Ronald Reagan Was a Terrible President
From killing the middle class and selling weapons to Iran, Ronald Reagan shouldn’t be viewed favorably by the American people
With the recent release of the taped conversations between Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, which showed that the two Republican presidents were racists, it has left many Americans wondering why Reagan is viewed so favorably. Obviously, Nixon isn’t viewed so favorably because he resigned in disgrace, but how did Reagan who actually wasn’t that much better than Nixon get viewed so favorably by the American public for so long. It is important to know that the office of the presidency has been one that has defined the United States of America, through representation and policies that the president pushes nationally and internationally. Many of the most influential presidents have had transformative impacts on American society and international affairs. Those presidents include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. However, not all of these presidents influenced America in a positive way. Some presidents, such as George W. Bush, have had a negative impact on American society and global affairs. Meanwhile, other presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln, had a positive effect on the world. Other presidents are subjects of widespread debate. Presidents, such as Lyndon B. Johnson, have left divisive legacies. In the 20th century, two of the most memorable presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, are revered for their overwhelming influence and ability to bring about significant change. As an example, Roosevelt’s New Deal policies transformed American society for the better during the Depression by building America’s middle class. Much like the New Deal, the Reagan Revolution had a transformative impact on American society for the worse during the 1980s by destroying America’s middle class. In order to understand the Reagan Revolution, one must know what Reagan did as president and see the propaganda pushed by the right and learn the truth about Reagan’s legacy.
The Reagan Presidency
First, in order to understand the various positions on Reagan’s legacy, it is important to know exactly what Reagan did as president. One of Reagan’s most memorable promises was his pledge to cut taxes. Reagan was a firm believer in supply-side economics, or trickle-down economics, which is the idea that cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations will result in wage increases that allow the middle class to collect more income. When Reagan passed his first tax cuts, Americans immediately felt the impact. The national debt increased to one trillion dollars within Reagan’s first year in office, and by the time Reagan left office, it was at three trillion dollars. However, inflation dropped from 12.5% to 4.4% during the Reagan Revolution. Unemployment fell during Reagan’s presidency, but income inequality increased massively during his time in office. Ronald Reagan was also a notorious union buster, making him the polar opposite of former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1981, Reagan fired 11,345 air traffic controllers following the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization’s (PATCO)Air traffic controllers’ strike.
The Reagan presidency is not completely defined by fiscal policy, but also includes social policy and foreign policy. During the 1980 campaign, Reagan ran the Southern Strategy, a Republican strategy that originated from Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign, which was designed to appeal to racist voters who were disenfranchised by the pro Civil Rights direction taken by Harry S. Truman, Hubert Humphrey, and John F. Kennedy. In 1968, Nixon’s Southern Strategy focused on law and order and used Dog-whistle politics to paint African Americans as lawless. Similarly, Reagan’s Southern Strategy focused on welfare reform and also used Dog-whistle politics to paint African Americans as lazy. Reagan famously coined the term “welfare queens,” which Reagan staffer, Lee Atwater, admitted was designed to be a derogatory term towards African Americans but was crafted in a way that it was not obvious to people who were not racist. As president, Reagan did little to advance civil rights and he was reluctant to support most of the policies put forward by Congress. For example, when Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which made institutions that received federal funds comply with Civil Rights laws, Reagan vetoed that act, but Congress was able to override his veto. In 1986, Ted Kennedy sponsored the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act which imposed sanctions on South Africa until they ended their apartheid rule. Reagan vetoed the bill, but much like the Civil Rights Restoration Act Congress was able to override Reagan’s veto. Reagan initially opposed the creation of Martin Luther King Day even though he later supported it. Reagan throughout most of his political career attacked the Voting Rights Act. However, Reagan did sign a bill into law that extended the Voting Rights Act for twenty-five years, which did help protect African American voting rights. It’s safe to say Reagan reluctantly extended the Voting Rights Act.
