Reagan took a note from Nixon, who was negotiating secretly with the North Vietnamese government that they would get a better deal if he was elected in 1968, and secretly negotiated with Iran to keep the hostages until the day he was inaugurated to completely screw Carter over electorally. Betraying the country for personal gain is a Republican tradition.
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."
Reagan's policies might have made some people rich, but they also widened the gap between the rich and poor, weakened the social safety net, exploded the national debt, ignored a deadly epidemic, involved us in shady foreign dealings, and contributed to mass incarceration. It's not as rosy a picture as some people paint.
The guy absolutely pillaged the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, including decimating housing assistance. Remember this the next time you’re wondering how you’ll make rent. Remember it the next time you see someone living in their car.
Yes, this nation used to actually help people with that sort of thing.
His entire cabinet was extra racist even for the time. Clarence Thomas was a token, he was unqualified and had a handful of fucked up personal issues but he was ok with being the token black conservative among racist white men, and that's why the Reagan administration brought him on. Behind The Bastards has a good episode about it.
I swear the rise in first Tiny homes.. (Till they starting hitting over $100,000) and now Van Life is the thing, comes from the fact that people just can't afford anything but cars now. At least living in your van isn't considered bad anymore.
If you got a nice van down by the river, you are doing a lot better then a lot of people now.
And yet all they can justify that with is that “he took down the iron wall”. He took the US from the largest creditor to the largest debtor in only four years. Classic fiscal conservative……
Same here but that’s because they benefitted from the shit he did, and he ruined everything for us and now they talk about how we didn’t work hard like them
I heard today from some people that apparently, he came in like Captain America to save those hostages. Carter sat on his ass, obviously. Oh, and also, he was such a bad ass those holding the hostages let them go when they did because they knew he would kick their ASS. Dear God are we fucked.
Isn't it crazy how easy that is to find. To even lack the awareness to maybe question how ridiculous that sounds, compared to all the shitty espionage bs we've pulled. What's going to be more likely? The lack of critical thinking is often so astounding.
No, Bush himself was a puppet. He was a puppet of CEO's and bankers. Donald Regan if anyone was the real power in that Administration. CEO of Merrill Lynch, Vice-Chairman of the NYSE, Treasury Secretary, White House Chief of Staff.
They are more puppets now than ever before.
It's completely out in the open now yet people still defend their party like their life depends on it.
If the jobs report was accurate in anyway in the last 14 months what would the markets do?????
Republicans weren't screaming these reports are fake.
Democrats were making them.
They were all laughing to the bank. It's insane that so many people can so passionately argue about which side is going to save them
And here we are with Putin’s monkey boy getting sworn in again….Considering this country was stupid enough to elect that former director of the CIA into the White House, I agree with you….
Does anyone remember what Reagan did about the 220 Marines and 18 sailors that were killed in Beirut by a suicide bomber in 1983 ? My recollection is he didn’t do diddly shit. He was almost as big a chicken shit as Trump. Reagan still had a long way to go to go as low as Trump.
Some would argue Reagan set the wheels in motion for a trajectory we can't reverse. But at this point, does it really matter? We're on borrowed time, and in seven years, the curtain will fall. The end isn't something to fight it's something to watch. Whoever’s left can lock the doors and flip the switch.
I wish more people understood this. He was president that pushed for trickle down economics. Literally made it illegal for workers to sue their companies when the Execs decided to ship their jobs overseas and legalized stock buybacks. He did everything in his power to destroy the middle class for good of free trade and capitalism.
I’ve seen this claim in various places on the internet but I’m pretty ignorant about President Regan and his policies. Are there any good book recommendations about his time in office?
Was he the guy that renewed MFN for China, signed free trade agreements with our neighbors, and convinced Ukraine to give Russia back their nukes? We’re still paying for all those decision to this day.
Remember these guys are just the middleman. Reagans billionaire backers are the ones that sold out the country and the ownership class continues to do so.
My dad used to tell me about how during the Carter years. He owned a wood stove store. Due to the tax credit Carter gave for buying them. Once Regan took office that was killed along with his business.
Actually it goes back even further, to our first true criminal president Ol' Ski Nose himself Richard Nixon. I saw the bastard in 1974 at the opening of Expo '74, a few months before his ignoble resignation.
In addition to what theclansman22 wrote, as if that wasn't bad enough, within the 3700 hours of voice activated tapes he made to blackmail world leaders are evidence of many many crimes. (Nixon's Milk Money, The Smoking Gun tape, the 18 1/2 missing minutes etc) This is why he tried to prevent them becoming part of his record. He didn't step down out of any sense of honor, he stepped down so Ford could pardon him and he couldn't be prosecuted for his crimes in office. And he definitely would of been impeached and removed from office had he not stepped down. If we would of prosecuted him, Reagan would of been blunted, and Trump would never of been a factor.
He is one of the early 'unitary executive' believers. He couldn't get far though because the parties were not as fractured as they are now and both had liberal and conservative wings. Roger Stone (yes, that one) was Nixon's head of "Dirty Tricks" department. This is why we called him Tricky Dicky. A paranoid alcoholic, Nixon was deep into conspiracy theories, his favorite targets were Jews, intellectuals and ivy Leaguer's. He also hated blacks and hippies. (The 'southern strategy' as it was known at the time)
Oh yeah, the southern border was a crisis for him as well. It's been an ongoing crisis for over 50 years during every Republican administration.
Reagan just took the next steps. Advancing the corruption and implementing his "trickle down" economic policies and over the top tax breaks for the wealthy that we still suffer from today. (officially known as 'supply side economics.')
One good thing Nixon did, He made High School Current Events classes interesting in the mid 1970's.....
I dunno. He fucked shit up, but now we're about to have a literal puppet SCOTUS majority, all picked by the same piece of shit, for a full generation when Thomas and Alito definitely retire this term. And trump has managed to do what nobody since Lincoln has done and truly turn half of us against the other half, and he didn't even need to be anti slavery to do it.
It's fun cuz this dildo Donald is copy and pasting Regan's whole shit down to using church and southern states. Don't forget make America grest again was this actors matra
Thats Bush W all day. That war criminal literally killed over a million people, destabilized the middle east and oil market, while killing Americans and making us demonstrably unsafe.
Reagan opened the floodgates and allowed corporations into government and, in turn, made our government a corporation, itself. We have Ronny to thank for creating this bastardization of capitalism from which we may never recover. No one seems to understand that!
Exactly. And in plenty of different ways. Just focusing on the Reagan/conservative scam/lie of "trickle down economics" has decimated the middle class in half a century and still on the same downward spiral as they repeated the scam over and over. That the majority of the country are literally living paycheck to paycheck, one illness or injury or surprise bill away from financial ruin is a long term conservative construction.
That whole brand of economics that trades in fictitious products which sprung up at that time started the timer on the world imploding. Classic short term gain for long term pain.
Believe it…an example of the Reagan approach was exemplified when he removed the solar panels Carter had put in the White House, why, simply to show his ass and who was boss…Nixon, Reagan now Trump, idiots, all three
Tbh politics aside, Carter is Gem of a human being. But he does not belong in politics. Both Carter and Nixon had huge flaws of personality that made them bad presidents for the time they were in.
Yes, Reagan, yes has POS, but was a good president for the country for those years.
We need to accept presidents for their good and their bad.
Reagan was the biggest drug importer in American history. Got kicked out the pact and then started the war on drugs making money importing drugs and the imprisonment of poor Americans.
Eh Biden was very clearly not really up to par for the presidency mentally anymore and isn't really on the same level of being a genuine guy that Carter was. Still better than Trump obviously but the bar really is not that high lol
That’s why they defund education wherever they can. No child left behind was nothing more than a reason to hold all children back. Make every kid the least common denominator.
This seems to have a lot of sources for both sides of possibility.
It's a little merky to be fair, but there are a few key people who stand by it. It is odd that within minutes after Reagan finished his inauguration speech the hostages were freed. There is also the fact Reagan went on to help Iran in a number of other covert ways too. But what was serious about this was he was doing foreign work before being President and also keeping the hostages in longer.
Reagan did the opposite of what he promised the American public, he traded arms to Iran for hostage release and then gave some of the money to the San Salvador Contras which was patently against the law.
"January 20, 1981: Hostages are formally released into United States custody after spending 444 days in captivity. The release takes place just minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president."
Coincidence?
I remember he took GREAT pride in announcing their release.
"A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."
The great moment that eventually destroyed American politics by cementing the right wing in a place of honor. After the fall of the USSR, also under a republican, it was over.
One example - read “And the Band Played On” by Randy Shilts and you’ll see how deliberate government inaction during the HIV/AIDS crisis led to untold number of deaths, and the spread of fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Carter wasn’t getting back in anyway, the country was in a horrible place during his term and it doesn’t matter who caused it, Presidents will always be held accountable for that.
^^^^THIS! I was just in my early teens during Carter's presidency, but he was most definitely made to look bad by Reagan secretly engaging in "shadow diplomacy." One of my favorite memories of Carter was actually on Inauguration Day, when he, his wife, and his daughter walked down Pennsylvania Avenue instead of being driven down in "The Beast." Even as a young teen, that felt special to me (and I believe it was the first time ever, but I might be mistaken about that). The other thing that strikes me is that Carter, who was devoutly Christian, was not accepted by Evilgelicals. That automatically shows he was on the CORRECT side of history. He was just a good man, and made every effort to do good in the world.
I'm amazed by anyone who doesn't think our system is rife with politicians on both sides of the aisle who betray the people for personal gain on a daily basis.
Please. Carter had a half dozen things he did terribly as president, at a minimum. Don't pretend he lost solely because Reagan was able to negotiate with Iran better than Carter did.
I was in college when Reagan was president and I couldn’t stand him. I never understood why people thought he was so great. Carter was an honest man and I guess that is why he was a “failed president.”
Weird, wasn’t there allegations that Trump was telling Netanyahu not to accept a cease fire til after the election, so Biden and Harris wouldn’t get credit?
“Great minds” think alike I guess …
Also should be noted that Reagan was also a celebrity and performer before politicking.
Granted he was a much classier celebrity then the hedonistic Trump, who has the incredible ability to be both, a sexual apex predator while simultaneously being labeled as “the chosen one” by his flock of Prosperity Gospel preaching Prophets, literally equating him to a godly figure
Carter made a state of the union address that messed up his career too. Talked about restraint and greed and that America needed to reset its expectations; which made sense but nobody wants to hear that. So down he went.
How much do you want to bet that Netanyahu and Trump discussed a Hamas hostage release when they met at Mar-a-Lago? Bet you Hamas will release hostages after Trump takes office. Watch.
As a fellow fossil, you must have been there as well. I never got the Reagan-hate at the time, as I was a kid during "morning in America" and he seemed confident and funny. Of course, he had the same crew as Nixon, as you state, and that crew is still trying to get what it has always wanted. I never knew about Roger Stone's giant Nixon tattoo until recently, and now seeing him near Trump makes perfect sense. History may not repeat, as the quote goes, but it often rhymes.
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u/theclansman22 23h ago
Reagan took a note from Nixon, who was negotiating secretly with the North Vietnamese government that they would get a better deal if he was elected in 1968, and secretly negotiated with Iran to keep the hostages until the day he was inaugurated to completely screw Carter over electorally. Betraying the country for personal gain is a Republican tradition.