The Reagan Legacy

I am personally sick of all the idolatry on behalf of Ronald Reagan. I spent my formative years under his yoke. And if you think Carter whipped you with whips Reagan whipped us with scorpions.The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. He spent us into debt to defeat a nation that wasn't really our enemy while schools went into decline. It is because of Reagan and Bush I's idiotic nuclear policy that I spent the better part of my childhood scared out of my wits about nuclear annihilation. As far as AIDS is concerned when one is the President of the United States one does not ignore an epidemic for six years. It was Reagan ignoring the epidemic that lead to it becoming a pandemic.I live in California and Reagan really fuct this state up royally when he decided that college and university students should pay fees instead of going to school for free as had been the traditional policy. If Reagan had had any sense he would have stayed an actor. He was lowsy at it but when you screw up a movie you don't put peoples lives in jeaopardy.And by the way--any one who has worked with alzheimers can tell you the symptoms start showing up way before the disease is ever diagnosed. That means that in the last part of his second term Reagan was already dealing with memory loss. And he had his finger on the red telephone ladies and gentlemen.This message has been edited by MexicanHotChocolate, 06-18-2004 02:00 AM

The Soviets only aimed their missiles at us because we aimed them at them first. You forget that we invented the damn things. And the only nation to ever use an atomic weapon in warfare is the US. And you forget that the Star Wars program was later proven to be largely a fraud.Are we better off without the communists? It seems that the former Soviet Union is now largely run by the mob. One set of thugs was traded for another.Reagan didn't make a major speech about AIDS until 1987, six years after he took office.
Yes the US is largely to blame for the AIDS epidemic getting worse, since the US could have put enormous resources into finding a cure if the Reagan administration wasn't so afraid of dealing with what was erroneously thought of as primarily a gay disease. The administration should have acted for what was in the best interest of the American people instead of bowing to the pressures of the religious right.And are you forgetting the Iran/Contra scandal in which President Reagan went out of his way to break the law, arm terrorists, and support right wing paramilitaries who went on to kill 50'000 people?Or what about the October surprise in which Reagan's men arranged for the hostages, whose release was negotiated by Carter, to be released after Reagan came into office?As far as the alzheimer's disease reference is concerned it was more to point out that the man was not fully in control of his faculties while he was still president. Although the Reagan worshippers would have us believe he didn't become ill until after he was out of office, which from personal experience with the illness is a lie.I don't hate Reagan the Man. I hate Reagan the Myth created by the elitists of the Republican Party who would have us believe he some how single handily saved western civ from evil commies, gays, environmentalists, and FDR style big government.I could go on but I won't...from dessert to another...ttfn.This message has been edited by MexicanHotChocolate, 06-18-2004 03:00 AM