In your opinion, what IS the 'reagan legacy'?

[Philosoraptor]

All I remember is being pissed and embarrassed for 8 years.

[NMDemDist2]

1. millions of mentally ill homeless people

and on edit, the first salvo of breaking the back of organized labor resulting in Corporatism that is unchecked today

[goclark]

11. Yes! aAmentally ill man was sitting in a fence

howling in someone's backyard in Los Angeles.

It was on television and so so sad.

Interesting that "King Ronnie" suffered from memory problems.

[porphyrian]

53. You got it. - n/t

[aquart]

2. Beggars and infomercials.

He left us lots of them.

[Cleita]

3. Union buster, something our labor force still hasn't

recovered from.

[TahitiNut]

4. The people in the "shining city on the hill" ...

... got there by walking over the millions of suffering bodies in the slums at the bottom of the hill.

[verse18]

5. The crack epidemic in the Black community.

[Toots]

83. Oh but it was so much more involved than just Crack

It was also, mostly in fact, about disenfranshising blacks. It was a covert war against the black community and they got a huge kick out of actually getting them (blacks/minorities) to pay for their Contra war as well. It was a brilliant scheme dedicated to pure evil....How many blacks are serving or have served time for felonies? Now they can't vote....It gooes on and on if you really think it through..

[marmar]

6. This trickle-down, supply-side economic BS that has completely f**ked this country....

:grr:

[no_hypocrisy]

7. A few things that are still traumatic

1. Beginning of the death of unions when he fired the air controllers.
2. Trickle down economics and the shifting of wealth by removing it from the middle class, with the blessing of the middle class.
3. $4 trillion deficit (the good ole days)
4. The rise of the political power of Jerry Falwell and other RW evangelicals
5. "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall!"
Mr. G: Uh, okay . . .
6. Send in the National Guard to "rescue" medical students who were not in danger on a tiny Caribbean island.
7. Nancy's china policy (and collector gowns)

[no_hypocrisy]

26. P.S. I hated the slogan "It's a new morning in America".

[merh]

8. a fake leader, a puppet pretending to be in charge, reading a

script and pretending that he was making a difference.

The beginning of the cuts to VA services. Broken promises and my father's tears because his government turned their back on him.

Liars and cheats and scoundrels

But mainly tears ...

[adigal]

9. The smashing of unions and the middle class

so all of the ultra-wealthy and the corporations could use us as slaves. :(

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. The beginning of the destruction of the middle class.............

and the beginning of Liberal being a dirty word.

[pacalo]

12. American industries gained the power to trample on their workers.

Layoffs began, pay & benefits began to decline.

[AndyA]

13. AIDS wasn't a problem for mainstream America; it was just a gay issue.

So, natch, he did next to nothing about it in those critical first years of discovery.

[Touchdown]

14. Millions dead from AIDS, with no end in sight.

Maybe a vaccine would've been found by now had he cared about those homasaxshuls and funded anything for it.

[JackBeck]

65. Beat me to it.

:thumbsup:

[patricia92243]

15. The ability to get elected and re-elected no matter how many negatives you have. As Darth Dick sai

said"Regan proved that deficit spending didn't make any difference." Meaning Reagan got reelected - AND THAT IS ALL THAT COUNTS. That is Raagan legacy.

[CottonBear]

16. Iran -Contra, recession, debt, homelessness, fairness doctrine gone, unjust invasion of Grenada

among many other horrible things. The Reagan years were a national nightmare but most Americans were completely unaware that they were being screwed by corporations and the military - industrial complex and a bunch of treasonous bastards like George H. W. Bush, Oliver North and Ronald Reagan.

[indepat]

43. The debt, first among so many for the national debt, about $1T when the Gipper took office, has

swollen to almost $9T, thanks to the egregiously radical/irresponsible tax and fiscal policies set in motion by Saint Gipper and carried on with zeal and vengeance by Bush I and Bush II.

