After hearing Wednesday’s homage to Reagan, it seemed that a lot of the people on stage ignored a lot of the things Reagan did that Republicans today would find anathema. Such as?
Selling arms to Iran?
Here’s a start:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2014/02/06/3258121/reasons-tea-party-hated-ronald-reagan/
Since this is about politics, let’s move to Great Debates.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Boy, liberals sure do loooooove dead conservatives, don’t they?
When Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan were alive, liberals called them trigger happy maniacs, racists, bigots and fascists. Now that the’re safely dead, liberals pretend they always admired Goldwater and Reagan, who were such rational, reasonable guys- not like the right wing maniacs the GOP always nominates these days(Mitt Romney, John McCain, Bob Dole…).
You said it. 
Negotiating peace treaties with our enemies in pursuit of Nuclear détente.
Where did you get that? In my experience, liberals just like to point out that the Reagan conservatives love to idolize probably wouldn’t be considered all that conservative nowadays.
Nothing about looooooove.
Naaaaah!
We hated many of their policies when they were alive. The irony is that, even so, many of their policies would make them unelectable to their adherents and admirers today, because they’re too “liberal”. Some of these things are things that liberals actually somewhat agree with (although they’d probably push them farther than Regan or Goldwater proposed), but there’s still plenty of stuff they supported that we didn’t like.
Not at all. You don’t see any “liberals” saying Goldwater and Reagan were right. They’re just pointing out that contemporary conservatives who do claim these people as their role models aren’t really following their example.
In a word: baloney.
The GOP selected lifelong liberal Mitt Romney last time out. Please don’t try to tell me the party has shifted to the far right.
Can you give us some examples of liberals who expressed general admiration of the policies espoused by Reagan and Goldwater?
Is this a joke? Simply the fact that you identify Mitt Romney as a liberal shows how far right the party has shifted.
Back in those days there was more support for some policies and not others. On both sides, not just liberals. I don’t remember much liberal opposition to negotiating with the Soviet Union. I don’t remember much opposition to saving Social Security. Plenty of opposition to lots of other things, though.
Reagan spoke as an ideologue but acted as a pragmatist (like in raising taxes.) Republicans today seem to reject pragmatism.
Works both ways… Many of the things John F Kennedy did would be anathema to the current dems.
Not a fair comparison to compare politicians of one era to politicians of another.
The GOP has moved so far right that it’s collective cock has a right handed bend in it.
This is nothing less than absurd.
EVERY Democrat now supports gay marriage, a position even George McGovern in his prime would never have supported. Please do not try to pretend it’s the Republicans who have shifted.
Romney was pro-abortion and established socialized medicine as governor of Massachusetts.
What would YOU call that?