Thursday, November 3, 2011

#OWS: People Are Strange

Did I say strange? I meant idiots. At least the people who partook in this 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll are.


They picked Ronald Reagan. Yes, when asked which president they would choose to steer the nation during these perilous economic times...they picked Ronald Reagan over FDR.

mfw
Now I'm not trying to hate on The Gipper. I could rant about how Reagan didn't win The Cold War, bring up the Iran-Contra Affair, his shameful stance on the AIDS epidemic, or his Gestapo tactics against UC students during his tenure as Governor of California...but I'm not going to do any of that. Besides, he liked jelly beans, Star Wars and was kind of senile, so I'll cut him some slack in those areas. What I can't do, is ignore the "voodoo economic" policies his administration implemented during the 1980's that set the field for the warm and fuzzy financial catastrophe we find ourselves in today.

Anyone? Anyone? Voodoo Economics...
Reagan's supply side economic polices, dubbed Reaganomics, were all about lowering taxes, cutting government spending, and deregulating the financial markets. This sound familiar? It's basically the play book from the recent GOP Presidential debates. The only problem is...it doesn't work. Tax cuts usually sound nice, but not when they primarily benefit the wealthy and places a disproportionate burden on those with lower incomes to basically fund the nation. Shrinking the size of government has it's appeal (less functions = less waste), but not when it means cutting services to the very people who are bankrolling the operation in the first place. As for deregulating the financial sector, is it ever a smart idea to reward a gambling junkie with unlimited, federally insured funds? Probably not, or in America's case, definitely not. So Reagan lifted some New Deal regulations and gave Wall Street a license to gamble, and almost bled the middle class dry:

(bonus points for Reagan's son disavowing his Father's handy work!)

So yes, let's bring Reagan back to guide us through this Great Recession. Hell, let's get Jefferson Davis to run the NAACP while we're at. I'm not surprised by the 68% of Republicans who voted for their boy Ronnie in that poll, but man, those 34% of Independents and especially the 16% of Democrats are just, well:

The thing that really gets my eyelids twitching is that Reagan finished above FDR. What the hell are they teaching people in schools? Didn't everyone learn about the Great Depression and Roosevelt's New Deal?! Or his wheel chair cage match with Hitler? No? Guess not =/

*NOTE*
I did kind of hate on Reagan a tad in this post. At least I didn't follow this dude's example!

13 comments:

  1. I am not one for politics, presidents, voting, etc... but even I would have known better than to pick Reagan over Roosevelt. Sigh. Good post though. If we are lucky it won't matter after 2012.

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  2. Regan apeals to the rich and the stupid.

    (no offence if your american MRanthrope) but the fact Americans voted for him twice, called him one of the best presidents ever, and voted him so highly on this poll does not suprise me! Most Americans are poorly educated.

    Also the numbers don't add up correctly.

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  3. Don't worry, we can just give the richest people even more money and it will trickle down to the rest of the country! Right guys? ....hello? Where'd all the money go?

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  4. UGH...

    It would be kickass to have FDR be president again. Great post.

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  5. This is very interesting. I have no idea why they would all pick Regan, it seems so odd to me. Ah well, some people are idiots, that's life I guess!

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  6. Maybe it's because of his recent glorification? I dunno. I have a political leader like Reagan right now. I'd say a little worse..

    Also. What Bersecules said. It's sad but..

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  7. hahaha amazes me, maybe all they asked were the rich

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  8. I don't know that much about Roosevelt if I'm honest, so it's always good to learn. Sadly they don't teach us about Hitler's wheelchair cage fights. They barely teach them who Hitler is.

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