[ryanmuegge]

72. I would say the same things.

[ljm2002]

17. General mean spiritedness...

...as illustrated by:

1 -- "freeing" the mentally ill from institutions, without the counties able to take up the slack as promised, thus increasing the homeless population while slapping down one of the most vulnerable groups we have

2 -- ordering the National Guard onto campus, and tear gassing protesters at the People's Park riots in Berkeley

3 -- failing to express any outrage or dismay when four American nuns were raped and killed by right wing death squads in Central America (sorry don't remember the country); this of course was because Reagan was funding said death squads

4 -- illegally funding the Contras by using dirty drug money, and flouting the direct will of Congress who had made it illegal to continue funding the Contras anyway

5 -- building the myth of the welfare queen, only to further their let-the-rich-get-richer, let-the-devil-take-the-hindmost philosophy of government

6 -- laying the foundations of Al Qaeda by funding the Afghani and Osama bin Laden forces against the USSR when they invaded and occupied Afghanistan.

7 -- making it okay that our chief executive is senile while in office

Oh there's lots more I'm sure. But it's a start.

[me b zola]

88. El Salvador

El Salvador is where the nuns were raped and murdered by rw death squads. The worst part is, the * administration in addition to reviving some of Reagan's ghosts responsible for crimes against humanity in Central America, the * administration is also adopting some of those policies:

‘The Salvador Option’
The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq
AP
Nuns pray over the bodies of four American sisters killed by the military in El Salvador in 1980

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry
Newsweek
Updated: 5:59 p.m. PT Jan 14, 2005

~snip~
Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success—despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras. There is no evidence, however, that Negroponte knew anything about the Salvadoran death squads or the Iran-Contra scandal at the time. The Iraq ambassador, in a phone call to NEWSWEEK on Jan. 10, said he was not involved in military strategy in Iraq. He called the insertion of his name into this report "utterly gratuitous.")

Following that model, one Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions. It remains unclear, however, whether this would be a policy of assassination or so-called "snatch" operations, in which the targets are sent to secret facilities for interrogation. The current thinking is that while U.S. Special Forces would lead operations in, say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself would be carried out by Iraqi paramilitaries, officials tell NEWSWEEK.

Also being debated is which agency within the U.S. government—the Defense department or CIA—would take responsibility for such an operation. Rumsfeld’s Pentagon has aggressively sought to build up its own intelligence-gathering and clandestine capability with an operation run by Defense Undersecretary Stephen Cambone. But since the Abu Ghraib interrogations scandal, some military officials are ultra-wary of any operations that could run afoul of the ethics codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That, they argue, is the reason why such covert operations have always been run by the CIA and authorized by a special presidential finding. (In "covert" activity, U.S. personnel operate under cover and the U.S. government will not confirm that it instigated or ordered them into action if they are captured or killed.)

~more @ link~
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6802629/site/newsweek

Everything that has been mentioned in this thread is tragic and true. I kind of encapsulate it all in saying that Reagan's real legacy is that he layed the foundation for *.

[ljm2002]

97. Thank you

Yes it was El Salvador.

I remember how shocked I was that the U.S. Government would not lift a finger to help find justice for those poor murdered nuns, citizens of our very own country.

Another Reagan legacy: I am no longer shocked by any atrocity, nor any underhanded criminal act that our government may commit.

[Philosoraptor]

18. The moral majority, return of racism, gigantic corporate rip offs

[gilpo]

19. Fox news

[OneBlueSky]

20. a national mindset of selfishness and self-centeredness . . . among other things . . . n/t

.

[Joe Fields]

21. One of corruption, influence peddling, and undermining the constitution

[sinkingfeeling]

22. De-regulation. Lassie fare.

[warren pease]

23. He made it fashionable to despise the poor...

He used some fictitious cadillac-driving welfare queen as an archetype for everyone on AFDC, Medicaid, food stamps and the rest. Even as he plundered the treasury to further enrich the rich, along with weapons manufacturers and Wall Street.

