Our national nightmare has ended

[DBoon]

When did it start

[femmocrat]

1. I voted for 1980.

I have waited for 28 years for this day. The reagan years were so gawd-awful and were the beginning of the right wing extending its slimy tentacles into all parts of our government and society.

I hope the pendulum never swings back to those days.

[KitchenWitch]

2. 1968

It was in the Nixon administration that the Neocons came to be.

[Dogtown]

9. Absolutely, KW

Like Bush, he was a buffoon, so we discounted him.

We were complacent when he resigned, feeling we'd 'won'.



If they'd prosecuted, we wouldn't be trying to clean up this mess.

[DBoon]

3. why 1945

it was the begining of the unraveling of the New Deal.

Allowing states to opt out of unions by passing "right to work" laws solidified the role of the old confederacy as a low-wage semi-feudal economy, forming the basis of the modern Republican party

It has set the US apart from Europe, where labor-backed social democratic parties became the left mainstream

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I voted "Reagan" but it began after WW2

when countries started getting greedy after dividing up the enemy landscape/resources. Not that everyone hadn't already been ogling the Mideast oil for decades before that.

[vixengrl]

5. I went for Reagan/1980, and my answer is probably a bit "GD"

for the Lounge. But here goes anyway.

Reagan built the "Big Tent" GOP conservatism that eventually allowed Defense Hawks, Fiscal Conservative/small gov't types, and Christian Fundamentalists to fight over who was the "real" GOP. The funny little secret with Reagan is that in many ways he was the beneficiary of a) his own instincts *against* his party's ideology with respect to things like his meetings with Gorbachev, and b) history. To be more funny, he wasn't for small government at all, at all, judging by how the deficit blossomed with him in charge--and also, he wasn't low tax, since he raised taxes on...drum roll, the middle class. He had an astonishing facility for couching his momentary political needs in terms of "values"--kind of pie-charting and Norman Rockwell-painting a roseate happy conservative "Back to the 50's" kind of vibe.

But don't forget, under his admin was Iraq-gate and Iran-Contra. Along with shenanigans in Central American countries like using Honduras as a staging area with Black OPs for influencing not only Nicaragua but El Salvador, still operating from a Vietnam-era "Domino-theory" mindset. (I'm going on memory, and I was mostly a grade school kid during this.) The Middle Eastern involvement happened because I think they were reasoning that if Iraq and Iran killed each other, they would not turn up again--just like Afghanistan would be no trouble once the nasty Commies were out!

The Central American involvement happened by and large because of US corporate interests. Simple fact. Because, like, we were really being invaded by the Nicaraguans, or like, under GHWB, the Panamanians. Oh, spare us the threat from Grenada!

And of course Reagan had GHWB as his VP--which got him his four years and lent his idiot boy credibility enough to get in (I always blame GHWB's choice of Quayle as a running mate on softening us up enough to be Baby Bush-ready.). And also, our current generation of talk-radio and Regnery-book vipers are kids who came of age in the Reagan years--it formed them. No wonder they want to name stuff after him!

Yeah, that was the seed of the end. Me, I grew up hating on Reagan/Bush, and was old enough to see through the '88 wedge issue debacle. So I cast my first Presidential vote for Clinton and remained a partisan Democrat. Just could not ever be a part of a party that uses race, patriotism (the last refuge of a scoundrel!), money and class and culture warfare as its themes. And I think more people are waking up.

Yay! U.S.A.

[Wapsie B]

13. I couldn't have explained it any better than that!

Reagan's boys really solidified things on the right. Deregulation frenzy, the S & L fiasco......great times if you were a crook.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. I think Native Americans would probably say the nightmare begin

around 1492 and hasn't ended yet.

on edit: I voted the Regan mess.

[krispos42]

7. Other - when Ford pardoned Nixon

instead of tossing his ass in prison someplace.

That is when the President become protected. And after the partisan, self-serving impeachement of Bill Clinton, impeachment was ruined as a Constitutional tool.

[Jamastiene]

8. I hope Raygun sprains something rolling and rolling and rolling

over in his grave right now. He's probably rolling and spinning in his grave faster and more than that little girl's head in the Exorcist. Ah, that is such a sweet thought. :evilgrin:

[pat_k]

10. When the Dems refused to impeach Reagan and Bush I. . .

. . .for Iran-Contra.

At every opportunity they have taken the path of preemptive surrender.

Like when Clinton compounded the failure of the 100th Congress to impeach by refusing to to act when it was clear that Bush I's actions demanded prosecution for Obstruction of Justice. (http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0511-29.htm">Hey Democrats, Truth Matters1)

Like when Gore's fear of looking like a "sore loser" led him to surrender to the Un-American and Unconstitutional Bush v. Gore edict. When he refused to tell us the truth -- that it is for Congress, not the Court, to judge the validity of the Florida electors; when he refused to fight for us by calling on Congress to Reject the invalid Florida electors on January 6th.

Like when Daschle's fears of being called names led him to support Bush's Authorization to Use Miltary Force, and thus surrender the Congressional power to declare war to a known tyrant.

Like when Kerry refused to fight for the truth and call on Congress to reject the illegal Ohio electors on January 6th, 2005..

Like when 19 of the 45 Democratic Senators who voted "against" Alito on the floor refused to ACTUALLY oppose the nomination by joining in a united filibuster.

Like when the Democratic leadership opted to support the War Criminal Protection Act of 2006.

Like when Pelosi issued her treasonous pledge to keep impeachment "off the table."

Anti-American, "conservatives without conscience" aren't the ones who created our national nightmare. The failure of the "opposition" to stand and fight for the principles they claim to treasure did that.

Bush and Cheney conduct their program of torture in plain sight. They willfully and openly usurp forbidden powers. Without impeachment, Pelosi's declaration of preemptive surrender stands. Failure to impeach stamps the intolerable violations "approved on behalf of the American people." By refusing to impeach they are endorsing torture. They are declaring "You are Subjects; Not Citizens.

Without impeachment, Obama is nothing more than a benevolent dictator.

Our national nightmare IS NOT over.

[MrCoffee]

11. August 5, 1981

[Skittles]

12. it definitely started with Reagan

he made greed and idiocy fashionable

[Breeze54]

14. So did Nixon.

:puke: