This video reminded me of how awful Reagan was...

[MountCleaners]

I do graphic design work, and while I'm working I often play history documentaries in the background. Lately my pet topic has been assassinations and the Secret Service. I especially enjoy listening to videos of old news coverage. So I get to Reagan's assassination attempt, and I click on this video to get a sense of that period (I was a teenager back then and felt completely powerless), and before they get to the assassination coverage, you have to sit through a Reagan speech.

I know that many people will disagree with me, but this man was the absolute worst. I'm sorry someone tried to shoot him, but I found this speech more unbearable than any of Trump's. With Trump, it's a given that everything is a lie. And they are easily proven lies. But this speech brought me back to that sick feeling I had through eight years of Reagan. The self-righteousness, the anger, the extreme self-confidence of the religious right that they had "won". Nearly forty years on, it's clear that they haven't won shit. A lot of Trump's mob aren't even good Christians. They're a different crowd - ignorant trash. And yes, it's disturbing that they got their man in the White House. But ignorant trash is much more easily discredited. They can make all kinds of mistakes that are easily exposed. I do think that over the years the opposition (us) has won a lot of victories and has gotten much stronger. For example, they really went overboard when they got hysterical over the Clintons. They let the militia / patriot nutcases into their fold. I think we won our argument a long time ago, but I found the Reagan administration much more intimidating. Sit through a Reagan speech, listen to how cold and self-righteous the man is, and all of this pious rhetoric he uses, and tell me who the bigger asshole is. I think that in his "heart", Trump knows what a buffoon he is.

Notice how, if you can sit through the speech, Reagan ends his speech with "make America great again." When I watch Trump, it's clear to me he's trying to imitate Reagan. I do blame Reagan for all of this we deal with today. No Reagan, no Trump.

As tragic as the Trump presidency is for our country, I don't feel as bad about the future of our democracy as I did then. Trump is no Teflon president. He's a blatant crook and liar. So was Nixon, and I remember (as a very young child) thinking Nixon was shit and heard it from my parents all of the time. My father met Nixon when he was a waiter at a fancy hotel restaurant in downtown Chicago. He said that Nixon was the biggest asshole of all of the presidents he ever met. But I don't remember feeling despair when he was President, because it seemed that he had a healthy opposition who had won a lot of political battles. There was hope back then, and there is hope now. Reagan, however, did so much of the damage that made Trump possible.

I mean, just listen to his self-righteous crap about government spending and deregulation. Reagan started all of this shit. Fuck him.

[eleny]

1. And he was a major union buster

The AFL-CIO should have yanked him away from the mic.

[a kennedy]

5. This is exactly why unions now have such a bad rap.....Reagan STARTED IT ALL.

[Left-over]

24. As far as I am converned, Reagan was the ring leader in the events that brought us to DRumpf.

[blueinredohio]

27. Agreed one thousand percent

[dalton99a]

2. Government spending? We spent $400 million to haul his carcass around

[sandensea]

50. +1

Reminds me of Scottish comedian Frank Boyle's quip about Thatcher, when he heard the government would be spending 3 million pounds to bury her (I'm sure it was more).

"For £3 million they could buy everyone in Scotland a shovel, and we'll dig a hole deep enough to deliver her to Satan ourselves!"

[UpInArms]

3. If there is karma

Raygun will come back as a poor old black woman

[appalachiablue]

4. Former head of SAG, Screen Actors Guild. Twelve years of this

incl. GHWB. Raygun performed minimally, read his lines like the B actor he was and the staff ran operations. In the last term if not before, it's thought he was senile, he slept a good deal and was in a fog.

[eppur_se_muova]

12. Head of SAG while also paid by the network--violation of SAG rules, obvious conflict of interest. nt

[appalachiablue]

22. That sounds like old Ronnie, Mr. GE

[Major Nikon]

44. He was also an informant for Hoover and McCarthy

In other words he was betraying his union brothers and sisters who were paying him to protect them. The fact that he was an informant gave him influence over those tyrants. A young starlet named Nancy Davis went to Saint Ronnie when she showed up on the blacklist because he was the man to see about such things. A little quid pro quo resulted in Nancy getting knocked up out of wedlock. Today this would be known as a textbook case of the worst form of sexual harassment. Saint Ronnie described it as a love story.

So yeah, Saint Ronnie was a big piece of shit for a lot of different reasons.

