Who was the Better President: Nixon or Reagan

[OSR stands with Israel]

Reagan was clearly better at domestic policy and was more of an effective president overall but I would give Nixon the very slight edge on foreign policy.


This is still Reagan handily for me(Though Nixon would be near HW levels for me if not for Watergate)

[Mr. Smith]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[Badger]

Reagan because he wasn't a completely corrupt bastard who threatened the fundamental institutions of democracy, Iran Contra notwithstanding.

[UncleSam]

Nixon, but it's close

[America Needs R'hllor]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[President Johnson]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[MillennialModerate]

Very very tricky question.

All things being equal I’d say Nixon.

But Watergate is a strike against Nixon because it reflects his leadership but the real strike is sabotaging LBJ’s Vietnam negotiations. Treasonest aft that shows a Trump level of selfishness.

So I’ll go Reagan.

[Lechasseur]

Had it not been for Watergate, probably Nixon; but because of that, probably Reagan.

[Politician]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[YE]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[dw93]

It's  complicated. On the one hand, Nixon killed what little trust that was left in our Government institutions with Watergate, he unnecessarily kept the Vietnam War going another five years after he sabotaged the Peace Talks in 1968 and he Illegally escalated said war into Cambodia.  His half assed Price controls and the policies the Federal Reserve enacted during his first term for the sole purpose of securing him a Second in 1972 came back to bite us hard, and resulted in the nasty recession Ford was handed after Nixon resigned.  On the other hand, Nixon opened China, gave us the SALT Treaty as well as the IBM treaty, and for the most part was a rubber stamp to a Democratic Controlled Congress when it came to Domestic Policy.

With Reagan, he did a lot of long term damage. He started the notion that "Deficits Don't Matter" and outside of the last two years of Clinton's second term, the Debt and Deficit have been out of control since. He also created a greedy generation of Alex P. Keatons and Gordon Gekkos that brought our economy to its knees in 2008, made the Religious Right a force in US Politics, and started the notion that you can cut taxes at any time and said tax cuts will always generate revenue. Iran Contra was worse than Watergate and I dare say was treason, the only reason the public didn't treat it as worse than Watergate and the only reason he didn't suffer the same fate Nixon did was because he came (somewhat) clean about it. His response, or lack of it, to the AIDS epidemic was a disgrace and thousands needlessly died as a result. About the only gleaming light of his Presidency was the Summit Meetings he had with Gorbachev, which began the process of bringing about a smooth end to the Cold War, and the fact that he had Tip O'Neil (sort of) keeping him in check.

So to answer the question, Nixon, but he wasn't much better than Reagan.

[TDAS04]

The California Republican whose first name began with R, and who won reelection in a 49-state landslide.

[America Needs R'hllor]

The California Republican whose first name began with R, and who won reelection in a 49-state landslide.

So Schwarzenegger?

[Sumner 1868]

Nixon didn't rape Selene Walters.

[Goldwater]

Reagan, of course.

[darklordoftech]

Reagan is the bad aspects of Nixon without the good aspects. Reagan took the worst aspects of Buckley, Goldwater, and Nixon, and combined them to create something truly awful.

[Senator Spark]

Reagan because he wasn't a completely corrupt bastard who threatened the fundamental institutions of democracy, Iran Contra notwithstanding.

[Dr. MB]

Nixon.

[MAINEiac4434]

Nixon, and it isn't even close.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Nixon.

pretty surprised by this , as Reagan was a more libertarian president overall compared to Nixon.

[Dr. MB]

Nixon.

pretty surprised by this , as Reagan was a more libertarian president overall compared to Nixon.

Reagan's policies, especially his foreign policy, were the general opposite of what I would've preferred to happen, there's also the War on Drugs (yes, it was started by Nixon but really escalated under Reagan), AIDS, etc.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Nixon.

pretty surprised by this , as Reagan was a more libertarian president overall compared to Nixon.

Reagan's policies, especially his foreign policy, were the general opposite of what I would've preferred to happen, there's also the War on Drugs (yes, it was started by Nixon but really escalated under Reagan), AIDS, etc.

I wouldnt say Nixon foreign policy was different than Reagan's by much just the circumstances were different.  When Reagan became President Communism spent the last 6 years expanding with very little US resistance so he had to be more aggressive to counter that while when Nixon was in office that was not even close to being the case.


Also Reagan under his Presidency didnt get the US directly involved in wars , while under Nixon that wasnt true either

[darklordoftech]

Nixon.

pretty surprised by this , as Reagan was a more libertarian president overall compared to Nixon.

Reagan's policies, especially his foreign policy, were the general opposite of what I would've preferred to happen, there's also the War on Drugs (yes, it was started by Nixon but really escalated under Reagan), AIDS, etc.

I wouldnt say Nixon foreign policy was different than Reagan's by much just the circumstances were different.  When Reagan became President Communism spent the last 6 years expanding with very little US resistance so he had to be more aggressive to counter that while when Nixon was in office that was not even close to being the case.


Also Reagan under his Presidency didnt get the US directly involved in wars , while under Nixon that wasnt true either

When Nixon was President, Reagan accused him and kissinger of being too dovish and too eager to negotiate with the USSR. This lead to Kissinger calling Reagan "stupid" and to Reagan primarying Ford in 1976.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Nixon.

pretty surprised by this , as Reagan was a more libertarian president overall compared to Nixon.

Reagan's policies, especially his foreign policy, were the general opposite of what I would've preferred to happen, there's also the War on Drugs (yes, it was started by Nixon but really escalated under Reagan), AIDS, etc.

I wouldnt say Nixon foreign policy was different than Reagan's by much just the circumstances were different.  When Reagan became President Communism spent the last 6 years expanding with very little US resistance so he had to be more aggressive to counter that while when Nixon was in office that was not even close to being the case.


Also Reagan under his Presidency didnt get the US directly involved in wars , while under Nixon that wasnt true either

When Nixon was President, Reagan accused him and kissinger of being too dovish and too eager to negotiate with the USSR. This lead to Kissinger calling Reagan "stupid" and to Reagan primarying Ford in 1976.

That was before he was president


His foreign policy during his presidency was very similar to Nixon’s .

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Reagan, and this isn’t a liberal/conservative thing.