My dear friend Frank posted a Reagan meme on Facebook. Do you think my response is too harsh?

[Bucky]

Here's what Frank posted:

There is no perfect man but when you side with Good instead of Evil, you find men like this:

Here's my response:

He then proceded to make the government much bigger. Did you know that a majority of the job growth under Reagan was in the public sector--that is, government and nonprofit jobs?

In contrast, the millions of more jobs created under Obama are overwhelmingly in the private sector. So what you've posted is a hypocritical lie by a man who was a bigger socialist than Obama.

Sigh, what is it with Republicans and facts? Can't yall learn to get along?

[blm]

1. Pretty good answer in my book.

.

[Bigmack]

2. ...and tripled the debt... and gave/sold weapons to Iran...and .... nt

[3catwoman3]

3. It fascinates me when people...

...who bleat about government being the problem are so eager to get in and stay in government jobs. They start campaigning for re-election the day after e-lection.

[LibDemAlways]

11. Here's a rundown of jobs held by my

staunchly Republican, government hating, Reagan loving cousins:

Transit worker for state of New Jersey
Retired New Jersey public school teacher
Police Detective -Princeton New Jersey (Retired before age 50 with a public pension)
Military Contractor - Washington DC (also has daughter and sister-in-law on the payroll)
My aunt, wife of the transit worker and mother of everyone else, looks forward to her Social Security check each month. She's retired from a job with a major defense contractor.

Hypocrisy at his finest.

[PatSeg]

18. Priceless

Government evidently did nothing for them, right?

[LibDemAlways]

21. The military contractor and his wife

have a dog named Reagan for Christsakes. They would vote for Charles Manson if he had an R by his name.

[PatSeg]

28. Oh my god

That is scary!

It is funny, because the Reagan that today's republicans revere is not the Reagan in the White House in the 1980s. Today's Reagan is a mythological character and the real person was not very popular with the republican establishment at the time. Today he is a god (of their own creation of course).

I have heard people on Social Security or disability or unemployment, using food stamps and Medicare call President Obama a socialist or communist, totally clueless. Reminds me of that classic Craig T. Nelson quote from a few years ago: "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anyone help me out? No."

[renate]

34. I couldn't believe Craig T. Nelson had really said that, so I googled it

I should have known better. Of course he did.

It's not the stupidity that pisses me off, it's the absolute conviction with which they say these things. They think they're so completely and utterly right.

[PatSeg]

40. I remember when he said it

It was like something "Coach" would have said, but he was deadly serious. Evidently Nelson wasn't acting when he played Coach.

I've known so many people like this and they are totally sincere. They really don't see the contradictions in what they are saying. They are self-sufficient and they have earned any entitlements that they collect, BUT that guy over there.........he is a worthless, lazy leach. It is truly mind-boggling.

[allan01]

42. i live in a lo income/seinior /disabled / apartment complex

ive heard it from those people too , and they feel so imune to cuts in the program. hem have a great day.

[PatSeg]

45. I lived in a similar

place for a couple of years. Most of the people there relied heavily on government programs to survive, but they watched Fox News and complained a lot about "government" and politicians. I had to get up and walk away numerous times.

[dbackjon]

36. I know the feeling

I engage on a sport message board with a large number of right-wing anti-big government conservatives, 95% either work for:



US Government (Defense)
Defense contractor

[LibDemAlways]

44. You should hear these people on the topic of

"welfare queens" who buy steak and lobster with food stamps and cart them home in shiny new cadillacs. They have completely bought into every racist myth perpetuated by Reagan out there.

[mntleo2]

50. Which, btw, Reagan later admitted was a comlete lie n/t

[LibDemAlways]

51. They never got the memo.

[3catwoman3]

58. And if they did get a memo, they...

...would ignore it because it is contrary to dearly held beliefs. We don't need no stinkin' facts.

[Matt_R]

46. Government jobs pay good and have bennefits...

compared to private sector jobs. I know quite a few that work a Government job because of the benefits. Let alone wages have been stagnate in the private sector, that is if you exclude the few union jobs around.