Reagan’s foreign policy was defined by two events, the Iran-Contra affair and the End of the Cold War. During the 1980 campaign, there was a hostage crisis taking place and the Carter administration was trying to free the hostages from the Iranians. Reagan’s campaign had sabotaged Carter’s efforts and offered the Iranians a “better deal” if they did not agree to Carter’s terms. The Iranians agreed to Reagan’s deal and that helped swing the election for Reagan. As president, Reagan sold weapons to Iran, which the Iranians would give to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua to overthrow the Sandinistas. The scandal exploded in 1986, and there was a special counsel appointed to investigate the Iran-Contra affair. The investigation lasted into the presidency of George H.W. Bush but ended when Bush pardoned the key Reagan officials, such as Casper Weinberger, indicted in the investigation. Reagan had also invaded Grenada to overthrow the new communist government. Reagan sent troops to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission, which ended up failing when a car bomb killed over 200 US Troops. Reagan than fled Lebanon. Reagan armed the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen went on to split into the Taliban and Al Queada. Osama Bin Laden was a member of the Mujahideen.
In the spirit of being fair to Ronald Reagan, his presidency wasn’t all bad it had a few positives. Another foreign policy endeavor that defined Reagan’s presidency was the Cold War. During his first term in office, Reagan had escalated the Cold War by increasing military spending and threatening the Soviets with war. At one point, Reagan joked about bombing the Soviet Union. In his second term, Reagan decided to take a diplomatic approach and started negotiations with the Soviet Union. Reagan, with the help of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, implemented the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty which called on the USA and USSR to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. The INF Treaty was a key event that helped bring an end to the Cold War in 1991. Other Reagan policies that deserve credit where credit is due to pertaining to guns and immigration. In 1986, Reagan signed the Firearm Owners Protection Act which banned fully automatic weapons. Also in 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act which granted 3 million illegal immigrants amnesty. While granting immigrants citizenship was a good thing, the downside to Reagan’s immigration policy was that the large scale amnesty grant devalued wages for workers.
Why Is Reagan Viewed Favorably?
So how did Reagan get to be vaulted into one of America’s greatest presidents? In a 2011 Gallup poll, 19% of respondents chose Reagan as America’s greatest president, he even beat Abraham Lincoln. Polls from Morning Consult and Quinnipiac on who the greatest president since World War II show that respondents consistently consider Reagan as the best Post-World War II president, yes Reagan even beat John F. Kennedy. CBS ranked Reagan as the 9th greatest president of all time. Why is Reagan viewed so favorably by the American people? Money, that’s why. After Reagan left office a bunch of right-wing billionaires used their money and influence to erect a statue or monument in Reagan’s name. Conservatives and Republicans have been a part of this effort to rewrite Reagan’s legacy from a legacy of failure into a legacy of success. Sadly it’s worked for so long. Now here’s a good question to ask, why Reagan? For starters, Republicans haven’t had any new ideas since Reagan, and so they continue to rehash his ideas. Next, ask anyone to list their favorite Republican president or just name Republican presidents (excluding the current Republican president, Donald Trump), and at best they might be able to name eight Republican presidents. Those presidents would be Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Now how many of those are conservatives? Four, those are Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush (yes, Lou Dobbs is dead wrong about Bush being a liberal). Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were liberals.
Of course, not many Republicans would want to claim Taft because most people know Taft for being the fattest American president and getting stuck in a bathtub. Roosevelt and Eisenhower would be called socialists by today’s Republicans and even they know they couldn’t plausibly make the case that Roosevelt or Eisenhower would make love to any of their ideas. Roosevelt primaried Taft because he didn’t think Taft was progressive enough to merit reelection, despite Taft being progressive. Aside from that Roosevelt was pro-union and regularly challenged the power of big business, that’s a big “no” in today’s Republican Party. Eisenhower much like Roosevelt would have a hard time fitting in with today’s Republicans. For starters, the top marginal tax rate that Eisenhower had installed was 91%, instant elimination, no Republican would ever dream of signing a tax bill where the top marginal tax rate is 91%. Aside from that Eisenhower created the interstate highway system through public funds, today’s Republicans want to privatize the roads. Now Republicans will occasionally say they are the party of Lincoln, but that is mostly just a smokescreen to cover up the racism that has taken over their party. Lincoln supported protectionist trade policies and created the income tax, today’s Republicans want to abolish the income tax and introduced the idea of free trade which has killed factory jobs.
