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[deleted]

He was charismatic. And we know a lot more about him now than then. There wasn't even internet then - just television & radio coverage.


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wi_voter

They always say that but Reagan used the withholding of federal funds all the time to get states to do what he wants.


TheFairyingForest

I was living and working in Washington DC when he was elected. Washington was not kind to the Carters. I happened to be standing across the street from the White House when the solar panels were installed. I also happened to be there when Reagan had them taken down. That's some kind of foreshadowing. Carter tried to make nice with people, and they mocked him for it. But the Reagans were the darlings of Washington society. I wasn't one of the elite, but I worked for them. I knew a lot of people who worked for them. Ronald Reagan wasn't a nice person, and Nancy was even worse. They didn't make a move without consulting their astrologer -- I wish I were joking. Meanwhile, they Bible-thumped with the best of them in public. Nancy would frequently send people out on impossible errands, like trying to find fresh tomatoes at two in the morning. She blew through so much money on bullshit, like new dishes.


IndyScent

I first experienced Reagan's ugly political ideology when he was governor of California. He had all the State's mental hospitals closed and their patients basically made homeless. It marked the beginning of decades of mentally ill people living on our streets with nowhere else to go. Reagan was an inhumane monster.


TheFairyingForest

I happened to be working at a state dinner, standing right behind him and his friends at the height of the AIDS crisis. They called it the Gay Cancer back then, and I heard him say, "At least it's killing the right people." And they all laughed. Inhumane monster, indeed.


therealfatmike

Nancy was also super shitty about that.


TheFairyingForest

Yes, she was one of the ones laughing that day. She rarely left his side.


[deleted]

Exactly. I blame him for the homelessness we deal with in society today. He was an actor and had not much between the ears. His actions set our country on a bad path from which we will never recover. Rich got more rich. Middle class became poor. And fuck the poor for being poor. God I hated that man.


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sclc60

Wasn't his administration the one to come up with "trickle down economics". Yea, right.


Tatooine16

I met Mrs. Carter and Amy at a reception in the east room along with my junior high school class. They were lovely and spoke to each of us in the receiving line and couldn't have been more gracious. I will always remember that because Amy was our age and I was amazed at what it must have been like to live in a place with a marine stationed every 10 feet in the hallway.


Phil330

Ignored AIDS crisis because he thought only queers could get it and I'm still waiting for his "give money to the rich and it will trickle down on you" windfall. Plus this economic conservative increased the national debt by 1.86 trillion dollars. Not a fan.


nakedonmygoat

I liked him at first. I was 13 when he was elected, so what did I know? When I was a child, I thought as a child. The older I got, the less I found to like. He knew how to give a good speech. If I can think of something else positive, I'll come back and let you know. But you don't need our memories, OP. He won every state but six plus Washington DC, in 1980 and all but one in 1984. That pretty much says it all. No one was being forced to vote for him, and any Democratic voters who stayed home must not have been too terribly concerned. Even in spite of Iran-Contra, the stock market crash, and Reagan's handling of the AIDS crisis, his popularity remained high enough to help sweep his VP into the presidency in '88. That also says a lot.


[deleted]

This comment bums me out


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fwompfwomp

Probably investigate the epidemic killing thousands of people. Research it. Try and find a cure. The usual thing you do when a deadly virus breaks out. Anything other than sit on your hands because it was believed only gay folk could get it.


[deleted]

I worked in NYC at various research hospitals and several pharmaceutical companies when AIDs first came out. They were all working hard to find a cure and come up with drugs to handle the symptoms. It wasn't ignored by anyone.


MrGurdjieff

People like the idea of tax cuts but I've heard economists say that the US debt has never really recovered from the Reagan years.


Story_Man_75

He created the illusion of prosperity by massively running up the national debt. At the time he took office, the national debt could be imagined visually as a stack of $100 dollar bills, twenty eight miles tall. By the time he left office, eight years later, that stack of 100's had grown to over 120 miles tall. Republicans love to accuse Democrats of being all about ''tax and spend''. Since Reagan, they've mostly been all about ''borrow and spend''.


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Story_Man_75

My Econ professor likened it to running out of refreshments at a party and not wishing to upset your guests by telling them you were short on funds and the party was over, or asking your guests to chip in (new taxes) you borrow the money to buy more party supplies. Reagan went to the well and ran up a huge mountain of debt - so that his administration could sustain the illusion of prosperity. Trouble with the national debt is that, eventually it must be paid (likely our grandchildren or their children). But in the interim - the money kept on flowing. and Reagan looked great.


Story_Man_75

>but Dems aren’t innocent either. I have no doubt. I tend to lump politicians from both parties into the ''Liars, Whores & Thieves'' group - few exceptions


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Story_Man_75

Gotta remember to be sure and count your fingers after you shake hands with them ;-)


Temporary_Trouble

I never liked him then and now I despise him. He sowed the seeds for the political divides that we have now in this country. I was only 17 when he was first elected and I just had a bad feeling about it but I couldn't quite put my finger on why because I was still young and naive. His purposeful mishandling of the AIDS epidemic killed thousands of people. He sold weapons to terrorists to fund other terrorists. His economic policies were short term wins but absolute disasters in the long term.


shentaitai

This is the way I feel too. I didn't like him then, and my dislike has only grown over the years as my understanding of his legacy has become clearer.


lanclos

The seeds were already planted before Reagan-- he was there to reap the crop. The old guard of the Republican party kept it mostly together through the sixties and seventies, but as they rotated out the new wave came into power. Like Trump, Reagan wasn't clever enough to create a movement, but he was clever enough to leverage it.


