Ronald Reagan's myth is different for those born after 1960.

[kentuck]

This would include those kids that were in high school or the early years of college when Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980. They are likely to believe Jimmy Carter's presidency was a bigger failure than it actually was and that Ronald Reagan saved our country from some dire economic crisis and saved our nation with his conservative political policies.

This would include a large percentage of the present population of this country.

The corporate media, over the course of three decades, was able to create a myth about Ronald Reagan that had little kinship with the facts or the truth. For example, part of the myth was that Ronald Reagan restored our military to a strength and readiness that was unknown under the weak "liberals". They seldom mention the selling of arms to the ayatollahs in Iran in order to buy illegal weapons for the Contras in Nicaraqua and the killing of innocents in Central America, with the assistance of Reagan's paid killers and mercenaries. Also, they seldom mention the tragic loss of our Marines in Beirut when Reagan sent them into an area that showed a total lack of judgement.

Today, in 2014, the myth-making of Ronald Reagan is complete. People will believe what they have been taught to believe. It is impossible to change the fantasy world created by the conservative media about Ronald Reagan. This has been a great travesty of our history.

[kentuck]

2. Just curious?

Is 051188 your birthday?

[Adam051188]

3. yup

and my middle name is adam. not very creative.

[kentuck]

4. One cannot know what one has not experienced.

i would venture that your ideas about Ronald Reagan are much different from some of the older members?

[awoke_in_2003]

5. I turned 13 shortly after...

Reagan went into office. I bought into the BS, until I got older and did my own research.

[kentuck]

6. You are probably one of the few exceptions...

Many still buy his "trickle-down" bullshit and his lies about lower taxes bringing in more revenues to the Treasury, even though history has proven him to be tragically wrong.

[Chorophyll]

15. I must be one of the "few exceptions" too.

You sure you want to continue generalizing like this? This is Democratic Underground, and it's probably safe to say many of us here were born after 1960 and know exactly what Reagan was about.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Well, I am lucky...

I have a liberal father. When I was younger I probably looked at the republican party as being a bit of a protest. I got smart eventually.

[emmadoggy]

38. Count me as an exception too.

I, too, turned 13 in the year he became President. I didn't know much about politics back then, but I had a Republican father and Democratic mother. My father was the more political and vocal of the two, so yes, when I was young I had the typical impression of Reagan that you are talking about.

However, by my very early 20's I was starting to slowly come around to figuring out what I really believed in and what my political views were and started to learn that they aligned more with the Democratic party. The older I got, the more these views were solidified and strengthened.

Finding DU was the clincher. I became even more liberal the more I learned here and I certainly had my eyes opened to the realities of Reagan. Had I not found DU, would I have learned and understood these things about Reagan? I don't know, but the internet has provided many places and ways to learn more about these things and I believe I would have gotten there eventually regardless.

I think those people who take an interest in politics and who come from our side of the spectrum will probably find those answers in much the same ways. Those who don't take an interest will just continue to believe what is spewed in the media, and those on the other side will continue to worship him as a saint.

[Bluenorthwest]

52. I have to be very careful with my words here 'kentuck'. Reagan was hated by LGBT people

of all and any age, so your 'few exceptions' crap smacks of a small minded, narrow view of the world.
I and everyone I knew was in the fucking streets, being dragged away, protesting that old gasbag.
Your view is exclusionary and because of that it is wrong, your theory full of straight person shit.

[etherealtruth]

69. You are likely correct obout impressions in the US , as a whole

I am yet another person born after 1960 (just barely, 1962) ... that loves Jimmy Carter ... despises Ronald Reagan and his policies (and a change that was set in motion).

I would guess most of the folk posting on DU are more politically literate (an curious) than others.

[kentuck]

8. Your reasoning is flawed.

It's not your fault you believe everything went "swimmingly" under Reagan. It didn't, for what it is worth.