Coming back to the conservative Republican presidents, after going over the liberal Republican presidents, it’s time to figure out why Reagan is the one Republicans have chosen to turn into a national hero. It’s easy, the first thing that comes to mind whenever people hear Nixon is the Watergate scandal, Republicans don’t want to associate themselves with a guy that faced impeachment and resigned in disgrace to avoid getting impeached. Even then Republicans will say Nixon wasn’t that bad he got us out of Vietnam (that was Ford, not Nixon) and he opened up to China (yeah, that’s why American factories jobs have left the U.S. and moved to China). Now the Bushes, W. was a laughing stock both nationally and internationally, and H.W. was disliked by Republicans by the end of his one term in office. Even then, most people associate both Bushes with both Iraq Wars that were both disasters. Of course, the second Iraq War was a bigger disaster than the first hence why W. is more unpopular than H.W. as far as Republican presidents go. So that leaves conservatives left with Reagan as the only Republican president that represents their ideology that has any semblance of popularity. It is very unlikely that Trump will ever change that, even if by some miracle Trump is a two-term president. So until there’s another Republican president that’s a conservative that isn’t a giant laughing stock like Bush and Trump, Republicans and conservatives will continue to mythologize Reagan.
The Reagan Revisionism
Now, it’s time to examine the propaganda surrounding Reagan, and what exactly conservative claim made Reagan so great. Conservatives and Republicans tend to praise Reagan for creating economic growth and for being tough on the Soviets. Conservatives cite Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech as a show of Reagan’s strength. Also, proponents of Reagan’s economic policies cite the inflation and unemployment rates as evidence of the success of Reagan’s economic policies. As Veronique de Rugy writes in her Reason article, “A Tale of Two Recoveries: Reagan vs. Obama,” that “the Reagan tax cuts led to higher long-term economic growth and tax revenue”(de Rugy). There are many prominent figures in the American media landscape that mythologize Reagan’s legacy
Prominent advocates for Reagan’s policies include Rush Limbaugh, host of the “Rush Limbaugh Show” on Premiere Radio Networks, his brother, David Limbaugh, Mark Levin, chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese, Reagan’s Attorney General, and host of the “Mark Levin Show” on Westwood One, “Life, Liberty, and Levin” on Fox News, and “Levin TV” on BlazeTV, Ben Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire and host of the “Ben Shapiro Show” on the Daily Wire Broadcast Network, Michael Knowles, host of the “Michael Knowles Show” on the Daily Wire Broadcast Network, Andrew Klavan host of the “Andrew Klavan Show” on the Daily Wire Broadcast Network, Glenn Beck, host of the “Glenn Beck Program” and “Glenn TV” on BlazeTV, and Bill O’Reilly host of “No Spin News” on Newsmax and former host of the “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News have all claimed that Reagan helped undo the damage done to the US economy done by Carter. David Limbaugh, much like his brother Rush, claims that the shortfalls of the economy were Carter’s fault and that Reagan was not responsible for income inequality. Limbaugh writes in his Townhall article, “Correcting the Revisionists on the Reagan Record,” Reagan “inherited a steep recession but, unlike President Obama today, did not keep using it as an excuse well into his presidency. Reagan didn’t need excuses, because his policies began to produce results very quickly” (Limbaugh). Rush Limbaugh has often praised Reagan as a strong leader who fought congressional Democrats to pass tax cuts that boosted the US economy. Rush also says that Reagan was able to overcome the “anti- Reagan” bias from the “liberal media” because he was such a successful president that Americans could see through the media. Rush Limbaugh in fact designated an entire episode of the television show, “RushTV,” he hosted in the 1990s to a Reagan tribute, where Limbaugh goes over all the reasons Reagan was such a “good” president.
