If I could wave a magic wand and undo a Presidency, it would be Reagan's.
Trump was a big loud stupid animal, but almost completely ineffective at legislative work. McConnell carried all the water of his few cruel "accomplishments." All Trump wanted to do was hear/see himself talk/tweet. He thankfully got in his own way a lot.
Reagan, on the other hand, was competent evil, and his malice towards American peasants is felt by most of us every day whether we realize and acknowledge it or not. One of the few people I can say without an ounce of guilt or shame deserved the traumatic way he died and far worse.
I see a lot of comments posted about Reagan, like this one, that infer that he was the mastermind behind reaganomics. The evidence though suggests otherwise. It more likely that Reagan was the perfect headpiece to the administrators that pulled the levers.
There’s a great story that was told by former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, about how on his first trip to the USA he had dinner meeting with Reagan to talk about economic matters globally, and domestically between the US and Australia. Hawke told of how once the pleasantries were over and they started to talk shop, Reagan handed the conversation to the advisors, who were also present, whilst Reagan sat there munching on his steak. Hawke said Reagan looked oblivious and was uninterested in the discussion.
Destructive president, absolutely. Evil genius, not so sure. I think that title silts squarely on Maggie Thatcher.
James Garner was Reagan's Vice President when Reagan ran the Screen Actors' Guild. Garner said that Reagan could barely handle that job, when he was much younger.
There's no suggestion. He was almost certainly demented already save on several occasions referred directly to his "handlers" about speech and question preparation.
My favorite is the televised address where he was asked a question and they turned out the lights and shuffled Reagan offstage but not before he says something to the effect of "my handlers have told me not to answer that".
Perhaps that's where this timeline went off the rails.
He wasn't supposed to survive.
There was a urban myth called the Zero Theory. Lincoln was elected in 1860, died in office. 1880 President Garfeild died in office, 1900 McKinley died in office, 1940 President FDR died in office, and 1960 President JFK died in office. The 1980 President should have died in office...
edit...skipped Harding, elected 1920 and died in office.
Don't forget the AIDS crisis.
Oh, my friend, I never did.
I made a point of not itemizing his innumerable sins against humanity, because I have in the past, and I didn't feel like taking an hour on my reply.
I'd say Nixon, without the Southern Strategy, the republican party wouldn't have been basically taken over by the subsumed Dixiecrats.
Andrew Johnson. He reversed the reparations that were starting to happen, and put the former slaveholders back in power in the south. By the time Grant got into power, the slaveholders were firmly entrenched again.
All the problems of the modern day conservatives date back to not finishing the civil war, and Andrew Johnson is the reason why.
Reagan and certainly Nixon are two we could have done without. Pretty much every ill and evil of the modern conservative movement can be traced back to one or the other, or both.
Same
Well well well...
Reagan, on the other hand, was competent evil
At first, anyway...
Big Loud Stupid Animal
you win the internet today. thank you kindly.
The sad part is that some of those kids probably grew up to vote for Trump.
These are children.
What excuse do modern Republicans have? When they made jokes about Pelosi's husband getting beat with a hammer?
Why do I have to pretend to be sad when people I hate die?
Fun fact: John Hinckley is out of prison. He has a YouTube channel where he records cute little love songs and he sells art on eBay.
I hope he's gotten over Jodie Foster.
Based
Fake story. Everyone knows that only Republicans hate the other side enough to support political violence.
Downvote as your country is dismantled by people who think their own political positions are more important than the will of the people, and who will break whatever laws they want to advance them. Cheer the people who do it. Cling to your failed state.
America today is the direct descendant of the America which cheered the attempted assassination of a president whose policies they disagreed with. And all of you here who cheer the resolution of political differences with violence are cheering living in a failed state.
Do you support James Earl Ray's choice to resolve his political differences with violence?
Your country has become a joke, and you're all supporting that.
Remind me what power MLK had that could make tens of millions of peoples' lives worse just because he was a selfish asshole
And here is the expected non-sequitar. Your country is a joke and you just try to deflect.
Go make a difference, stop rubbing yourself against Lemmy posts to get off.
Do you or do you not support people who resolve disagreements by assassinating people? Or is it just the people who you deem worthy of death that should be assassinated?
Maybe we could democratise this, maybe vote on who should be assassinated to keep it fair, so it's not just one guy on Lemmy deciding?
Maybe we don't need to assassinate people at all.