He accelerated the usual transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.

And he frequently couldn't distinguish movies from reality.

The press, of course, gave him a complete pass, including characterizing him as a genial old fool rather than as the front man for a set of repressive domestic policies and international meddling against nationalist movements. He supported the "contras" in Nicaragua, the death squads in El Salvador, and quite a few more. And then there was the grand triumph of the invasion of Grenada, an absolutely idiotic adventure conducted solely to take the heat off Reagan for the 240 marines blown up in Lebanon a few days before.

And that's just a few random highlights. There's so much more.


wp

[saltpoint]

24. For my part I would defer to the mothers and children of the disappeared,

the people the death squads swept away brutally in the dead of night in el Salvador and other Central American countries.

Death squads overseen and funded by the Reagan administration.

I'm not nearly qualified to speak on the Reagan years as those mothers and children are.

I defer to them.

[Swamp Rat]

36. "Death squads overseen and funded by the Reagan administration"

I am sure our neighbors hate us for killing and torturing them, including the women and children, and stealing their natural resources.

[saltpoint]

48. Jesus, Swamp Rat, that is a tremendous rendering of our loving

State Department official, Mr. Negroponte.

The very name that tends to pop up in related conversations about those squads of terror.

Thank you for the reply, and the language of dialogue. I feel terribly about how my government behaves, especially during those years.

Some things hurt for a long time.

[Swamp Rat]

60. "Negroponte" = "black" + "bridge" ... to murder, assassination, and chaos

Let's not forget those who lurked in the background during that time.

[saltpoint]

66. This Dick Cheney guy -- even REPUBLICANS are kind of nervous around him.

which makes him even more frightening than I think he is already.

What do you say we hold the Iowa caucus next Tuesday instead of next January?

[Swamp Rat]

68. How about a week from next Saturday?

That is the only weekend I am free for the next two months.

[saltpoint]

70. Week from next Saturday? I'm in.

It's official then.

Let's toss these fuckers out of office nd put some good Democrats in there.

[Swamp Rat]

71. I guess we should send a memo to Nancy to begin the next 'phase'.

[saltpoint]

77. Yes! I'll have the impeachment special, with a side of new SCOTUS nominations.

Nancy has been the victim of some nasty comments on DU of late.

I stand with her. She's got steel in those eyes.

[Swamp Rat]

82. e pluribus unum

We can make her president ... if we really want to exercise our true power.

Consider the alternative:

[saltpoint]

85. You should be paid monstrously high amounts of money for your

gift at these visuals.

If ever you have an opportunity to get paid for it, please take it.

Yes. Pelosi as prez? No argument from me on that one.

[Swamp Rat]

86. I have turned down every offer

Poor and unemployed I am, yet I refuse to sell my images. :)

[saltpoint]

87. Well, then accept my praise for the talent.

It's just that I like it when creative people don't have to struggle for rent and groceries -- you know the scene.

[Swamp Rat]

100. I promise I won't cut off my left ear.

I'm nowhere near that talented. :D

[saltpoint]

101. LOL!

James Baker explaining rabbit sex.

THIS is why some people use LSD.

[Swamp Rat]

102. LOLOL!!!!!

[omega minimo]

120. Moctezuma's Revenge

These are the "illegals" who are pressing Northward!!!!!!



Hi Swampy and OC :hug:

[Philosoraptor]

25. El Salvador, Guatamala, ollie north, nancy.

[truebrit71]

27. Enormous debt. International ridicule. Death and torture of innocents.

Proving beyond a doubt that any old fool could become "President".

But the overriding legacy is that you CAN fool most of the people ALL of the time...

He proved beyond a doubt that the bigger the lie, the more willing people were to believe it..

[hayu_lol]

31. Most workers remember the Reagan years quite well...

All the posters have come up with many of the issues that constitute his legasy. However, his greatest contribution that continues to plague us all today...

was his encouragement for, his funding of, the establishment of a Federal office to help corporations go offshore. This is alive and well today and destroying us all.