In response to the recent Reagan tapes that proved Reagan had racist feelings towards Africans, Andrew Klavan wrote a piece in Daily Wire called “If Reagan Was Racist — What Then?” as an attempt to deflect the revelations of Reagan’s racism and say that despite this revelation Reagan was still a great president. Klavan starts off by trying to claim Reagan’s statements weren’t racially charged and that Reagan was just angry. Then Klavan writes “So if Reagan was a racist — or more of a racist than others in his time — what then? Should we put Eastern Europe back under the Soviet heel? Should we strip the created wealth of 25 years from the American economy?” (Klavan). Ben Shapiro praises Reagan for showing the world that we can defeat tyranny and we can overcome our greatest challenges. Glenn Beck praises Reagan for killing communism and single-handedly ending the Cold War. Michael Knowles claims that Reagan “restored” America’s image following the “disastrous” Carter years. Mark Levin, who was an advisor to Reagan’s attorney general, has said that Americans need to remember Reagan as the man who taught Americans that they could work their way out hardships, and Reagan that taught Americans that lesson by defeating the USSR. Bill O’Reilly praises Reagan for his “courage” and that Reagan’s courage is what made him so successful. The Reagan Foundation has pushed the Reagan myth to new levels and has had people such as Shapiro, Levin, and D. Limbaugh speak their to promote Reagan’s image and their new books. In nearly every speech given at the Reagan Library, the speaker has gone out of their way to insert praise of Reagan. It is understandable that the director of a presidential museum would want to give the museum-goers a favorable view of the president the museum is dedicated to. However, the Reagan Library has taken that approach to new levels.
Now it isn’t just conservative media, conservative personalities, Republican politicians, and the directors of the various Reagan institutions that have pushed this false narrative around Reagan. Mainstream media has been complicit in perpetuating this Reagan myth, and this is referring to outlets such as CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC(yes Fox News is part of the mainstream media, but they’re seen as the conservative outlet so they’ll be excluded from this section). Whenever these outlets cover anything pertaining to Reagan it ranges from something small like Reagan’s humor, or they give a whitewashed version of Reagan’s legacy that validates the many falsehoods spread about Reagan. In other instances, these networks aired speech montages of Reagan, and all of the speeches chosen portrayed Reagan in a positive light. This happened a lot when the cable news outlets celebrated Reagan’s 100th birthday. Also, some left-wing independent media outlets have portrayed Reagan in a positive light to spite of today’s Republicans or Donald Trump in particular. NowThis is notorious when it comes to normalizing Reagan as a means of attacking Trump. Just watch any NowThis video on Reagan, it’s always “remember when Republicans took this approach” or “could imagine Trump talking about an issue like this” and they play a Reagan speech. ThinkProgress is better than NowThis when it comes to using Reagan as a means of attacking Republicans and Trump. However, they still fail to give readers an image of Reagan that represents who he really was. The difference between NowThis and ThinkProgress is that ThinkProgress at least tries to remind their audience that Reagan was horrible and will run negative stories on Reagan. However, in many ThinkProgress articles where they use Reagan as a weapon against Republicans their efforts to remind their audience that Reagan was still bad falls flat. Just look at their article “7 Things Republicans Would Be Shocked To Learn About Ronald Reagan” the premise of the article is that these are things that Reagan did that today’s Republicans would hate. Six out of the seven items can be seen as good things, and in many ways are good things.
