POLITICS: Reagan Voted Greatest American of all time

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
Who is the greatest American of all time? Nice idea for a show. But come on? How can we truly guage that? Who knows that the greatest American of all time wasn't the meek old man or widow down the street? It's very subjective.

Well, we're going to do our best to find out with our very own poll on PTS.

politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Nominate now!

[edit on 2005/7/5 by GradyPhilpott]

Originally posted by Hal9000
Ronald Reagan was in the right place at the right time. He was credited for the fall of the Soviet Union, but it would have happened any way. I agree that it should have been either George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. But as said before, people probably voted for him because he was a recent president.

The Soviet Union may have eventually fallen but it was driven to collapse, in large part, by the economic pressure of the U.S. military build up.

Ronald Reagan, for a great many people, embodied the spirit of this country - rugged, independent, strong-willed and moral.

Even though I didn't vote in this 'competition' I believe the people made the right choice.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
That doesn't make any sense. The people didn't start the war on drugs, the politicians connected to big businesses that stood to benefit from criminalizing innocent Americans started the war on drugs. Putting a marijuana cigarette in your mouth doesn't criminalize you unless the state has elected to write laws to that effect.

When the people see the effects of illegal drugs have on other people, including dying from it, it's war on harmful substances. When the people see other people DEALING in illegal drugs and MAKING money knowing that such drugs are harmful to the people, it's through and through a criminal act. Don't give me the usual politicians-big business-started-the drug law/war BS, it's a big pile of BS and you know it!

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
The war on drugs makes about as much sense as the war on dirt, or the war on air. We've been using drugs as a species since we BECAME a species. Your brain produces cannabanoids! Has receptors for opiates! It's not an accident.

Then you should open up your skull and start smoking out of your brain.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Don't blame drugs for drug addicts, blame people! It's personal weakness, an issue of personal responsibility for ones own mistakes.

Man, you just don't f**king get it.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Being a bigot is no kind of excuse. It's an explanation.

It's EXPLANATORY. I can excuse bigots because they weren't informed or educated of different things or lifestyles they weren't used to when they grew up. Don't blame them for not having the opportunities that we all do in this today's generally tolerant and diverse society.

Another canned response: This is the News Forum, please don't circumvent the censors.

I'd lay good money on this is how I earn most of my points these days. :shk:

Reagan was a puppet the man didn’t even have his brain in the last part of his reign. He destroyed our economy, lower the standard of living in this country. Drove Interest rates thru the dam roof. Busted our unions and started letting our companies farm out their work to cheap foreign labor. You can thank Reagan for not having a good job right now if you’re stuck at mc Donald’s or about to leave school to a #ty job market. Oh yea not to mention the soaring nation debut he created. Still the sheep think he was the man, I live in a nation of morons. He gave a nice face to polices designed to destroy the middle class, and made them believe it was in their best interest. He was con man and that’s all he will be remembered as when all the bs settles and people finally see what the republican party has become.

Originally posted by DiRtYDeViL
Reagan was a puppet the man didn’t even have his brain in the last part of his reign. He destroyed our economy, lower the standard of living in this country. Drove Interest rates thru the dam roof. Busted our unions and started letting our companies farm out their work to cheap foreign labor. You can thank Reagan for not having a good job right now if you’re stuck at mc Donald’s or about to leave school to a #ty job market. Oh yea not to mention the soaring nation debut he created. Still the sheep think he was the man, I live in a nation of morons. He gave a nice face to polices designed to destroy the middle class, and made them believe it was in their best interest. He was con man and that’s all he will be remembered as when all the bs settles and people finally see what the republican party has become.

Reagan destroyed the economy and drove interest rates through the roof??? Aren't you confused with Jimmy Carter, under whose administration, interest rates reached WELL into double digits and the economy literally ground to a halt???

Take a look at this:

"The Carter years saw a continuation of a number of negative trends for quality of life in America. The marriage rate declined, the illegitimate birth rate and the abortion rate increased, the crime rate skyrocketed, and drug use increased markedly among the young. These negative social trends were associated with growing income inequality. The Carter years mark the beginning of the "deindustrialization" of America, which for the next fifteen years, would see downsizing of the skilled workforces in American factories, as jobs moved to lower-wage nations in Latin America and Asia. There was a sharp increase in income inequality: the top fifth of American families, headed by managerial and professional breadwinners, increased their incomes. The bottom fifth saw incomes decline. Especially hard hit would be young people, who in the late 1970s found it increasingly difficult to get good entry level jobs, or indeed any jobs at all.