[ryanmuegge]

76. And to think there are many right-wingers that call him "protectionist" in retrospect.

What more do they want?!

Formally returning to fuedalism (globalization and neolibreralism = defacto fuedalism) is the only thing that will do for them, I guess.

[lyonn]

28. Retarded bull shi**er who wrecked our economy and made it possible

for the likes of george and Reagan's People to do away with the peoples' rights. Screw the unions, and prop up the corporations. I voted for him twice and it is hard to admit my stupidity. He has done nothing to be honored for. Others had laid the ground work to diminish the Soviet Union. Reagan gets up there and says, "Tear down this wall Mr. Gorbachov (sp)" I about died when he made that stupid statent that his followers brag on now! Ugh. He was a nice, dumb, bull shi**er.

[va4wilderness]

29. A kind, gentle, dear, goodhearted man

on the surface. Slashing and burning the environment and social programs below the surface. And death squads in Latin America. And W and Newt Gingrich and Tom Delay and Bill O'Reilly who were to follow him. Of course, some of the best political punk bands got started back then - in reaction to Ronald Reagan (and Margaret Thatcher).

[Cetacea]

143. Exactly. Cruelty with a smile and a "quip".

The media just loved his so-called "quips" and his perceived pleasant ways.


He was a cruel bastard.

[Virginia Dare]

30. The only pleasant memories I have are because...

I spent most of my time in bars trying to block it all out.

[Swamp Rat]

32. The beginning of the end of the American Empire

He is the figurehead, the icon of failure.



His popularity among the cognitively challenged is proof.

[geardaddy]

33. Wham!

[KansDem]

34. shadow government...

The mob that ran the Reagan White House from behind the scenes while St. Ronnie slept.

[Cetacea]

144. That shadow government secured for him the presidency.

Carter would have won if not for the hostage debacle.

[candice]

35. A bumbling puppet of the bottom line, who transformed

baby boomers into spending machines, removed the solar panels from the White House, and filled the streets with beggars. You seen one redwood, you've seen them all.

[Arkansas Granny]

37. I was a single working mother raising 4 kids when he was in office.

His policies really made it hard on us. That was when they wanted to classify ketchup as a vegetable on the school lunch program, among other things.

[Chemical Bill]

38. The first stolen presidential election...

that didn't involve killing a Kennedy.

Bill

[kenny blankenship]

39. America is for the rich --that's the Reagan Legacy

Everyone not rich simply does not get a voice.

The idea that the government should act in the interests of all the people, and that America was a new kind of nation dedicated to the full flourishing of all of its people died when Reagan took office. Under Reagan and in his wake the doctrine took hold that only the wealthiest individuals and businesses mattered. Those businesses and workers that could not claw their way to the top were unworthy of respect or protection of law. The new class of corporate raiders and entrepreneurs would dictate the shape of a viable future for America which the rest of us could not imagine and could only uncomprehendingly and passively receive in hope that there might be some place for us too; and in order to deliver the future the new "Masters of the Universe" had to be given a free hand in the present. Fear of being eclipsed by the "industrial juggernaut" of Japan cowed the masses into acquiescence. They gave up their unions and job security and handed political control to corporate elites. Manufacturing jobs began to flee to Mexico despite union wage and benefit rollbacks. In exchange for concessions workers received demands for more concessions. Henceforth the richest and most connected interests constituted "America", not the mass of ordinary American citizens living in it. The gap in wealth and incomes had expanded so rapidly and enormously in the space of a decade following Reagan's inauguration that ordinary citizens found themselves without the means to participate competitively in a political system in which dollars are more important than votes. They lack the means to participate. And they are not allowed any forum in the corporate media to interrogate the ruling ideology and status quo on behalf of their own interest. It's as if they went to bed one night with a viral fever coming on, and woke up having been struck deaf and lame--only they can't quite wake up. They try to furiously, and lash out in their sleep in all directions, but are unable to rise. Term Limits! they howl. Throw the bums out! Immigration! Saddam Hussein! Gay Marriage! Failing Schools! They can bring up ANY subject they wish to examine in their media EXCEPTING subjects relating to the basic assumptions of Reaganite political economy. That particular subject is sacrosanct, and indeed is not even regarded as a subject at all , but rather a immutable 'given' of Nature, like gravity.

