In what sense was Reagan an abject failure?

Voodoo economics?

And how did the US perform under the voodoo period….rather well as I recall.

The Times panel rated Reagan #8 out of 42 presidents to date…

Policy in South America? Oh yeah UK rightwingers do the same, also see Thatcher…

cjcjc,
Reagan’s position on that list says more about the 42 than it does about Reagan.

I think it is a bit off to describe any politician as an ‘abject failure’, as all political careers end in failure. Reagan was an important president because he was a qualified success in a couple of areas, which has lead to his reputation growing in stature and symbolic power over the qualified failures that succeeded him.

What’s remarkable about the American system is just how often it throws up bad leaders to inflict on the populace. Surely they can design a better process by which the cream rises to the top.

In what sense was Reagan an abject failure?

Would you like me to list the economics side, or the foreign policy?

What’s remarkable about the American system is just how often it throws up bad leaders to inflict on the populace. Surely they can design a better process by which the cream rises to the top.

It’s called a directly elected executive system.

Parliamentary systems act as a much better filter, and allow bad choices to be removed. Reagan is a divisive figure, but I wouldn’t call him a failure–the way he ‘won’ the Cold War was dodgy, but win it he did, and that was a policy objective, so thus counts as a success.

[7] I would like to know precisely what the United States did to cause the collapse of Communism. During the period of détente – some would say after the Cuba crisis of 1961 – no one expected nuclear weapons to be used by either side, and there is a good argument that geopolitics were more stable then than they are to-day.

Communism collapsed from within, for a variety of reasons, of which technological change and its inability to replace national with class sentiment were at the forefront.

You win a tennis match if your opponent scratches, and in a tournament you proceed to the next round, but it doesn’t say anything about your skill as a player.

Wot Mike said. He ‘won’, but that doesn’t say anything about how he did it. You’re buying into the right-wing narrative when you say that. the Soviet Union collapsed because it was a tyranny and a badly managed economy. And through political incompetence. I’m glad it collapsed, I just wouldn’t attribute it to Regan.

Reagan’s deregulation resulted in the current recession.

[troll]
I’m glad it collapsed, I just wouldn’t attribute it to Regan.

Let us picture Sunny Hundal in the 70s , well he may see himself as a Tariq Ali for our times but I am seeing longish Hair , a Velvet Jacket with matching loon pants , Chez Tee shirt . He would have been on the left of the Labour Party as he is now ?( except when in America) , he would have been for nuclear disarmament like his hero Michael Foot and would be as fiercely arguing the equivalence between the USSR and the US approving no doubt of its sponsorship of Palestine against the US in the region . He would happily sing the red flag agree with the sprit of clause four ( not ancient history is it ) and like most left wing intellectuals still attempt apologies for Stalin
The Soviet Union was beaten obviously by the wrongness of socialism which ate its innards eventually but had its aggressive expansionism found appeasement instead of implacable opposition it might well have fed on foreign success a such regimes do . Reagan continued the policy , Conservatives always supported it Labour were ambivalent their activists usually vehemently anti American . I remember these people well

The Conservative Party were wrong about much in the past in particular they were too slow to officially accept the social revolution . This pretty shallow falling out with the country has been paid for over and over. The Labour Party has treated its past the way the USSR treated its photographs and I am yet to hear anyone admit they were so so wrong all those years

Yes Newmania, the fall of the Soviet Union certainly does make things harder for you rightwingers. It was immensely helpful for your deranged slurs.

Glad to see the authoritarian instincts of the left are all in the past.( See above ).

Unfortunately the authoritarian instincts of the authoritarians are still very much in existence on both the right and the left.

It’s an old tradition on the left to try and paint glowing legacies for political leaders who are about to be abject failures (think Barack Husein Obama) so they can look forward to the entirely made-up lefty utopia.

It’s an old tradition on the right to try and paint glowing legacies for political leaders who have been abject failures

I guess you never noticed the cult of Che Guevara.

The Legacy of George W Bush, A Collection of Conflicting Opinions

ISBN-13 9781441455437

The debate over George W Bush is probably the most visceral debate of our century. There often seems to be no in between. Folks either love him or hate him. As we approach the inauguration of Barrack Obama, the internet has been bombarded with opinions ranging from one extreme to the other. In this book is a collection of dialog from all over the world and every walk of life. In an eight hour period of time just prior to GWB stepping out of the White House, one that that rings true is that we live in an amazing country just to be able to have this conversation.

Can a man’s legacy be drawn from an eight year period in time? What kind of a footprint has GWB left on the American people, or the world for that matter? Has he served his country well by protecting us from terrorism, or has a alienated America from the rest of the world. What role did Christianity play under the leadership of George W Bush? Has he acted as a Christian in his role as President of the United States, or has he misused the Bible as a means of procuring votes and evoking war? Was the rebuilding of Iraq set in motion years before the Twin Towers tragedy, or was this a rapid decision based on an emergent circumstance? Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, or should we have been focusing on catching Bin Ladin? What about North Korea and Proliferation of nukes in Iran? Was there miscommunication between the CIA and the FBI and why was Home Land Security restructured as it was? Were our civil rights violated by the Echelon Program? The list of questions will go on for an eternity and there will probably be more theories about the Bush Administration than the JFK assassination and the Watergate Scandal combined.

I have tried to keep this debate as original as possible. That includes errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. I have also tried to collect them in a somewhat chronological method in order to keep a level playing field. I have simply collected publicly posted comments of others from open sources with no expectation of privacy or concealment. This is simply a collection of what others have had to say. I have tried to eliminate personal attack between the folks debating (or at least leaving out what I thought may be real names of folks) Some of the statements are redundant, just as they came down the pipeline. What ever your opinion of George W Bush Is….
This is a compelling, and somewhat disturbing read.

The Legacy of George W Bush: (A Collection of Conflicting Opinions) (Paperback)

Can a man’s legacy be drawn from an eight year period in time? What kind of a footprint has GWB left on the American people, or the world for that matter? Has he served his country well by protecting us from terrorism, or has a alienated America from the rest of the world. Has he acted as a Christian in his role as President of the United States, or has he misused the Bible as a means of procuring votes and evoking war? Was the rebuilding of Iraq set in motion years before the Twin Towers tragedy, or was this a rapid decision based on an emergent circumstance? I have tried to keep this debate as original as possible. That includes errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. I have also tried to collect them in a somewhat chronological method in order to keep a level playing field. I have simply collected publicly posted comments of others from open sources.