When the person selected by the GOP to act the part of President of the United States said: “Evolution is only a theory.”, I never tuned into that frequency again: anyone who says Ron was a great speaker or communicator has little need for facts or meaningful content.    One might counter “Almost any theory is of more value than  almost any myth.”

Among the myths concerning the Reagan Administration (and its continuation, Bush 41):

o More people were better of in 1976 than they were in 1980.  Wrong.  He entered office in 1981 during a period of economic stagnation, and a recession quickly followed: they didn’t fix any problems – they created them.

o He intimidated the Soviet Union into over-spending on defense.  Wrong – they actually reduced such spending in the 1980’s.

o He ended the cold war.  Wrong – the symbolic, if not real – ending was the demise of the Berlin Wall in 1991 (Bush 41).

o He won the cold war.  Wrong – Japan won the cold war.

o Supply side economics worked .  Wrong.  If it had, then why did our national debt grow from about one billion to three billion under Reagan, and another billion under Bush 41?  The most dramtic effect has been the growing disparity of incomes in the US between the highest 5% and the lower 50%.

o He was the most popular President in history.  Wrong: Willaim J. Clinton had a higher approval rating upon leaving office.

And the beat goes on.  Several new books have recently been published on the great deceiver, including:

– “The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America,”  by William Kleinknecht

From Truthdig: ” Kleinknecht’s thesis is nothing less than that Reagan was the “obvious enemy of the common people he claimed to represent, this empty suit who believed in flying saucers and allowed an astrologer to guide his presidential scheduling. …” The great conundrum “is this: none of [the] unmistakable harbingers of American decline is being laid where it belongs—at the door of Ronald Reagan” [emphasis Kleinknecht’s].”

see http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090213_allen_barra_on_the_myth_of_ronald_reagan/

-“Tear Down this Myth:How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.””, by Will Bunch

From the above truthdig:”… Bunch sees Reagan primarily as a pragmatist whose image has been hijacked by a neoconservative cabal while Kleinknecht sees Reagan himself as the betrayer of what once was regarded as genuine conservatism.”

In 1981 the US faced opportunities not unlike they faced in 1961:

o Become Energy independent (Which Carter had started with CAFE).

o Prepare for a post cold war world, by reducing our military spending and increasing spending on infrastructure and education.

o Work toward Peace in the Middle East.

o Increase our emphasis on science and technology, as we had done in the late fifty’s and sixty’s, to achieve our goals, both domestic and global.

With the anti-intellectuals in charge, that didn’t happened, and we still reap the fruit of the poisoned vines today.  He has passed on, and its time to tell the kids about both him and Santa – what they were suppossed to have done was not and is not real.