[yeoman6987]

37. Reagan

Even Obama talks about Reagan as if he was pretty good which again he was born after 1960. I don't know. I was born definitely way after 1960. I am not sure that you can get a big chunk of the population to change their minds, but every person you change gets closer to the goal. I still to this day will never understand how he was overwhelmingly reelected by 48 states. Democrats in droves voted for him. Does anyone think it is a huge task to have people learn the truth?

[alp227]

9. you're writing this in response to that college student, right?

http://www.thestate.com/2014/02/19/3278857/sc-colleges-under-fire-about-book.html

but you are so right! i had to dig really deep to get the truth about Reagan that I could not learn in grade school. the AP US History test didn't even have any questions about what Iran Contra was!

[JanMichael]

10. born in 1968. raygun was a douche to most of my friends

Even the moderate repukes like me- yes i gbought i wAs one - thought rYgun waz a dick. Just say no...really? Wow what a solid public policy...grenada...oh my fing god. Coke everywhere...boat shoes...idiots along side poverty. Fuck all..

Yes i went from mildly republican to the commy i am now.

[MANative]

11. I was born in 1960...

I despised and abhorred the bastard then, and hate him even more now, having to live with the horrifying results of the heinous policies the prick shoved down our throats. As much as I reviled GW, that was a lovefest in comparison to my opinion of that "actor" who played president for eight years.

[bravenak]

20. That's what my mom and Granma always called him.

The actor playing president. And also satan.

[madinmaryland]

12. I was born in 61 and Reagan scared the shit out of me in 76...

I remember the election of Carter in 76, and the views of Reagan when he ran against Ford that year. I voted for Carter in 1980 when I was finally able to vote, and knew that we were in for a debacle.

Anyone who believes that Reagan solved any dire economic crises is full of shit. While Jimmy Carter was the "accidental president", he was far better than the man who followed him.

[Chorophyll]

13. I was born in 1965 to a family of Democrats.

Even at age 14, I thought Reagan was a nightmare. Most of my friends are in their late 40s, and we generally feel that Reagan was the beginning of a downward spiral for our country.

It's really unfair to make sweeping generalizations about any age group. Reagan was a very popular president. I wasn't old enough to vote until 1984, so don't blame me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Born in '71. Dad screamed at the TV news

whenever they talked about Raygun, so I've always had awareness about St. Ronnie. LOL

[jimlup]

16. I suspect that it has something to do with your level of political consciousness at the time ...

probably not a hard and fast line.

I wonder what my students, who are generally 15 to 18, think of history? Their perspective is much different from mine on Reagan, Vietnam, Nixon and a whole host of other things. Sometimes I ask them and my observation is that they generally inherent their beliefs from their parents.

[shenmue]

18. Born in '73

For what Reagan did to the Health Department, and for his bloated budgets, and his supply-side garbage, and how he destroyed factory workers, plus many other things, I can never forgive him.

[bravenak]

19. Born in 1981.

I blame Reagan for most of the stupid stuff going on right now. Especially the tea party, that's definitely his fault.

He was more of a crook than Nixon, but nobody ever wants to say that out loud.

[young_at_heart]

21. I'm 74 and for me he was nothing more than an actor!

I was born in California and went through his eight years as governor and later eight years as president. I remember watching him as the narrator on Death Valley Days. I never thought of him as a political person then and now I am more than bewildered that he was able to con so many people.....maybe he was a better actor than we realized!

[Token Republican]

22. The biggest myth

of RR was how he saved the economy by lowering taxes. He didn't.

While he did cut the tax rates, he also removed nearly all of the deductions too, which nearly negated all of the savings brought under the lower rates.

In blunt terms, his tax program was bullshit as far as lowering taxes. Ironically enough though, the rich did lose a lot of the preferential tax treatment under him.

The other big myth was his rebuilding of the military. True, military spending soared under RR. But it was a linear growth in spending that started under Carter.

RR did some other crappy things too that have been lost by his fans.

[kentuck]

42. It is true that he started taxing unemployment benefits...

and he didn't care much for unions, welfare Moms, or big government.

