What Reagan Started, Bush Is Finishing

[callady]

What Reagan Started, Bush Is Finishing

By David Martin

10/26/05 "ICH" -- -- In recent weeks, every morning’s newspaper seems to carry another headline documenting the accelerating tailspin of George Bush’s administration into disastrous fiasco. Political pundits may attribute the ongoing self-immolation of George Bush to the general ineptitude of the Mayberry Machiavellis with whom he has surrounded himself.

But there is another, more historically correct explanation for the current presidential unraveling: the disaster that is George Bush is the inevitable culmination of the “revolution” wrought by Ronald Reagan.

<snip>

The bright and shining “morning in America” that Reagan touted has turned into a cold, gray dusk as the sun rapidly sets on the American dream. In the 25 years since Reagan was sworn into office, the middle class is shrinking and the gap between wealthy and poor is reaching Grand Canyon proportions. During this period the average after-tax income of the lowest fifth of Americans has increased by 5%, the middle fifth by 15%, and the top fifth by 48%. The income of the top 1% of Americans, in contrast, has more than doubled, growing from $298,900 to $631,700, an increase of 111%.1

<snip>

Politicians and their supporters love to wax romantic about the legacy they leave behind. Here’s the Reagan/Bush legacy: failed wars, support of terrorists, environmental degradation, the income distribution of a banana republic, a credit rating a third world country would be ashamed of, falling health standards, the disappearance of guaranteed retirement pensions, and corporate malfeasance on an unprecedented scale.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10779.htm

[Erika]

1. It is indeed a sad gray day in America

and we feel it. My anger is at the Republicans who killed this country and the hopes of our children and grandchildren.

[CottonBear]

2. I remember the very day Reagan was inuagurated after stealing the election

from President Carter.

My classmates at an exclusive girls prep school were in awe of Ron and Nancy because he "brought class back to the White House." :puke:

And so it all began... :cry:

[prescole]

3. Makes me glad I'm so rich

where it counts--where thieves (or burglars) can't break in.

[The Kicker]

5. nor moth or rust corrupt

Welcome to DU. We'll all be alright. It just sucks to see all the suffering, much of it exacerbated by greed.

[AX10]

4. sad but true.

both are really sleaze bags.

[BillZBubb]

6. Don't forget the voters who in the end are the most responsible.

They elected these clowns. OK not exactly, but enough voted for them to make the elections steal-able.

Neither Reagan or Bush hid what they were going to do. In fact, when they ran for re-election their schemes were all known. So, I don't blame either Reagan or Bush as much as I do my supposed fellow Americans. We have far too many selfish, ignorant sheeple.

[Matariki]

7. you know, this started back in the Nixon administration

although he was just 'their' tool, not 'one of them'.

[Mme. Defarge]

8. As a "Boomer",

with all the baggage associated with that, I NEVER, in my wildest paranoid fantasies, dreamed, in the 1980's, that HOMELESSNESS would become commonplace in my America. This didn't exist in the world I grew up in. The Great Depression was over, and America -- the author of The Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after the catastrophe of WWII -- was the land of prosperity. For me, the normalization of homelessness is the ultimate shame of the so-called Reagan legacy.

The election of Ronald Reagan inspired me to shed my Republican identity and re-register as a Democrat. My only regret is that if I had it to do over again I would have voted for Jimmy Carter instead of third-party candidate John Anderson.

Looking back, the election of 1980 marked the end of the press as the fourth estate. The collusion on the part of the network news organizations to package the Iran Hostage situation as a "crisis" brought down an American President by creating the non-stop drumbeat that Carter was incompetent.

So, yes, Callady, I concur with your assessment that the candidacy of a "B" Hollywood actor was a cynical ploy on the part of the over-class to persuade the average American citizen to vote against the interests of their country, not to mention their own economic and personal well-being.

[callady]

9. Teflon Ronnie

Amazing how low his approval ratings were right after his leaving office. It was only a massive PR blitz that created the mythology. People can be largely unaware of their own circumstances in this day of manufactured reality.

Teflon is toxic.