Republicans look to Reagan era for inspiration

[Damocles]

I agree Desh. While Regan was a much better leader than Bush (that's really not saying much) there's nothing awe inspiring about him. You left out the fact that he largely ignored the AIDS epidemic when it was in its infancy.

This article may change your view on this.

Article from NRO...

The good parts are about halfway down... Here are some excerpts...

"As I recall, from 1984 onward — and bear in mind that the AIDS virus was not identified until 1982 — every Reagan budget contained a large sum of money specifically earmarked for AIDS," says Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter and author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. "Now, people will argue that it wasn't enough," Robinson adds. "But, of course, that's the kind of argument that takes place over every item in the federal budget. Nevertheless, the notion that he was somehow callous or had a cruel or cynical attitude towards homosexuals or AIDS victims is just ridiculous."

In February 1986, President Reagan's blueprint for the next fiscal year stated: "[T]his budget provides funds for maintaining — and in some cases expanding — high priority programs in crucial areas of national interest…including drug enforcement, AIDS research, the space program, nonmilitary research and national security." Reagan's budget message added that AIDS "remains the highest public health priority of the Department of Health and Human Services."

Precise budget requests are difficult to calculate, as online records from the 1980s are spotty. Nevertheless, New York University's archived, hard copies of budget documents from fiscal year 1984 through FY 1989 show that Reagan proposed at least $2.79 billion for AIDS research, education, and treatment. In a Congressional Research Service study titled AIDS Funding for Federal Government Programs: FY1981-FY1999, author Judith Johnson found that overall, the federal government spent $5.727 billion on AIDS under Ronald Reagan. This higher number reflects President Reagan's proposals as well as additional expenditures approved by Congress that he later signed.

Reagan did far more for AIDS victims than he will ever receive credit for, in fact he cared very deeply about the effect of this disease...

[Damocles]

Does anybody remember his opposition to Proposition 6 in California? Proposition 6 called for the dismissal of teachers who "advocated" homosexuality in the classroom. He used a statement to the Press and wrote an article about it. At that time he was the Governor...

"Whatever else it is," Reagan wrote, "homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual's sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child's teachers do not really influence this." He also argued: "Since the measure does not restrict itself to the classroom, every aspect of a teacher's personal life could presumably come under suspicion. What constitutes 'advocacy' of homosexuality? Would public opposition to Proposition 6 by a teacher — should it pass — be considered advocacy?"

His opposition was considered instrumental to the failure of the proposition.

[uscitizen]

Look farther back when Regan was a union leading Demoncrat.....defending commies....

[OrnotBitwise]

I don't either, but I like how Cypress desribes what Reagan did with the religious right. And he did do that.

True, but I think that's less important than some of the really heinous things he did with the other face.

I'm going to make an admission I will probably regret later. I actually agree with some of the conservatives here that the religious right isn't really as important as we libs sometimes make them out to be. Yes, they're ugly and horrible and pretty much worthless as human beings. The thing is that most people can tell that they're ugly, horrible and pretty much a waste of skin. The really bad ones make up less than 25% of the population and never will amount to more than that -- IMHO.

I think that, on the whole, the religious right is less dangerous to the nation than are the big business, anti-labor, proto-plutocrats. The pro-business lobbies within both major parties, combined with the all-too-willing militarists, will be the people who do in our nation.

And Reagan was God to that faction.

[uscitizen]

Yep, the religious right and others are just distractions from the greater goal of the corpies Ornot.

[Cypress]

True, but I think that's less important than some of the really heinous things he did with the other face.

I'm going to make an admission I will probably regret later. I actually agree with some of the conservatives here that the religious right isn't really as important as we libs sometimes make them out to be. Yes, they're ugly and horrible and pretty much worthless as human beings. The thing is that most people can tell that they're ugly, horrible and pretty much a waste of skin. The really bad ones make up less than 25% of the population and never will amount to more than that -- IMHO.

I think that, on the whole, the religious right is less dangerous to the nation than are the big business, anti-labor, proto-plutocrats. The pro-business lobbies within both major parties, combined with the all-too-willing militarists, will be the people who do in our nation.

And Reagan was God to that faction.

But the plutocrats only hold power, because of their coaltion with working class bible thumpers whom they've convinced to vote against their own economic interests. Without the bible thumpers, the plutocrats would never hold a majority. So, the ignorance of the bible thumpers is extremely dangerous for the rest of us, because they are so easily manipulated.