That's the Reagan Legacy, a case of national Alzheimer's.

[Kerrytravelers]

40. Ketchup is a vegetable for children! Yummy!

:eyes:

[EFerrari]

41. Death squads, crack, homelessness, union busting and catsup.

A real Republic leader, St. Ronnie.

[judaspriestess]

42. ok mine is kinda silly but please keep in mind

I was a teenager at the time when I formed my view of reagan while he was in office. But for whatever reason it has always stuck in my mind (cause me thinks its funny in a dark way)


ronald wilson reagan = 666

thats his legacy

[slackmaster]

44. This endearing image

[IChing]

45. the 'reagan legacy is Bush and the present Military Industrial Complex.

He is the fruition of most of his efforts and policies. :

[Horse with no Name]

46. The Reagan legacy is the death of the American conscience

How we treat each other now and the way we treat our planet is a direct result of the those policies.
It became okay to put "ME" first and piss on those less fortunate than we are.

[Strawman]

94. Yep. Selfishness, intolerance and ignorance are virtues

in post-Reagan America.

[Zywiec]

47. A strong dollar

When I was living in Europe during the '80's the dollar was very, very strong. I remember people actually thanking Reagan when they exchanged dollars for German Marks.

Now, the Europeans are the ones laughing all the way to the bank. I don't think the dollar has ever been weaker against the Euro in my memory.

[Vincardog]

49. GW Preznit is Reagan's legacy. He and his criminal cabal are the direct result of Saint Ron.

[dave_p]

50. 911

Reagan supplied these people with a chunk of $6bn (about twice as much in today's money) of arms & training. It was lucky for the US in 2001 that they'd fired off the Stingers to impress '80s TV crews.

[A wise Man]

51. He damn near

Bankrupted this country with his star wars and nuclear bout with the russians

[chaska]

52. One word: Corporatism.

[Blue_Tires]

126. +1

[Daphne08]

54. The decline of the Middle Class, and I'm old enough to know

what I'm talking about!

[Stephanie]

55. GREED IS GOOD

eom

[GeorgeGist]

56. The world as we know it ...

:wtf: :wtf:

[TygrBright]

57. Homeless people in the streets. Environmental degradation. Death squads...

...and drug cartels in Central America. Decaying urban infrastructure. Mean-spiritedness and cruelty towards the poor.

What a great legacy for America, huh?

I remember being utterly flummoxed that he even got elected, I thought he was a joke candidate, a place holder to run against a good incumbent.

I made up a song on election night:

"Welcome back, Joe McCarthy,
Welcome back, Cotton Mather,
Welcome back to the Barons of the mills...
Let's bring back the Good Old Days again!

We'll all go live on Love Canal,
Consume tainted tuna and saccharine,
'Til we lose track of how many folks it kills...
(Didn't have no FDAs in them Good Old Days!)

Yes, let's go to El Salvador
And start ourselves another war
We'll train our pals to kill the peasants...
Let's bring back the Good Old Days again!

And we'll make sure big corporations
Make plenty bucks with no regulations
When campaign time comes they'll give us presents...
(Just like the graft in them Good Old Days!)

When I sang it for people, that winter after the election, they shook their heads and sighed like "Oh, get over it and quit exaggerating."

I wish I HAD been exaggerating.

sadly,
Bright

[Zhade]

58. Well, looking around here in SoCal, his heartlessness leaps out.

I see it in every mentally ill homeless person freezing in the desert night.

Then there's all the people dead from AIDS...

His murderous support of civilian-killing/raping/torturing dictators in South America...

