When he was Governor of CA (8 yrs) and then U.S. President (8 yrs) I was very into the Dem Party and paid no attention to him. Since I've left the Dem Party, I hear good things about him and his service. Talking to a friend today who is an longtime Independent, came out and said he was horrible. Went on about trickle down economics....I could not comment on this. How about a "few" words from some here. I have to read this pro/con summary. https://reagan.procon.org/
I wasn't a big Reagan fan. I was living in California while he was governor and he was pretty much the equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger or John McCain, insofar as he was registered as a Republican but acted like a Democrat. When he came back later, running for president as a family values, conservative Republican, he had good rhetoric but it was hard to take him at face value. I didn't vote for him either time. I think it was Pat Buchanan, who was a speechwriter and communications director during the Reagan Administration, who said later that Reagan gave the speeches but George H.W. Bush set the policies. I've also heard, and it makes sense that he was confronted by the establishment Republicans in much the same way as Trump was, only he gave in and agreed to take Bush on as his VP and to surround himself with Council on Foreign Relations members. Trump refused, and was stabbed in the back at every opportunity, even by those who pretended to support him.
I thought his administration produced some positive results but we have to remember that he followed the pretty lackluster President Carter. Under Carter, oil exploration on Federal property and the gulf stopped and we suddenly had an energy crisis whereas under Reagan, the rigs started producing again and oil prices went down. Under Carter, 50+ American hostages were being held in Iran but Reagan made it plain saying that when he was elected, he would bomb Iran hence the release of the hostages. The Vietnam War Memorial wall was introduced and Congress finally sat down and talked about Vietnam Vet claims regarding the effects of Agent Orange. Though I don’t think it had a lot to do with Reagan, the Soviet Union fell and the Berlin Wall was terminated. So far as the trickle down economics or Reaganomics so it was called, I think he was in the right church but the wrong pew. During his administration, taxes were cut in all the brackets but the largest cuts were made for the very top brackets which was supposedly done to support more job growth. Whether or not more jobs opened up I cannot remember but the more recent job growth under Trump was indeed helped by lowering business taxes and Federal deregulation. All that said, the Earned Tax Credit act which negates any Federal Taxes for low income families was initiated to lower the numbers of those in the poverty sector which to me, was a good move. Also, during the Reagan administration, Alcohol and Drug related disability claims were no longer paid out. I remember a man living at the Atlanta Union Mission when Carter was President whose doctor verified that he was not only an incorrigible alcoholic and drug addict but had been that way for 10+ years. He finally got his claim approved and not only made around $350 per month but got paid retroactively for 5 years. Reagan said no more and then there was no more. With that though, Reagan sat down with S. Burger, the president of AGRM (association of Gospel Rescue Missions) and between them and Congress, a road was opened up which would allow Rescue Missions to apply for and receive Federal grants for alcohol and drug related treatment programs and at the same time allow USDA food products to be distributed to applying missions to help feed the poor and homeless.
Unlike @Bobby Cole , I think Reagan was largely responsible for the fall of the USSR working with JPII, who had a vested interest in freeing Poland. The USSR was ripe for destruction, and Reagan pushed it over the edge, just as China is trying to do to the U.S. now. Reagan was also responsible for interrupting the slide of destruction for this country, just as I feel Trump was. Reagan condoned a number of questionable things, but I felt he was acting in what he thought was the best interest of the nation at the time.
Well I read all the posts and I found positive/negatves on Reagan. I'm not a whiz kid political expert by any stretch of the imagination, and know I've had a good life being a registered Dem for over 50 yrs and until covid hit I probably still would be....but TodaY'S Dems, can't get into them and got out. I have a hard time stomaching our current "leader" and pretty boy Newsom in CA deep blue corrupt politics.
There are still a couple of JFK type Dems like Joe Manchin out there whom I favor but the Dems have outright created a small war by being the party of wokeness which is all about divisiveness, hatred and envy. I for one would love to see either party go all in on the United States and our needs instead of shoveling everything we have into foreign pockets. Reagan was pretty much that way and I really feel that Trump followed in Ronald’s footsteps in a lot of ways. Putting America first isn’t a bad thing to do and it is a far cry from what is going on now.
Real wages started dropping during the early 1970s as part of late capitalism, and that was coupled with conventional oil production peaking plus petrodollar deals made with the Saudis. The '79 oil shock also made matters worse, so as part of recovery Reagan began to focus on spending and borrowing more to recover. This led to decades of that: https://seekingalpha.com/article/164163-krugman-and-the-pied-pipers-of-debt
It appears that Gov.Newsom is pretty upset about so many Californians moving elsewhere, especially to Texas, and there are ugly billboards being put up to try and discourage people from moving there. I thought this was probably satire, but a Bing search found the same info from several news sources like yahoo and msn.com; so Newsom really did this.
All that we are hearing lately are EV mandates coming from Newsom's mouth....send him to the moon, this once great CA is so lost.