Why do people worship Ronald Reagan?

Hollywood taught him how to speak well. Most people didn't bother to listen to what that awful fuck was saying.

Because it was on his watch that the Soviet Union and the Cold War came to an end.

He had great speechwriters and was able to deliver those words. R1 is correct. People didn't listen to the words, they heard the delivery.

America loves--no, worships--a bad parent.

Look at Trump's white female fan base.

R2, interestingly, when I was in Germany, there was a huge exhibit about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Never once did it mention Reagan’s “Tear down this wall!”

Only Americans think Reagan had anything to do with it

He made a fake good economy by borrowing up a storm, tripling the debt. The minute that stopped, the country went right into a recession

The same people who thought John Wayne was a real war hero loved Ronnie. The first fake POTUS.

His wife Nancy was the real power behind the throne. I read her memoir and she was Bad Ass. Even had an astrologer mapping out times for hubby to do this and that. During his last 4 years when he was going downhill fast Nancy propped him up like a puppet. She would actually have made a better President than him.

They were both kind of all show and very little substance.

What can you say about a man who made movies like Bedtime For Bonzo? That kind of summed up Reagan's overall mentality.

I was really young when he was POTUS, but it seemed like a backlash against 4 years of Jimmy Carter, Democrat peanut farmer from Georgia. Now that OP raised this topic, I do remember right-wingers feeling emboldened by Reagan being elected. Turd has emboldened racists, etc., to an extreme. Backlash against 8 years of a black, Democrat POTUS.

Also, it was the 80s, all that "greed is good" stuff, yuppie worship, money worship, etc. He was in keeping with the times.

Difference betw. him and Turd is that Reagan had good relationships with other world leaders. Turd is like the turd in the punchbowl when there's a gathering.

So let me get this straight... you had a two bit actor fool you once, then you let another show biz slime ball fool you again? Shame on you!

It was a long term trend. George Murphy before Reagan. Schwarzenegger after. Phyllis George at the same time.

Reagan was actually a humorless, grudge holding ideologue with a lot of anger. Not at all what he was portrayed on television.

He may or may not have liked gays, but his official policy was virulently homophobic. He and his political mates made public fun of AIDS and probably contributed to death of a million men. Why any gay man would defend him is beyond me.

Also, he gave power to the moral majority, screwed the middle class forever, destroyed our court system with terrible judges, and basically ruined the country.

Other than that, he was a shit.

R10 your disgusting language is like something in the punchbowl of this forum.

People mistakenly believe he was responsible for the 80s economic recovery after the horrible 70s stagflation. In reality, it was Carter and Paul Volcker who were responsible. Reagan wanted to fire Volcker orgiinally. But he kept him on and Reagan took all the credit.

[quote]interestingly, when I was in Germany, there was a huge exhibit about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Never once did it mention Reagan’s “Tear down this wall!” Only Americans think Reagan had anything to do with it

Not interestingly and not surprisingly, Germans refuse to give credit to an American president for keeping the Soviet Union out of West Germany and for the downfall of East Germany.

Reagan appointed O'Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy. Only 3 justices in 8 years (two terms).

O'Connor (woman) was known as the "swing" voter. Scalia was known as ... well, let's not speak ill of the dead. Not sure how Kennedy votes.

The Iran hostage mess cost Carter the election, but of course Reagan got involved in backchannel negotiations to help him win the presidency. If that helicopter hadn't crashed in the rescue attempt Carter ordered, Reagan likely would have been charged with treason and held accountable. It was the beginning* of the modern Republican party's slide into lawlessness. With each Republican administration since, we've seen greater and greater violations of legal norms, culminating with the current POTUS blatantly and flagrantly breaking the law with impunity. Once again, we can trace the fall of the nation to Reagan's feet.

*Yeah, Nixon, I know. At least he was held accountable, but this was in the old, quaint days when presidents thought impeachment was a bad thing and he resigned rather than facing ignominy; this was, I'd argue, the reason that Republicans were so desperate to wield impeachment as a weapon, and did so knowing that Clinton was never going to be removed. It desensitized the country to impeachment, which collided with Trump lawlessness and gave us the mess we're in now: a POTUS that everyone agrees violated too many laws to enumerate, and yet remains.

R8, Nancy Reagan looks like a progeria disease victim wearing a wig.

Reagan may have been a shitty president, but I love “The Hasty Heart” and “King’s Row”

Like most countries, the previous 15 years (65-80) were revolutionary and tumultuous. It wasn't a fun time - he promised a return to the 1950's, which was ridiculous but it was the last 'good decade' of prosperity and boom for white people.