His treason and lies regarding the Iran-Contra arms deals...

His destruction of the free press via death of the Fairness Doctrine...

The list just goes on.

[ck4829]

59. Trading with Terrorists

[AlCzervik]

61. Catsup is a vegetable.

[BuyingThyme]

62. The Bush Dynasty.

[Annces]

63. Continuing the father figure myth

On a personal level, he slashed college programs and environmental programs that were basic to our social fabric.

[Blue_In_AK]

64. So many things...

but since I was in California when he was governor, I remember "If you've seen one redwood you've seen them all," anad "If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with," referring to student protests at Berkeley. I couldn't stand that guy, and I don't understand the idolizing of him by the Republicans at all. It makes them look really clueless, IMO.

[Carolina]

67. the decline of America

Mourning in America

[cureautismnow]

69. Robin-Hood-in-Reverse

Taking from the poor and giving to the rich. Also, arming the terrorists in Iraq/Iran/Afghanistan.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

73. Drool soaked jelly beans.

[gatorboy]

74. Current Middle East crisis.

[NashVegas]

75. The Rise of the Conservative RW, Rush Limbaugh, etc

Reagan got elected by appealing to knuckle-draggers who had spent the previous 20 years in political hell.

Then, his administration got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, so more trumpets could be added.

[B Calm]

78. The war against labor

[jgraz]

79. A permanent subculture of stupid, mean, greedy, crazy, racist voters

In other words, freepers.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

80. Let's see.......

there's union busting, ketchup as a vegetable, if you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all, defunding the mental illness programs putting people back on the street that really should be cared for in a secured area, and finally who could forget his glorius victory in the battle for Grenada?
:)

[EstimatedProphet]

81. Artificial patriotism

Reagan was the guy (this generation anyway) that gave us the idea that real patriots are bullies and loudmouths, and screaming USA!USA!USA! is every bit as good a way of serving the country as actually trying to make it better.

[Initech]

84. Profit-obsessed companies who don't give a shit about their workers or customers

Just like now!

[bullwinkle428]

89. The beginning of the slow death (by a thousand cuts) of the middle class...

:mad:

[2Design]

90. homeless people everywhere - mentally ill and just poor n/t

[Madspirit]

91. Never Figured It Out

I mean jeez, I thought Nixon was more interesting than Reagan. At least he was fun to kick around.

True story: After Reagan became president they interviewed his ex-wife, Jane Wyman. In the interview they asked her why she divorced him. She said..."I found him painfully boring." That's what I think AND he was Evil...a bad, bad man. He cared more for the rich than I thought humanly possible, trickling down and all. He was another example of the Republicans not caring at all if they elect people with sub 100 IQs. He was an idiot.

JUST SAY 'NO'. Blech......
Lee

[Atman]

92. Reagan taught Americans it was okay to hate each other for their differences.

And he rang up a gazillion dollars in debt while his minions called it a sound economic theory. Beyond that, y'got me.

.

[Jed Dilligan]

93. Homelessness and the death of the middle class

Besides abandoning care for the mentally ill (such as it was before--the old state hospitals were no paradise!), Reagan's war on the American middle class ensured homelessness for the poor and working class. The poor don't have housing built for them (except, occasionally and inadequately, by the government). Their housing depreciates from middle class housing. Less middle class people means less middle class housing means a shortage of housing for the poor not far down the road. It's simple economics and a process we'll never see the end of, now that the middle class is a goner.

[Czolgosz]

95. Homophobia, defeated labor movement, Iran-Contra, homelessness, Star Wars missile scam, imperialism

Good times ...

