Ronald Reagan-Great Orator, Horrible President

Ronald Reagan was a great orator. His speeches were among the greatest of all our Presidents and he was rightly called the “Great Communicator”. I have come to the conclusion that this is the chief reason why he is regarded as one of our greatest Presidents. However, his policies and tenure tell a vastly different story. The truth is Reagan was a bad President.

Ronald Reagan’s deregulation of our economy, and his insistence on raw supply-side economics helped lay the groundwork for our current economic crisis. Reagan allowed many economic policies from the New Deal expire under his tenure-even after they had been renewed for almost a half century. Meanwhile, Economists criticized “Reaganomics” for overwhelmingly benefitting the rich. This makes sense considering Reagan subscribed to an economic theory called “Trickledown economics”. Trickledown economics asserts the idea that if the wealthy are given more money to spend, they will do so in a way that benefits the whole society. Obviously this hasn’t worked. Not only that, but Reagan spent LOTS of borrowed money. In fact, 25% of government spending was borrowed money under President Reagan. Comparatively, under Clinton this figure was 6%, under Carter 13%, under Nixon 14%, under JFK and Johnson-6%. Clearly Reagan spent too much money. The National debt increased exponentially under his watch.

Reagan also was a horrendously militant President. Under his administration, the U.S government covertly overthrew several democratically elected governments around the world, including Lebanon, Grenada, and Libya. He oversaw the biggest peacetime military arms buildup in history, and illegally sold a ton of weapons to Iran to covertly fund rebels in Nicaragua. Meanwhile, Reagan receives credit for the downfall of the Soviet Union because he said the phrase “Tear Down This Wall”. Really it was increased pressure by the people of Russia, a coup under the Presidency of Mikhail Gorbachev. The coup happened during the Presidency of George H.W Bush anyway, nearly 4 years after his presidency.

Reagan also expanded Nixon’s “War on Drugs” into a completely immoral crusade. Reagan signed a bill into law that put into the 3-strike rule. The three strike rule punishes people caught with Drugs on 3 separate times to life behind bars. A great percentage of Presidential pardons have been from this immoral, irrational rule. The bill also brought a bit of racism into drug policy. Crack cocaine, more popular among minority neighborhoods because of its affordability, carries a much tougher sentence than powder cocaine which is more popular among white people. This makes sense considering Reagan voiced his opposition to the Civil rights Act when it was in Congress.

Ronald Reagan was one scientifically illiterate son of a bitch. Yes, to be fair most politicians are, but Ronald Reagan was even more so. The Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed “Star Wars” was debunked by nearly every mainstream scientist that was questioned about it. For those who don’t know, Star Wars was a project that would have been a missile defense system that used a “shield” of U.S satellites to fire down incoming Soviet missiles. In other words, it was scientifically unattainable. Reagan supported abstinence only education and as a result teenage pregnancy went up by 60%. Reagan was an anti-evolutionist; letting his religious identification beat out scientific fact. He believed life began at conception, despite the fact that a sperm and egg combined have no organs or detectable brainwaves. Once again, Reagan let his religion override science. Ironically enough, Reagan was against stem cells while in office, even though there is promising leads for an Alzheimer’s cure with stem cells. Additionally, Reagan was the type of Christian that you see in abundance nowadays: He was obsessed with the end of the world. In his diary, after a meeting with Israeli leaders, Reagan claimed “Sometimes it seems like God is going to end the world at any minute.” How can a President who believes that not let it influence his Middle Eastern policy (which was unabashedly pro Israel)?

Reagan had no respect for unions, as evidenced by his refusal to recognize an air traffic worker’s strike under his watch. He ended up contributing to the firing 11,359 people as a result. He refused to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic until 7 years into his administration, and voiced opposition to bills that offered the LBGT community protection against hate crimes. His rejected Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork serves as a reminder of an unqualified extremist judge. Six members of his administration were arrested while two were never prosecuted despite breaking lobbying laws.

To top it all off, Ronald Reagan (with the help of Jimmy Carter) helped inadvertently cause 9/11 through training Osama Bin Laden. The following is a quote from Ronnie himself:

“To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom. Their courage teaches us a great lesson—that there are things in this world worth defending. To the Afghan people, I say on behalf of all Americans that we admire your heroism, your devotion to freedom, and your relentless struggle against your oppressors.”

The Mujahedeen whom Reagan called “Afghan Freedom Fighters” were fighting the Soviets with the help of U.S CIA training. Among those trained was Osama Bin Laden. We trained him how to fight a massive country with limited resources. Gee, that sounds a lot like the technique he used in 9/11 doesn’t it?

Not that Reagan would take credit for any of this. During his 8 years, Reagan used the phrase “Jimmy Carter” more than 1000 times. Obviously this was political opportunism.

Reagan wasn’t that great of a President, in fact he was a bad one.