Ronald Reagan Dead at 93
Jun. 6th, 2004 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournThere is this classic board game called "Nuclear War". It was made into a computer game many, many years ago. One of the additions of the computer version of game was little portraits of the different AIs. Naturally the AI with the twitchiest "finger on the button" was Ronald Reagan.
The man excelled at brinksmanship, saddled the nation with immense debt bankrupting the Soviet Union into oblivion, spent billions on technology that was infeasible and known to be so, ignored a spreading pandemic because of his bigotry, and lived largely in a world that mixed old movie scripts and the distorted reality common to Republican ideologues.
At least, that is the man I knew of. I'm sure 20+ years before, he was a different man to the public. A hero, an acting star, a sex symbol. I never knew that man. I can only say that the legacy of his Presidency was a mixed blessing at best, and I'm not convinced that his was the best plan at the time, but for better or worse it happened.
My only complaint now is that the *current* Republicans have twisted the truth of the "Reagan Years" into some mystical fairy land of "the good old days", hailing things only marginally applicable to his policies as grand success and failing to learn any lessons from the failures or acknowledge the terrible price paid.
Update: The PBS Newshour did their whole hour Monday on Ronald Regan. Here is transcript of an interesting discussion about his legacy.
The man excelled at brinksmanship, saddled the nation with immense debt bankrupting the Soviet Union into oblivion, spent billions on technology that was infeasible and known to be so, ignored a spreading pandemic because of his bigotry, and lived largely in a world that mixed old movie scripts and the distorted reality common to Republican ideologues.
At least, that is the man I knew of. I'm sure 20+ years before, he was a different man to the public. A hero, an acting star, a sex symbol. I never knew that man. I can only say that the legacy of his Presidency was a mixed blessing at best, and I'm not convinced that his was the best plan at the time, but for better or worse it happened.
My only complaint now is that the *current* Republicans have twisted the truth of the "Reagan Years" into some mystical fairy land of "the good old days", hailing things only marginally applicable to his policies as grand success and failing to learn any lessons from the failures or acknowledge the terrible price paid.
Update: The PBS Newshour did their whole hour Monday on Ronald Regan. Here is transcript of an interesting discussion about his legacy.