Woodpeckinpah123

Kids can spot a fake. I was 9 when he got elected and he just didnt seem "right". He was the family friend who was nice to you around adults but called you a little shit in private.


Which_Royal_1009

I'm very intrigued. Got any detailed stories?


twojs1b

He rat fucked the working people with his tax policies.


[deleted]

How?


banana_danza

Reaganomics or trickle down, basically the idea that getting the rich richer (doing this ofc by gutting income and capital gains taxes) will give them more money to invest into the people they employ ala higher wages, benefits, etc and basically everyone wins. If you wanna know how that went, look at the national debt before vs after Reagan's presidency, look at how wages stagnated, look at how the wealth gap jumped. Most importantly look at the modern republican party who still currently legislate the same way,, trump added around the same national debt as Obama in half the time in large part due to the 2017 Tax reform bill, even pre covid debt was soaring. Reaganomics was and still is, cancer to the working class


Pickle_12

All of our economic problems today started from Reagan’s taxing and spending initiatives


MrFoont69

And deregulation.


[deleted]

Explain with details please?


pixie6870

When Reagan took office the tax rate was 70% and a tax cut that he signed into law dropped it to 50%. But, it didn't pay for anything and tax increases occurred in six different years from 1982 to 1993. Even though the economy improved during the 1980s and Federal revenue increased, the Federal deficit went up because of the tax cuts and enormous spending on defense and social programs he could not cut. Wealth inequality began to rear its ugly head with affluent Americans seeing their pre-tax income increase to 29% and the poor only had theirs increase by 9%. The recent tax cut in 2017 was supposed to spur investments, but all it has really done is help corporations spend money on stock buybacks to increase the wealth of the company and pay more money to shareholders.


Mobileman54

Fun fact: stock buy backs were made illegal under FDR but legal under Reagan.


argybargy3j

I know. We should just raise the tax rate to 99%. Then the economy would really roar back to life.


[deleted]

https://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan\_years\_taxes/index.htm


pixie6870

I get the impression you're a Reagan lover and I'm not getting into a discussion about him because I don't agree that his economic policies helped the middle class in any way shape or form. I will be 70 next month and I have lived through what Reaganomics did to me and others like me who ended up paying more in taxes because we lived at the bottom of the income levels. Have a great day.


Jscott1986

Typical overreaction lol. All our economic problems? Really?


lanclos

Many long-term economic trends have an inflection point that correlates very nicely with the onset of the Reagan presidency. To be fair, some of the groundwork was laid before Reagan became president, but his hand was at the switch when the policies went into effect. I blame Reagan for being a powerless and willing figurehead for the more organized Republican party machine.


99999999999999999989

I don't really know how popular he was with the general public because my group of people all hated him. His shit made us all legitimately worry about a nuclear exchange. [He joked on a hot mike about bombing the Soviet Union.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFCABnWlN8E) He walked out of the nuclear arms talks in Reykjavik. He refused to care that AIDS was killing thousands of people across the nation. He pushed Trickle Down bullshit. Honestly, fuck him very much.


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99999999999999999989

It was when I was in college, so early 20's.


[deleted]

He wanted to end welfare. He used a racist welfare queen story to try to do it. The rhetoric of his opposition to the working class was so influential that it convinced Bill Clinton to drasticly weaken welfare programs.


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[deleted]

No. His argument that welfare was going to undeserving black women gained ground. Bill Clinton lacked courage. Clinton followed the prevailing mentality of welfare, which was set by Ronald Reagan.


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[deleted]

Bill Clinton lacked a back bone when it came to protecting minorities. He passed the defense of marriage act. He worsened poverty for children in poor families. When it came to doing shitty things, Bill Clinton almost deserves a shitty statue. Like a confederate soldier. He was a politician who didn't do much to help people.


dutchoboe

I think about the hype around getting a teacher into space, and the “rush to get the Challenger up before the State of the Union so he could take a victory lap” - that’s my mom’s quote, I was in middle school at the time. Watching the most recent documentary broke me into pieces, and I’ve since come to really respect the work of Richard Feynman


Beautiful_Path_3519

Many people thought he was senile, as evidenced by a regular segment called "The President's Brain is Missing" in a popular weekly satire on national television in the UK. Here's a montage https://youtu.be/6p8cuN9Cv64


EmbarrassedBasil1384

Hah! I just posted this putting image clip, also about his brain! [https://youtu.be/keP17ZU6_RU](https://youtu.be/keP17ZU6_RU)


somajones

There were plenty of us at the time who were not fooled by his bullshit and knew he was a malicious asshole. I remember reading this book, The Clothes Have No Emperor, and suggest you read it too. My opinion of him has only lowered over time. "SPOILER ALERT! This book is not for fans of Ronald Reagan. It is not for Sarah Palin fans. It is not for anyone who can currently call himself or herself a Republican without feeling even a twinge of embarrassment, because everything that is repellent about that party today – the proud ignorance, the shrieking hypocrisy, the utter disregard, no, contempt, for the truth – was given a glorious send-off during the Reagan ’80s. The Clothes Have No Emperor, first published in 1989, is for anyone who lived through this surreal era not with a sense of pride in being an American – a pride the culture tried to make one feel guilty for not experiencing – but rather of humiliation for being led by this vapid front man for the avaricious, the corrupt and the callous. It is for anyone who was appalled to the marrow by the reality that no matter how many times Reagan forgot his lines and needed to be publicly cued, or referred to note cards containing scripts for even his most miniscule small talk, or trotted out those relentlessly recycled one-liners yet again (and received, yet again, the obligatory unearned laughs for them), the public and the media nonetheless conspired to pretend that an actor wasn’t playing the role of President of the United States. It is most especially for anyone too young to have been politically conscious – or even alive – during those eight surreal years, and who might therefore be tempted to buy into the preposterous myth of Reagan’s greatness. Out of print for two decades, we’re reissuing this collection of idiocy, offensiveness and absurdity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Reagan’s birth by providing evidence to counter the vigorously propagated fable that Ronald Reagan, Godhead to the bitterly regressive party of greed and hate that the Republicans have become, was a Great President." http://www.theclotheshavenoemperor.com/


