I don't know why I felt the need to reply to everything in the thread, but here goes:
... a firm believer in American exceptionalism.
The idea that we're somehow qualitatively better than any other nation, just by being the US, does nothing but hinder us. By many quantitative measure's we're not "better" than a number of nations. Going around parroting, "the US is the best nation ever" does absolutely nothing to make it true. All it does is make us look like a bunch of assholes.
i completely agree. Reagan was an American first then a Politician, IMO Obama is a politician first then a President then an American(?). I see it as one of the main differences between the left and right.
I disagree. Reagan was the very definition of a politician. A former actor, but with some seemingly genuine conviction behind his political views. Able to speak plainly, but without coming off as ignorant. Was he "an American first"? Well ... he was a Californian at least. Anyway, every president since could only aspire to his example. The fact that he had such a formative impact on your own political views should testify to that.
As for the comparison between Reagan and Obama, they've got much, much more in common than most people (on either side) would like to admit.
Make another thread on
August 4th and watch the jizz fly :lol:
So what you're saying is, you prefer the circlejerks?
Like nomix posted, FDR would be a much better example. I'd be fine with Eisenhower or Truman as well. But Obama? Meh.
This is why nomix is smarter then most of the rest of you.
Because he wasn't educated in the US? :lol:
I think you might be right though (about Reagan). While many in the GOP love to invoke the name of Reagan, I wonder if they'd support his policies now. Teabaggers and even some closer to center GOP'ers have taken his ideas and run with them for 20 years now, trying to take them to their 'logical' ends. Who knows if Reagan would've pushed things so far.
If he wouldn't of supplied the Mujahideen we never would of heard of Osama Bin Laden.
Bin Laden would've been a problem one way or another. Like BR said, the proxy war was necessary to limit the Soviets influence in the region. The failure on our part wasn't that we armed/trained these guys, it was that once the conflict ended ... we simply left them to their own devices. The Taliban turned their attention to taking over Afghanistan. Al Qaeda, obviously, turned its focus towards international terrorism and spreading their particular ideology.
If he wouldn't of supplied weapons to Iran during the Iran/Iraq war Iran probably would of lost and it wouldn't be the problem it is today.
We gave Iran a bunch of anti-tank and anti-air missiles 6 years into an 8 year long war (which at that point had degenerated into trench warfare). The point was securing US hostages. Stupid? Sure. But did it change the outcome of the war or would Iraq have won without those sales? Hardly.
Don't get me wrong, I have problems with most of Reagan's policies. Just wanted to add a little perspective.
You can blame Nixon for that. Regan was a powerful President that's why many of them look back at him with nostalgia.
Sure he played the "goddamn hippies" card pretty well, but Nixon never had the whole Jerry Falwell/Moral Majority insanity backing him up. Reagan was the first Republican president to truly exploit the Christian right.
I love it when people start imagining things and using hyperbole like that.
You should talk to some Texans about Reagan. :lol: