It was during the Reagan presidency that my vision started to clear regarding american politics. I had hope in those days.

The day George HW Bush said "Read my lips." was the day I started changing.

The day the arkansas hillbilly took office my view was changed to what it is today, and forever more. The plastic coins were removed from my eyes. The criminal from Hope erased my hope.

Jacob represents people who still don't understand either Reagan or America.

I had to stop reading. I just can't bear to be reminded so forcefully how far and how fast we have fallen. I wish the Islamics would blow up LA, NYC and DC. The end result would be an improvement.

Nancy Reagan wrote, “There’s a wall around him. He lets me come closer than anyone else, but there are times when even I feel that barrier.”
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That *barrier* exists in everyone.

I'm reminded of a time a hundred years ago when I sat in a church sermon as the pastor weaved his spell.

He said, "There things about me my friends do not know." "

There are things about me my wife does not know."

He walked out in front of the pulpit with well worn bible in hand and said, "But there is nothing about me that God doesn't know."

We all have our layers.

This author tried to make Reagan's layers a penalty.

Can the caterpillar understand the butterfly?
When the caterpillar metamorphs that question is beside the point.

I did not ever hate the man, but cannot understand the adulation.

How can you have lived through every president since Reagan and not understand?

As far as presidents go, he was the last one in this country. Every other stand-in since has been giving us their rendition of what a tsar should be.

None of them were presidential in the least and all were utter embarrassments to humanity.

I got to go to the Reagan Memorial Library last March. It is a beautiful place, lovingly maintained in Simi Valley. I recommend it for anyone in the area.
He was a real man, and his actions showed wisdom, a wisdom that is gone from modern politics. Reagan was the first President I voted for. For that, I will always be proud.

To compare Reagan with FDR is intellectual malpractice, but it is a useful warning about the author. Reagan's awakening was formed by von Hayek. No one goes to the trouble of reading von Hayek thoroughly without a commitment to understanding the human condition in all it's contradictions. Reagan understood, and he understood himself. The author of this biography is trapped within an ideology alien to the understand of Reagan or his mentor.

.... Reagan found that vagueness was a good management technique as well. Setting broad direction and leaving the details to others .....

.... meant that President Reagan was a very good executive. Too many people in charge of something tend to micromanage the workings of their organization.

Progressivism generally is micromanagement to the nth degree. Progressives just can't bring themselves to believe that freedom and free markets work -- that it's not necessary to plan an economy (or an entire society) down to the smallest detail for it to work. In fact, trying to do so just gums up the works, as Hayek so ably showed.

Some people these days are looking for a second FDR. I'm hoping for a second Calvin Coolidge.

My two cents' worth, as usual.

Hale Adams
Pikesville, People's still-mostly-Democratic Republic of Maryland

Interesting that Reagan's birthday is in February.

I remember very well getting my reserve commission signed by Carter, and then serving in the infantry under President Ronald Reagan. The army had direction and heart again, and the Vietnam era began to fade.

When he stood outside the meeting in Reykjavik in his suit coat, next to Gorby in his big wool overcoat, we all knew who was boss.

And so the Reagan fraud continues, aided and abetted by those who should, and do know better but simply refuse to acknowledge the truth.

Would a conservative grow government beyond that of his liberal predecessor?

Would a conservative increase the federal deficit beyond that of his liberal predecessor?

Would a conservative enact more restrictive firearm laws than under his predecessor?

Would a conservative grant amnesty to millions of invading illegals, while falsely promising to stop future invasions?

No. A conservative would not. Saint Reagan the Fraudulent was not a conservative – ever. Our worldview has become so corrupted that a jackal like reagan, merely by adopting the mantle of conservatism thus became in the eyes of many a shining example. When we allow our thinking to be so disgustingly inept we end up with the present crop of statist liberals masquerading as conservative frontrunners.

Reaganism is not an endpoint to be achieved – it is the progressives victory that a liberal is viewed as conservative! What better way for their agenda to be promoted than by claiming your ally is your direct opposite?

Reagan famously noted that he Never Left the Democratic Party. Meaning that he was A-OK with the views and values of the 60's democrats.

Iran Contra becomes Waco becomes OK City becomes Fast & Furious. Thanks, Ronnie.

Yep, Reagan continued in the White Orifice that which he was well known for - acting. Not being.

So, itor, Reagan wasn't perfect? Is that what you're saying?

He was so superior to any other president since then that he seems perfect from our current perspective. Sure, it would have been fine if he didn't increase the deficit. But look at what we've got now:

A president who isn't incompetent, but rather, is deliberately and capably destroying our country.

A president who is deliberately instituting totalitarianism.

A president who is far from being stupid; the stupid people are those who do not see the danger.

A president who is succeeding at every goal he has set.

A president who was caught on tape assuring the Russian ambassador that he would have "flexibility" after the election.

A president who embraces our enemies, and rejects our friends.

A president who repeatedly acts unConstitutionally and lawlessly to acheive his goals.

A president with the Media behind him, covering his lawbreaking and excusing it.

A president with no competent people in Congress willing or able to stop him; few will even speak out.

A president who has neutered the military; they are the front lines defending the Constitution. Why have they not placed this president in the stockade by now, to face a court martial for treason against the United States of America?

This president is doing exactly as he said: fundamentally transforming this country. Selling it out to the anti-American UN. Paying a hundred $billion to the ayatollahs. The list is very long.

However, our Constitution, our freedom, our wealth, our children, and our future are no longer at risk. The risk is past. Because those things have already been lost.

So complain about President Reagan if you like. But compare him with the real life Manchurian Candidate that we have now, and...

...doesn't President Reagan seem perfect?

"Saint Reagan the Fraudulent was not a conservative – ever."
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And your point is what?

I've seen several of Reagan's movies and at best he was piss poor as an actor.

I did not adore the man, but I cant understand the hatred for him by many, even today on the left.

No, Smokey, St Ronald the Fraudulent Does Not Seem Perfect. Even by comparison.

You Are Missing The Point. Or Evading Same.

St Ronald the Fraudulent paved the way for slick willie, the Boosheviks, and the halfrican. And the feculent bucket of republicans posing as conservatives in the ensuing elections.

"A president who repeatedly acts unConstitutionally and lawlessly to acheive (sic)
his goals."

Yep, that was Ronnie. You know it, if you were paying attention.