You worded your question well. Outside of the ones you mentioned, there is not much love for Ronny Ray-gun. It's Incredible to me how far up on the pedestal Saint Ronny has been placed by his faithful worshippers and how his words are like scripture to all that drank his Kool-Aid. But I guess that's why they called him the "Great Communicator". He was an actor for God’s sake and not a very good one either. He was a wonderful bullshit artist to say the least. The fact that he got middle class citizens to vote against their own best interests makes for a great snake-oil salesman.
He was the ultimate pawn of the corporate power structure. Anyone who put forth an economic policy, like the “Trickle Down” theory, did not really have the best interest of the middle class at heart. Some people give him way too much credit. So much has been said about how great Raygun was and no one wants to mention all the **** that went down during his term in office. Selective memory I guess.
Let me go ahead and mention a few things that you might jar your memory, depending on how old you are. (I guess I'm just an old fart)
The firing of the air traffic controllers(which was the beginning of the end for labor unions), Elliott Abrams lying to Congress, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, budget deficits, public housing cutbacks, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, falling wages, the HUD scandal, attacks on OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut, food-stamp reductions, Debategate, White House shredding, tax cuts for the rich, Caspar Weinberger's five-count indictment, education cuts, massacres in El Salvador, $640 Pentagon toilet seats, 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey, Iran/Contra and on and on. That’s just what comes to mind. Maybe if I dug a little deeper…..Oh, did I forget to mention Deregulation which started us on our downward spiral?
As a president, I think he sucked. (in case you could’nt tell yet) He convinced so many that the New Deal was the wrong deal, that the Social Contract was a pact with the Devil, and that welfare queens, homeless vets, and liberals were undermining that which made America great. (You always have to find someone to blame.)The idea, simply put, is that Government should be run like a business. (Yeah, put the fox in the henhouse.) It is a stupid idea, it’s been biting us in the *** ever since and the only ones running with it and laughing all the way to the bank, are the republicans and their corporate friends. But let’s continue to sing his praises while we send our children off to fight in the corporate oil wars to bolster their bottom line.
Ronny Raygun, the smiley white man with great teeth in a dark suit, cemented the idea of the President as CEO, our legislators as Middle Management, and the citizens as stockholders. He convinced many, especially his republican cronies, that with Government as Business, careful money management???? and profit would be the rule of the day. Government waste would be a thing of the past! Surely men who put money first would run our country efficiently??????
And republicans still line themselves up with the status quo.