[calimary]

47. Welcome to DU, Token Republican!

Glad you're here! All the serious problems we're having now - got their start with him. Don't forget - religious extremism came to life on his watch. And that's led to everything from intolerance toward gays to climate change denial and science denunciation. Eight long miserable years of suckez-vous. Sixteen if you're a longtime Californian. We had eight annoying and frustrating years of him as governor.



What was so dangerous and so damaging about him was his smooth-talking, slick-yet-folksy, aw-shucks, sloganeering, congenial, amiable, harmless old uncle schtick. It was schtick. ALL salesmanship and cosmetics and cue cards and ad slogans and Busby Berkeley and "Old Dutch" and "The Gipper," schtick. He was the quarterback who carried the ball for this whole cabal of industrialists and conservative publishers and commentators, and think-tankers and that whole infrastructure. It was definitely their "Morning in America." Where greed wasn't just good it was great and even godly. Where hatred of government rose to nearly-obscene levels of intensity - government was the problem. Where the prevailing nickname for his administration was "Millionaires on Parade." Where the takeover of the message machine started - late in that bastard's second term is when the deregulation of broadcasting and lifting of ownership restrictions got started. Where "liberal" became a dirty word. Where "union" became a dirty word, too.

ICK. If I had my way, we'd be rolling back the utterly nauseating efforts to name every last mountain, building, school, airport, freeway, insane asylum, dam, and sanitation installation after him. ICK. He can have his presidential library. And that's IT.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

23. Born after 1960 and my anti-Reagan vote...

was my first presidential vote. I'll never forget the massive crowds at my suburban DC polling place. Marylanders did our part.

[Wash. state Desk Jet]

24. He was popular in the sixties they even wrote a song about him when he

was governor of California here's some of the lyrics-

He's a drug store truck driv'en man. he's the head of the klu klux klan ,when summer come's rolling around ,we'll be lucky to get out of town.

It's on the Woodstock album !

The truth is out there and well documented for future generations to look back upon.
And if you think about it ,republican politicans that hold on to the myth about Ronald Reagon
really have nothing left to hold on to. And thats just the truth.

[Gary 50]

41. Republicans have nothing to hold onto...

They can always look back with pride on the Nixon administration where both the President and vice president resigned in disgrace. Both perfect examples of Republican values.

[Beringia]

25. I thought he was bad

He was a step ahead of me in the 80s, cutting and slashing. Cut funding for forestry service. Cut student loans.

[demwing]

26. Distance brings a changed perspective

so does time. In some future century's retrospect, the Reagan years will not be seen as mythic, but as failed and corrupt. I'm confident of this because the only society capable of surviving beyond the next 100 years would be the one that had long-ago rejected Regan's supply-sided, fundamentalist christian coalition of church and board-room.

The progressive liberals of tomorrow are the political descendents of the progressive liberals of today. Reagan's legacy is directly dependent upon the type of future we create, every day.

[Jenoch]

27. I do not believe all of the military b.s.

I also do not believe a president is completely responsible for the economy. Carter was not the complete fault for 13% inflation or 18% interest rates. Clinton was not also completely responsible for the good economic status of the 1990s.

[Hissyspit]

28. I was born in 1962.

I thought and think he was a piece of shit.

[rufus dog]

30. Right there with you

Although the uninformed bought into him. In College there were the typical douchebag Repubs and then those who bought the hype. Funny thing is, a lot of those in the former category are the ones who jumped ship after Bush. Those who are now embarrassed to have been Repubs.

[demosincebirth]

29. He also said, when governer of Calif, that "taxes should hurt." Someone checking out Reagan forund

that he never paid any taxes the year before.

[delrem]

31. There isn't a single person of my acquaintance who didn't point out, astounded,

that Reagan was an *actor*, at the time of his election.

I'm a Canadian, though, and we were going through (what I consider to be very much) an up period (perhaps even close to the up period of Lester Pearson's gov't) with the re-election of Pierre Trudeau -- neither of whom were mere actors playing roles defined by obscure back-room $$$. Criticize them as a person might, neither of these PMs were lightweight tools.