People were sick of change and wanted stability. It's not such a mystery after the previous 15 years.

Was Nancy Reagan the inspiration behind bobblehead dolls?

He knew how to read cue cards.

You have to ask OP when you’re living in an age in which 41% of Americans STILL approve of Donald Trump as president? Don’t you have your answer right there?

I’ve noticed as the decades have worn on from the dreadful 80s, the adoration of Saint Reagan has steadily subsided.

He was with another woman the night Nancy gave birth to daughter Patti. Read it in a Bill O'Reilly book of all places.

I liked his Cold War stuff.

He was an absolutely horrible president, especially for gay people. He ignored the AIDS crisis, wouldn't even say the word, while thousands upon thousands died. He's an idiot and an asshole though not in the same stratosphere as Trump. All this Reagan worship is just history being rewritten. He was an awful president.

R25 Was it a real woman? Or one that had a penis?

R27 But how do you really feel? Please, don't hold back.....

Kind of shocking that he won all states but one in 1984.

I can't even imagine CA, NY, NJ, Massachusetts going red.

[Quote] Because it was on his watch that the Soviet Union and the Cold War came to an end.

Because of Gorbachev.

No one cares about Reagan anymore. It’s all about Trump. Look at fast they dropped Bush Jr. Reagan’s family cane out against Donald and they’re now pariahs.

He was an actor who played the role of POTUS. People fell for it. The GOP robbed the country blind while they watched the performance. And liberals fell in with wall street and became neo liberals so that even Obama professed admiring Reagan.

Nasty Nancy - I had all but forgotten about that cold, brain dead, vapid woman. She was a well-known bitch by all accounts and liked to steal clothing/jewelry that she was loaned. One of my first TV memories outside of cartoons was her stupid fried egg "this is your brain...this is your brain on drugs" advertisement that they bombarded us with 24/7. Of course my prudish, Evangelical, Republican parents said that "drugs" were terrible but never did describe what "drugs" even meant. It was one of those never-to-be-discussed topics - much like sex. Sex=bad, drugs=bad - no description, no discussion, but we were told just to never bring up those terrible, evil words. My first grade friends and I (we went to private Christian schools and were all in the same boat) literally equated "drugs" to have something to do with burnt eggs until middle school. That bitch Nancy was clearly a speed addict with an unfortunate looking wig; how she lived so long I have no idea.

R30 NJ was actually a battleground state back in 1992 and Clinton fought hard to get it back in his column. He and Bush famously campaigned there the same day and Tom Kean (ever the gentleman) went to support both of them. Most of my family has lived in NJ for generations and there were a lot a traditionally very Republican counties (but they’re all never Trumpers now). Traditionally was never as “liberal” as most NE/Mid Atlantic states.

This always surprises people too. I only know this because we always paid attention to New Jersey )for obvious reasons).

He was an actor. He was good looking and charismatic. He knew how to be charming and was a pro at public speaking. People are shallow as fuck and easily distracted by a glitzy facade.

Remember he also had a Democratic Congress so despite some of his rhetoric, in practice his administration ended up being comparatively “moderate” on most issues. He never went after Social Security or Medicare, as just one major example. Which was smart — Seniors were a major part of the Reagan Democrat coalition.

Reagan broke the backs of unions and hastened the end of good paying union jobs. He fucked the middle class. Many formerly booming factory towns are meth Central thanks in part to this asshole.

R38 Now the meth heads are supporting the GOP. Go figure.

Conservatives loved him because he was the first conservative President since Calvin Coolidge back in the 1920s. He empowered that wing of the party for the first time in over half a century.

Ordinary idiots love him because he painted a very black and white picture of America and the world, which was easy to understand and comforting after the chaos of the 60s and 70s had forced many Americans to start questioning the official national mythology. Carter was a scold who rightly told Americans that we would need to sacrifice for a better future, and he supported efforts such as the Church Commission which has been launched after Watergate which exposed all of the crazy immoral shit the government had been doing for decades. Reagan told us that America was the virtuous shining city on a hill that people had been taught it was in grade school, he told people no sacrifices were necessary for a better future (in fact, greed and shortsightedness were virtues), and instead of detente he increased American militarism which made small-dicked idiots feel good after the failure of Vietnam.

R40 - great analysis. This sums up Reagan in a nutshell - "he told people no sacrifices were necessary for a better future (in fact, greed and shortsightedness were virtues)". He was a far more insipid man at his core and not much of an actor either (quite awful in fact). He was a "snitch" who was strongly linked with Joseph McCarthy and the Hollywood witch hunts in the 40's and 50's. We now know how many innocent people were smeared for all the wrong reasons. Not a nice guy. This behavior benefited him at the time and no doubt empowered him to behave criminally as R18 mentioned as he transitioned to politics. He and his enablers were common crooks who behaved as all good Republicans do - they left future administrations a big mess to clean up when his short-term benefit policies turned into long-term negatives for the majority of the population.

