[TheRealVille]

The time element of “30 years” keeps slipping into American official reports and news stories about the origins of crises – the latest in “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report” – but rarely is the relevance of the three-decade span explained, and there is a reason.


The failure to close the circle in saying who started the nation off on the path toward these disasters is because nearly everyone shies away from blaming Ronald Reagan for almost anything.

The overpowering consensus in Washington is that it’s political suicide to criticize the 40th president of the United States, whose centennial birthday on Feb. 6 will be celebrated elaborately.

It’s much safer to behave like MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews and simply accept that Reagan was “one of the all-time greats.”

But the truth is that Reagan’s current historical reputation rests more on the effectiveness of the Republican propaganda machine – and the timidity of many Democrats and media personalities – than on his actual record of accomplishments.

Indeed, many of today’s worst national and international problems can be traced to misjudgments and malfeasance from the Reagan years – from the swelling national debt to out-of-control banks, from the decline of the U.S. middle class to the inaction on energy independence, from the rise of Islamic fundamentalism to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

All of these disasters are part of the Reagan Legacy. Yet, possibly the most insidious residue from the Reagan Years was the concept of manipulating information – what some Reagan officials liked to call “perception management” – as a means of societal control.

In that endeavor, Reagan’s team took aim at two key entities – the CIA’s analytical division and the Washington press corps – with the realization that if the information produced and disseminated by those two groups could be controlled then the insider community of Washington and the broader American public could be managed.

That enabled the Reagan administration to exaggerate the threat posed by the Soviet Union (after Reagan’s CIA chief William Casey and his deputy Robert Gates purged many of the CIA analysts who correctly saw a decaying empire eager for accommodation with the West).

Similarly, well-financed right-wing operatives and administration officials worked to marginalize mainstream journalists (the “liberal press”) who raised troublesome questions about Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies.

The impact of these information strategies had deadly consequences even years later, such as when President George W. Bush and Vice President **** Cheney essentially dictated the intelligence “analysis” on Iraq’s WMD to the CIA and the Washington press corps fell in line behind the march to war.

Even today, President Barack Obama complains that his options for addressing the nation’s growing problems are limited by what he calls the Reagan "narrative,” demonizing government.

More at the link:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/012811.html

[Hoot Gibson]

I am not sure that I have ever seen a less factual, more opinionated editorial posted in this forum. Apparently it is not enough that Obama worshippers blame Bush for the failure the liberal agenda.

Everything that Reagan criticized about our federal government during his years on this planet is doubly true today. If telling the truth about liberalism is "demonizing" it, that says something about liberalism - not Reagan.

[jetpilot]

Most ignorant article ever...aimed at idiots and believed by idiots...

[TheRealThing]

I was there during the Carter years. Matter of fact I was fortunate enough to build my first house two years prior to his presidency. During those years I saw the very popular and once low adjustable rate housing loans go from 6 or 7 % to 14% during Carter's time in the White House. This, along with double digit inflation ran people out of their homes in droves. Prices were soaring and times were tough. Jobs became scarce except in the long term industial market.

Then came the Reagan era. Money loosened up, people were being hired again, construction was on every corner. Global bullies like Russia were told what they could do with their threats and Gaddafi got a JDAM down the stove pipe of his luxury tent. So well were we financially healed in fact, Bill Clinton was able to come into office with the ship of state in waters so calm all he had to do was immediately start taking credit for everything good he found around him. Things were so good he could begin to claim credit for the PROJECTED federal budget surpluses of his era. The money was never really there, but with liberals practical reality has little to do with economics.

The liberal faith paints a picture of well being which is limited in grandure only by the imagination. Just declare yourself what ever you want to be- rich, moral, just say you're right and one can win every argument. As Bill said " it depends on what your definition of IS is. Yes, the trail blazer for consumate political jaberwocky, as might be rationed out to an adorling public, showed all the Chuck Schumers in training how it's done with a straight face.

Now we have the left over mess of 9/11 with a three trillion and counting price tag. An ill conceived and administrated, ever telescoping bailout/stimulus boondoggle, started by Bush and enlarged to the absurd by Obama. It was started by terrorists on 9/11 and over confidence by a lot of people has caused it to grow into a deficit crisis. Lets quit blaming whoever we don't support and deal with it.

[Hoot Gibson]

I was there during the Carter years. Matter of fact I was fortunate enough to build my first house two years prior to his presidency. During those years I saw the very popular and once low adjustable rate housing loans go from 6 or 7 % to 14% during Carter's time in the White House. This, along with double digit inflation ran people out of their homes in droves. Prices were soaring and times were tough. Jobs became scarce except in the long term industial market.

Then came the Reagan era. Money loosened up, people were being hired again, construction was on every corner. Global bullies like Russia were told what they could do with their threats and Gaddafi got a JDAM down the stove pipe of his luxury tent. So well were we financially healed in fact, Bill Clinton was able to come into office with the ship of state in waters so calm all he had to do was immediately start taking credit for everything good he found around him. Things were so good he could begin to claim credit for the PROJECTED federal budget surpluses of his era. The money was never really there, but with liberals practical reality has little to do with economics.

The liberal faith paints a picture of well being which is limited in grandure only by the imagination. Just declare yourself what ever you want to be- rich, moral, just say you're right and one can win every argument. As Bill said " it depends on what your definition of IS is. Yes, the trail blazer for consumate political jaberwocky, as might be rationed out to an adorling public, showed all the Chuck Schumers in training how it's done with a straight face.

Now we have the left over mess of 9/11 with a three trillion and counting price tag. An ill conceived and administrated, ever telescoping bailout/stimulus boondoggle, started by Bush and enlarged to the absurd by Obama. It was started by terrorists on 9/11 and over confidence by a lot of people has caused it to grow into a deficit crisis. Lets quit blaming whoever we don't support and deal with it.

:Thumbs: Outstanding post and very accurate description of those miserable Carter years. I bought my first house during the early Reagan years, and when I assumed a 10.5% fixed mortgage rate, I felt like it was a steal. Reagan was largely responsible for the greatest economic turn-around of my lifetime.

[TheRealVille]

Most ignorant article ever...aimed at idiots and believed by idiots...

So... if I said all of Regan's ideas were believed by and voted on by idiots, does that exclude you? You throw that "idiot" term around pretty carelessly. What if I said all Republican/conservative ideas were idiotic, does that make it a true statement? You seem to think everybody that doesn't hold to your political views is an idiot.