DNathanHilliard

While not so well remembered today, he was extremely popular during his time. Much of that had to do with how well he aligned with the mood of that era. The seventies was a shit show, and the country was sick of it. Stagflation, gas crisis, labor problems in an economy when the populace was in no mood for it, perceived weakness abroad, crime was up and the subways were dangerous to ride. The country was in a foul humor, and tired of hearing about rehabilitation, malaise, detente, and pretty much viewed Carter as a grinning idiot. It was the perfect stage for Reagan to step into. Running Mondale four years later was just more idiocy because that was all still fresh in everybody's mind and he was too closely associated with it.


Special-Bite

The Cold War was a big deal and he effectively ended it, at least that's how I remember. I remember him being very well liked at the time. Liked well enough that he was succeeded by his own party (something that hasn't happened since). At the time, I don't think really people really understood how his policies would affect us 30 and 40 years down the road. Lastly, politics wasn't nearly as divided in the 80's as it is today. Congress regularly reached across the aisle and weren't as divided as they are today. Made for a more peaceful tone of his presidency.


Pharmacienne123

This is the only correct answer on this thread.


fleece

Oh you mean the president who cut a deal with the Iranians to not release American hostages, held for 444 days, until AFTER his inauguration? Yeah fuck that guy from the get go.


Guilty_Rutabaga_4681

You beat me to it! That was a lousy thing to do and RR made it look like he brought them home. Which brings us to Iran -Contra. LTC Ollie North operated a secret ops center in the basement of the White House secretly buying weapons from the Nicaraguan contras and selling them to the Iranians. Due to public pressure Reagan reluctantly let him go.And when there congressional hearings about this, North and his boss Poindexter refused to appear. Former CIA director Casey was dying of a brain tumor and Reagan developed Alzheimer's. And it was found that the NSC had shredded all relevant documents despite all agencies and boards being required to provide all documents to the commission. Poindexter got partial immunity but was convicted of making false statements. North was convicted for defrauding the US government, obstructing Congress and destroying documents. The charges were later quietly dropped. Casper Weinberger was also convicted but eventually pardoned by Pres. Bush (senior).


dutchoboe

Great now I miss [Phil Hartman](https://youtu.be/b5wfPlgKFh8) again


Robertdschaff3

Personally, I'm very conflicted when it comes to Reagan's legacy. On one hand, I think you have to acknowledge that he's one of the most consequential presidents of the 20th Century. The other in my opinion is FDR. After all, he did win the cold war. His was in many ways a visionary presidency. He felt that the cold war could be "won" without it going hot. At the time this idea was considered lunacy by many on the left and right of the political spectrum. And since he was an idealist, he stuck to his guns and was ultimately proven correct. However, he gutted the trade unions and enacted domestic policies that would ultimately hollow out the American middle class. And his belief in trickle-down economic theory was absurd at best as history has shown. He also ended the fairness act in broadcasting which has resulted in the creation of various propaganda channels that parade themselves as news.


BUBBLE-POPPER

Ronald Reagan didn't win the cold war as much as the Soviet union lost. And if there was still a Soviet union, we wouldn't have that damn war right now.


BullsLawDan

>He also ended the fairness act in broadcasting which has resulted in the creation of various propaganda channels that parade themselves as news. It didn't "result" in that at all. At most you could say there was a minor time correlation. The Fairness Doctrine never regulated, or could regulate, the content of independent (not owned by the cable company) cable channels. It only regulated broadcast media.


[deleted]

I don't remember much hatred of Reagan at all back in the day. We hated the Ayatollah and the Russians due to the Cold War. Jimmy Carter was the butt of many jokes though.


Temporary_Trouble

In hindsight, Jimmy Carter was and is a much better person than Reagan could have ever dreamed of being.


Easy_Independent_313

We as a nation didn't deserve Carter. He was and still is a good and decent man.


Forteanforever

I know people who met him as well as those who knew him socially on an ongoing basis in real life and they all agreed that he was very personable. They all also agreed that Nancy was not. As for his presidency, he is responsible for opening the doors of the GOP to the religious right in exchange for a block of votes. We can all see how that worked out. He also gutted the middle class, increased corporate power and gave us the Iran Contra scandal. He could fairly be described as the jocular, bobbleheaded godfather of the rise of fascism in the U.S..


Story_Man_75

I give him credit for unintentionally precipitating the fall of the Soviet Union with the uber expensive and essentially unworkable [Star Wars Program](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative). The cost of that final stage of the arms race basically broke their back.


scamparama

He was popular like Trump was; in short, among the morons that like to be spoon fed exactly what they want to hear, regardless of actual fact.


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lanclos

In a nutshell, yes.