[MountCleaners]

6. My grandparents and aunts and uncles were all steelworkers

...all fiercely loyal Democrats. I remember how much my grandfather hated Reagan. My dad worked in steel, too and lost his job umpteen times during the Reagan years. It was such a scary, uncertain time for us back then. I mean, watching this video, I remember how scarred I am from that period. The blatant hatred of union people and the insensitivity to their struggles. And then, of course, he has to talk about how the US must continue the ridiculous defense spending. Then there was all of the overblown rhetoric about the threat of the Soviet Union. The eighties were a NIGHTMARE for this young teenager. Talking up defense and the Soviet threat while slashing the rest of government. And the demonization of people on welfare. What an awful man. Yeah, he was an actor and a tool for those who really sought to advance their greedy Christian right agenda, but he wasn't that great an actor. What is so nauseating is how it's clear he really believes the shit he's talking. And he's such a cold person.

[notdarkyet]

42. I voted for the first time to vote against Reagan. I couldn't stand the man.

[oasis]

7. Reagan was a puffed up, light weight. nt

[unblock]

8. he didn't start it, but he sure gave it a huge boost.

really the problem is the whole authoritarian right-wing white supremacist economic anarchy philosophy, which has been a part of america since before it was america. certainly at least since the beginning of slavery here.

the constitution made to accommodate it, many "compromises" were made to preserve and extend it, the civil war was fought about it, jim crow was made to continue it despite not being able to have formal slavery, etc. goldwater modernized and repackaged the philosophy and nixon created the modern republican coalition to embody it by welcoming the bigots who were alienated by lbj's civil rights efforts.

what reagan did was bring charisma and victory to the mix. he showed republicans how they could have it all and win with their hateful and abusive philosophy.

republicans have been trying to find another reagan ever since, and falling horrendously short of the mark, fortunately for america.

[cilla4progress]

52. Well

done! Succinct...thank you!

[PatSeg]

9. I really don't have fond memories of the 1980s

I remember the far right religious leaders gaining a lot of power and homophobia was rampant. It felt like we'd taken so many steps backward after years of progressive advances.

I mostly remember the ultra consumerism and runaway greed, while more and more people fell into homelessness. And Reagan is republicans' idea of a conservative hero.

[bsiebs]

17. ...and the "just say no" drug war... racist program that created the new private prison industry.

[PatSeg]

36. Oh yes

Putting us on the path to have the highest incarceration rates in the entire world. So much can be traced back to Reagan.

[Javaman]

10. ray-gun was a piece of shit wrapped up in a bow for the nation. nt

[cab67]

11. Trump has a heart?

[Ferrets are Cool]

13. Preaching to the choir...

I agree that he was a horrible person that hoodwinked a nation into believing he was the "lovable grandfather". He is still adored like a god by much of our population.

[Mr.Bill]

14. Here's how I sum up Reagan:

He said government was the problem and he wanted to be in charge of it.

He was an absolute horror show. Both as President and as Governor of California where he raised property taxes so much it triggered the largest tax revolt in history, which was proposition 13.

[lilactime]

15. I agree with you and I hated Reagan with the white hot heat of a thousand suns

every moment he was in the White House. The night he was elected in 1980 I felt it was the beginning of the end and I still feel that way.

[byronius]

16. You are absolutely correct.

[Sherman A1]

18. He was the worst

In my opinion.

[MBS]

19. He & his deluded, closet-racist supporters started (or accelerated) our downward spiral

You can draw a straight line from Reagan to the current deranged occupant of the Oval Office.
The hero-worship of RR completely boggles my mind.

[JohnnyRingo]

20. You're right.

Reagan was the beginning of the republican party that we know today. Sure, they were criminal before him, but they didn't openly assault the working class and rape the country of it's wealth and environment.

Trump is just Reagan without a brain. Trump is Grover Norquist's dream president, a moronic figurehead with just enough working digits to pass legislation that kills the federal government and it's social services.

[hostalover]

21. When my mother was watching TV and Reagan came on, she quickly changed channels. It was her hope

that someone somewhere would notice this tiny blip and take note!

[NoMoreRepugs]

23. Reagan, Bush Jr., tRumpy.... common thread is they are not very smart.

Carter, Clinton, Obama..... mondo intelligence.

Yep, both sides are the same.

[tritsofme]

25. Found your Nixon anecdote interesting.

My father in law always told a story of how he and a friend met Nixon in a nice Chicago restaurant, sometime between 60 and 68, being a bit star struck they proceeded to have dinner and drinks with him, after that they realized the cheap bastard was just out hunting for a free meal.

[MagicPond]

26. OMG

I thought Trump was the one to coin MAGA. I was still a teenager in school when Reagan was shot. Needless to say, I was into cars and fun. Politics was the furthest thing from my mind back in those days

[geardaddy]

28. I completely agree with you.

As a high schooler and college student during his reign, I thought he was the worst of the worst. He was shot when I was in 10th grade and remember quite a few people in my English class cheering when the announcement was made. I was one of the cheerers. I know it wasn't appropriate to cheer, but at the same time, most of my friends in Minneapolis at that time absolutely hated him.