Republicans love to put otherwise unqualified celebrity figureheads in top executive positions in their party, like Presidents Reagan and Trump and Governors Jesse Ventura and Arnold Swartzeneggar. The real power is with the operatives behind the curtain, with all their craft and cunning, who make all our lives miserable in pursuit of their evil ends.

He also fucked 15-year-old Liz Taylor when she went to him to lobby for a children's movie she was in (the story was told by herself).

I forget, was he the one who put in place the "trickle-down economy"? And dismantled the mental healthcare?

Or you might ask, Why do people worship the Kennedys or the Clintons? Never understood worshiping or idolizing politicians of either party. Most of them are amoral liars who are looking out for themselves, not us.

Reagan was a progressive pro-union until he met Nancy who turned him into a right-wing conservative anti-union corporate shill. He played up his aw-shucks persona like he was playing a character in a movie. The gullibles swallowed it up whole.

People forget the gas lines under Carter. In my state, your license plate last number (odds or even) determined what day you could even get in line for gas, and the lines were really long.... People were desperate for change and Reagan gave that to them.

They don’t anymore. Our current prez hated him and has bashed him as a crap prez( a broken clock) so the base has takes away his deification. The only good to come from this!

He was losing his memory during his second term and Nancy and his staff covered it up.

His secret service man tried to assassinate him, not the Jodie Foster guy

By the end of his second term, he had alzheimers

His policies depleted funding for inner cities, setting up the crack epidemic. And of course he ignored AIDS

The reason the country reveres Reagan is a public image campaign that started the second after he left office.

The GOP has worked to get something named for him in every state--eg, Washington National Airport became Reagan National Airport, etc

Whatever you want to believe about him, he was able to get 49 out of 50 states to vote for him.

"I was really young when he was POTUS, but it seemed like a backlash against 4 years of Jimmy Carter, Democrat peanut farmer from Georgia."

R10, you republican shill, Carter was a DEMOCRATIC peanut farmer, AND former Governor of Georgia.

Ronald Reagan ruined this country. If you're looking for a chief source of the wealth and income inequality in the U.S., he's your man (massive tax cuts for the most affluent).

Despite his image, he was an angry SOB. He hated government.

[quote] Whatever you want to believe about him, he was able to get 49 out of 50 states to vote for him

And the country continues to suffer

Reagan was a MOVIE STAR, even a lame one, even a bad actor. But you could see him act with Errol Flynn, Bette Davis and Bonzo on the Late Late Show, that is before Reagan deregulation gave us all night infomercials. People eat that shit up, unfortunately, just like the majority of Trump worshipers saw him as a TV STAR when he ran for president. Most people - even educated ones - flock toward STARS. That's why I thought in 2016 that the Democrats should draft Don Draper or even Bullwinkle to run against him.

He's not worshipped as much anymore by the right wing because they are ashamed to admit that he granted amnesty citizenship to several million Central Americans and Mexicans.

Reagan had dementia for most of his 2nd term

He had a beautiful speaking voice and was attractive and presidential looking, and the country was taken in by these superficial characteristics.

Well, there you go again....

R57 Are you sure Bullwinkle wasn't born in Canada? We don't want to give ammunition to the birthers?

Was just alive for the last two and a half years of his term, but it seems that he was able to get Americans to feel hopeful about their future after the Carter years, presided over a change in society that focused on business and wealth creation as good (while ignoring the concurrent poverty creation)

While the 80s were horrible for gays, for everyone else it is remembered as a dynamic hopeful decade where America and the American economy bounced back.

And unlike Trump who seeks to divide and plays on hate and fear, Reagan was able, on the surface, to deliver a message of hope and unity, "shining city on the hill" and all that.

I remember several professors/high school teachers referring to the era as "the Reagan Restoration"

What R27 said. Ronald Reagan was directly responsible for the deaths of millions by his inaction on the AIDS pandemic: all the right people were dying. His dreadful followers openly said “AIDS was the solution, not the problem.” I’d say fuck Reagan, but I wouldn’t want to get my dick dirty. Rot in hell, motherfucker.

aBefore Reagan the U.S. did not have a huge homeless population.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"

"Morning in America"

"...slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God"

Star Wars

"Freed" the Iranian hostages on his inauguration day. Even though nobody cares to know why or how they were freed. It was MAGICAL.

All of that is enough to make any Republican salivate.

