Reagan Hate

http://politicalpackrat.blogspot.com/2011/02/saint-ronald-casts-long-shadow.html

'Saint Ronald Casts a Long Shadow'

Firstly this blogger refers to Ronald Reagan as a Saint, in this case in a satirical way, or at least that's the way it comes across. They talk about Americans celebrating Reagan's 100th birthday in his honour, remembering him as a hero that took down both the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall.

In reality, or according to this blogger, Political Packrat, and several of those who have commented on the blog, they only remember the negative things about Reagan, his "trickle-down" policy where he slashed taxes for top earners from 70% to 28%. This led to him having to cut Federal Public Housing for the poor meaning that for the first time women and children were really and truly homeless and living on the streets.

He also broke the Air Traffic Controllers Union who were striking, telling them to give up striking or they would be terminated - a fierce ultimatum. The blog partly blames Reagan for the recession - obviously everybody is entitled to their opinion - by saying what contributed towards it was Reagan dismantling regulations on Banks and Wall Street, which paved the way for the "financial free for all of the eighties".

"..an amiable man, a well intentioned man, a decent actor and an astute politician who changed the course of American."

The main point of the blog, I felt, was that the memory of Reagan that hagiographers remember is far from what (this blogger feels at least) actually happened over the course of his Presidency.

"The first miracle of St. Ronald is that he was able to make Americans forget the reality of what he did and only remember the Hollywood version of what they wanted him to be."

Obviously this is not from an official news site and is not a constructed piece of Reagan 'propaganda' as it were, but it's from the heart of someone who was obviously either affected or influenced by Reagan's decisions during his term. In many ways it appears to be a more honest view of the past President, as it is just somebody's opinion put onto the blogsphere for all to see. I feel like as President, Reagan did make some questionable choices, such as those listed above, but in any position, you cannot please all the people all of the time - it's just not realistic. And as for him being remembered as a "Saint" after his death, surely anyone who's managed to campaign and win the title of President of the United States deserves some respect?