My family, friends and acquaintances were hardly what you'd call uniformly "left-wing". The only uniformity was in our collective astonishment that the citizens of the USA would elect an *actor*, and not just any actor but an actor whose only redeeming feature was an ability to project insipid schmaltz while reciting his lines.

That this fucking *actor* is even now heralded as inspirational - as a president that Barack Obama *admires* - is beyond the loop.

I just don't get it.

[Bluenorthwest]

55. Reagan has not been an actor for many years at the time of his election, he had spent 8 years

as Governor of California, a State that claims to be ultra liberal. During those years he said and did things so despicable that the right wing shit stains who elected him President have no excuse whatsoever, his policies had been seen in full action for 8 years in the nation's most populous State.
He was elected in CA then nationally by 'Moderate Centrists' who today are either Republicans or 'Third Way Democrats'. He was elected by Straight People, for he was a great enemy to the LGBT community, the greatest evil that ever was in fact.

[WinkyDink]

59. He had been the governor of California. That's considered "being a politician."

[lbrtbell]

32. You don't know Gen X, do you?

There's only one way to classify Generation X: We can't be classified.

I was in high school during his abomination of a presidency, and I was far from alone in being appalled by his policies.

And I grew up in a blood-red state.

Reagan is the reason I got involved in politics...to encourage people to vote against him and anyone who supported his policies. And when I became old enough to vote, I cast my vote for Mondale/Ferraro.

Yes, the corporate media has done a good job of painting Reagan as some sort of hero, to those born after the 1980's. After all, they weren't alive to form their own opinions, so I don't fault them for not knowing the truth. But it's dead wrong to assume that the entire generation who lived through the Reagan years was somehow stupid enough to forget their own memories of those years.

Funding cut from our school budgets...sad jokes about our grandparents having to eat dog food to survive...the rise of the "Moral" Majority (even WKRP did an episode about it)...the fear that Ronnie Ray-gun would say or do something stupid/insane enough to heat up the Cold War in a big way...and so on, ad nauseum. You didn't have to understand Iran/Contra to realize that Reagan was doing a piss-poor job of running things.

I also recall the full-page TV Guide ads in which Jerry Falwell's people asked, "Do you really believe we're descended from apes?" The ad ranted against evolution, spouted creationist BS, and asked people to send away for more info on the Moral Majority. At the time, I thought that ad was just one of those stupid things, like the ads encouraging women to send away for cream to make their boobs bigger.

I had no idea that those anti-science idiots would ever gain so much traction in this country. And they did, because their chosen candidate Reagan started the Christian conservative hate train rolling. Reagan was the beginning of the end of a reasonable America.

[delrem]

34. True. Ray-gun was the worst.

How many wars did he start?
How much death did he deal, both outright and using mercenary proxies?
And that's just the in-your-face military part of it.

But there're two sides to every story. The other side of the Ray-gun story is how Nancy rushed to his side with his jar of jellybeans. And surely that other side of the Ray-gun story has more weight than what he actually did, as puppet to the most murderous thugs as ever inhabited our planet.

[fishwax]

33. but those born before 1960 elected him--twice, and by large margins

I don't disagree with you at all that there has been a completely BS myth about Reagan cultivated over the past few decades. But I don't think those born after 1960 are any more likely to be swayed by it than are those born before 1960.

A January 2011 CNN Poll had Reagan's "approval" ratings at 68%, but with a higher rating (72%) from those over 50 (and so born on or before Jan 1961) than those under 50 (66%).

On edit: here's a link to the PDF for the poll. (Also of note--approval ratings for Carter were higher among the under 50 crowd.) http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/01/20/rel1i.pdf

[delrem]

36. Correct. Entirely correct.

[WinkyDink]

60. Reagan was not elected by Baby Boomers. He was elected by our defecting ex-Democratic parents.

[fishwax]

70. True--boomers were split in his first election, though they went for reagan in 84

But Reagan won basically every age group in 84. And he remains popular with every age group now--though slightly moreso with boomers than those under 50. Tbe myth, alas, has permeated all age groups.

