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Politics : BrainStorming and Gore -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DOUG H who wrote (21)	11/12/2000 12:35:01 PM
From: 10K a day	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33

He Gored at the camera. He made a big Gore out of himself... in front of the Camera. He grabbed the Baby. Like a Football.. And Gored it really fast... In front of the camera....

To: DOUG H who wrote (21)	11/12/2000 9:15:19 PM
From: Walkingshadow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33

<< Not bad for a B actor. >> Ronald Reagan had very little to do with "spearheading the deathblow to communism." Like many a skillful politician before and since, he happened to be in the right place at the right time, is all. And, was politically savvy enough to spot and seize the opportunity, quickly claim all the credit he could, and milk it for all it was worth. Politicians are nothing if not adept at self-aggrandizing, and can always be counted on to quickly claim "credit" amid much hoopla and propaganda for things they really had very little to do with, in any substantiative way. That, and skillfully shifting any "blame" for untoward events somewhere else, usually the opposition party. These are among the more important skills necessary to attain higher office in the first place, IMHO.....combined with the ability to invent a convincing image, and continue to sell it to the American public, and the world. And RR was immensely skilled at all of these. What happened to "communism" was the culmination of huge social, political, and economic forces at work over the course of decades, and had much of their origins at a time when RR was playin' cowboys and indians on the silver screen. Like the fall of many an empire, "communism" fell largely as a result of internal forces and instabilities, much less so because of any external pressures. And though the words and deeds of any one man in these watershed historic events might be remembered, that is not at all to say that they had any real driving force or significant effect. Rarely, in fact probably never, do huge changes such as these come about as the result of the deeds of any single person, propaganda notwithstanding. And, speaking of decades, it will be many, many of those before we pay off the huge debt that his administration incurred to build up the military to unprecendented peacetime levels. Under the Reagan administration, the national debt was increased more than in all previous administrations combined. All this, largely to build a military machine which was never to be used, and has now been systematically dismantled. And for that, we will pay for generations to come. I would also question whether the "communist" markets had any real effect on our current prosperity. Russia certainly is not now, nor has it ever been, a significant trading partner of ours. Only in very recent years has China become a potentially significant player. I don't think our current prosperity has very much to do at all with former communist regimes. If nothing else, most (notably, the former Soviet and Eastern bloc regimes) are still in way too much economic chaos to be able to do much more than receive aid from us. Granted, that will pay off economically in the long run (witness the Marshall Plan----a spectacular success). But, to imply that the former communist regimes had any significant contribution to our current prosperity I think is misleading. If anything, I'd say the political and economic instabilities that have resulted from the fall of the former "communist" regimes have tended to threaten that prosperity---not cause it. Not bad for a B actor? I'd have to agree. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that Ronald Reagan was the best acting president this country ever had. All JMVHO, as always.............. Regards, WS