[quote] The Iran hostage mess cost Carter the election, but of course Reagan got involved in backchannel negotiations to help him win the presidency.

The Iran hostage mess was precipitated by Republican David Rockefeller.

And the homeless population was because he closed mental hospitals and cut funding for mental health.

[quote]And unlike Trump who seeks to divide and plays on hate and fear, Reagan was able, on the surface, to deliver a message of hope and unity, "shining city on the hill" and all that. I remember several professors/high school teachers referring to the era as "the Reagan Restoration"

You (and several others on this thread) may want to look more critically at the quality of education you've received.

They discussed the negatives R69. It was Princeton, not Falwell Bible College, but for many Americans the Reagan years were good ones -- the "good" was just not distributed evenly

The man who attempted to assassinate Reagan - John Hinckley - is now remembered as a lone nutter with a Jodie Foster obsession. In reality, he was the black sheep son of a Texas oil tycoon who backed George HW Bush financially when he ran against Reagan for the GOP nomination. The two families were close. Maybe it's all just a bizarre coincidence. But it's a remarkable set of circumstances that have been thrown done the memory-hole.

We're still dealing with all the horrible shit that Reagan and his band of criminals started. It will take another 50 years at least for the country to right the course and do away with it.

Because he made extremist Christians a force to be reckoned with in the USA and that's what God would have done.

Ronnie was the crunch of the grave diggers spade.

[quote] By the end of his second term, he had alzheimers

I suspect he was suffering from Alzheimer's even earlier than that. Nancy's reliance on astrology has not been mentioned yet. Who knows how that sausage factory was operating.

RONALD REAGAN HAS A QUESTION FOR DONALD TRUMP:

To be fair, R75, R8 brought up astrology right out of the gate. Nancy and Reagan had a very weird relationship; they seemed pathologically close, so much so that they didn't pay enough attention to their children.

R77, I did do a word search, I guess I missed R8's post.

Somehow, I'm remembering that Ronald Reagan called Nancy "mother" a la the Pences.

R711 John Hinckley was actually at one of the Bush son's (Neil) just a few days before the attempted assassination on Reagan. There is definitely some connection there. Some believe he may have been brainwashed to kill Reagan.

He’s popular because Nancy Gabe great head to everyone

[quote] John Hinckley was actually at one of the Bush son's (Neil) just a few days before the attempted assassination on Reagan. There is definitely some connection there. Some believe he may have been brainwashed to kill Reagan.

Nixon warned people that I really know how to hate.

R76 I’ve been thinking that for months.

How can they not use that somehow?? It’s more prescient than ever.

For the same reason they worship Trump. They're stupid.

The only people who worship him are morons. And all republicans are morons.

For a long time the good things Reagan achieved were able to overshadow the failures during his administration. Now, people are more willing to acknowledge the bad with the good. For example, even Reagan admirers accept that amnesty for illegal aliens was a huge failure. It didn't stop illegal immigration. He also failed to control government spending or reform the executive branch.

He made rich people richer. There is a whole industry built up around the idea that making rich people richer is the true essence of good government. As long as there are rich people around to pay for that propaganda it will never go out of fashion.

[quote]He was with another woman the night Nancy gave birth to daughter Patti.

Don't look at me.

[quote]He was with another woman the night Nancy gave birth to daughter Patti.

Don't look at me.

Nancy gave head like a rabbit. So. That's it. Right??

In her memoir Nancy stated that Reagan came much closer to dying than the Press reported during the assassination attempt on him during his first term in Office. We'll just leave it at that.

Among other horrible things, Reagan was responsible for shutting down nut houses run by the government, and throwing all the people from them out into the streets to fend for themselves.

He was a walking, breathing horror, but the GOP had to find someone to make a hero since Nixon resigned in disgrace, Ford was a clown, George H. W. Bush only managed one term and left the country with a recession (and raised taxes, as did Reagan, 11 times), and George W. Bush was the worst president in US history. That is, until Donald J. Drumpf.

They could venerate Dwight Eisenhower, but he was not super deranged and actually was somewhat moderate in domestic policies, though he was an anti-Communist like Harry Truman. But Eisenhower, a war-winning, super-popular general, just doesn't cut it for the increasingly out of control GOP, so they settled on Reagan, who, in any case, is to the LEFT of Drumpf in terms of policies, and Reagan was on the far right during his long tenure in government, first as California's governor, then as the challenger to Nixon and Ford, then as President.

The Iran hostage crisis was hugely embarrassing for the US and there was a big sense that we "got our pride back" when he was sworn in and the hostages were freed.