[WinkyDink]

79. The Big Lie often wins.

[ProfessorGAC]

64. Absolutely Right

And i was born in 1956. And to be clear, i didn't vote for him. I didn't buy his act and i had relatives in Cali that were underwhelmed by his time in office. Even my dad's uncle (born around 1900 or so) didn't like him. Since he was an immigrant from southern Italy, he didn't trust Reagan's attitude about Mexicans.

And, this from a guy who actually didn't think Mussolini was so bad, even though his own brother in law left for america because Sicilians were being purged from jobs in government and railroads. (He clearly forgot about that in his later years.)

So a guy who thought Mussolini wasn't all that bad didn't like Reagan. That speaks volumes.

But, Reagan won because people in their 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's preponderantly voted for him. I was 24 his first time around and wouldn't had voted for Reagan at gunpoint.

[bkanderson76]

35. Born in 58, Dad was Archie and Mom was Edith...No Middle of The Road (until i jumped in) Then it

was game-on ever after.....my two cents, hated fuckin Regan.
There's quite a few fucked-up things today that are of his legacy..."thanks Ronnie"....clown

[OnionPatch]

72. Born in 59. My dad was Archie, too!

But my mom was more like Meathead or Gloria. It made for many a lively dinner "conversation". As you may guess, my parents did not stay together.

My memory is that when Reagan came along, things in my area started going downhill and my good union job bit the dust. Eventually I had to leave my hometown to find work. But having a "Gloria" type as my mother, we never bought into the Reagan heroism BS, anyway.

[hibbing]

39. Born after 60 here

I thought he was the worst president when he was president and he has only been eclipsed in my mind by the idiot, lying, immoral psychopath.

Peace

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. It's like I've said...

They HAD to engage in revisionist history because so many prominent Republicans were part of what can only be described as a complete DISASTER of an administration.

Never mind the ones that went to JAIL, they had some real whack jobs that claimed trees pollute more than cars and it didn't MATTER if we chopped down all the forests and dumped toxic sludge everywhere because Jesus would fix it when he came back and made Garden Of Eden 2.0.

[kentuck]

43. I did not mean to suggest that everyone or that an entire generation bought into the myth...

"This would include a large percentage of the present population of this country."

I believe this to be true. Many of the old folks that originally voted for him are probably now dead?

[Bluenorthwest]

56. Your lack of comprehension makes it seem you think that whole generation was white and

straight and 'Bipartisan Centrist' like you. Barf on this thread. Big, South Park style projectile barf on this thread.

[VA_Jill]

44. My grandmother

who was born in 1885, was a lifelong Republican who changed after Watergate (although she may have voted for FDR, she never would say). She bitterly regretted having voted for Nixon in 1972 and I don't think she ever voted for another Republican. She despised Ronald Reagan, and it used to crack me up when, in 1980, she referred to him as being "too old" to be a good president. She herself was 90 at the time.

[TM99]

45. My parents were Eisenhower

Republicans, and I was born in the mid 1960's. I was a teenager when Reagan was elected. I was shocked that an actor of such limited intelligence, gravitas, and grace was being chosen over Carter. My parents were shocked as well. They abhorred the man, and my father remarked rather presciently at the time, that this was the death of the Republican Party. How right he was!

[DallasNE]

46. Much of Reagan's Military Spending Was Wasted

Jimmy Carter was the one that transformed our military. He cancelled the expensive MX missile in favor of the "migetman" missile, which saved a ton of money. Reagan simply wasted spending by bringing back the MX missile, which proved to be a giant boondoggle. Carter also cancelled the B1 bomber and went for the stealth capable B2 bomber as well as stealth fighters. Once again, Reagan pulled back the B1 bomber, which today only plays a minor role with the aged B52 and B2 carrying the bomber load. Reagan brought us the original borrow and spend government. Thanks RR (not). Carter has us on the right path and Raygun blundered along with massive budget deficits to pay for the unneeded MX missile and the unneeded B1 bomber. The rest is history and the waste was massive.

