Was Reagan a puppet for the conservatives the way that Bush is?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

Or did he actually have a hand in policy?

[supernova]

1. Puppet, I think

He read speeches well, told a good story, and looked good -- for an old guy-- on TeeVee.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. Why did they choose sucha poor communicator for a puppet this time?

Just wonderin'

[supernova]

5. That's the 64 million dollar question

Unless they don't feel a need to pretend anymore that they have to have someone who appears to be functioning. Any old airhead will do as window dressing. They think the American people won't notice.

They may be right. :-(

[Gman]

6. This time they just chose

someone that could win and that they could control. history recorded, of course, that bush lost, but they still control him.

[kalian]

9. Because Americans are DUMBER today than they were....

20 years ago.

[Jim Warren]

14. Sad but true

and a scary thought. This is the thing that probably depresses me the most.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. Because of the name and family. Kevin Phillips' 'American Dynasty'

discusses the reasons why the Repubs would latch onto the Bush family name despite the association with the failure of Bush I and his rejection by the electorate. I doubt if the stupidity and inarticulate nature of the shrub was a desirable feature, I'm sure most Repubs would have been happier if he was someone with more "star power" like Reagan.

My hope is that with an electoral rejection of shrub, that all Americans will turn away from this sort of appeal to dynasties which is inherently undemocratic in nature.

[supernova]

23. Let's not forget

how envious and hungry the Repubs are to have their own Kennedy clan. They wanted the Bushes to be the Republican Kennedys I think.

[LTR]

2. He was a puppet for the fundies

They used him quite a bit.

[ThomWV]

4. Ignorant Mouthpiece

That's all he was, the first of the mouthpieces for strong forces the stupid son of a bitch could not begin to comprehend. Sound familiar?

[gpandas]

7. he was an actor, someone else wrote the script.

i'm glad this actor is gone from any scene, his strutting and fretting finally over. no encores, please!

[Frances]

8. This is my take on Reagan

Reagan was a Democrat when he was poor and the country was in a Depression.

When Reagan's movie career faltered, GE rescued him by hiring him to shill for them, a job Reagan kept for 10 years. GE gave Ronnie money and success, so in Ronnie's mind corporations (and Repbulicans)were good and government(along with Democrats) was bad.

(I do NOT agree with Ronnie's conclusion!)

[amber dog democrat]

11. That is a good summary as any.

I think all the same he will be more warmly regarded than the Chimp.
Ronnie was mentally vacant, but Chimpie is arrogantly choosing ingorance - recklessly so. He is more dangerous because he BELIEVES his own myths are in fact reality.

Right now I am not sorry Ronnie is finally , physically gone. This was hard on his family. 93. Hoiy cow.

[Frances]

25. I agree.

Bush tries to emulate Reagan's formula: buying a "ranch," appealing to "racial conservatives," being folksy

But seeing all the clips of Reagan highlights the differences:

Reagan really came from humble beginnings, Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Reagan could use self-deprecating humor to good effect, Bush can't think of a single mistake he has made.

Reagan knew how to walk, Bush sticks out his chest and struts. As my husband says, There is something wrong with that man!


(I do not say these things because I approved of Reagan--I voted for his opponents both times. But comparisons between Reagan and Bush make Bush look really bad.)

[diamond14]

10. puppet

reaguns clearly had alzeimers disease onset during his whole last administration....reaguns fell asleep at an important NATO meeting...he often forget things...and spoke out of context at times...


just like today, where reTHUGlicans protect bush*'s alcoholism and drug addition at peril for the UNITED STATES of AMERICA....many of these same traitors to American protected reagun and refused to inform Americans that the president had a severe brain disease....

in fact...it was reaguns that made the reTHUGlicans realize: they didn't need a President to implement the policies of the rich....a real President wouldn't do many of the immoral and illegal things that reaguns did...but a PUPPET president, such as bush* is exactly what reTHUGlicans wanted...keep the little PUPPET happy, surrounded by luxury, out of the loop, with LOTS of mind-controlling drugs like prozac, valium, librium, zanax.....

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. Absolutely. In fact, there is a growing voice that now believes that...

...his VP, Poppy Bush, was actually running everything and making all of the decisions during Reagan's eight years as president. That would indicate that Poppy was actually running things for twelve long years prior to Clinton getting elected in 1992.

That also makes you wonder about Reagan's attempted assassination when Neil Bush was about to have lunch with another Hinkley family member at that exact moment. Just how friendly have the Bush and Hinkley families been over the years?

<http://www.hereinreality.com/hinckley.html>

<http://www.kmf.org/williams/bushbook/bush17.html>

<http://www.geocities.com/prohibition_us/dui.html>

<http://www.maebrussell.com/Bibliography%20Sheets/487s2.html>

<http://www.independent-media.tv/gtheme.cfm?ftheme_id=24&fdate_posted=%7Bts%20'2003-10-13%2000:00:00'%7D>

[underpants]

13. "My father sh*ts bigger than him"

-Ronald Reagan Jr.'s quote about comparisons made between his father and W.


They have tried to recreate the Regan model in more ways than one.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

15. LOL!

That's fucking brilliant!

[mitchum]

16. He was a lifelong shill (from 20 Mule Team Borax to Neo-Fascism)

[Old and In the Way]

17. Micheal Deaver called the shots.....

with presentation advice from Nancy.

[supernova]

19. Remember when Garry Trudeau

called Micheal Deaver the "Symbolizm Czar?" LOL!

[leftofthedial]

20. puppet

but he was a true believer of the neocon political mantra

small gummint
lower taxes
might makes right
ends justify means
greed is good

[Jose Diablo]

21. If you look at the Central American policies and his background in CA

One big corp I would suspect that Reagan was fronting for would be the United Fruit company. Now who is behind that corporation I don't know.

When looking at the populist movements in Central America during the 70-80's you see people wanting 'land reform', meaning nationalize corporate operated land and then privatizing this land to the poor.

Reagan's anti-union stance can be explained when you examine the ongoing battle even today between the Agra-business in California and the workers.

Same thing in South America and Cuba I might add with the sugar interests in Louisiana, Florida and a lesser extent Hawaii very interested in Cuba and keeping the embargo in place.

The American foreign interests have less to do with democracy around the world than in protecting corporate interests. But who is behind the corporate interests, average Americans or the very wealthy?

Its all less ideology and more money. Of course, publicly its ideology to convince Joe/Jane Sixpack.

[devinsgram]

22. I remember him as only being a figurehead.

He definitely had the beginnings of his disease during his second administration and I believe they all knew about it. All one has to do is remember that a lot of his administration are with the chimp now. I remember reading how he would fall asleep during his meetings, some very important meetings, I might add.

It was very plain to see back then, that he was not in charge at all.
At least it was easy for any critical thinking person to see it. He was the main reason I started to realize that the repugs were the most devious and dangerous group of manipulators this country had ever seen. Little did I realize at the time the type of evil spawn they would breathe life into.

Also, I doubt Reagan knew what was really going on or if could even remember what was going on.

[Dees]

24. Joe Coors had big hand in deciding policy

during the Reagan years. Explains why anti environment department heads came from Colorado.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

26. Yes, but like any ignorant puppet in a seat of power,

since his hands actually were the ones on the reins, sometimes he did a little steering for himself.

[xchrom]

27. the first official puppet of the multi-national

corporations.
reagan was as dumb as w -- but had a way with a script.