With inflation moving into double-digit range, interest rates on consumer goods and mortgages moving in the same range, and productivity and growth of the gross national product declining, America was entering into an era of "stagflation.""

www.americanpresident.org...

Perhaps that article will provide a bit of perspective...

Excellent points, CTO.

Reagan was no empty suit. Don't believe that retarded media-induced notion. If you go back and read him, read his life, look at what he did and what he championed, you might see him in a different light.

I say to each his own, though. Everyone has a right to have their favorite president.

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
I say to each his own, though. Everyone has a right to have their favorite president.

I'm not American and my favorite was Carter, the healer. The nation was in flux and he did well, unfortunatly his foriegn policy was lacking. He did well at home though.

So what garnered The Gipper such an honor?

The fact that the majority of the Discovery Channel respondents are of the age to have experienced the Reagan presidency in their prime.

My own thoughts on why Reagan was voted #1.

It's simple, he lived the American dream. He grew up poor, but through hard work he became successful first as a movie star (and who doesn't want to be a movie star?) and then he proved the thing that we are all told as children - he was elected president.

Don't get me wrong, I can think of several others I would put forward first, but I can understand why he won.

Not to be snip at all, but didn't the Discovery Channel poll go way beyond presidents... Wasn't it the Greatest American???

There have been thousands of 'Great Americans' many of whom we will never know... My personal admiration goes to the folks who trudge off to work every day, acting as responsible family members and Americans, providing a good life for those in their charge...

It's the average, run of the mill American who makes the economy, not the President, not the Congress, not the Supreme Court...

It's America's people who make this country great. Singling out one is a daunting task, to say the least...

Reagan was a great president and did many great things but IMO he was not the greatest president much less the greatest american. IMO George Washington deserves the number one spot because without him and his actions there would not be an America. Washington lead this country to an almost impossible victory over the British and keep his troops together by simply putting on his glasses and asking humbly for help.

Originally posted by Jamuhn

So what garnered The Gipper such an honor?

The fact that the majority of the Discovery Channel respondents are of the age to have experienced the Reagan presidency in their prime.

Interesting.. I was a kid when he took office and in college right after he left office. I always liked his integrity. There was never a whiff of personal scandal with him. It was all business.

As president he had to pull some hardcore moves. But he made his own informed decisions. (The unfortunate, or fortunate thing was that it seems he was quite out of the loop on some very sensitive operations.)

Every president has had to make decisions most men couldn't make. No president's hands could be all clean.

On behalf of the military community, let me just say, George H.W. Bush may have been our commander-in-chief during the Gulf War, and he did a fine job commanding, but it was Reagan who built that military. It was Reagan's vision that turned a demoralized and quasi-corrupted institution into the most powerful fighting force the world had ever seen. Under his leadership, our society once again embraced those who served and turned their angry glare towards Washington, D.C. As it should be. He led by example, too.

ECK salutes smartly.

but it was Reagan who built that military. It was Reagan's vision that turned a demoralized and quasi-corrupted institution into the most powerful fighting force the world had ever seen. Under his leadership, our society once again embraced those who served and turned their angry glare towards Washington, D.C. As it should be. He led by example, too.

ECK salutes smartly.

Despite Carter's emasculation of the military at that time, it was the military that gave me a darn good job, enhanced my respect for authority and our Country.

Despite the neglect the military did what it could with what it had. I recall the maintainers k-balling aircraft to keep at least SOME of the birds mission ready, the lack of live munitions and general malaise made it difficult to stay proficient let alone proud of the occupation we had chosen.

Ronald Reagan reversed that disheartening trend and brought our military back to the prominence and superiority that it enjoys today...

I will always have tremendous respect for the Gipper.

Originally posted by CTO


Ronald Reagan reversed that disheartening trend and brought our military back to the prominence and superiority that it enjoys today...

I will always have tremendous respect for the Gipper.

I have to say this, too, the men and women of the Vietnam era, who stayed in the service, and made it their life's work, were some of the best people I have ever known in my life. They came home from 'Nam and kept going, doing what they did best. To me they are heroes. The men and women I learned from. The craziest damn bunch among us, and the most fun.

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
I have to say this, too, the men and women of the Vietnam era, who stayed in the service, and made it their life's work, were some of the best people I have ever known in my life. They came home from 'Nam and kept going, doing what they did best. To me they are heroes. The men and women I learned from. The craziest damn bunch among us, and the most fun.

Amen to that; could not agree more.

Now to get back OT we are talking about the poll not vets OK?

I keep wondering how the peanut farmer ever made the darn list???