Could it be the reduction in unemployment during his presidency from 7.3% to 5.4%, the expansion of the economy by an avg. of 3.4% per year or the huge decrease in inflation from the double digit years under Carter. No why I think they hate him is his role in dismantling their beloved Soviet Union, which i'm sure they still pine over today. It dosen't matter to them that Eastern Europe would still be enslaved the fact that the "greatest" symbol of worldwide Socialism was vanquished. Tsk Tsk

Tsk tsk is right. You are evidently laboring under a misconception (albeit a common one). I do not, nor have I ever hated the man. We (the collective we) use that word as casually as the word love, but in order for me to either truely love or hate someone, I would first have to know them, and I have never in my life so much as met the man.

I also do not, nor have I ever loved the Soviet Union, nor do I pine for its passing. No offense, but you really should get to know on whom it is you pass judgement before doing so. You might be surprised at what you find.

Now on to more concrete issues. Inflation did in fact decrease during the Reagan years, and the economy did in fact grow. It it interesting to note that similar events took place during the Clinton years. It is further interesting to note that when confronted with this little snippet of information, the conservatives counter that the president has no direct impact on the economy. If they are right, then Reagan had little to do with the events you described.

By the way, you forgot one teensie fact...under the Reagan years, we also rang up a record federal deficit.

Pardon me, one more little tidbit: Reagan also put the brakes on funding for AIDS research, which gave the virus the opportunity to grow to epidemic proportions in this country.

If you liked the man, that's up to you, but he isn't quite up to sainthood.

If you didn't hate the man or his presidency, why did you feel the need to reply? I obviously wasn't refering to you or your post. You can however feel the animus of some of the posters here and in the many articles over the years about the man.His presidency by most objective historians was fairly successful, so why the fuss. Why isn't their more written or Caricatures drawn about Johnson, Ford or Carter.

The far left is hung up on him I'd like to know why

It is quite simple really:

He loved America. They hate it.

He was wise enough to know that you don't go to a gunfight with a manifesto, a list of talking points and lawyer. You show up with 10 times the number of gun the other little puke shows up with.

He believed in smaller government. They believe the goverment should be a self-licking ice cream cone that creates learned helplessness... Liberals voluntarily suffer from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. That is they dream up and/or cause a serious malady so that they may be the Florence Nightingale to cater to the victim. They have to do it. They need it.

Iran-Contra. Crack Cocaine. If you've seen one redwood tree you've seen 'em all. Ketchup is my favortie vegetable. I can't recall.

Why hate Reagan? Maybe because he was a mass murderer:- Guatemalla, El Salvador, Honduras.

That good enough?

But you don't hate (presumably) Roosevelt - he did after all round up all the Japanese and put them in concentration camps and then allow the greedy white people to steal their land. Reagan may be guilty of a lot of things, but at least he kept it off American soil.

as President, but a good man I am sure. He did help usher us unto the new pre Imperial Age, begin the real process of deconstruction the New Deal, cariesd forward so well by first Pres. Clinton and then Pres. Bush II, and to crush socialism - temporarily anyway-, which had been the goal of our anti commie 'fanatics' since the russian revolution in 1917. It was Nixons deviation from this goal, Detente and his negoiated end of nuclear confrontations, the beginning of disarmenant, plus of course Nixon's National Health Care plan that led to the coup that forced Nixon to resign, and we got the government we have had since.

Sir Reagan, knight by the British Queen and his lavish Presidential Library / Tomb - a wonder of the world to replace The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the tomb built for King Mausollos by his grieving wife after his death.

faustus:

Iran-Contra. Crack Cocaine. If you've seen one redwood tree you've seen 'em all. Ketchup is my favortie vegetable. I can't recall.

You really are insane, aren't you?

Reagan was able to start reducing inflation by 1983, and unemployment by 1984. He did it partly by grossly expanding the US military and its supporting Defense industries, helping employ many many millions who otherwise would have impoverished. Ford & Carter had managed to successfully reignite the Cold War, and Reagan poured it on, to the greater prosperity of the Military Industrial complex. Reagan had also developed a good rapport with Sadam Hussien of Iraq (then a oil "dove'), who had gone to war with Iran (a oil 'Hawk'), creating havoc in OPEC and breaking the Cartels hold on oil prices. Oil, sky high in price since the '73 Arab Embargo, suddenly fell to average of $10-$20 a BBL by 1985 and the US economy began to perk like it had not since Nixon was forced to resign. Oil stayed at $10-$20 a BBL range untill 1998, ( when Chavez came to power and revived the oil hawks coalition, apparently as part of a grass roots a response to neoliberal policies being imposed on this region.).

Clintons policies were a continuation of Reagans. Reagan was a neoliberal. Clinton is a neoliberal. Bush is a Neoliberal. Neoliberlism is old fashioned economic liberalism, pure market capitialism. Each has carried the dismantling of the New Deal & the wonderfull modern nation it helped create a little further along. Any one recall when we had no homeless in America? A time that ended about 1974.....

Unemployment rates

1968 3.56 Johnson 1969 3.49 Nixon 1970 4.98 1971 5.95 1972 5.60 1973 4.86 1974 5.64 Ford 1975 8.48 1976 7.70 1977 7.05 Carter 1978 6.07 1979 5.85 1980 7.18 1981 7.62 Reagan 1982 9.71 1983 9.60 1984 7.51 1985 7.19 1986 7.00 1987 6.18 1988 5.49