[butterfly77]

96. Iran contra, crack epidemic...

homeless and poor standing in lines waiting for cheese...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

98. The George W. Bush administration.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

99. A Peter Paul and Mary Song from "No Easy Walk to Freedom"

EL SALVADOR
Noel Paul Stookey and Jim Wallis-
©1983 Neworld Media Music ASCAP

There's a sunny little country south of Mexico
Where the winds are gentle and the waters flow
But breezes aren't the only things that blow
in El Salvador

If you took the little lady for a moonlight drive
Odds are still good you'd come back alive
But everyone is innocent until they arrive
in El Salvador

If the rebels take a bus on the grand highway
The government destroys a village miles away
The man on the radio says 'now we'll play South of the Border'
And in the morning the natives say,
We're happy you have lived another day
Last night a thousand more passed away
in El Salvador

There's a television crew here from ABC
Filming Rio Lempe and the refugees
Calling murdered children the 'tragedy'
of El Salvador

Before the government cameras 20 feet away
Another man is asking for continued aid
Food and medicine and hand grenades
for El Salvador

There's a thump, a rumble, and the buildings sway
A soldier fires the acid spray
The public address system starts to play South of the Border
You run for cover and hide your eyes
You hear the screams from paradise
They've fallen further than you realize
in El Salvador

Just like Poland is 'protected' by her Russian friends
The junta is 'assisted' by Americans
And if 60 million dollars seems too much to spend
in El Salvador

They say for half a billion they could do it right
Bomb all day, burn all night
Until there's not a living thing upright
in El Salvador

They'll continue training troops in the USA
And watch the nuns that got away
And teach the military bands to play South of the Border
And kill the people to set them free
Who put this price on their liberty?
Don't you think it's time to leave
El Salvador?

==========

[Lydia Leftcoast]

103. The ruination of America

Reagan's terms weren't "morning in America"; they were "sunset in America."

[bigwillq]

104. My parents always talk about

how he ran the country on credit and amassed these huge debts and then in turn Americans thought credit was the way to go and millions got in such debt trying to live the good life with money they didn't have.

I was born in 1978 and really don't remember Ronnie being prez.

[Canuckistanian]

105. James Watt and the destruction of the environment

Oh, and religious nutcases in major government posititions.

Watt was a pioneer in both those areas.

[iamthebandfanman]

106. that he tricked everybody

into believing he was the reason for the fall of the soviet union(and the wall) when everybody knows it collapsed itself :)

[devilgrrl]

107. Kill the Poor

eom

[Orsino]

108. Bush.

Deregulate capitalism, and monopolies are inevitable. Along the way, would-be monopolists foist their cronies on us as "leaders." Bush, and the real fascists that come after him, are the true Reagan legacy.

[Kingshakabobo]

109. The "black welfare queen myth" this one is still around.... n/t

[maveric]

110. I remember him laying a wreath at the Waffen SS Memorial in Germany.

Do ya think that he knew exactly what he was doing?

[Geek_Girl]

111. The start of America becoming a Theocracy

[Little Wing]

112. I got mine, so I'll shit on everyone else

[lies and propaganda]

113. I dont recall what his legacy was.

:rofl:

[MN ChimpH8R]

114. Among other things

1. Mindless militarism
2. Butchery in Central America
3. Open declaration of the still ongoing full fledged war on the middle class
4. Throwing the poor and working classes under a train and laughing as they were run over
5. Pseudo-royalism
6. Encouraging the rapacious greed of the haves and have mores
7. Imperial delusions
8. Voodoo economics
9. Permanently lowering the aggregate IQ of the country by at least 30% by convincing much of the populace that there is a simple (read stupid) solution to every problem
10. Ignoring AIDS
11. "Government is the problem"

Chimpoleon is the natural successor in every way.

Reagan was a fucking disgrace and he and his godawful policies are the source of almost every major problem in this country today.

[BlooInBloo]

115. Welfare queens and their Cadillacs.

[bobthedrummer]

116. Iran Contra criminals and fascist privatization

[SammyWinstonJack]

117. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the middle class pays for it all.

:shrug:

[omega minimo]

118. BUSHCO AND A NUMBED-OUT PUBLIC THAT PUTS UP WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

:puke: :puke: :scared: :puke: :puke: :scared: :puke: :puke: :scared:

[G_j]

119. Killing the best energy policy (Carter's) America has ever had ?

imagine how different things might be....

