Quote:
Originally Posted by Nepeeme2008
Otherwise, yeah, he was not a great president, but he was a man of integrity.
No. He was an absolute ****. He began his presidential run in Philadelphia, Mississippi. A small town of no note except for the brutal murder of three civil rights workers there. And Reagan went there and kicked off his campaign by giving a speech about states' rights, aka why Southern states should be able to continue segregation without federal interference. That's pretty much the definition of a racist dogwhistle.
Economically, he broke the unions by firing all the air traffic controllers during their strike. He tripled the debt in order to hand out massive tax cuts to the rich. Combined, these policies set us down the road to the awful economic stratification we have today. Since 1980, hourly productivity is up 140%. The average worker's wages are up 9%. The other 131% has all been captured by the top-level elites.
In foreign policy, Reagan began by sabotaging the Carter administration's efforts to bring home the hostages from Iran. Reagan offered the Ayatollah a better deal if he waited until after Reagan's election to release the hostages. An utterly cynical and evil betrayal of the United States. Then of course there was Iran-Contra, in which Reagan sold weapons to Iran (you know, the regime that leads mass chants of "Death to America" every night, and sponsored terrorism worldwide), then took the money and gave it to the Nicaraguan Contra terrorists and death squads.
The man was a traitor to the country, and 40 years later his policies are still ****ing us up. I have no idea how his legacy has stayed so strong. Reagan should be dug up and shot.