[pansypoo53219]

48. not me.

i always hated him. even before i got really political. but then i started cspan at 17.

[Enthusiast]

49. I'm an old fart and I think Reagan sucked.

I know he sucked.

[Victor_c3]

50. They're trying to do the same thing with bush 43 and so far, they are doing a great job

Give it another decade or two and it'll be both too late and painfully obvious. Obama, no doubt, will be labelled a failure like Carter

[reformist2]

51. I love the responses - no one liked Reagan, ever. I wish DU would be more objective about history.

The RRDS is strong, and it's one of the things that limits Dems' ability to seal the deal with the American people and get back to supermajorities.

[Bluenorthwest]

54. Straight folks and 'Moderate Centrists' adored Reagan, they elected him twice

while good people filled the streets in protest against that damnable act. I will never forgive Reagan voters. A hateful lot of idiots.

[ProfessorGAC]

68. You're Doing The Same Thing You're Accusing The OP Of Doing

I'm straight and i was born in 1956. I voted against Reagan twice.

You call the OP bigoted but your posts assume that everyone who didn't march in the streets for a specific cause supported that buffoon.

We didn't and you're wrong.

[Bluenorthwest]

53. What an absolutely ignorant and nearly bigoted OP

Reagan was a bigoted, homophobic Republican. Reagan was so harmful to the LGBT community that my biggest complaint with Obama is that he praises Reagan. No one who is human should ever praise Reagan. I switch the channel when Ron Jr is on, because I remember the lies he let them tell about him. Yeah, he's a Democrat now. You can trust him, I don't, his dad murdered my community while Jr slept in a closet.

Knowledge=Life
http://nymag.com/news/features/act-up-2012-4/

[deutsey]

57. Reagan came to power when I was in high school

I didn't like him at all, but many in my rural high school did. I remained in a minority throughout college as most students either actively supported Reagan or at least didn't oppose him.

My first vote was against Reagan in '84...I knew Mondale would lose and I wasn't crazy about him as a candidate anyway, so I wasn't actually voting for him. Again, I was in the minority, though, not just among my peers (who were overwhelmingly in favor or Reagan) but among the country in general.

Even during Iran-Contra, I was astounded to see people rallying around Reagan and Oliver North (who was dubbed an "American hero" ).

I hated the '80s and still do (aside from some alternative music from the time). Throughout the decade, from high school through college, I felt marginalized and in a political minority among many people in my generation. I remember I even almost got into a fight with this troglodyte Sigma Chi idiot over my "Impeach Reagan" button. After we were separated the goon actually blurted out, "He didn't even vote for Reagan," as if that was supposed to be some kind of insult.

[WinkyDink]

58. I mention the 241 Marines all the time when Reagan's name arises. Never forget!

[muriel_volestrangler]

61. From outside the USA, this was the take from the start:

[Bluenorthwest]

62. if I may.....

And from the US:

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. Or:

[BeyondGeography]

63. We do worst with old white people born well before 1960

Particularly men. The same folks who turned the country over to Reagan in 1980. If you're 30 or younger you have no memory of Reagan, and, even if you absorbed some of the MSM's Gipper goodwill, you are still more likely to vote for a Democrat.

[GaYellowDawg]

65. Born in 1967.

Never, never, never bought into Reagan. Ever. In East Tennessee, I loudly proclaimed that I thought Carter should be re-elected. Got into an argument with my 8th grade English teacher. She was a real shit who claimed that I was just following my parents' lead, and then when I told her that his foreign policy was going to risk war with the Soviets because he was bringing in the worst retreads from the Nixon administration, and that his economic policy would drive huge deficits, she had to back off. Yes, I was the kid who always won the "Current Events" contests.

I hated Reagan. I wish Tip O'Niell had had the cojones to impeach the bastard over Iran-Contra. Maybe if he had, enough of the stain of it would have clung to HW Bush and killed a hell of a lot of tragedy.

