Opinion of Ronald Reagan

[RFayette]

Will be interesting to see the breakdown on this, based on some discussion in the worst president thread.

Anyway, I see Reagan as a massive FF - his tax cuts finally undid the absurdly confiscatory post-WWII rates, and his foreign policy was impeccable - his SCOTUS picks had some flops, but I still put him as my favorite 20th-century leader.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Massive FF of Course- He ended the confiscatory tax rate forever and cut taxes massively, he deregulated our economy, he took us out of the terrible economy of the 1970s and created an economic boom which would last 20 years, he finally decided to take the fight to the commies in their own territory which eventually bankrupted the evil empire.

[Sir Mohamed]

Political HP. But a talented showman.

As person hard to tell, because nobody really knew him.

[The_Doctor]

A great and good man, who stood up to evil and won. I can think of no better way to remember this California gentleman than to quote the Hon. Baroness Margaret Thatcher.

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He is in God's eternal Kingdom -- I can only hope -- and so is the great Baroness Thatcher. And of course his dear Nancy Reagan, the best First Lady we've had in a hundred years. Grace and dignity exemplified.

What I wouldn't give to have a time when “character was king” again… but we were lucky to have the “Oldest & Wisest” when we did. In his time we lived up to the “shining city upon a hill” that he dreamed of and one day we will again.

[This account no longer in use.]

Not an outright terrible person, but a horribly overrated one. Lean HP.

[MAINEiac4434]

One of the worst presidents in the history of the nation.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

genocidal piece of sht

[Santander]

I have always given him credit for restoring America's self-esteem. Jesse Helms was right that he was the man we needed at the time. However, he is way too flawed for me to consider him a FF. His administration was involved in countless scandals, his fiscal policy was both fiscally and socially irresponsible, and he inspired an entire generation of the wrong kind of people to get into politics. HP on balance, but neither a terrible person nor one of the worst presidents in US history.

[Beet]

His politics and policies were horrible, and I will never forgive him for removing the ERA from the GOP platform, and his support for neo-liberalism more generally (which helped give us Trump), but he was objectively a highly successful president. We went from stagflation to the "seven fat years", from nuclear freeze as the ambitious goal of peaceniks to IRBM and START I, and from suppressing Solidarity to repealing the Brezhnev Doctrine. I still would never have supported him, but I certainly would prefer his brand of conservatism to what we have today.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Enigmatic.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The best.

[parochial boy]

Directly responsible for the absolute worst aspects of modern American (and indeed Western) society and  politics thanks to his dreadful neoliberal reforms.   

[ApatheticAustrian]

good cold warrior, bad economical reformer, mixed record but his timing was good and maybe the sugar-high made the defeat of the SU more likely.

[RINO Tom]

Like all Presidents (especially those where enough time hasn't passed for us to apply historical revisionism!!), a mixed bag but definitely a FF overall.  I will take Ronald Reagan seven days a week and twice on Sunday over whatever strange, White nationalist "populist" segment of the "right" that has emerged and started to criticize him.

[mieastwick]

A giant missed opportunity for the cause of liberty, and a major reason for the weakness we see in Afghanistan and Nicaragua today. Drug warrior. HP. But not one of the worst presidents.

[Mr. Smith]

Directly responsible for the absolute worst aspects of modern American (and indeed Western) society and  politics thanks to his dreadful neoliberal reforms.   

This.

[SATW]

Massive FF

[Xing]

Not sure what kind of a person he was, but politically - Massive HP. Much of what I dislike most about the current incarnation of the Republican Party can be traced back to him.

[TDAS04]

Lousy president.

[Maxwell]

Fundamentally destructive leader.

[Enduro]

Not the best president, but a very good one.

[Hydera]

I'm not convinced that his policies were as good as people make it out to be. Even with higher taxes, carter's first term without the recession had an average of 3.2 million jobs created yearly. While Reagan's non-recession yearly job growth was 3 million.  Plus inflation wasn't stopped by tax cuts but vocker's interest policy and vocker was appointed by Carter.

[mieastwick]

Also, this is why I don't include an I/Other option in my polls: these dudes are about as Independent as Angus King and Bernie.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Overrated.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Also, this is why I don't include an I/Other option in my polls: these dudes are about as Independent as Angus King and Bernie.

Say "left-leaning" and "right-leaning" - only the snowflakiest of individuals can't fit themselves in that duality.

also Reagan was a bad man.