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The Forgotten Man

Do you get the same feeling now that you had during the 70's? I'm hoping that the right man at the right ime shows up in '12 and that we don't have to wait until '20.

It feels worse because of the responsibilities that come with being a parent, but I remember the cloud that hung over everyone's head in 1979 when the morning traffic report was which stations had gas and how long the lines were. I remember when the hostages were taken in Tehran and the anger that was felt because these little pissants were making America look like a bunch of *******. Can Obama change the country's morale? I sure hope so, because I don't see anyone on the horizon who might do it.
 
Dammit, how can you consider yourself a conservative and not know how to spell his name?

But Marcus nailed it. Reagan lifted America's spirits, though many would argue that his fiscal policies continued the spiral. As a liberal conservative, I believe Reagan was the right man at the right time.

During that time, was the Dem's agenda rife with fear mongering, divisive speech, and anti-government propaganda? Cause that would have made it that much easier to bring the country together.
 
During that time, was the Dem's agenda rife with fear mongering, divisive speech, and anti-government propaganda? Cause that would have made it that much easier to bring the country together.

No, it was just rife with Jimmy Carter, Gerry Brown, Ted Kennedy, Walter Mondale, etc.
 
I'm biased on this point (I worked at the Carter presidential library one semester) but I think Carter gets a bad rap. Reagan, on the other hand, was a short-term thinking guy whos ultimate legacy is so destructive that at this point even arch conservatives from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s would be driven out of the Republican party as socialists and RINOs.

Obviously, I don't expect much agreement on this point of view on a message board whose members are primarily based out of Utah.

EDIT: To make my point about socialists and RINOs more explicit and particularlized I'll name names.

Herbert Hoover (the last conservative president prior to New Deal government expansion) would be termed a socialist and a class warrior by today's Republican party even though his is the era the Tea Party would presumably like to return to in terms of governmental structure.

Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon also would be unelectably liberal on economic policy.

Barry Goldwater would get run out of the party as a RINO based upon his social views.

A lot of those names are "the man" that the counterculture rebelled against in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, they're well to the left of the mainstream Republican party and Tea party.
 
As a conservative liberal, I agree with you Kicky, particularly on the Nixon and Goldwater examples.

Today's Republican party is an atrocity run by fanatics and extremists, and the Teabag Party is even crazier. At times, I wonder if the only difference between the Teabag Party and the Taliban is the god they worship.
 
In fairness to me, I once purchased the Ronald Reagan paper dolls set from the Carter presidential library gift shop.

In particular I was a fan of the fact that they had paper dolls for both wives and a paper doll outfit featuring his Bedtime for Bonzo garb.

Marcus: I, and many economists, attribute the end of stagflation to the monetary policy of Paul Volcker. Volcker was hired by Carter and fired by Reagan. Reagan gets the credit for ending stagflation. That's the primary example I give for defending that Carter got a bad rap.

EDIT: The paper dolls are just as goofy as I remembered.

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Pretty obvious this "artist" is LDS when he said he said this white young man represents EVERY man, woman and child. Funny how mormon's forget how persecuted they were all not that long ago.
 
Pretty obvious this "artist" is LDS when he said he said this white young man represents EVERY man, woman and child. Funny how mormon's forget how persecuted they were all not that long ago.

Anyone wanna bet what his Jazzfanz username is?
 
Under Regan this all changed. He constantly spoke of America's greatness and generally made you feel proud to be an American. For lack of a better term, he cured America's self image.

You know, this is always the answer I get when I ask people who lived through the Reagan administration. It's never any specific policy or accomplishment, the first thing I hear is "he made me feel better."

I think it explains a lot about the direction the country has taken since that time.
 
You know, this is always the answer I get when I ask people who lived through the Reagan administration. It's never any specific policy or accomplishment, the first thing I hear is "he made me feel better."

I think it explains a lot about the direction the country has taken since that time.

I know plenty of Republicans who held their noses while they voted for Reagan.

And the Iranian hostage crisis was the real undoing of Jimmy Carter, at least the one most folks were focused on - - even though it actually had the least effect on anyone's lives (other than the hostages and their families)

Most of you are too young to remember how Ted Koppel got his start. Some of may even be too young to know who that is....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightline
 
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