My parents had been old-style Republicans (fiscally conservative, socially liberal) and refused to vote for Ronnie Ray-gun, but couldn't bring themselves to vote Dem in 1980. I know they haven't voted Repub for a president since they voted for Ford in 1976. My dad caucused for Obama in 2018, but died in August 2018, so never got to vote for him and never got to see him win. That breaks my heart every day.

[BadgerMom]

29. Three personal Reagan thoughts and memories:

1. At the California Girls’ State gathering at UC Davis in 1970, we participants were “treated” to a visit by then-Gov. Reagan. I refused to clap, as did some of my peers. Five years later I graduated from UC and a highlight of my diploma is that Reagan didn’t sign it. Gov. Jerry Brown did.

2. In Nov. 1980, I planned to vote after work. As I drove to my polling place in Marina del Rey I heard the news that Reagan had already beaten Carter. I wept in my parked car and voted for Carter anyway.

3. Until our recent move to New Mexico, we lived in Thousand Oaks, CA which is over the hill from the Reagan Library. I went to the library twice in those 15 years, first taking a pre-teen niece who was visiting. The second time I went with my best friend and her husband, a writer of biographies and a reporter, who were visiting for our daughter’s wedding. I have to suppress a gag reflex in there. They have an entire room filled with exhibits about how the economy works (lies) and how Reagan improved the US economy (damned lies). As my two Democratic friends and I walked through we had to quiet our negative responses. It kills me to know that school kids in the area go there on field trips and are fed this swill. Luckily, the trips are in fifth grade. I think the details are transitory for them.

[rusty fender]

30. Unfortunately, they have won a lot of shit

Supreme Court: 5 to 4 majority, and probably more, for the foreseeable future

Abortion: although it’s still legal, anti-abortion activists/terrorists have made it virtually impossible for poor women to get abortions in most states

Unions: Americans enrolled in unions is at the lowest numbers ever; the right-wingers have made “union” a dirty word

TV/radio airwaves: the right-wingers dominate the airwaves with their hatchet men like Limbaugh, Hannity, etc.; Fox News is the default news station for the U.S armed forces as well as for a majority of U.S. businesses

Elections: voter suppression

Their triumphs are legion as is the evil they still do

[Boomerproud]

41. 100% true. That was the only line in the OP that I disagreed with. They (the Conservatives) have

always been in power and have solidified it since 1980. Yes, in art, music, books and general culture the liberals seem to have the monopoly but where it really matters (law, commerce and genuine power) it has never changed. They guard their power with a ferocity we can't even imagine. RR Superstar was only a frontman.

[rusty fender]

46. Well said!

More wins for them could be added to my short list, but your summation is spot on

[LisaM]

31. He was terrible, and he was also a puppet of larger forces.

Read a book called "Strange Rebels" about 1979, which discusses the collision of untrammeled capitalistic forces and right-wing fundamentalism, where the former realized that the latter could be used as a tool by which to achieve its ends. However, they think that larger villains are Margaret Thatcher and the Ayatollah Khomeini, and that Reagan, much like Trump, was basically a useful tool.

The day that man took office, this country went into a skid, and I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't at least elected Clinton and Obama.

[lovemydogs]

32. The 80s had some great music and tv and movies

Today i see a total desert as remakes of the same cartoon action adventure and romantic comedy movies, same as the last, are done over and over.
tv is alot of reality shows ala Trump
Music is just sad.

But, I am an old fart who was in my 20s in the 80s and loved the creativity and energy of punk and new wave.
While I hated the shoulder pads I loved the leather and jeans look of new wave. The cool tops and pants.
Movies gave us the comedy and Chicago feel of John Hughes. Alot of good movies.
And you had Cheers, LA Law, Hill St. Blues, ect. on tv. Not to mention MTV when MTV rocked and played real videos.

The 80s were the endless summer

But, Reagan. Ha. I hated him. I hate Trump more. Reagan was awful but, he was not out to tear apart democracy, undermine our allies, cozy up to strongmen, give away US secrets to our enemies, knew something about governing, ect.
Yes. Reagan was a nightmare but, Trump is many times worse

[misanthrope]

49. I'm close to your age and my remembrances of the 1980s aren't as rosy

I turned 20 in the middle of the decade. When I think of the '80s and its mood, I think of things like Bruce Springsteen's dismal but incredible album "Nebraska," Nena's "99 Luftballoons," U2's "Seconds," Sting's "Russians," Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers," The Fixx's "Stand or Fall," Men at Work's "It's a Mistake," PIL's "Home" and others built around the bellicose and apocalyptic atmosphere.

