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Ramo
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Austin, Texas, USA
Oct 1999
time: 23:36
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I suppose that I haven't eulogized Reagan yet, so I'll take the opportunity.
Ronnie started his political career just as he ended it, ardently fighting against the poor. His first major gig was as a spokesman for GM to go around campaigning against unionization. And in his first year of office, he used Taft-Hartley to break up PATCO strike. And in the following decade organized labor was mercilessly slaughtered by old Gipper.
Social security was going up on the chopping block, though it survived despite his best efforts. Of course, he was more successful in other matters. Ketchup would become a "vegetable" instead of a "condiment" to cut $1.5 billion from federal funding for school lunches for the poor. The tax burden would be switched further from the rich to the poor with regressive payroll tax hikes. 'Course, we could always afford corporate pork and massive protectionism, funded by unprecedented budget deficits.
In foreign policy, the theme was no different. In El Salvador, Reagan propped up a brutal regime that massacred peasants when they got uppity. The same assaults against "communist subversion" happened in Honduras with its Batallion 316. And after the Sandanistas kicked our boy, Somoza out of Nicaragua, Ronnie sent in right wing death squads to slaughter up and down the country.
These Contras were funded by arm sales in Iran, so that they could slaughter as many Iraqis as humanly possible. And we would fund Iraq, so they would slaughter as many Iranians as humanly possible. A million dead, and power parity wasn't even achieved given Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in a couple years. And when Saddam went after Kurds and Marsh Arabs, that was just fine. Of course, the Khomenists weren't the only Islamists Reagan funded. Half a billion per year went to the Mujahadeen, helping give birth to Islamic terrorism as we know it.
The song remains the same in Chen's South Korea, Suharto's Indonesia, Doe's Liberia, Apartheid South Africa, etc., etc.
And, of course, there's the almost extending the Cold War for a few decades through his initial stance towards Gorby, as I mentioned earlier in the thread.
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MrFun
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of Iowa
Nov 2000
time: 23:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Drogue
Taking Imran's idea, partly to stop people spoiling the moment of silence thread for Reagan's passing, and partly because I was wondering, in light of recent events and his death, how he'll be remembered.
Will he be remembered as a great president who caused an economic boom, showing capitalism working; or an evil mass murderer who precided over someone else's hard won growth? What will textbooks in 20 years time say about him? |
I will remember Reagan for helping to create appalling living conditions in Central American countries (mass murdering, extreme poverty, plutocracy).
I will also remember Reagan for being one of the many individuals who was in a position of power and responsibility to take effective action against AIDS when people theorized as early as 1981 or 1982 that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease. Yet he did too little too late, not because no one knew anything about this disease, but because people did know what this disease was, and he did not care.
I will also remember Reagan for widening the gap of wealth between the American upper class and working class Americans.
I will also remember Reagan for being finiancially irresponsible by increasing spending in national defense programs while cutting spending for other, important domestic areas such as health, education, welfare, and so on.
I will also remember Reagan for being involved in the Iranian Contra scandal.
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07-06-2004 09:28
Like that invalid could accomplish anything. 
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