Polishing the St. Ronnie statue... the Biggest 'Big Lie' ever told

[Felix Mala]

The 25 Fat Years
Ronald Reagan's election marked America's economic turning point.
BY PETE DU PONT
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST


In 1981 Ronald Reagan became our 40th president, the hostages were released from Iran, Walter Cronkite retired after 19 years as "CBS Evening News" anchorman, and Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female Supreme Court justice.

But a quarter of a century later we should remember 1981 as the year the kaleidoscope turned in America, a dividing point between the previous two decades' big-government beliefs and the individualism and market economy thinking of the next 20 years.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pdupont/?id=110008022

I think they have to keep saying this crap to themselves every six weeks or so lest they stop believing it.
Hmmm... except... Government got bigger under Reagan... GOP declared war on poor people... Deficit spending sacked the middle-class and threatened their savings... No one in the lower 2/3's of the economy has gotten a raise in 25 years... We're behind on every mark compared to other civilized nations: education, crime, infrastructure, manufacturing, home ownership... Remember when Carter was president and there was such a thing known as a 'family farm?' One Big Lie that really gets me: Reagan did NOTHING to free the Iranian hostages. They were already on their way home before he took the oath of office. JIMMY CARTER got the hostages freed.

[Lithos]

1. To add

One Big Lie that really gets me: Reagan did NOTHING to free the Iranian hostages. They were already on their way home before he took the oath of office. JIMMY CARTER got the hostages freed.


And it was the Republicans who conspired with the Iranians in order to delay/stall their release until after the elections in order to help Raygun win. SO not only are they claiming a lie, what they did as a party was supporting terrorists (funny they do that a lot).

[BlueEyedSon]

2. So you don't think it was a behind the scenes Reagan deal?

(by his peeps, not by Reagan himself, obviously)

[Lithos]

8. Not sure what the question is

This has pretty much been fully documented, the Pukes bypassed the State department swung a deal with the Iranians to DELAY the release of the hostages until after the election. They didn't negotiate nor aid in their their release if this is what you think I was saying. All they did was put a stick into the works to hold up Carter's efforts which had resulted in a settlement which would have given their freedom months before they were released. As Carter was set to get them back just prior to the election, this probably would have given him enough of a boost to win. By involving themselves, the Pukes not only guaranteed Carter would loose, but also showed rather decisively they put Party before Country and doing so aided and abetted known terrorists (this eventually lead I think to the Missiles deal for the contras).

L-

[BlueEyedSon]

12. Yes your are correct, the Iranians were rewarded for DELAYING the release

not for the release itself. My Bad.

[unblock]

7. carter had a deal worked out that was derailed mysteriously in october '80

the iranians suddenly broke off negotiations, didn't offer a reason, counteroffer, nothing. just stopped talking.
then they freed the hostages, in exchange for (supposedly) nothing, moments after reagan was sworn in. they actually held the plane on the runway until after the swearing-in.

does this not sound like someone illegally conducted foreign policy and delayed the release of the hostages in order to benefit st. ronnie?

fear of carter getting the hostages released was the original "october surprise".

[Lithos]

9. Absolutely

This is what I was referring to though I think Carter had pretty much already secured their release when the Iranians backed out suddenly. There was also a piece where I read who exactly did the negotiating for the Pukes, but can't remember who. (Baker?).

L-

[unblock]

11. actually, bush41 vanished for 3 days during the height of the campaign

enough time to jet over to paris and negotiate the dirty deal and return. supposedly no one could ever document what this vice-presidential candidate was doing for 3 consecutive days shortly before an election that was up for grabs.

[Nederland]

15. I thought that was an Internet Rumor

I do know that there were two separate Congressional investigations into the matter (done in 1992 and 1993 when Democrats still controlled both chambers) that found no evidence for the claims.

Not really an expert though...