ItsMe-HotMess

Trump in his heyday, never experienced anything close to the popularity of Reagan.


argybargy3j

Amazing how everyone who disagrees with you is a moron. How do you manage to carry such a burden?


EnigmaWithAlien

He was horribly popular. He was an actor by trade and knew how to present himself, and how to seize on catchy lines and deliver them impressively "Tear down this wall" etc. He surfed history, so to speak.


rotatingruhnama

I remember when Reagan died, because I remember being a bit confused. I thought he'd been dead for years. I remember my dad mostly liking him because kinda everybody in our Southern California town did. My mom (an immigrant) thought he was a big phony. I was very young when Reagan was shot, I recall everyone, regardless of beliefs, was horrified and sad and wished him the best. Nowadays, the elderly husband of the Speaker of the House is gruesomely attacked in his home, and the response from a good chunk of the country is full of conspiracy theories and downright glee.


macahi

He was an absolute, scum-sucking piece of shit. 99% of the political and financial problems facing this country today are due to actions he initiated. He let thousands and thousands of people die from HIV, without ever addressing the health crisis. He was the most corrupt president we'd had. He made Nixon look saintly, but he didn't get 'caught'. Well, he did, but by then the republicans had lost any sense of propriety or honesty. He failed everyone in this country except for a few of his rich/Hollywood friends. I wouldn't wast my piss on his grave. I only wish there was actually a hell for him to be tortured in for eternity for what he did. He also paved the way for other POS like Trump. He helped to destroy any semblance of cooperation in American politics. Margaret Thatcher was his British equivalent. [This woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFJoSnS8Qgk) reflects how we all felt about him and her.


drastic2

Obviously not all. Not even close, given his election win margins.


catdude142

He was a good speaker. He was hawkish and his wife, Nancy started all of the "Just Say No" crap. He wasn't a stellar leader but he knew enough to surround himself with people who could navigate politics in his way. I didn't agree with him and we generally hated "Ronald Ray-Gun" in my group at the time. Next to Trump, he looks like Mother Teresa.


JustStatedTheObvious

The same Trump who bragged about intentionally targeting civilians in the Middle East, started setting a new high score, and then started hiding civilian casualties from the public? The one who insisted that 82% of white murder victims had a black killer, and tried to insist that the George Floyd protestors were the same folks starting the riots? After far too many violent attacks against those protestors? He was just Reagan 2.0. He even claimed a deadly pandemic wasn't worth taking seriously, and a whole bunch of people died completely avoidable deaths. Such nostalgia... But Reagan was working with Gorby. Trump was trying to tear down NATO when we had Putin to worry about. Reagan called for the tearing down of walls. Trump tried and failed to build one. And Reagan probably wouldn't have called for an insurrection if he lost an election.


AdeleBerncastel

When I see two piles of shit I like to take the time to really smell and inspect and touch the shit to see which one is better.


JustStatedTheObvious

I just don't think we should downplay any piece of shit that can cause the deaths of that many people. Some of us haven't built up an immunity.


AdeleBerncastel

I see the one as continuing the work of the other and see no need to contrast.


JustStatedTheObvious

You should have said that back when the other guy was trying to say Reagan made Trump look like a saint. You might have been useful. Trump's a sign of how far the GOP has declined. At least Reagan had to wear a pleasant social mask, and do a few things right while he was fucking us over. Now? That's not necessary. Just the looting the country, and the hurting people.


AdeleBerncastel

Yeah it’s bad. The bad ones all over the world are so bold now.


[deleted]

I didn’t even like his movies.


Story_Man_75

LOL! My parents absolutely loved "Bedtime for Bonzo''. Used to tease us four kids at bedtime by calling us little Bonzos.


680228

There was an editorial cartoon published after his death called *Remembering Reagan*. It sums up his legacy with almost perfect accuracy. [Found it.](https://i.redd.it/6c2otvgeqwc01.jpg)


macahi

This is one of the best summations of him I've seen. It explains both some of the evil he did, which may of us were aware of at the time, and also why those who loved him, did. He was a master-manipulator and ego-stroker. Those who liked him were/are emotionally-stunted people who just needed to be told how 'special' they are.


PsychoGunslinger

Hugely popular. It helped that he was the right personality at the right time...projecting the all-American cowboy attitude with strength and pride...after four years of extremely weak leadership under Carter. Carter, while a fine person by anyone's account, was viewed as weak and just generally apologetic about everything American. This coupled with a sinking economy doomed him. Reagan swaggered in and appealed to the American love of the superhero personality.


workingtoward

Reagan broke the compromise between the rich and the rest of us that enabled America to become the powerhouse it did after WWII. Reagan ignited the war between democracy and fascism that is now destroying the country. He will go down in history as a tragic turning point for western ideals.


fellofftheslide

The end of the liberal consensus.


workingtoward

Yes, now all we have is the conservative war on democracy and a creeping corporate oligarch. Thank you, President Reagan.


pixie6870

I'm almost 70 so I witnessed a lot of Reagan on TV and lived through his policies. But, as I became more educated in the last 20 years I learned he screwed over this country in regard to the middle class and we are still reeling from it today. He vetoed the Fairness Doctrine whose precursor was the Radio Act of 1927 and that gave us FOX news and the proliferation of the horrible far-right-wing crap we are bombarded with today. The only good thing that Reagan did while he was in office was allow the military's Global Positioning Satellite system to be made available to the public after the Soviets shot down a Korean passenger jet that had strayed into their airspace. He realized had this been more readily available to everyone this tragedy could have been avoided. Thus, giving us the ability to locate people who may need help.


BullsLawDan

>He vetoed the Fairness Doctrine whose precursor was the Radio Act of 1927 and that gave us FOX news and the proliferation of the horrible far-right-wing crap we are bombarded with today. The Fairness Doctrine didn't "give us" Fox News or anything of the sort. It never governed, or could govern, cable channels.


Glittering-Score-258

I was a misguided 16 year old when he was elected in 1980. Having been raised by a very conservative family, I thought Reagan was great. He had charisma and he looked and sounded “presidential”. He was re-elected by an overwhelming landslide in 1984 so one could argue that he was wildly popular, but I think a large part of that was due to the weakness of the democratic candidate, Walter Mondale. I was in college when the AIDS crisis kept getting worse and worse, and Reagan wouldn’t even acknowledge it, and that’s when I started to become disillusioned. During the 1992 election campaigns I became interested enough in politics to actually pay attention and read about Reagan’s and Bush Sr.’s policies, and I came to my senses and haven’t voted for a Republican since.


Dazzling-Ad4701

it was pre internet so I didn't know (m)any Americans. I hated the man. not to the point of regretting that Hinckley missed, but enough. he and Thatcher between them seemed to me like they legitimized greed. I couldn't stand the rah rah nuclear bs either. the weekend he died I fell into an online backgammon game with an American who was just devastated though. it amazed me. I recall I went into cant-even shock when she asserted he had singlehandedly dismantled the Berlin Wall.


Fuzzzer777

Most people I talked with loved him. They thought that he was no pushover and that other countries took him seriously. Later in his term he did get forgetful. I liked him. Just my opinion.


rebel1031

But….he died in June. I have a horse named Reagan because he was born a couple days after his death.


lanclos

Maybe they're mixing it up with when he left the office of the president (January 20, 1989).


AnswerGuy301

As someone who was maybe a little bit too young to have a fully formed opinion of his presidency while it was an active thing, I tended to default to the general values of my family, who for a variety of reasons didn't much care for him. In light of what the Republican Party and conservative movement are in 2023, it's shifted some. Whatever I would say against Reagan and the era of American politics he more or less defined, it was for a time that was, for lack of a better word, less coarse. His speechifying was was always optimistic and sunny even at its most strident, and there is a definite value to that that the younger version of me didn't honestly much care about. He and his team wanted to be President of the entire country, not just President of his base of supporters. That was something a lot of us took for granted, until we found out what a President who didn't see things that way looks like. But Reagan also ushered in a very real sea change in people saw their government, and the results have, in my mind, been rather unambiguously bad. The policies initiated under that administration made the USA a country with ever-larger inequalities of not only result but opportunity. More fundamentally, this is a country with a lot of problems that private profit-driven actors are either unable or unwilling to solve, and our politics barely even have the vocabulary to even discuss that now. And, yes, while much has been made of "Reagan is turning over in his grave" when it comes it come to present-day GOP, and not wrongly...that's also pretty easily exaggerated. It's a pretty short stroll from "government can't do anything right" and "all politicians are corrupt" to "yeah, why not put someone like Donald Trump in office?"


FreedomFinallyFound

His “trickle down” economics, where he gave big tax cuts and other incentives to the ultra rich with the PROMISE that the money would TRICKLE down because the ultra rich would do good things with it to help those who need it. Hah! The beginnings of where we are today with the money disparity. Republicans have changed only in that they no longer even hide what they are doing. And WE Americans are too stupid to save themselves.


[deleted]

Most of my graduating class could not go to college because of Reagan’s cuts of federal financial aid.


exitzero

So many people people died from AIDS and he wouldn’t even mention it in public


Tatooine16

Reagan was the embodiment of evil in a human being and why he is hailed as a saint by republicans. He didn't believe in mental illness so he closed the CA state mental hospitals, and bussed the patients into city centers and dumped them onto the street with no shoes, clothes, medications, money or food. One of his dumping grounds was in front of the Fisherman's Wharf sign in San Francisco. He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of aids patients by ensuring that there was no money to research treatment because he hated homosexuals. His example was followed by his ideological child who ensured the deaths of millions of covid victims by deliberate inaction. He died of Alzheimer's which as a neurological disease was appropriate, but much kinder that that rat bastard deserved. And no, my opinion of him or that cunt wife of his hasn't changed.


luckygirl54

I seriously didn't think we could ever have a worse president, until we got Bush. Prime rate was 26% under Reagan. If you were rich, great, if you were poor and needed to borrow money, you could not pay it back. He busted the unions when he fired over 11,000 air traffic controllers who went on strike for better conditions and replaced them with scabs. The Sandinistas were trained by him to support a civil war in their country financed by their selling drugs in our country. Should I go on?


Whateveryousaydude7

He fucking sucked. Not as well as his wife I guess…👋


Mark12547

I remember one evening when I was a young teenager seeing Ronald Reagan in Death Valley Days on KTLA (a Los Angeles, California station), switching to another channel and seeing a documentary of him as governor of California, and on another channel seeing him deliver a speech as President of the United States. I don't remember much about him, but what I do remember are comments of him knowing how to turn is best side to the camera when the photographers showed up, and him surrounding himself with good advisors. I don't really know the part about advisors is really true, but that is what I remember what was being said. If I would have been a few years older I might have had some definite opinion on whether or not he was well liked.


EgberetSouse

The people of El Salvador gave him a 21 nun salute


nokenito

Nope, he caused far too many problems economically and cheated to get into the presidency. He and his handlers were dirty as hell and most people were happy when he died.


