Reagan restored pride in an America still reeling from the loss in Vietnam, Watergate and the economic troubles of the 1970s. But the pride he restored was an empty one, a vainglorious pride in America based not on America’s strengths but on its myths. It was the pride that people have in their football teams, chanting “USA! USA! USA!” from the stands without considering what any of it meant or whether it was warranted. The narrative was not that America was great because of its accomplishments but simply because it was America, and that’s a rationale as thin as a Hollywood backdrop.
Right, right - setting the stage for winning the Cold War, overcoming stagflation, holding a wildly successful Olympics, eliminating nuclear missiles in Europe, bombing the Libyans, driving the Cubans out of Grenada, leading the world into the information age, the longest sustained expansion of the economy in US peacetime history - all that was irrelevant. It was just empty chest-thumping.
Your problem is the same as the Dems had in 1984 - they were pretty much forced into a campaign strategy based on “who are you going to believe - me, or your own eyes?” The electorate looked at what the Dems were claiming, then looked around themselves.
And re-elected Reagan by a landslide.
:shrugs:
Keep at it, though - maybe it will come true after all.
Regards,
Shodan
The electorate also re-elected GWB. Clearly, he must have been a good president, right?
Already addressed ad nauseum.
The recovery started under Carter as energy efficiency and global oil production increased.
I’m not entirely sure how Reagan gets the credit for that. He didn’t get us the games (in fact LA won because the only other interested city at the time was Tehran and they dropped out due to some fuss or another) and I’m pretty sure he didn’t win any medals there.
True, the START talks were very important. Bonus points to him for that. Pity about the SDI bullshit.
Both worthy efforts…at making Americans feel big and tough. And in the latter case, helping them to forget about Beirut. Not sure why either is considered an accomplishment.
You’re thinking of Al Gore.
Howcome when people point out Clinton’s economic growth it was just because he happened to be in office at the time, but Reagan was directly responsible for a booming economy (but not of course the explosion of debt nor the S&L scandal that cost nearly a trillion to fix)?
Still is. You’ve offered a bunch of feel-good events and some very dubious credit for economic changes. But at least you’ve got [del]chicken[/del] nuclear disarmament.
Actually, I think the electorate looked at Walter Mondale and went “boooooooooring” (and, sadly, I had to agree). Then they went with the guy who talked tough and blew things up.
Reagan staged the Olympics?
Gosh, is there anything that man couldn’t do?
The Tigers won the series in 1984. Like Olympic fans we owe a great deal of gratitude to Reagan for that.
Reagan cured my scroffula with his touch!
You let a strange old man touch your scrofula? Eww…
Reagan did change the tax code
Then there was:
Iran-Contra (George HW Bush pardoned Reagan and himself)
HUD scandal
Lobbying scandal
EPA scandal
Inslaw scandal
Savings and Loan debacle
and:
The shatilla massacre
The loss of the marines in Beirut (Reagan personally held them at the airport against the requests of the commander on the ground)
Violation of the Boland ammendment
Reagan is drifting down in the Presidential rankings. Soon, perhaps, the Washington National Airport will revert to it’s proper name and the Reagan fad will be over.
Crane
Says the guy with a detailed, masterful knowledge of Clinton Administration foreign policy strategy obtained by once watching “Black Hawk Down”. 
If you don’t like what you see in the mirror, it isn’t the mirror’s fault.
If you can actually address, with facts, anything else I’ve said about Reagan and your views of him, go right ahead. If you’d rather stomp your little foot and pout some more, well, go right ahead.
Gyrate, well said. Reagan had a worldview that amounted to “Us good, them bad”. That’s always an easy sell to the uncritical, and, when combined with the occasional military adventure against “them” that can arouse jingoism and distract from the facts. A leader who can sell that shit well can even be remembered by some as “great”, sadly.
Yes and I’m completely serious. Nixon was a classic self-made made who opened up China, maintained a strong stand in the Cold War, was moderate on domestic issues, and maintained national cohesion in a time of turbulence.
…aaaaaand? Anything else at all?
“Watergate! Watergate!” Has any man been so condemned for just one of his actions ignoring all his other beneficial actions?
This statement, all by itself, displays your complete ignorance of Nixon and of the times.
I’ll note that Nixon resigned because Republicans were signing onto his impeachment and conviction. Why do you suppose that was?
Nixon just got caught while JFK got away with election fraud and Mafia connections because he had far more powerful allies in the media and elsewhere.
Nixon was a bit before my time, but maybe he united the US by making everyone hate him? Just a thought.
One of his actions? The President of the United States personally directed the obstruction of justice from the White House.
Nonsense. Neither Texas nor Illinois can be shown to have been won by Nixon in 1960. In fact, the Illinois Board of elections, consisting of four Republicans and one Democrat, unanimously rejected the GOPs appeal. The GOP aggressively challenged results in a number of other states as well, and won only in Hawaii.
You’re doing nothing here but demonstrating your ignorance.
And your evidence for this remarkable set of suppositions is?
Perhaps the proof is hidden on titanium sheets on the far side of the moon, put there by the alien creatures that exposed Nixon by forcing him to do his evil acts by using their mind rays?
Paul Volker (first appointed by Carter) is largely credited with ending inflation. Reagan fired him.
I thought conservatives always say that was Al Gore? 
Seriously Shodan, even though I don’t often agree with you, you are an intelligent guy.
Carter didn’t end inflation; Al Gore didn’t invent the internet.
I’m glad I’m not so fond of either politician that I can convince myself otherwise.