I also think the moral panic of the '80s (which we're, unfortunately, starting to see resurface) gave his whole "war on drugs" and "tough on crime" stance a lot of appeal to people.

And, of course, the fact that he was shot generated a huge amount of sympathy for him.

Iran intended to release the hostages months earlier but didn't because of a behind the scenes arrangement with Reagan. That alone is tantamount to treason, as was the Iran-Contra affair.

R25 He was fucking Nancy while he was still married to Jane Wyman. So she shouldn't have been surprised that he was cheating on her too.

He presided over the height of American wealth, power, and influence. The climax came with the Revolutions of 1989, and it's all been downhill from there.

The Reagans believed in astrology and other occult shit and I have wondered why Evangelical conservatives never slammed them for that.

Ever heard of pussy grabbing and standing on Fifth Avenue and shooting somebody and not losing any voters R97?

Trump was spot on about that. Evangelical conservatives are deeply flawed and selfish people and only care about things very subjectively. They literally go against nearly everything that christianity stands for. The only care when something affects them as a loss. They are prepared to put up with anything as long as they have "their" perceived tyrant in power.

So Evangelical conservatives literally couldn't give a fuck as long as they got what they wanted.

R98 "Evangelical conservatives are deeply flawed and selfish people and only care about things very subjectively. They literally go against nearly everything that christianity stands for."

*This*

The PBS show on the Reagan years ended with an interview with his son who said his father never cared or connected with the kids so when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it wasn’t a big loss because he was never much of a father to begin with.

R100 Repigs only care about themselves. It’s the one quality they all share.

Actress Piper Laurie claims she lost her virginity to newly divorced Reagan. He was a slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am type. When she questioned him on why she felt nothing, he told her it was her fault she was "frigid." Writer Doris Lily said Reagan date raped her.

R100, Michael Reagan the adopted son (who's a jerk) said he had to introduce himself to Reagan at his HS graduation. Ron Jr has written extensively on how distant and uninvolved his father was in his life. The disconnect was waaaay before the Alzheimer's.

R14 LOL! Clutch those pearls, you fat whore!

[quote] Why do people worship Ronald Reagan?

Because America has been in decline since the end of its industrial years, and Reagan was a chance to pretend none of that was happening.

Many Americans want others to do the heavy lifting, and Reagan and Co. gave them all of the benefits of having a fascist government and/or monarchy - where a big benevolent daddy makes decisions for us and keeps us safe - with none of the obviousness or ugliness that Trump has been trotting out these last years.

Basically Reagan was elected because he was "nice." He looked friendly, happy and had a nice warm personality. Doesn't matter what the issues were, doesn't matter what his policies were or what his administration did/didn't do. People had confidence in Reagan, and he was nice. Did I say nice?

THAT'S the reason Reagan was/is worshiped. THAT'S how simple minded stupid people are.

Part of it, too, was that Carter, who is a truly beautiful soul, was hit with a number of issues at the end of the 70s that peeled back some of the workings people didn't want to see. They had to face things like gas shortages, collapsing industry and a decline in our place in the world (which is now shot, anyway).

So as I said at R104, Reagan gave them a leader that looked the part and played the part of a somewhat benevolent CEO. The reality for many was quite different, though......

People worship Reagan because of a well-planned propaganda campaign to make us believe he actually did something good for the country.

The campaign conveniently leaves out the fact that he tripled the debt, left us with a recession, gave tons of money to the wealthy, and gave amnesty to 3 million illegals.

Carter was a dreadful communicator, one of his problems. Though I don't think ANYONE elected in 1976 would have survived the 1980 election, even Reagan.

As for present day, Reagan is worshiped, even by those born after he was in office, because they are TOLD he was the greatest. These things get ingrained in people's minds who don't like to think on their own.

Rosalynn Carter offered the American people nothing but polyester pantsuits, Tupperware, and despair.

I wore couture by Scaasi, Galanos, and Bill Blass. I commissioned new White House china. I gave you all CLASS.

^^ Classiest Hollywood blow job queen ever. ^^

R109, you forgot - Carter offered solar panels and keeping the thermostat and the program that prohibited public buildings from setting thermostats above 65 degrees in the winter or below 78 in the summer.

Reagan indexed social security to inflation, so during the 1980s real income went up dramatically for elderly while it fell by 25% for young people, starting the war of the old against the young. The ironic thing here is that the Republicans actually hate the elderly and their entitlements. This was always a bit of fake to this largesse, such as when GWB added prescription drugs to Medicare, but allowed the drug companies to raise prices so within 3 years they were charging as much as they had before the "benefit" plus getting a government subsidy. That elderly are still voting republican is shocking to me, because so entirely stupid.