Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
President
Ronald Reagan:
Introduction
from the website: godblessronaldreagan.com
The Underestimated President
"There [they] go again..."
-Ronald Reagan-1980 Presidential Debate
To some the title of this website may seem incredibly aberrant, fallacious, or
even rather ludicrous. How could any man consider a president, responsible for a
tremendous deficit, given to memory losses, and whom possessed such a dearth of
intellectual abilities, a great president? Not only great, but the greatest of
the century!? Much of what has been iterated in the last few lines are nothing more than
the recycled fallacies Reagan era revisionists and critics constantly tout. While I find
that it is rare (but not unknown of) for liberals to blatantly lie about the 1980’s
and Reagan, by simply surfing the net, one may find an ubiquitous array of half-truths,
misleading statements, and distortions that are prevalent on many leftist pages. Such
information, polluting the world wide web, "historical" works, and any other
news and information outlet liberals can find, easily allows the average American to be
misled about this great man.
I have noticed that there are ample amounts of pages defending the so called, liberal
dubbed agenda of Reaganomics (supply-side economics), however, there are few, if any,
pages that firmly defend this great leader above the usual exchange of statistical
evidence. Which, by the way, is perfectly valid in debunking many of the fallacies of the
anti-Reagan crowd, however, many pages simply make the flawed assertion that a few bar
graphs, reprinted CBO numbers, and brief analysis of this data will alter the hardened
views of the ardent anti-Reaganists (though, I assume no man could convince a hardened
ideologue otherwise) or will properly depict Reagan as a great leader to those undecided.
While I have the utmost respect for anyone who puts forth such an effort in defending
the Gipper, and I too will make use of statistical charts and data, to properly elucidate
the character and leadership of Ronald Reagan, one must go beyond mere statistical
evidence (that liberals have an easier time "refuting"). Ronald Reagan was not a
great president simply because we can display an increase in median family income, a sharp
decline in inflation, tax cuts that benefited all, an incredible increase in the GNP, and
more than a doubling in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. He is a great president due to
the circumstances he triumphed over, the challenges he met, the tough decision he made
that LED to these economic perks, national pride, and foreign policy triumphs.
Liberals, however, will hear nothing of this. Depending on how far to the left
one is (or how much a man despises the 40th president), one may contend anything from,
"Reagan is nothing more than a charismatic ideologue who wasn’t even in control
of his administration", to the notion that Reagan was in fact is the devil incarnate.
The following is what could be considered the general sentiment of the anti-Reagan crowd:
"Ronald Reagan is a man who somehow managed to secure his party’s
nomination and dragged it to the far right. As a leader and president, he was a
complete failure, who epitomized lethargy and incompetence. His economic policies mostly
manifested themselves from the minds of reactionary economists and had incredibly
detrimental effects, despite right-winged claims. Proof of this is quite evident in the
massive deficits that occurred, despite a promise of increased revenues and a balanced
budget. Additionally, only the wealthy benefited from the Reagan tax cuts, cuts in social
spending hurt the poor, and most of the economic gains made during the decade were made
merely on credit borrowed from future generations. Let us not forget the elitist yuppies,
complimented by their BMW’s and selfish and immoral values.
However, the economic short comings of the 1980’s were not the only demonstration
of the failure on behalf of the Teflon President. Reagan also blundered on foreign policy.
Beirut, Bitburg and Iran-Contra elucidate this. Additionally, Reagan did little more but
further American imperialism by zealously targeting Latin American communist nations and
was condemned for his intervention in Grenada by all the world, including by the
Conservative government of Britain, not to mention his support for the rouge reactionaries
attempting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Furthermore, the Soviet
Union collapsed under its own weight of a failing bureaucracy not due to anything that
Reagan did.
If there was any man that was responsible for the transition to democracy, it was
Gorbachev not Reagan, which is why Time Magazine named Gorbachev man of the decade.
Finally, Reagan is not even considered intelligent enough to be president by most
historians. He has consistently displayed a lack of control over his cabinet and advisors
and was given to forgetfulness, laziness, and an intellectual deficit. Reagan was
thoroughly unqualified to be president and his actions displayed such."
Examining this statement, one may be compelled to adhere to the facts and the
possible "logic" that allows the Reagan era revisionists to arrive at their
conclusions. Of course, this is the usual drivel that that liberals and Reagan
haters love to depict as the truth about the 1980’s. Additionally, those liberals who
have not bothered to even supply their own facts, outside of their generally accumulated
propaganda, turn to various liberal works that have manifested themselves in the form of
books, articles and websites. These sources provide "proof", utilizing
statistics and other data, that Reagan is exactly what the above professes (and even worse
at times). Ubiquitous, in the anals of liberalism’s arsenal of assault, are an array
of generally misleading, sometimes vituperative, and nearly exclusively fallacious data
and conclusions.
Anyone who has read any analysis critical of the Reagan era can be assured to have been
exposed to charts and graphs displaying a proliferating deficit, growth that is inferior
to that of the 50’s, 60’s and 90’s, lack of great increases in employment,
an imbalance of trade, and of course numerous portrayals of data depicting just how well
off the wealthiest Americans were while the rest of America made little economic progress.
Ironically enough, however, such liberal works of anti-Reagan opposition indoctrination,
pay little heed to undisputed advances such as a massive decrease in inflation, an end to
the energy crisis, and the growth of the stock market.
However, they find ways to dismiss these benefits or credit their occurrences to other
(non-Reagan) factors. Furthermore, the standard insult towards Reagan for being
intellectually deficient, and thus a generally poor leader adorn the web pages and works
of the anti-Reagan liberals and intellectual elite. Liberals, try to dismiss the Cold War
victory using a variety of methods, however, the most effective form of manipulation seems
to be crediting the collapse of the Soviet Union to internal defects. Though,
additionally, there have been numerous amounts of disparagements, ranging from charges of
a near unilateral effort, on the part of Gorbachev to that of unfair American imperialism.
These notions that liberals portray as fact, seek to sully the image of America’s
40th president and revise history in the manner in which they would like it to be regarded
as. The accompanying pages depict Reagan as the leader he was, who brought America back
from malaise to prosperity, who made the world safe for free government and free markets,
who returned pride and patriotism to this land, and who richly deserves to be in the same
standing as great presidents such as Washington and Lincoln and as the greatest president
of the 20th century!
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