Carol Platt Liebau: Remembering the Reagan Revolution -- Correctly

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Remembering the Reagan Revolution -- Correctly

Fred Barnes provides an invaluable service -- recalling the real Ronald Reagan, not the ersatz version used by the liberals who despised him as a weapon for bludgeoning President Bush.

It's funny -- now, liberals embrace President Reagan with fervor, but in his time, he was almost as hated by the left as President Bush now is.

Recently, a friend asked me what I thought would happen if, indeed, the U.S. did succeed in Iraq . . . what would the liberals do then? And the answer is clear: They'll do what they did with President Reagan and the Cold War -- that is, pretend they were on board the whole time.

They weren't. They hated Ronald Reagan, and they hated what he did to win the Cold War, until, in fact, it was all over. That's why they have so little credibility when it comes to the second great struggle of our lifetimes.

9 Comments:

Blogger Greg said...

Like your current president, Carol, you have little credibility. But I'm sure he appreciates the linkage between him and Reagan, albeit hypothetical as all get out. You are a good girl.

Bush the Dimmer and Reagan do have something in common, though. They both dwelt in fantasy land through much of their time in office. Reagan actually thought we already had SDI at the time of Reykjavik and that his threat to deploy it was a real one. His handlers had to convince him that indeed we did not.

Bush the Dimmer similarly thought that his tough rhetoric was all that stood between him and Iraq's oil fields. Then he stumbled over the truth and now tens of thousands of people are dead.

At least Reagan had a looming brain disease to explain his detachment from reality.

And not all Democrats -- in fact, none that I know -- have retroactively jumped on Reagan's bandwagon. He had good speechwriters but lacked substance.

He did invent the astronomical deficit which his protege Duh-bya has pretty much perfected. That's another thing they have in common: they're huge borrow and spend Republicans.

10:43 PM  
Blogger Cavalor Epthith said...

Struggle? Oh, my yes, I see the jihad of the monied elite to reap profit by keeping the middle class mired in debt.

Armani akhbar!

2:50 AM  
Blogger eLarson said...

It's funny -- now, liberals embrace President Reagan with fervor

I've not met a single one who did. Maybe you run with a different crowd of liberals.

7:13 AM  
Blogger Greg said...

Carol fabricates. She thinks her readers won't notice.

8:19 AM  
Blogger LadybugUSA said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

9:16 AM  
Blogger LadybugUSA said...

Here's what I should have said:

For examples of the way liberals have embraced President Reagan, look at the comments in the story. They're far different than what we heard at the time.

Similarly, you don't hear much today about President Reagan being a "warmonger," an "amiable dunce" or the type of person who wanted to starve poor schoolchildren. But you certainly heard plenty of that in the '80's.

As for the deficit, tax revenues increased after President Reagan's tax cuts as they have now after President Bush's. The reason the deficits grew is because the Democratically-controlled Congress refused to follow through on spending cuts they had pledged to make.

Even so, it was worth it to win the Cold War, no? We grew ourselves out of the deficit less than 10 years after President Reagan left office, but the Cold War's still over. Enough said.

9:22 AM  
Blogger Greg said...

Crediting Reagan with ending the Cold War is like crediting my mayor for building the city's new hospital by cutting the ribbon.

10:29 AM  
Blogger Greg said...

And their hatred for all things Reagan led them to nominate the most anti-Reagan presidential candidates they could find - Mondale and Dukakis.

How did that work out for them? Not too good!

There's a danger they will end up doing the same thing in the coming presidential election.

Here's to encouraging the left to continue with their Bush hatred. It will most likely ensure another Republcan victory in 2008.

10:27 AM  
Blogger Greg said...

Please do, Pete.

11:34 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Google