http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=15202821
Hi Rarebird,
I like to debate and I can do it civilly without the name calling and moral diatribes.
I know you can and I know that you know that I can, too. I'm just trying to respect the rules of the LWP by not doing any debating over there.
Now I'd like to hear how Reagan's policies in the 80's, which squeezed the middle class and created many more poor people, was just, fitting, appropriate and right? After all, you say that you voted for Reagan in 84, so I think you are a good person to ask.
I'm not sure I'm such a good person to ask. I sometimes wonder if I don't have the same affliction as Ronny. I don't remember enough of what he did or didn't do to debate it with you. In fact, I have to admit I had to do a quick web search to recall who he ran against the second time. Nor do I fancy myself as an apologist for him. I remember thinking Ollie North the scariest man in public life in America during my lifetime.
I can tell you why I voted for Reagan the second time around, though.
When I turned 21 and registered to vote, I planned to register as a socialist. That was in the days of Johnson vs. Goldwater. I remember being terribly disappointed that no party affiliation was requested. <Sniff> I was quite the firebrand and ideologue and wanted to make a statement. I laugh as I think about it.
I like to think that I've acquired a bit of wisdom in the intervening years. Perhaps I'm deluded. But I've come to the belief that socialism cannot work in a country like the U.S. In smaller and more homogeneous communities it could perhaps be quite effective, but not here. My observations of a lifetime have convinced me that the expansion of the sense of entitlement to the largesse of the government was a terrible mistake and I feared that the slippery slope had made recovery impossible. I think that Reagan turned the tide on that and leveled us off I'm appreciative of it. I considered that so important as to overshadow everything else about his policies. Still do. So I voted for him. He made it easier for me to do by effectively keeping the right wing nutters at bay. I appreciated that too.
The entitlement mentality is too high a price to pay, IMO. The poor and the middle class are not well served LONG TERM by it.
That's all there is to it.
Karen |
