US Presidents, Day 40: Reagan

[memphis]

Oh, Rockefeller Republican, the Cold War started under Truman, not Nixon. Reagan deserves credit for doing things to help end the Cold War, as does every President from Truman on... They all did something to help end it... The credit deserves to be shared by every Republican and Democrat from Truman to Bush I for seeing the fall of the Soviet Union, as well as the flawed system the Soviets used.

I don't think every President deserves credit for winning the Cold War.  Nixon's policy of detente, a policy followed by Ford and Carter, specifically said that victory in the Cold War was not even our goal anymore.  Coexistence was our goal.  How can Presidents who openly said they were no longer trying to win the Cold War, but just trying to coexist with the dited with winning the Cold War?  The uncomfortable reality is that Nixon made very little contribution to winning the Cold War, and Ford and Carter made none at all.

The reason that Reagan is often credited with winning the Cold War is that he ended detente and made "We win, they lose" our national policy.  This was a fundamental shift from his predecessors views on the subject, and a shift that the elites roundly criticized at the time.

Elites never criticized Reagan. They were too busy spending all the extra money they got from his tax cuts.

[memphis]

Oh, Rockefeller Republican, the Cold War started under Truman, not Nixon. Reagan deserves credit for doing things to help end the Cold War, as does every President from Truman on... They all did something to help end it... The credit deserves to be shared by every Republican and Democrat from Truman to Bush I for seeing the fall of the Soviet Union, as well as the flawed system the Soviets used.

I don't think every President deserves credit for winning the Cold War.  Nixon's policy of detente, a policy followed by Ford and Carter, specifically said that victory in the Cold War was not even our goal anymore.  Coexistence was our goal.  How can Presidents who openly said they were no longer trying to win the Cold War, but just trying to coexist with the dited with winning the Cold War?  The uncomfortable reality is that Nixon made very little contribution to winning the Cold War, and Ford and Carter made none at all.

The reason that Reagan is often credited with winning the Cold War is that he ended detente and made "We win, they lose" our national policy.  This was a fundamental shift from his predecessors views on the subject, and a shift that the elites roundly criticized at the time.

Elites never criticized Reagan. They were too busy spending all the extra money they got from his tax cuts.

You can't be serious when you say that elite opinion was never critical of Reagan.

Never is one of those tricky words that one shouldn't use (like always). For that, I apologize. What I should have said is that the overwhelming majority of the elites loved Reagan because 1. of the tax cuts and 2. he stopped inflation, which is only a serious problem if you have money. By elites, you must mean Jews, who were then and continue to be the only group of people with money who are Democrats.

[memphis]

Never is one of those tricky words that one shouldn't use (like always). For that, I apologize. What I should have said is that the overwhelming majority of the elites loved Reagan because 1. of the tax cuts and 2. he stopped inflation, which is only a serious problem if you have money. By elites, you must mean Jews, who were then and continue to be the only group of people with money who are Democrats.

First of all, you need recalibrate that anti-semitism meter.  You just got a false positive.

Besides, there are a lot of Jews who do not have money, a lot of Jews with and without money who are not Democrats, and a lot of Democrats with money who are not Jews.  Actually, I'm just going to move on from your whole comment about Jews now, because its going to get weird soon.

When I talked about elites, I wasn't referring to people with money.  I was referring to elite opinion makers, whether they be editorial writers, academics, television commentators, or even the career officials in the State Department who were adamantly opposed to any of Reagan's famous proclaimations regarding the USSR (State tried to strike "Tear down this wall" and "Evil Empire" from their respective speeches).

Liberal editorial writers, academics, television commentators are nearly all Jews. The so called "liberal elite" that the right is always complaining about it just a code word for Jewish people. You may as well call a spade a spade.

[memphis]

Never is one of those tricky words that one shouldn't use (like always). For that, I apologize. What I should have said is that the overwhelming majority of the elites loved Reagan because 1. of the tax cuts and 2. he stopped inflation, which is only a serious problem if you have money. By elites, you must mean Jews, who were then and continue to be the only group of people with money who are Democrats.

First of all, you need recalibrate that anti-semitism meter.  You just got a false positive.

Besides, there are a lot of Jews who do not have money, a lot of Jews with and without money who are not Democrats, and a lot of Democrats with money who are not Jews.  Actually, I'm just going to move on from your whole comment about Jews now, because its going to get weird soon.

When I talked about elites, I wasn't referring to people with money.  I was referring to elite opinion makers, whether they be editorial writers, academics, television commentators, or even the career officials in the State Department who were adamantly opposed to any of Reagan's famous proclaimations regarding the USSR (State tried to strike "Tear down this wall" and "Evil Empire" from their respective speeches).

Liberal editorial writers, academics, television commentators are nearly all Jews. The so called "liberal elite" that the right is always complaining about it just a code word for Jewish people. You may as well call a spade a spade.

Actually most editorial writers, TV commentators, and academics are not Jewish.  You've got no clue what you're talking about.  Maureen Dowd isn't Jewish.  Neither is David Border.  Neither are Michael Kinsley, Dana Milbank, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, or George Stephanopoulos.  Most of these guys aren't Jewish, and to try and avoid a real discussion of the issues by inferring your opponents to be anti-Semitic when they are not is childish.  Do you even think your posts through before you write them?

Bull. I'm sure you can name some that aren't Jewish, but fields like academics and journalism are still dominated by Jews. Look up faculty at prestigeous universities or who founded and continues to produce most of the media. Nearly all Jews. As I said earlier, these group are about the only with any influence who opposed Reagan. The real "elite" (big business and religious pupeteers) coalesced around Reagan to give the Republicans their base. You're totally blind if you can't see this.