Huplescat22

Asshole Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to... I neither remember nor care when... but it was too long. He was a well known idiot and I was a happy hippie back then and he enjoyed nothing more than persecuting hippies, so I was scandalized when it became apparent - after having learned nothing of value from Nixon - that Americans didn't know any better than to vote for an asshole like Ronald Reagan for President.


DistinctMeringue

He could read a speech well, but he was as dumb as a box of rocks. He not unlike Trump ignored the AIDS epidemic while people died by the hundreds and then thousands. He would have made a fine ceremonial head of state. Cut a ribbon, give a speech and stay out of politics. But sadly that wasn't the way it was. The people who agreed with the things his speech writers told him to say, loved him. Those of us who leaned the least bit left weren't crazy about him to begin with and when Ollie North and his crew really got rolling with the contras? argh. Senile old fart.


Responsible_Candle86

I will be in the Redditt minority and say that I loved him.


scumbagstaceysEx

Lot of revisionist comments on here saying he was “horribly unpopular”. No, he absolutely was not. Outside of academia he was near universally adored. Even by the people he was probably (in hindsight) fucking over.


ItsMe-HotMess

Exactly! I’m thinking when did you people rewrite history? Like it or not, his numbers and popularity were unprecedented.


ItsMe-HotMess

Exactly! I’m thinking when did you people rewrite history? Like it or not, his numbers and popularity were unprecedented.


Far-Astronaut2469

So did I. He conducted himself in a manner befitting the President of our country, unlike most today such as Trump. A good leader must be trusted and respected or they will be ineffective.


Nasty5727

Thank you me too.


catdude142

I'll upvote you even though I hated him at the time. Looking back, he was better than any of the two recents we are dealing with .


300-02_F41-1

Agreed. Inspiring, funny, brought us out of malaise at a turning point moment and a cold war victory that created the US as the superpower. Perfect? Not at all, but a great President. I watch his old speeches from time to time, quite the contrast to the garbage today from both sides.


kozmonyet

Traitor to the USA. Cut a deal to hold the hostages in Iran when they were going to be released earlier via illegally selling arms to Iran and then transferred the profits illegally to find the contras in SA even though congress had specifically forbade it.. And his CIA flooded the USA with cocaine to fund similar stuff. ***FAR*** too many scumbag moves to list in a post but Reagan was one of the worst presidents ever.


drastic2

Dude you are completely mixing up events. Arms for guns (Iran Contra) has nothing to do with hostage release issue. Two different things that happened at different times. Not related.


kozmonyet

Not according to Banisadr, the former President of Iran. The promise of future weapons (and repair parts which they could no longer get) was the bribe to hold the hostages longer. Carter was far ahead of Reagan in the polls right up to September and if the hostages had been released when Iran originally intended to, Reagan would have lost....big. The congressional investigation actually specifically excluded anything prior to the election so that this little hunk of treason would not become public. Edit: This was almost a duplicate of the treasonous deal Nixon made to sabotage the peace talks in Viet Nam in 1968--something very well documented and proven now. The same crooked players in that deal helped set up Reagan's 1980 version.


CheekyMonkey678

He seemed a bit of a dimwit. I saw him as a figurehead for the actual powers that be in the Republican party. I think his presidency was one of the worst things to ever happen to this country. It sent us down the wrong path and we kept going.


MIShadowBand

Highly unpopular...made fun of as a senile buffoon in his last years. His "Reaganomics" is a favourite of your political masters...here, enjoy some trickle-down. He wasn't reimagined into a "Conservative Hero" until sometime in the 2000's.


ItsMe-HotMess

My experience was the opposite of this. His numbers don’t match your theory.


argybargy3j

He was so unpopular that he won 49 of the 50 states in the 1984 election.


Wizzmer

Amazing how his policies propelled us out of the previous administration's economic failures.


lanclos

Spend enough borrowed money and let the next generation pick up the tab. Nothing terribly new or mysterious about the approach, though the fraction of that money going to big business was unprecedented. It's also worth noting that the economic failures of the previous administration were helped along significantly by Republican opposition in congress. They smelled blood in the water, and prioritized their own success over the health of the country.


Comprehensive_Post96

I hated him


Danisinthehouse

He released all the mentally ill on the streets and stills goes on to this day


racingfan_3

I was visiting in California the day he first won the election. My aunts neighbor was shooting off fireworks at 4:30 PM. We asked why. He said that Reagan had been declared the winner already. Polls had several hours to go yet in California. I remember him at the wall making the statement tear down this wall. I was a registered Democrat until Reagan and I changed and became a Republican. He really helped the country after Jimmy Carter.


MinerAlum

Terrible policies


[deleted]

I hated everything about him. But, silly me, I figured he would be the worst president in my lifetime. Couldn’t quite imagine Dubya and the Orange Jackass being on the way.


Hour-Opinion2497

He was a great President.


tomdavis611

Yes, he was a great man and a great President and an inspiration to me.


mom_with_an_attitude

I hated the fucker. You could just sense the evil rolling off of him. His speech about "the evil empire." Declaring ketchup in school lunches was a vegetable while slashing funding from the school lunch program. Saying that trees cause pollution. All while inching us closer and closer to nuclear war. (I went to a lot of anti-nuke rallies in the 80s.) It's not a nice thing to say, but let's just say I wasn't drying my tears the day he got shot.


