It would be a fitting tribute, would it not?
In the rush to name things after Ronald Reagan, especially stuff he screwed up (“Ronald Reagan National Airport” after he fired thousands of air traffic controllers and made our airways much less safe), could we not aim for appropriate memorials?
One of Ronald Reagan’s biggest legacies is his multiplying the national debt. Reagan’s supporters want to name a mountain somewhere after him — how about the mountain of debt, which is everywhere?
Artist's conception, Ronald Reagan on Mt. Rushmore - Fred J. Eckert, Eckert/Ambassador Images. Gutzon Borglum, the designer and sculptor for Mt. Rushmore, determined the rock on either side of the current four busts is unsuitable for carving -- Jefferson was moved from Washington's right where it was originally planned because the rock crumbled when carved.
Perhaps we could name it in his honor: The Ronald W. Reagan Memorial National Debt. Just imagine how that would change the tone and direction of discussions on spending and taxes in Washington and the state capitals.
What Republican could possibly vote against the “Ronald W. Reagan Memorial National Debt Ceiling Raising Act?”
Who will start the petition? Maybe Grover Norquist?
More:
- Rep. David Obey had the right idea in 1998
- The Ronald Reagan Building was the most expensive government building ever at the point of its construction — a point rarely mentioned in stories about the building today
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center - most expensive government building ever built
The previous poster says, Lots of morons read this page
Says the guy who has just been reading this page.
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Lots of morons read this page
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I have to admit I like Reagan more than I used to.
But that’s because the Republican party has gotten so much worse then Reagan was. So it’s like comparing a person who killed one person versus a person who killed 50,000 people.
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Reagan’s contribution is nothing compared to Bush’s. But Reagan was a groundbreaking pioneer when it can to running deficits. Never before did we have a president who cared so little about our country that he would triple the federal debt. He was indeed an inspiration to conservatives from coast to coast.
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Misty-eyed recollections of Ronald Reagan are not uncommon amid the borderline nutjobbery.But misty eyes dont always see clearly. Avalon who uses a Reagan campaign speech for Barry Goldwater to both cite Reagans influence on the Tea Party and offer a reality check on the idol worship.
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I actually have something of a love-hate relationship with the Gipper. Surprising, to be sure, since most who know me are convinced I am a pure Socialist. (Nothing of the kind is actually the case, but another time for that talk.)
President Reagan did some truly heinous, criminal things while in the Oval Office. I’m not sure anything was more hateful than his enthusiastic support for Central American death squads. Or his much too timid approach to Apartheid in South Africa. Or the great myth of the “welfare queen” he helped spin, which still lives on today in the hearts of teabaggers everywhere.
But Ronnie Ray-gun, for all his flaws, did some things I am now grateful for. For example, he actually negotiated with terrorists. And he sat across the peace table with our sworn enemies. These enemies actually possessed weapons of mass destruction and they pointed them at our cities. But Reagan didn’t invade their countries. He didn’t land on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, cod-piece and all, bloviating, “Mission Accomplished”. He also supported somehing called the “Earned Income Tax Credit”…a tax cut that conservatives now run away from, for reasons I can’t fully comprehend. Perhaps it is too “worker-friendly”. And any talk of “workers” is bound to lead to talk of collectives, redistribution and eventually, a politburo.
If, by Tea Party standards, Dwight Eisenhower was a left-wing, Socialistic dupe of Moscow…then what was Ronald Reagan? Far too moderate, I can hear Michele Bachmann saying. Perhaps a “liberal” Republican.
No, I’ll continue to hate much of what Reagan stood for. But I’ll forever have a different view of the man after enduring eight years of abject stupidity and unbridled hubris under The Decider. And after seeing the real (and hypocritical) face of conservatism espoused by the Tea Party.
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Yeah, naming our national airport after Reagan always struck me as inappropriate. It would be like naming an airport after Yasser Arafat.
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Frequently history white washes men and their deeds – particularly nowadays when people constantly re-write in the instant media spin cycle. It’s interesting that over 20 years after his term, more people are more honest about a man they tried so hard to mythologize.
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