[PotatoChip]

67. It was Reagan's pandering to RW Fundies that secured my opposition to him.

Having grown up in that environment, I knew how hypocritical they were/are. My understanding and great dislike of his other political policies, and of course later revelations regarding Iran/Contra and the 'October Surprise' just served to reinforce my opposition to him and R's in general.

In 1984 at age 18 I cast my first vote straight D and have never regretted it.

But yes, I generally agree with your assessment. Most of my HS classmates during the years of Reagan's first term were mostly apolitical, as HS kids tend to be even now. But I do remember feeling a sense that most of them supported him.

[ladjf]

71. Ronald Reagan may have done more to harm America than any politician in our history. nt

[Johonny]

73. There was a study in the last election and most young people don't care about Reagan at all

Indeed they found young people tuned out conservatives mostly because all they talk about it the mythical Ronald Reagan that they don't know. They have no memories of his administration and thus don't care about it. The people that run conservative elections were desperately trying to get conservatives to stop talking about Reagan. Appeals to the mythical Reagan mostly draw in baby boomer votes but were not found to strongly influence GenX or GenY. I doubt as Reagan's administration moves further into history this will change.

[LWolf]

74. I was born in 1960, and

raised in CA. Ronald Reagan was my governor before I got to high school.

I never thought Carter's administration was a failure. As a matter of fact, he is the only President serving during my adult lifetime I have any respect for at all.

I've always known that the Reagan myth was false. Reagan is the only POTUS I've actually seen speak live. I showed up even though I despised him, just because it was the only opportunity I'd ever had to attend a function a standing POTUS was speaking at. I stood in the audience, an audience pre-disposed to adore him because he funded their MIC jobs, listened to the cheers, and did not join in.

I always knew better.

One of the reasons I never warmed up to the current POTUS was his clear, and clearly communicated in '08, conflict with public school teachers. I am one.

The other reason was his comments about how Ronald Reagan's transformational policies reigned in the "excesses," which referred to the left...a group I also belong to.

[kjones]

75. Is this OP really true?

I believe it was posted somewhere here before.

http://www.people-press.org/2011/11/03/the-generation-gap-and-the-2012-election-3/

Down the page "Best President in Your Lifetime?", the chart seems to show that the cohorts
born from mid-60s onward (Gen X and Millennials) favor Clinton as the best president
in their lifetimes. I know, not exactly the same questions, and it doesn't show whether or not
they actually believe the bull about Reagan, but I'm still inclined to believe your OP is
oversimplifying it.
Other than GenXers 40ish to 50ish (a group of which my own parents are liberal members),
the cohorts under 50 (so 40 and down) appear to be solidly democratic. Again, not
specific to Reagan, but informative nonetheless.

[dorkzilla]

76. Born in '65

My friends and I STILL talk about how horrible Raygun made for everyone, especially for young people. He scared the living shit out of me. My friends and I were getting out of high school and college, and the unemployment rate was sky high. He killed off the CETA program, which many were in need of since we couldn't afford college. As far as we were concerned he was a hateful 3rd rate actor and a puppet.

Today this same group of friends is flabbergasted at the canonization of St. Ronnie, so I think your assertion that it was people born after 1960 who hold him in high regard may be an overgeneralization.

In fact, this was a popular song by an English band of the era which kids like me used to dance to in clubs in the 1980s. Some of the lyrics:

Democrats are out of power
Across the big wide ocean
Reagans President-elect
Fascist god in motion

[sadoldgirl]

77. My vote went never to Reagan

I thought the whole time that he was a puppet of the corporations and the RW people, who did not dare to say peep, but wrote his speeches. There was one item though where he followed through better than Obama: He put banksters in prison. Otherwise he started the whole mess we are now experiencing.
BTW, is it known or does anyone know here, when his Alzheimer caused a significant problem for him?

[Octafish]

78. People raised on Reagan are deeply brainwashed.

Great OP, kentuck.

For those wondering, Pruneface was a NAZI.