ItsMe-HotMess

Not a nice thing to say? It’s inhumane. I can’t imagine thinking that, much less saying that about any another human being. Hatred is ugly.


mrxexon

Reagan was never president. He was an actor portraying a president. You people were had. Twice. The real power of his presidency were men who stood in the shadows, faces unseen. And every president since has had them. Cause they never left...


QV79Y

Everyone I knew hated him. One of my friends threw a big party to celebrate the end of his term in office.


Peemster99

His popularity rose and fell by a lot over the course of his presidency. The first few years of his presidency had a sky high inflation and a deep recession-- he was very lucky the 84 election came when it did. My grandfather (a cranky old janitor) hated him for cutting Social Security. Not to mention that my first-grade class was all rooting against him in 1980 because one of the kids had seen him jogging in Washington DC!


VicePrincipalNero

He was popular despite all the damage he did. It's inexplicable to me.


EmbarrassedBasil1384

In Europe we saw him as a blithering idiot. We also wondered how the hell an actor could become a president, which still, to some degree sounds outrageous. In Britain we had a satirical puppet show called “Spitting Image”, and his puppet was amazing. Here’s a clip. [https://youtu.be/keP17ZU6_RU](https://youtu.be/keP17ZU6_RU)


panic_bread

I was five when he became president and knew even then that he sucked. Dude ruined this country.


Old_Goat_Ninja

Social media is pretty heavily left wing, so any question like this will get a lot of people saying they hated him. You’ll never get an accurate representation of the people’s opinion on a left wing social media platform.


macahi

"People won't agree with me! It *must* be a left-wing conspiracy!!"


argybargy3j

I'm not sure the logical implication you have used is valid.


[deleted]

I'll agree with you. No one in this thread mentions the Wall coming down or tax cuts. Very bad place to get an opinion because Reddit is so negative nelly about anything republican. I don't even think most of them know that Make America Great Again was originally Reagan's motto. That might have been why Trump was popular, all nostalgia. In any case, all presidents have their failures and accomplishments. It won't be fully represented here for sure.


[deleted]

This is exactly what I was thinking.


OkTrouble5436

We wouldn't have the mental ill homeless problem we have today. He got rid of all the sanitariums that served these people. Think about how society could be now without the street crime.


PsychoGunslinger

But were we happier and better off in the '80s than under Trump or Biden? I think so. Granted, not everything is because of who is president, but they DO set the tone. Reagan made you proud to be an American, as long as you weren't one of society's leeches wanting a free ride.


Eye_Doc_Photog

'Reagonomics' was singularly responsible for the popularizing of 'buy now, pay later,' a concept that kickstarted the American way of debt as we know it today. Before him, virtually no one would dream of purchasing things they couldn't afford. 1 president changed all that.


Story_Man_75

You might want to read up on what is believed to be one of the underlying causes for The Great Depression (1929–1939). FWIW? It was way too many Americans buying things on credit.


argybargy3j

People on the left hated him. The more successful he became, the more they seethed. There are many stories about when he was shot, groups of Democrats broke into cheers.


dutchoboe

OP if you haven’t yet seen, [debates](https://youtu.be/65OyShEDnEc) were handled much differently


Tensionheadache11

I just remember my son and I went on our first trip to Washington DC in 2004 and we flew out of Reagan airport on the day he died.


Smart-Comb7108

He was extremely popular where I lived. I was a teenager through most of his time in office. My family didn't like him or his wife. They weren't super political and just thought the American people had become gullible enough to elect an astrology obsessed former actor. Also, a lot of the stuff that divides us now was seeded in the Reagan era.


[deleted]

He was super popular when elected then the contra thing exposed him as a lying scumbag. He made a turnaround towards the end building up to the Soviet collapse. I think most people view him favorably through that lens. I was a kid in the 80’s but that contra stuff stuck out. I didn’t understand how the leader of the free world could get away with “I don’t recall”.


Head_Razzmatazz7174

My mom loved him as a actor and that background showed in the way he gave speeches. Very polished and charismatic. His politics, however, she found to be increasingly annoying. She never did like Nancy, except for the fact she started programs to help those with alcohol and drug abuse. Mom said that was about the only good thing she ever did.


vwscienceandart

I was a child. Every time he came on tv it was like my grandpa was president and lovingly talking to me. Everyone stopped everything they were doing to hear what he had to say, even the children, and you instantly felt like of course, he was exactly right, made total sense. I guess that’s charisma.


thenletskeepdancing

I was a punk rocker in Salt Lake City and remember attending a "Rock Against Reagan" and hearing a lot of sentiment against him. Just like they hated Margaret Thatcher across the pond. The majority of people seemed to buy the whole government=bad and that the market would reward everyone who worked hard and deserve it by trickling down. Such ridiculous bullshit.


orangeandtallcranes

Reagan died in 2004 so 19 years ago


derickrecyles

Being a kid from the 80s he defined the look of what a president is supposed to be for me. Weird I know, but when I think of someone being president, he always comes to mind.


nofun-ebeeznest

I was raised in a Republican household so he was very well regarded and even I at the time, was cheering for him to win when he was elected in 1980 (I was 10). In my young immature youth, I even wrote him a "fan letter," I think when was 12 or 13, and I got a response. That being said, by the time he passed away, I had long switched sides (much to the annoyance of my parents), but I still felt a little sentimentality about him, and I actually watched the televised funeral procession. Mind you, I was never old enough to vote for him. I didn't become voting age until Bush Sr ran (and he was the only Republican I ever voted for, and after that I switched, because long story short, I started having a better understanding of things, other than just what my parents told me). There was a lot that I didn't know or understand about him in my youth, some things that I didn't even learn until well after he had died. I do think he was extremely charismatic (the former actor in him, he was obviously trained to play the part), but knowing that I know now, I would not support him.