[Crunchy Frog]

121. He's currently playing the same role

that Lenin's corpse played in the Soviet Union for 7 decades. I hope it doesn't take this country as long to disavow Reagan as it took the Russians to disavow Lenin.

[hyphenate]

122. To me

the Reasgan legacy is to be blind, deaf and bigoted to all but the richest Americans, and hate people who are different than you 100% of the time, especially gays, and let your wife and her astrologist really rule the country while you sink further and further into the abyss of Alzheimers while pretending you are at least cogent enough to get by.

[mb7588a]

123. Inflation. nt.

[FloridaJudy]

124. Narcissism, Xenophobia, Greed, Callousness

The man was totally lacking in compassion, completely indifferent to the suffering he, his policies and his toadies caused.

He appealed to Americans' lowest instincts, and became immensely popular because of his glib ability to gloss over any problems. George Junior is his heir apparent, another dullard who disguises his viciousness with an air of geniality. I saw what Reagan did to the state of California when he was governor: destroyed a first-class educational system, gutted the social safety net, despoiled the environment, and installed clueless ideologues in positions of power.

President of the United States just gave him more scope to do damage.

You may notice that I wasn't terribly fond of him.

[Kool Kitty]

125. Reagan's legacy? We're living it right now.

[Kip Humphrey]

127. The Bushes... enuf said.

[Habibi]

128. D.) All of the above

Plus Phyllis Schlafly.

[Dan]

129. believe it or not.... GWB

[rasputin1952]

130. Consistent failure to address social issues, and he set the pace

for transfering everything to the private sector at the cost to society.

The man was an idiot.

[illinoisprogressive]

131. I was like you. I raged thru the 80s at Reagan. hated him.

[unkachuck]

132. American fascism wrapped in Santa Claus....n/t

[doc03]

133. When he fired the Air Traffic Controllers

and the Union Fat Cats didn't take a stand it started the slow death of Labor Unions in the USA.

[rec_report]

134. Iran-Contra, the Savings & Loan scandal, ketchup as vegetagle...

firing the Air Traffic controllers, keeping the hostages in Iran so that they would be released ono his Coronation Day, a skyrocketing Black Box budget for terrorist acts abroad.
Essentially, Ronald Raygun was another terrorist, albeit not as dangerous as Dictator Bush.
Cheers,
Polar Bear

More news here.

[jeffrey_X]

135. "white power"

that's about it.

[doublethink]

136. He was the Anti-Christ. That was his legacy. n.t.

[Imagevision]

137. Calling in National guards against berkley student - Iran/Contra...

[Decruiter]

138. Arrogance of puppets given power

All respect Swamp Rat!

[havocmom]

139. Concentrated media ownership (which = more propaganda/less real news)

deregulation of corporations, and the beginning of the end of collective bargaining for workers.

[timtom]

140. We're living it out right now!

n/t

[Cetacea]

141. The fact that trees "cause more air pollution than cars".

He actually said that when campaigning and still won, and he only won because of the Iran/Contra scam.
He was a cruel bastard, and all the media could report about him was his congenial personality.
He pissed on the homeless and the working poor. Actually, he pissed on just about everyone. With a smile, of course.

One of the people I believe I'll never forgive.

[leftofthedial]

142. The Raygun Legacy:

1. Ignorance
2. Greed
3. The US media as a tool of disinformation directed against US citizens
4. Acceptance, even deification, of any old drooling incontinent sack of clueless shit as a "leader" (while the ruling oligarchy pulls all the strings

[Vodid]

145. Under Reagan we went from the largest Creditor Nation, to the largest Debtor Nation.

Yep. Reagan was NOT a fiscal conservative.

[earth mom]

146. The destruction of everything FDR stood for and the resulting annihilation of the middle class.

* is only steps away from finishing off the job. :grr: