# Reagan good or bad POTUS? The Will-O'Reilly feud resurrects the question of his legacy **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 13, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495 "2015-11-13T20:04:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/161 "2016-01-05T18:12:16Z")
The USSR collapsed PEACEFULLY because Gorby allowed it to. If a more hardline leader had been in charge, things would have gone the way they did in Yugoslavia. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/162 "2016-01-06T06:55:16Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > You mean regardless of the buffoon’s Tax Reform Act’s not really reforming anything. As a full-time student at the time, my taxes increased significantly. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2016, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/163 "2016-01-06T07:08:14Z")
Ronald Reagan was a bad _precedent._ He sold fiscal nonsense to those young and ignorant enough to swallow it whole. We still have Republicans trying to make federal “waste, fraud, and abuse” amount to 10% of GDP, so the taxes can be cut as low as their church tithe. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/164 "2016-01-16T04:19:37Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Ronald Reagan was a bad _precedent._ He sold fiscal nonsense to those young and ignorant enough to swallow it whole. We still have Republicans trying to make federal “waste, fraud, and abuse” amount to 10% of GDP, so the taxes can be cut as low as their church tithe. :rolleyes: It does, but consists of sacrosanct programs such as farm aid, the United Nations, and corporate welfare. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/165 "2016-01-16T22:44:47Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Actually it was simply that under the “detente” policy, the US ratcheted tensions down while the Soviets just kept doing what they had always been doing. That allowed the Communist bloc to advance during that period. It only advanced into Afghanistan, and that did not work out well for them. ---
**Author:** ![Dajn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c2a13f/32.png) [@Dajn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dajn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/166 "2016-01-17T01:47:55Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > He didn’t have to be good. He just had to make his opposition look worse. And when your opposition is Jimmy Carter or the USSR, how tough is that? Perfect. You couldn’t have said it any better. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2016, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/167 "2016-01-17T05:10:33Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It only advanced into Afghanistan, and that did not work out well for them. Only Afghanistan directly. Pro-Soviet regimes advanced all over the world. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/168 "2016-01-26T18:23:11Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > A mixed bag. He did some good stuff, he did some not so good stuff. What he did do was to take a country very down in the dumps of “malaise” and restore confidence through the sheer force of his sunny personality. And, that does in fact have an effect on the economy. > > I love the Saturday Night Live bit where he is in public a slow moving “amiable dunce”, and a [brilliant strategist behind closed doors](http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/president-reagan-mastermind/n9509). Love that skit. And I agree with this. Reagan was pretty much a national “cheerleader” and spent a lot of money. I think those two things were really the key to his perceived success. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/169 "2016-01-26T18:26:23Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Only Afghanistan directly. Pro-Soviet regimes advanced all over the world. Dunno about that, the Commies never took over Angola or El Salvador, and didn’t last in Ethiopia or Nicaragua. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/170 "2016-01-27T10:12:30Z")
And in those cases, it was due to the US actually fighting those proxy wars, something liberals still haven’t forgiven the US for doing. Problem is, as ugly as such war is, what was the alternative? Let the Soviets fund whoever they wanted? Once that was done, the will of the people of those countries was already subverted. The US was doing no evil by intervening against the Soviet intervention. It’s funny how many leftists in the US claimed those groups were authentic grassroots nationalists, yet as soon as the Soviet Union’s money was cut off, most of them just faded away. The greatest virtue of the Reagan years was that it ended a lot of really stupid strains of thought among the left-wing intelligentsia. If a moron like Reagan could make such simplistic ideas work, then how could liberals push opposite truths with any kind of credibility? You should thank Reagan. The left and center left learned a lot from those years and came back stronger. ---
**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:** [January 27, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/171 "2016-01-27T20:48:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > **The greatest virtue of the Reagan years was that it ended a lot of really stupid strains of thought among the left-wing intelligentsia.** If a moron like Reagan could make such simplistic ideas work, then how could liberals push opposite truths with any kind of credibility? You should thank Reagan. The left and center left learned a lot from those years and came back stronger. Such as? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/172 "2016-01-27T21:09:10Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > And in those cases, it was due to the US actually fighting those proxy wars, something liberals still haven’t forgiven the US for doing. Problem is, as ugly as such war is, what was the alternative? Let the Soviets fund whoever they wanted? Once that was done, the will of the people of those countries was already subverted. The US was doing no evil by intervening against the Soviet intervention. In Nicaragua and El Salvador, there was no Soviet intervention, there was only American intervention. > [@adaher](#): > > It’s funny how many leftists in the US claimed those groups were authentic grassroots nationalists, yet as soon as the Soviet Union’s money was cut off, most of them just faded away. The Sandinistas/FSLN in Nicaragua did not “fade away,” free elections have put them in and out of power several times since then. Apparently they had some real grassroots base all along. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/173 "2016-01-28T01:55:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In Nicaragua and El Salvador, there was no Soviet intervention, there was only American intervention. > > The Sandinistas/FSLN in Nicaragua did not “fade away,” free elections have put them in and out of power several times since then. Apparently they had some real grassroots base all along. Plus I spent some time in Nicaragua during the Sandinsta days of the 1980s and saw real grassroots support for them. ---
**Author:** ![JBGUSA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/258eb7/32.png) [@JBGUSA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBGUSA)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/174 "2017-10-01T23:59:32Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Plus I spent some time in Nicaragua during the Sandinsta days of the 1980s and saw real grassroots support for them. If they permitted real opposition once in power that’s fine. Not sure they do. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495/175 "2017-10-02T00:12:32Z")
Stop bumping old threads unless there is some substantive update. [/moderating] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reagan-good-or-bad-potus-the-will-oreilly-feud-resurrects-the-question-of-his-legacy/737495.md?page=8)