Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
But then, I'm pretty sure Reagan didn't either and he was the greatest president of my lifetime.
What was so great about Reagan? The cult of personality of Reagan requires republicans to build a mausoleum since they seem to be stuck in the 80s.
Reagan was an old man (possibly with Alzheimer's at the time of his presidency) who liked to talk tough, tripled the national debt in the name of "fiscal responsibility" repealed the fairness doctrine that gave rise to douchebags like Limbaugh and Hannity and cut the taxes deeply for the rich. Let's take what they say about him and compare it to reality:
1. Regan won the Cold War. Technically Soviet Union dissolved during Bush I presidency but let's take the point head on regardless. The foundation for US victory in the Cold War was laid during WWII and its aftermath. US got the nuke first(and thermonuclear weapons and neutron bomb...) which was crucial but even more importantly EVERY single major power other than US was bled dry or bombed out or both. Soviet Union was utterly devastated by WWII, USA was unscratched and better than ever. All of this meant that Soviet Union started Cold War WAY behind and other than accomplishments in certain areas (getting first man into space for example) was ALWAYS behind.
Establishment of NATO and policy of containment along Marshall plan (all acomplished during Truman presidency Kennan authored that policy) were instrumental in making sure US and Western Europe would not lose the Cold War.
All of this does not address the main reason why Soviet Union lost the Cold War which was that the Soviet Union had a Communistic economy that was a stillborn child and that it vastly overextended itself beyond its economy's ability to sustain such imperialistic delusions.
It is said that it was because of Reagan's arms race that Soviet Union collapsed. That would be a distortion. The whole Cold War was an arms race. There were periods of superificial thawing (Detente) but insane amounts of money were spent on arms by both sides. The problem for Soviet Union was that it could no longer sustain its expenditures after 70 years of communism(and lower prices for commodities). Soviet Union got used to revenues that were artificially high as a result of the Arab OIL embargo and got itself into Afghanistan (War in Afghanistan started during Carter administration Brzezinski tricked them there) When OIL prices returned to normal levels Soviet Union got jacked up. Saying that Reagan "lowered" the oil prices is a bit silly. Saudi Arabia was interested in pumping as much oil as possible because the oil embargo clearly did not work (Soviet Union was selling a lot of oil while Arab states did nothing)
In essence the situation is similar to what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela. His socialist state is on the verge of collapse and the only thing that keeps it from dying is the high price of oil. When and if Venezuela gets economically ruined it would not because of Uncle Sam's belligerence it would be because Hugo is a moron who could not keep expenses tied to the revenue.
2. Second myth address the greatness of the Reagan economy. Here too it is important to realized that Carter got screwed by the financial aftermath of the Vietnam war and the oil embargo. He never had a chance. Reagan railed against the size of government but increased its most wasteful component (the military) to insane levels, tripled the national debt and cut taxes while increasing spending. Brilliant strategy. My grandchildren's grand children will still be paying it off. Btw, I believe Soviet Union would have collapsed anyway, it is just that long term economic damage to US would be smaller.
So what was "special" about Reagan. He kept saying things like Good Morning in America, Soviet Union is an evil empire Our good days are ahead of us, etc. His tough talk appealed to red necks, and general feel goodism was just what the doctor ordered after "weak" days of Carter. I personally believe that if you switched Carter and Reagan presidencies chronologically Reagan would be a miserable failure and Carter would be more successful.
I am not even going to go into Iran-Contra and other crap, it is not important.
P.S My favorite republican president is Eisenhower.