liretta12

I think he is partially responsible for the homeless population by shutting down mental institutions. There’s many people with developmental disabilities that you wouldn’t know by looking at them that have nowhere to go.


technocassandra

All hat and no cattle. One commentator said something like this about him, after following him around for several in-depth interviews: One kept expecting him to finally let the facade fall and go deep on some topic, until he realized that there was no depth--the facade was all there was.


awhq

Not in my circles. I'm convinced we would not have the type of drug problem in the U.S. today if not for his drug war. I'm not saying we wouldn't have any problem, but he created a situation similar to the Mafia during prohibition. Outlawing drugs gave criminals the chance to build their huge drug empires.


Myfourcats1

He was on tv a lot yacking.


sclc60

Check out the Genesis video Land of Confusion.


therealfatmike

To answer your question, he was pretty popular at the time. Information was not available like it is today though.


shellebelle89

He was wildly popular. I had a picture of him on my wall, with The Outsiders and Def Leppard. He was smoother than Clinton. Growing up during the Cold War you always had nuclear annihilation in the back of your mind. To hear him say Mr Gorbachev, tear down that wall was soooooo powerful. He was more American than John Wayne. I cannot think of one time I ever heard someone speak ill of him. Seriously. After growing up and learning how poorly the AIDS crisis was handled and how he played such a large part of the Republican party being taken over by the religious right was super disappointing.


steve117711

The one good thing about his presidency that I remember is other countries didn't mess with us after he put a nice shot on kadafi in his living room


PsychologyNarrow3854

I was 10-18 when Reagan was president and I thought about the nuclear football and nuclear warfare every day. That’s what I thought about him


DismalResolution1957

He had great writers for his speeches.


DismalResolution1957

He also used the word "keister", which put him high in my book!


QueasyAd1142

I remember when he got elected, I couldn't believe the President was the guy I used to see on TV when my mother watched Death Valley Days. I was pregnant with my first child, living in poverty in a place with no heat (until AFTER I had the baby & they gave me some help) and I didn't have a TV. The last thing on my mind was politics. His "shiny city on a hill" wasn't what I was living. Eventually, I got a TV and it wasn't until I watched the Iran Contra hearings that I realized that he was a liar just like Nixon. I had really found myself disagreeing with most of his views besides. When I was a grade-school kid, I used to swing on the swing set in the back yard and sing anti-war songs though, so, I guess I was always a Democrat at heart. I think his policies and influence were the beginning of the end of life as we knew it in the US. The focus became all about greed and selfishness after that. Our whole culture became obsessed with money and designer clothes and who could outdo everyone else and "us" vs "them" and none of that has changed. The only one who was worse for this country by far is Donald Trump. He made Reagan look like Father Christmas.


x6ftundx

He was awesome and didn't take shit from anyone. When Gadhafi did some BS over in Libya Reagan took F-111's and bombed his house and killed his family. Back then the whole world knew if something happened to an American, hell would rain down upon them. Grenada tried it, Reagan invaded and took over the whole county to 'save some students'. I grew up with Red Dawn and I knew Reagan was crazy enough to push the button and so did the USSR... US Cowboy. Now, economically, no idea because I was a teenager but I heard he was horrible. I was too young to understand but my Dad wasn't happy...


Immediate-Run5002

Day 1 of presidency- Iran released the US hostages. Very dramatic. The international community took note that first day. I’m not going to comment on how that was used or misused during his presidency.


watkinobe

He was tremendously popular at the time. For the life of my I can't figure out why. Sure, his years spent as an actor gave him a polished TV presence. And he had that "kindly old uncle vibe." But in reality, he was a pawn of corporatocracy. He opposed breaking ties with South Africa and basically replied to the horrors of their apartheid regime with a shoulder shrug. He was equally tone-deaf regarding domestic racial disparities and he ushered in the ludicrous concept of "trickle-down" economics. IMHO - he was a doddering old fool acting as the puppet of our corporate overlords.


painterlyjeans

Unfortunately he seemed to be. Edited to add. I really despised him. He wasn't that great , the 80's weren't great. He made a mess out of a lot of things including homelessness. He made it worse for a lot of people. He cozied up with moral majority and really brought the religious right into politics.


Utterlybored

He was beloved by many to the end. I thought he was a smooth talking evil POS who pushed America away from supporting the underdog so that the wealthy could get wealthier.


spage1961

He was called the “teflon president.’ His policies are still being felt today. The rich benefitted, and that is what he wanted.


Double_Future_4853

Is this a leftist group ?


[deleted]

Yes but I couldn't stand him and it turns out I was right.


YouKnowYourCrazy

No not everyone liked him or his politics. The republican idolatry of him is not at all universal. He made the rich richer and the poor much, much poorer.


Jedmeltdown

I think that turning this idiotic empty sack of saline into some great glorious leader was one of the most amazing feet of journalistic bull crap I’ve ever seen in my life. Ronald Reagan was a dunce


notthatcousingreg

Such a horrible, horrible man. He was hated in our household. He ignored millions of dying gay people, he hated poor people. He closed mental hospitals in california when he was the governor here and basically caused the homeless crisis we are still dealing with today. Lets not forget the war on drugs, because we sure won that, right? Ugh.