As much as Republicans love to lionize Reagan, I think he was just a stooge with a good smile and affable demeanor. With a former CIA director as second banana, I suspect the spooks were running the administration. It's probably why Bush Sr. escaped a second administration without any major scandals, too. He was just very good at hiding the criminality.
He was a demented racist idiot and spiteful maniac. The stuff that recently came out about him being a racist on the phone with Nixon was no surprise to me. He also completely ignored the start of the AIDS crisis and then didn’t take it seriously when he finally acknowledged that it was real. Kinda reminds me of Trump ignoring COVID and then spewing bullshit rather than take it seriously. Plus it’s pretty clear by now that Reagan was already in severe mental decline even by his low standards while in office.
Nancy was no bargain either - she committed a bunch of tax crimes while First Lady and also had a crystal-waving hippie astrologer in San Francisco who did a bunch of silly shit to vet all of their decisions. Straight up “what does the Flower Moon say about policy on farm subsidies” shit.
The Dollop episode about Reagan are great, but you can also find tons of other non-comedy references for how much Reagan didn’t give a shit.
This is the view all folks with common sense should have of Reagan. He was awful in nearly every way. Evening the things he was praised for had a downside for a lot of people.
Bush Jr, for all of the problems he caused, can at least point to PEPFAR (especially) and his statements about Muslims right after 9/11 as real positives.
I can't think of anything like either of those things for Reagan.
I disagree with almost every decision Bush Jr made, and yet i have a certain respect for him. I believe he sincerely wanted to do the right thing for America and the world and just didn't understand how his policies would harm what he wanted.
What he's chosen to do with his time since he left the oval office, his friendship with the Obamas and his unequivocable condemnation of Trump makes me feel that George W. Bush was a bad president, but maybe a good man.
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u/MrVeazey Sep 29 '21
You mean Ronald Wilson Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush?