The Death of Ronald Reagan

Well, he was an actor, so of course he was good at making speeches and such. That's NOT a slam-I just mean that his acting experience helped him when it came to dealing with the public and such.

 

Funny--I remember my mother saying that in the early 80s--"He's a charming man; that's why he was elected." She hated him. My father, however, wanted to vote for him in 1984, considering him the lesser of two evils next to Mondale. (Dad has since become a yellow-dog Republican. He'd vote for one of my cats before he'd vote for Gore or Kerry.) Mom threatened to divorce him, so Dad didn't vote for President in that election.

 

"yellow-dog Republican"? Thanks for the insult there A_G.

 

What.Ever.

"Yellow-dog Republican" just means, as "yellow-dog Democrat" means, that a person would vote for a yellow dog before voting for someone in the other party.

And I've been told that I'm easily offended. Do you think I would have insulted my own father? Please.

I don't agree with my dad's politics, but...surprise surprise...I'm an adult, therefore I put such crap aside for the sake of good family relations. I am able to recognize that he is a wonderful person although we disagree on many issues. Insulting one's parents on a public message board is very childish.

 

I didn't agree with much of his politics, but far more importantly, he was a fellow American who served his country.

Rest in Peace, President Reagan.

 

Vote John Kerry for President: A voice of reason who's killed, like, 20 dudes

I can't tell whose side you're on by that but it's still funny.

My favorite is: "Support the environment--plant a Bush in Texas." Or, "Like father, like son--one term only."

 

It sad America lost one of its heroes he helped us end the cold war.

 

"Yellow-dog Republican" just means, as "yellow-dog Democrat" means, that a person would vote for a yellow dog before voting for someone in the other party.

I apologize then. I have never heard that phrase before.

 

He gave a kid growing up in America the most hopeful childhood that anyone could have ever asked for.

Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow Americans, the curtain has finally fallen on the Eighties. A great man has gone on to his heavenly reward. He leaves this world a far poorer place in his absence. And his passing has reduced a thirty-year old man to tears because, at long last, he feels that his own childhood has come to an end.

I cannot help but feel that God has taken Reagan home, now, because this nation's time of greatness is drawing to a close. The morning in America has so quickly become twilight's last gleaming.

Reagan was the last true American president. There will not be another like him.

 

I am diametrically opposed to what Ronald Reagan believed in and did in office, but he was still a great man of powerful personal strength and conviction, and truly a figure to be respected.

May he rest in peace.

 

Like many of the above posters, I too, grew up in Reagan's America. He wasn't a saint, and of course there were things he did wrong and views of his that I disagreed with, but I will say that when he was president, he gave (IMO) a feeling of comfort with the office of President of the United States, and a feeling that if all wasn't right, that it could be. When he gave a speech, even if you didn't like him, you wanted to hear it. And he made me feel optimism for the future. And whether or not he really upped the stakes in the Cold War enough to make the USSR cry "uncle", he'll definitely be remembered as the president who ended the Cold War. I'm very saddened by his death. It truly does seem to be the passing of a legend.

 

Reagan was the last true American president. There will not be another like him.

That was... dramatic. Demonstrates the power of image politics, I suppose. Hmm, there ought to be a thread...

 

Vezner: Apology accepted. Maybe the expression is just old--I used to hear it in elementary school in the late 70s and early 80s.

Chris:

And his passing has reduced a thirty-year old man to tears because, at long last, he feels that his own childhood has come to an end.

My husband's comment last night was, "Damn, I feel old." The eighties really have passed, and whether or not you agree with Reagan's politics, it's hard not to mourn the end of an era.

 

Politics aside, he was a gifted leader, and a decent man.

He loved his God, his family, his country.

He will be missed, by all.

Rest in Peace, Ronald Reagan.

Peace,

V-03

 

This is the president. We have declared Russia illegal. The bombing starts in five minutes.

 

That is actually funny now that almost 20 years have passed.

I still remember soon after it happened, I was playing Trivial Pursuit with a boyfriend and a group of others. One of the questions was about someone losing his power of speech. I had no idea what the answer was, so I leaned over to my boyfriend and whispered, "Ronald Reagan," and he cracked up. My mother glared at both of us and said, "I wish he'd lose his power of speech." Something about the Soviets actually getting prepared for a bombing after Reagan made that joke without realizing that the mikes were on.

 

a_g-

I'm a Democrat and a Kerry supporter...that quote is from 'The Onion'.

 

As someone who is from Canada I can say that Mr Reagan was a great man that I always had alot of respect for.
He was a class act and alot of Canadians will miss his colourful personality. Godspeed Mr Reagan...

 

Reagan was the last true American president. There will not be another like him.

Oh, I think there will be. People said the same thing when FDR died and yet, 40 years later, there was Reagan. It might take another 20 or 30 years, but we will have another one.

 

[In office] I won a nickname, "The Great Communicator." But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation ? from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it...

Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the people." "We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past eight years.

But back in the 1960s, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things ? that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, "Stop." I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.

I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts...

The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.

And so, good-bye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

 

Doesn't he have an aircraft carrier named after him?

 

An aircraft carrier and an airport, which was just silly. I bet they'll try to put his face on the dime again, unless Nancy speaks out against it once more.

Post #666

 

Doesn't he have an aircraft carrier named after him?

Dude, I'm pretty sure the U.S.S Teddy Roosevelt is actually named after Teddy Roosevelt, not Reagan...



E_S

 

Let's keep the political garbage out of here, please. We should honor a man who did great things for this country and the world at-large. This is a man who did more to bring about the collapse of communism in the U. S. S. R. than anyone, with the exception of His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Let's put the hagiography stick back on the shelf, and stop flogging those dead horses with it.

Firstly, I don't mean to disrespect the dead but that doesn't mean you should turn into TripleB and go all uber-rightist on us. Reagan was a man - shocking, I know, but a man nonetheless. As such, he was fallible. He made mistakes; however, he managed to emerge unscathed from most of them. We should not forget this when reflecting upon his life; if you want mindless praise and inane babble, try JCC.

Secondly, we should admit that were it not for Brezhinski and Carter drawing, deliberately, the USSR into Afghanistan, nor for Mikhail Gorbachev, the USSR wouldn't have fallen into the FSU and then RF. I know we love to think Reagan caused them to collapse, but I assure you, they were imploding without any outside help, and Reagan essentially sped the process along a bit. I mean, history is complicated, except when you have the rose coloured, Made in the USA lense of conservative revisionism strapped to your head - to indicate one man is responsible for it is just vapid.

However, I should say, Reagan was a great leader for his time. It's rare that a person becomes synonymous with a decade. Typically, people may refer to the "years" a person, a leader, characterised - like the "Clinton years" but you could or would hardly say Clinton symbolised the 1990's. Reagan, however, seemed to be so much of the context in which the 1980's are viewed, that it's almost impossible to separate him from the decade.

And his death, like the death of any other well known and revered personalities, will be felt by many but at the same time, let's not get carried away and pretend like Reagan was a direct descendant of God himself. He was a man, a man with flaws, and if you can see him still as good despite in flaws - not in denial of them - then that's the measure of his character.

How is TripleB's left bashing NOT against the TOS? I very much do NOT appreciate constantly being painted as loony and a hater of America and freedom.

He's a fascist, what do you expect? Seriously, just ignore the majority of it like everyone else did.

E_S

 

we should admit that were it not for Brezhinski and Carter drawing, deliberately, the USSR into Afghanistan... the USSR wouldn't have fallen

history is complicated,to indicate one man is responsible for it is just vapid.

Ahh but if they'd said Reagan and one of the 7 or so NSA's that served under him, that would be okay.

Check!