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Originally Posted by kane
I'm not a big Reagan fan. He did some good stuff, but nearly bankrupted the country doing so and he did sign into the law the largest tax increase in the history of the country. But, as I say, he did some good stuff as well. I do have to admit that I was a kid when Reagan was in office so I don't remember a whole lot about him.
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He didn't nearly bankrupt the country. He did put us in considerable debt but he spruced up military spending during the apex of the cold war. He also created 16 million jobs. I would say he's done more for our country than anyone other than maybe FDR and Clinton(if you discount his starting the subprime mortgage crisis).
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I am 100% against the patriot act. As Franklin said, "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." I think there is a way to protect this country without forcing the citizens to give up their freedoms and forgive me if I take the ideals of Franklin over Bush, Clinton or Obama. Like you, I have nothing to hide. I follow the laws and don't do illegal things. Still, this does not mean that I should live this way because I am afraid my government it spying on me. I should live this way out of respect for my fellow countrymen.
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Franklin didn't envision planes flying into skyscrapers killing 3,000 people. I'm afraid that sometimes we have to look at the present and apply the laws that best serve our country.
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The presidents of recent years have started trying to appease everyone. Of course you can't do that. Part of why Reagan was able to get away with the cowboy attitude is that he was popular for a while and he had a strong party base that was going elect him no matter what. The electorate has changed. Both parties have seen their base decline and now a person has to make the independents happy and they are a difficult bunch to read. Still, that doesn't give someone an excuse to schedule their speech around what TV shows are on. That is pretty weak.
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That's because after Reagan, everyone was pretty much full of shit.
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I do simply because I think it is true. About half those eligible to vote don't. If a person can't be bothered to take a few hours out of their day every four years to vote for president then clearly they don't care. Of those that do vote about 40% of them vote along party lines no matter who the candidate is or what they say. That is pretty scary to me.
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It's only going to get worse. Every decade, the new generation gets dumber and dumber. I think we hit our apex around the 50s, and it just started going downhill in the 60s. This generation is dumber than mine, mine is dumber than my parents', my parents' is dumber than their parents', etc.