \*\* FDR authorized the internment of the Japanese during WWII. Oh but he did urge them to intern the Japanese as “responsibly as possible.” I don’t think that Reagan did anything so egregious in his time in office. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/95 "2003-12-09T02:51:53Z")
I think supporting terrorism was pretty egregious but if you don’t like FDR, let’s replace him with Martin Luther King. He would certainly be a much more worthy candidate that Reagan and it’s about time we put a black American on some currency. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/96 "2003-12-09T02:52:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RNWebner \* > \*\*I don’t think that Reagan did anything so egregious in his time in office. \*\* Two words for you, **RNWebner** : Iran Contra Giving aid and comfort to our enemies (selling arms to Iran), then using the money from said aid & comfort to perform overtly illegal (Congress specifically prohibited aid to the Contras) activities in our backyard. The only reason Reagan isn’t rotting in a jail cell right now is his ability to pick doggedly loyal (to the point of criminal conviction) followers to perform his dirty work, the fact that William Casey was already dead when this came down, and the obvious mental deterioration he was already suffering at the end of his second term. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/97 "2003-12-09T02:54:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*Hmmmm. I would recommend putting up more resistance than the issue deserves, then “caving in”. Gotta give 'em something. Otherwise they’ll be carving him on Mt. Rushmore. > > What? You think I’m kidding? I hope you’re right. \*\* Hey, isn’t it time to reitre Teddy from that monument anyway? I’m sure we could recarve his mug into Ron’s likeness w/o too much trouble. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/98 "2003-12-09T13:36:06Z")
> [@](#): > > No, no! Duke has stumbled onto the right answer: the Elvis Dime™. Let’s all write our representatives. Start the petition drive now! Would we get to vote for Young Thin Elvis vs. Chubby Vegas Elvis again? That would make it worthwhile. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/99 "2003-12-09T15:05:14Z")
The Mint will have to develop a new form of currency for Reagan’s likeness to adorn. One that completely forgets what it is worth, or one that varies in value depending on the networth of the person holding it. That ol’ trickle-down, voodoo economics currency. ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229/100 "2003-12-09T15:42:05Z")
Maybe Reagan could go on a new round of “state” dimes, or several? Little Reagan heads, floating around. Many state quarters depict sailboats. We could make various individuals little sea captains on a new round of dimes. Hey, is that Ted Kennedy with a couple bar hos? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-republicans-want-to-replace-fdr-with-reagan-on-dime/217229.md?page=6)