Regarding the list of Reagan's quotes up there... I'd have a tough time believing that many of those weren't said in jest (remember the ill-timed, "we will begin bombing in five minutes" quip?).
And I agree with T-Monay. I loved that quote.
Quote: Indeed, the federal debt increased 450% during his administration.
I’ll grant you that – primarily due to ballooning defense spending – the federal debt did go up. But using percentages is misleading for obvious reasons (base sizes distort the truemeaning).
Quote: Oppose economic sanctions against South Africa because there was one country who knew how to keep the darkies in they place.
I dislike sanctions, whether it’s against South Africa, Cuba, pre-war Iraq, or wherever. It shouldn’t be up to the federal government to decide with whom each of us, as individuals, should and should not be permitted to trade with.
Quote:Spend billions and billions of your children's dollars on a failed war on drugs.
I have yet to find one modern day president who hasn’t spent billions on the failed War on Drugs. There won’t be one Republican or Democrat that will roll the political dice on this one.
Quote:Increase the size of the federal government more than any other president in U.S. history unless you count the size of the military during WWII. Even Lyndon Johnson and his Great Society programs didn't increase the size of the federal government as much as Reagan.
Here's what I don’t understand... This may be true, but why would someone who stands firmly left-of-center list this under 'bad' accomplishments?
The one thing I really don't agree with some Republicans on is the whole "Bush is the new Reagan" nonsense.
Reagan was the Great Communicator, Bush can't speak extemporaneously.
Reagan wrote all of his radio copy in the 70s and when President, he heavily edited what speeches he didn't write. Bush reads what is put in front of him, and that's about it.
Reagan, in what spare time he had as President, wrote countless letters to his pen pals/correspondents that he'd accumulated over the years - and he'd do it often in longhand. When Bush gets spare time, he sleeps.
Reagan set the bar high, talked tough and walked the walk, but at the same time engaged the US's mortal and moral enemies to try and turn them into something less inimical. Bush blusters at the world and tells them all to get in line because We're Right, You're Wrong.
Peace is a misunderstood process IMO. Too many Libertarians believe peace comes simply from pacifism. Too many neo-conservatives think peace comes from conquering other people. Both are wrong.
People have a tendency to kill each other. Any strategy of conflict is fundamentally based on reciprocity. When someone attacks, you have to respond, or else they will keep attacking till they kill you. Becoming a pacifist is a one-way ticket to the big libertopia in the sky. Conversely, when someone doesn't attack you, you leave them alone.
Often, a small token offering of cooperation can be the first step in reversing a succession of bilateral defections. Reagan avoided WWIII, not by laying down arms, but by signalling that the US was ready to reciprocate any aggression by the USSR, and also by reversing the trend of successful defections in the arms race by offering a token of cooperation first, all the while convincing his enemy that their system was broken.