I think of the ABC made-for-TV movie "The Day After." Nuclear annihilation hung over us like a Damoclean sword which is why the graphic novel and film "Watchmen" rings so true when I think of the 1980s zeitgeist, despite its postulation of Nixon as POTUS.

And greed, rampant materialism ratcheted up to levels previously unseen, when Jerry Rubin eagerly embraced his new Yuppie label.

Not say there weren't things I liked, but it didn't leave me sanguine. I much, much preferred the 1990s.

[extvbroadcaster]

33. Wow blast from the past for me!

I worked at CNN back in the day. Wow, that pit shot was great. I can't be sure but that might be Murph in his classic yellow sweater as TD. The background here that you don't know - CNN back then was desperate for programming, so we had a camera inside for Reagan's speech. None of the other 3 networks cared, they were outside to get some B-roll of Reagan and that was it. So the speech ends, CNN shuts down the camera and starts to pack up. Reagan goes outside, gets shot, and the other networks have footage and CNN has nothing! All hell breaks loose, and back then it was the wild west on satellites. No scrambling, nothing. CNN sees ABC feeding the assassination attempt footage back to NY. They roll on it, and broadcast it before ABC! Totally stole it from ABC, and that is a true story. ABC was major mad at CNN too. You had to be there, CNN was called chicken noodle news and the other networks thought we were a joke. Needless to say, to a bunch of kids we thought we were the upstarts and fighting the good fight against big corporate news. It makes me sad to see what happened to CNN from what it was then and what we dreamed it was going to be. And as for Murph, (Tom Murphy) I doubt anybody even remembers him at CNN today. He died in a car accident in 1988. But he was an institution back then, a legend. When you got there he was one of the first people you met. He was always wearing that yellow sweater back then. He was a great TD and Director too. I did countless shows next to him, and for years after his death, if I tried, I could still hear his voice in my ear calling the shows. RIP, Murph.

[malaise]

34. Correct

Rec

[Nitram]

35. I remember well the fear and loathing I felt during Reagan's presidency.

[rickyhall]

37. Raygun was a bastard for sure.

I had just starting my Junior year at the U. of Arkansas when he took away funding and ended my working toward a degree, then his tax cut recession made the job search that much harder. Because of him I had to work my ass off to keep a home. I never got caught up, really, until Bill Clinton fixed the economy, then W trashed again. All my life just as I get things right a repug gets elected and it all goes to shit. Every time there's repug in the WH a recession follows. I'm still expecting/dreading one out Trump.

[rwsanders]

38. SFgate.com has a great piece that will help you hate Reagan all the more...

It is called, "Reagan, the FBI and the University of California". Basically goes over how he and the FBI hammered the university system because he viewed them as liberal. Been a long time since I've read it, but in the article it talks about how he was part of the communist party during the McCarthy era, but caught the FBI's ear by becoming a snitch. The article hints that he gave the name of a very big Hollywood celebrity.
Now the interesting thing to me is that my parents always told me that the reason that John Wayne never received an Oscar (maybe he finally did), was that someone in Hollywood had reported him as a communist.
Maybe it was Reagan. Makes sense to me.

[Major Nikon]

45. John Wayne didn't receive the Oscar because he was an asshole

He was heavily involved in cheerleading the blacklist movement. He only got one decades after people started forgetting about his assholery.

[rwsanders]

47. Didn't know that, but not surprised.

[Major Nikon]

48. He was a drunk who beat all his wives and children

He was also a white supremecist by his own admission. He made some good movies, but was a horrible person.

[Demonaut]

39. he flew aboard my ship when I served, I was not impressed and that was long before I had political

leanings..at least before I was aware of them

[Raine]

40. Raygun WORST president

EVER as far as I'm concerned. Raygun made Trump possible, there is none I despise more then Raygun!

[AllaN01Bear]

43. it took the state of california 20 years to recover after the failed policies of

ronald ray gun and his followers after him. and on the so called " war on drugs ", its a failed policy of rr and a war on blacks.

[cilla4progress]

51. Republicans like their Presidents

demented.

That way they can manipulate the system for their own greedy urges.

[katmondoo]

53. He started the war against women. I wrote to him about it

I told him to do his presidential thing and leave women alone. They got me later when I applied for Social Security

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

54. He fired the air traffic controllers

Lane Kirkland, then head of the AFL-CIO, completely supported him rather than standing up for the union. It was the death knell for unions.