Race to the bottom at its finest.

[LibDemAlways]

47. Interesting that those who squeal the loudest about how

horrible the government is and who claim to hate paying taxes have no problem accepting a government paycheck courtesy of the taxpayers.

[1StrongBlackMan]

49. I made the mistake of getting into a discussion with a really right wing, republican ...

receptionist at a government job that I worked. (We worked for the State's AG's Office) She was always complaining about Big Government and talking about the need to cut government.

So, I finally asked her, "Can you draft a Complaint or an Answer? ... Because I can answer my own phone. Be careful of what you wish for."

It was clear that she was not catching my drift ... so, I asked her, "You do know you work for government, right? And, you do realize that this place operates just fine when you take a day off, right?"

She was just amazing in her ignorance ... Here she was a 40+ year old, high school drop out, working as a Receptionist, getting paid 40+K/yr., with full benefits, including a defined benefit retirement plan (this was about 15 years ago) at a Government agency ... lamenting that government was too big.

[Populist_Prole]

57. I'm finding my girlfriend is like this now

She's wonderful but I'm beginning to see she's quite the fascist. Plus, she works for the government, but is always throwing around "governemnt job", "government workers" etc. To hear her tell it, she's the only person with good work ethic at the facility she works in. Must be tough for Ms Atlas to hold the world up on her shoulders.

[yeoman6987]

4. I think you did great

The way you presented the OP. I thought you were going to slam frank. Lol. Had you done that, I was going to say delete and send personal Facebook PM. But you did good. Factual and if frank is honest as I am sure he is. He will read you post and think about it. And maybe even agree or at least agree to disagree. Lol.

[Bucky]

56. Ha ha. Not my buddy Frank. He's an NRA guy. Great dad, brilliant math teacher, but....

partly brainwashed where politics is concerned.

I blame a lot of it on Hugo Chavez, frankly, so I cut Francisco some slack. It's hard to see your country destroyed by actual socialists and keep your objectivity when con artists on the radio start conflating it with liberalism.

[HughBeaumont]

5. Government was definitely a problem for Reagan.

Especially since their pesky laws proved inconvenient to his handlers who wanted government to be run like a corporation . . . a law unto itself.

So much long-term domestic damage started under Reagan . . . Runaway income inequality, runaway CEO pay, middle/working/poor wage stagnation, job offshoring, union defanging, corporate malfeasance, Wall Street as a law unto themselves, defunding of colleges, defunding of HUD (which led to the giant homelessness problem we have today), ravaging of military benefits and VA hospitals, widespread loss of job security, news reporting traded for opinion and constructed narrative, demonization of everything progressive, merging of church and state, demonization of poor people, racism made fashionable, demonization of the LGBTQI community, rampant military spending, reliance on fossil fuels, destruction of the environment, making ignorance fashionable, etc, etc, etc . . .

[procon]

6. Don't even bother trying to use facts on Republicans.

Basically, you're doomed. They been brainwashed to believe that all facts are tainted by some leftist conspiracy to deceive them. If you tell them Reagan raised taxes and blew up the debt, they won't bother to factcheck, they'll just filter out everything that doesn't coincide with their preconceived notions and confirmation biases.

Honestly, short of deprogramming, ignoring, or mocking the stupidity for your own amusement, there's nothing you can to change them.

[samsingh]

7. Your post is great. However, this primary has changed my mind. I used to think it was the republican

stooges who were fact challenged. Now I see it on our side in so many things as well.

But your response was good. Reagan was a liar in so many different ways.

[immoderate]

8. You were good!

--imm

[catnhatnh]

9. Try this

When you discuss good and evil remember this: At over 90 years old and being treated for cancer former president Jimmy Carter still spent full days, rain or shine, donating his labor to build houses for poor people. This man was president and running for re-election when Ronald Reagan's campaign committed treason by contacting the Iranian government and arranging for US citizens who were captive hostages NOT to be released until Reagan was elected president. Your "good guy" committed a capital crime to screw the arguably nicest man ever to hold the office.

[LittleGirl]

20. ^^^This^^^^ eom

[alfredo]

10. Reagan was a Socialist until the lure of power an money captured him.

[firebrand80]

12. I guess if arguing on Facebook is your thing

you did fine. Personally, I would have just ignored it.

[jalan48]

13. I think it's great.

[Vinca]

14. Good answer.

I've always wondered why, if they think government is such a big problem, they want to be a part of it. Must be the great pay and perks and small amount of time they are in session supposedly doing their jobs.

[Duval]

15. You were spot on.

And the media has/had a big part in this lie. Forget about the brain washed Republicans being able to see this. Not going to happen any time soon.

[spedtr90]

16. President Obama replies....

He continued, " Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can't be trusted."

[peabody]

17. It's not harsh at all.

Perfect response to another Republican distortion.

[Martin Eden]

19. GOP strategy is to alienate the people from their own government ...

... so that the rich and powerful can control government to serve their own narrow interests to the detriment of the majority of citizens.

[rurallib]

22. no offense, but I think your response, while good, is slightly off target

My thought would be that ever since then republicans have been running for office just for the purpose of destroying the good that government does and thus turning it into a problem for the 99%. Republicans take care of the rich only.
Then I would ask him if he wants the return of insurance with no pre-existing condition coverage, the end of social security, the end of medicare and any oversight if Wall Street.

Does he want all roads to be toll roads owned by a corporation etc.

[thesquanderer]

55. Yeah, that's the issue I have with that response...

...it implicitly accepts the premise that less government is necessarily a good thing.

It's so hard to choose, do you attack Reagan for being a hypocrite, or for having bad ideas?

[wolfie001]

23. That's a great response!! Well thought out!!

I would have been much more profane: i.e.- Raygun fucked over the working class or some such.

[beastie boy]

24. That was a pretty merciful answer.

You didn't even go into the whole Good vs Evil thingy...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Straight up. Not harsh. . . . nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

26. That depends if you want him to remain your friend or not.

If so, it probably was, if not, it wasn't.

[Jackie Wilson Said]

27. Brilliant

[Glimmer of Hope]

29. There is nothing harsh about speaking the truth.

[arely staircase]

30. "when Reagan was president government WAS the problem."

I will give him that.

[NoMoreRepugs]

31. very tactful...I went the other direction and told most of my

relatives they are out of their f%$#ing minds for voting Republican...

needless to say my Christmas card display is really small

[onecaliberal]

32. NO, clearly, you could have gone alot father.

[Demonaut]

33. no, it's good to go

[muntrv]

35. Reagan started running up the national debt. And there's Iran/Contra.

[Scientific]

37. the truth is always fine

[AlbertCat]

38. Well, Obama admires Reagan....

....so....

[Salviati]

39. Not harsh enough IMO

F Reagan and the legacy of debt and ex-reganite cronies he left us.

[Chicago1980]

41. Not harsh at all.

You could have probably gone further

[allan01]

43. thanks for sharing and bravo. spot on

on edit: this is the same gentleman who ruined the screen actors guild who thought it was for big name stars only, (took ed asniner and others 10 years to repair the damage he caused) , wrong. the same gentleman who shut down state mental health facilites and we are still paying for that . the same gentleman who ruined california, and it took 10 years to recover . same gentleman who fired the federal air traffic controllers . the same gentleman and his cronies that ruined california public schools hem not harsh enough but good

[TRoN33]

48. Your response should be...

Written into the history books.

[JohnnyRingo]

52. "The govt does more for me than it does to me"

That's my curt answer to those who advocate for smaller government and it usually works to end the debate. It implies that shrinking the federal government will actually cost be benefits for the sake of "getting it out of my way".

I'm obviously not some upstart business conglomerate or heir to a fortune.

[world wide wally]

53. The 9 most frightening words in the English language:

I'm from a corporation and I'm here to help

[redstatebluegirl]

54. You forgot he started the end of the labor union and good paying jobs.