[unblock]

18. well it predated widespread use of the internet.

there was plenty of speculation at the time, it was VERY suspicious. but there was also very little hard evidence.

but you have to wonder when the FACTS are that they had NO DEAL with carter and "voluntarily let the hostages go one hour after reagan was sworn in and then they got plenty of arms from the reagan administration.

no proof of a deal, but it sure stinks to high heaven. yeah, what dumb luck the reaganauts had. :eyes:

[Rene]

21. It wasn't JUST the repugs who conspired with Iren to keep the hostages

until the swearing in ceremony.....IT WAS GEORGE H W BUSH(41) WHO actually did the negotiating. Flew to Paris and ran the talks. I've considered him a snake ever since.

[Greyhound]

22. Thank you! WE must never let this lie take hold without raising the

uncomfortable facts of rayguns traitorous actions. He should have been rotting in a jail cell instead of having statues erected. It's too bad that Hell is a pacifier to comfort the sheeple. :banghead: :grr:

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Anyway...yes, Reagan was the beginning of the end for the US as we know it

[baldguy]

4. 10% unemployment, doubled inflation to 14%,

The trickle of jobs moving overseas became a flood. He increased the federal debt ten times. The rich got richer, the middle class and the poor got poorer.

For the majority of Americans, the Reagan years were a disaster.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter" --Dick Cheney 11/02

Yeah, they don't matter to your own personal fortune when you hold a zillion dollars in stock options on companies getting no-bid gov't contracts.....

[raccoon]

6. It was disgusting the way the corporate media went on and on

and on about him when he died.

YOu'd have thought we'd lost Mahatma Gandhi.

[MrBenchley]

10. Pete DuPont? Ho-kay.

[BOSSHOG]

13. The largest Federal Building in DC is named for reagan

Sweet irony.

In ten years, dupont will be writing about the wonderful dubya administration.

[Bandit]

14. But the really great thing was letting us know Ketchup is a

vegetable. Our children would get their proper nourishment under Reagan.
Everything about that Administration has been proved to be false except the crimes committed. Over a hundred in his Administration were convicted of crimes. A record any Republican could be proud of.

[rasputin1952]

16. I never thought that any administration could possibly be as bad as

the Reagan admin, but lo and behold....along came this bunch of idiots!

The whole neo-con agenda is nothing but acquiring power they so richly believe they deserve. Once they get power though, they don't know what to do, and immediately screw everything up. The Reagan years were the same basic BS; but Reagan let his underlings in all of the agencies do whatever they felt like doing w/o any oversight. Remember James Watt? Jeebus, what a jerk!

Oliver North was essentially committing treason, and he became some kind of 'hero'...w/hi own TV show no less...:wtf:

The last couple of years of the Regan Admin, when Alzheimer's was rearing it's head, the cronies took off on their own agendas, and Reagan had no control at all.

They tried to bring Royalty to the WH, establishing what they thought would be a fiefdom, divvied up among the rich and the rest subservient to the wealth of others. bush is desperately trying to attain that very thing now.

[ieoeja]

17. We went from the #1 creditor nation.

To the #1 debtor nation.

If in 1981 someone had given me the list of major corporations (particularly in the airline industry) that would go bankrupt in the next half dozen years, I would have called them nuts.

If I'd predicted that we would start setting up random roadblocks to check for drunk drivers (or for any other reason really) everyone would have exclaimed that the American public would never tolerate that kind of facist bullshit.

And the list goes on....

But he made people feel good. Heck, I know left-of-center types today who will credit the military reforms they experienced in 1980 to Reagan. Those who will admit the fact that the reforms took place in Carter's last year in office still credit Reagan's electoral pressure on Carter as having forced through the reforms.

[MadMaddie]

19. Don't forget the Aids crisis peaked while he was in office...

due to the negligence and lack of funding...

They fed the nation that it was strictly a gay disiese...and because of that no research and no funding was pledged to deter the disiese...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. That's how I remember it

I also remember sitting in my living room with a bunch of friends, watching the election returns coming in, and all of us repeating, "President Ronald Reagan" in dismay and disbelief.

I knew it was bad. I probably would have gone into suicidal depression on the spot if I had known how much of a negative turning point that election marked.