Reagan considered this his biggest mistake. Newt Gingrich told Reagan the amnesty would be for just 300K. Democrats promised they'd secure the border if Reagan signed the amnest bill (they lied). 3 million actually got amnesty. With birthright citizenship and chain migration the US ended up with an extra 15M people.
Or he’d claim the golden dome had already been designed and built, leading Russia to spend the balance of its treasury trying to catch up …
true. But Reagan wasn’t known to be as full of BS like Trump is. Trump lies on the past, current issues and makes outrageous promises - some not based in reality. Everyone is like “yeah, ok Dear Leader.” No way Trump would have been effective against the Soviet Union. He would lead us to a policy of appeasement. Thank goodness it was Reagan and not Trump.
If I recall the bill also included a provision for sanctions against employers who hired illegals. It was never really enforced probably because members of Congress from both parties didn't want to alienate their larger campaign contributors. I also recall that one of the reasons Congress supported amnesty was the presence of a large number of undocumented Irish immigrants who entered the country as students and tourists in the late '70s and early '80 when Ireland was experiencing an economic downturn, intentionally overstayed their visas and got jobs in the US.
Reagan’s Star Wars initiative was one of the material factors that led to the breakup of the Soviet Union. The coukdnit afford to keep up. In Russia, Reagan rememberedfor helping bring down Soviet Union There’s a healthy debate as to whether Regan always new it was unworkable, but push3d it, and had the CIA leak it, to cripple the Soviet economy.
Trump, IMO, doesn’t so much as lie as just say whatever is on his mind in the extract moment. It’s like he has turrets syndrome.
I guess it was totally worth it then, especially for the defense contractors who could finally buy that gold plated mansion by fleecing tax payers for an unworkable boondoggle they were still grifting off of when George W Bush was president and the Soviet Union was long dead.
We can get into the weeds on Reagan and policy, but one glaring deficit in GOP leadership is just basic decency. Let's start there, because before 2016 that seemed to be something we all valued and agreed on. Of course we can dig up something to cherry pick as a contradiction, but I'd like to know when out and out meanness became a virtue? Kindergartners get this concept.
One of the reasons although not the only one. In 1975 the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted the demise of the Soviet Union essentially because it's dysfunctional economy couldn't compete. Although I disagreed with Reagan's domestic policy he does deserve a lot of credit for contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union. By the way Donald Trump's good buddy, Vladimir Putin who was a KGB colonel when the Soviet Union collapsed has referred to its collapse as a great geopolitical tragedy.
Outstanding question. It’s bizzare how “owning the libs” is a priority now for maga. And to your point, it really took off under trump. He is extremely vindictive which added fuel to the fire.
If you are going to quote me then atleast use the whole post I think overall Reagan was a great President. But he made a huge mistake trusting Tip and agreeing to asylum of the illegals
This thread is weird. Reagan, love him or leave him, was very anti-USSR, and what he honestly believed was pro-USA. Trump, on the other hand, is very pro-Trump ...... and pro anyone who helps Trump. Which, of course, means pro-Russia. Trump doesn't give a rats ass about America, Americans, or .... well, anyone. Such as the Ukrainian civilians being killed by Russia, which his SecState just made love to via official statement. So for Trumppublicans to pretend to care about Reagan, especially Reagan being tough on the USSR? Laughable.
Not defending Reagan on the issue and I suspect that I will be accused of blaming the victim(s) but I also recall that the gay community at least initially refused to accept the fact that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease and strongly resisted the closure of "bath houses" where promiscuous gay men hooked up for sex as a step towards stemming the epidemic.
My dad's friend Stephan T. Possony along with sci-fi writer Jerry Pournelle and Francis X. Zane (Col., USAF) wrote The Strategy of Technology in 1970. The idea was to get so far ahead of the Soviets technologically that they'd bankrupt themselves trying to keep up. This was the book behind Reagan's support for SDI (1983). Obviously the USSR's involvement in Afghanistan also made them bleed cash. The US walked away from the ABM Treaty over Putin's objections, and now Russia is ahead of us technologically with hypersonic missiles and in other areas. In effect Russia is now using the strategy of technology to make us bleed cash. Better to be Russia's friend and sign a treaty.
Like I said you can cherry pick something for every single president beginning with Washington. If you missed my point I don't know what to tell you. Strict adherence to ideology = skewed thinking.