The Real Reagan
With all this propaganda surrounding Reagan, the need to pushback against the Reagan mythology is more important than ever. Detractors of Reagan’s legacy, are quick to point out that Reagan’s policies lead to an increase in poverty and income inequality. Critics of Reagan’s foreign policy often label him as a chicken hawk who enabled America’s enemies and used the Iran-Contra affair as their evidence. Progressives and Democrats have dubbed Reagan’s economic policies as Reaganomics because of the negative effects they had on the middle class. In Travis Waldron’s article for ThinkProgress titled “Obama on ‘Trickle Down’ Economics: ‘It Doesn’t Work, It Has Never Worked’” which is a response to a speech Barack Obama denounces Supply-Side Economics. In the article, Waldron writes “Obama is right. The trickle-down policies put in place since the Reagan administration haven’t brought prosperity to the middle- and working-classes; if anything, they have made prosperity an illusion for the vast majority of Americans who don’t directly benefit from them” (Waldron). With so much propaganda spread about Reagan, it has spawned many people who are dedicated to telling people the truth about Reagan.
Those figures include Thom Hartmann, the host of the “Thom Hartmann Program” on Free Speech TV & the Ring of Fire (ROF) Network and former host of “The Big Picture’ on Russia Today (RT) America, Sam Seder host of the “Majority Report” on The Young Turks (TYT) Network and “Ring of Fire Radio” on the ROF Network, David Pakman host of the “David Pakman Show” Free Speech TV & the ROF Network, Kyle Kulinski host of “Secular Talk” on the TYT Network, Benjamin Dixon host of the “Benjamin Dixon Show” on on the ROF Network, Richard (RJ) Eskow, host of the “Zero Hour” on Free Speech TV & the ROF Network, Farron Cousins host of “Ring of Fire” on the ROF Network, Mike Papantonio host of “Ring of Fire” on the ROF Network & “America’s Lawyer” on RT America, and Cenk Uygur, host of the “Young Turks” on the TYT Network & former host of the “Agressive Progressive” on MSNBC. Thom Hartmann is one of the loudest critics of the Reagan Revolution. He has long argued that Reagan’s policies killed the American middle class. In his column for Salon, “Reaganomics Killed America’s Middle Class,” he writes that “creating a middle class is always a choice, and by embracing Reaganomics and cutting taxes on the rich, we decided back in 1980 not to have a middle class within a generation or two” (Hartmann). Hartmann has long pointed out that income inequality trends started and exploded under Reagan and that Carter is not to blame. Mike Papantonio calls Ronald Reagan the antithesis to the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt. Papantonio has also said Reagan was instrumental in mainlining racism through coded language and how that helped to bring about Trump. Farron Cousins says that Reaganite values that Republicans push were seen in both Bush administrations and the reason people rejected the Bushes is that Reaganite values are horrible and people reject them when they know what they are. David Pakman has said Reagan’s policies further proved that Supply-Side Economics doesn’t work. Kyle Kulinski supports Pakman’s assertion and further points out that Reagan left office with a Recession.
Richard Eskow claims that Reagan’s skills as an actor made him a successful messenger for billionaires. Eskow, like Hartmann, views Reagan as the person who single-handedly transformed the Republican Party into what it is today and who turned the US into a corporate plutocracy. Eskow writes in his article published in the Huffington Post, “Reagan Remembered: The Failed Legacy of Our First Corporate Politician,” that “undeterred by reality, the ideology which Reagan espoused has captured the GOP and continues to leave devastation in its wake — unless you’re wealthy, in which case the ongoing ‘Reagan Revolution’ has been (or should have been) a literal embarrassment of riches” (Eskow). Benjamin Dixon says that Reagan’s policies squeezed out the middle class after it grew since the Roosevelt years. Sam Seder criticizes Reagan for exploiting divisions in America for his political gain. Cenk Uygur has said Reagan would be unelectable by today’s standards and even argues that in today’s world, Reagan would be laughed out of a Republican primary. Uygur says that the news media would have ripped Reagan to shreds and that if a Democratic President was involved in anything like the Iran-Contra affair, he or she would never see the light of day from news networks, such as Fox News. Detractors have a compelling case on their side to prove that Reagan was an inadequate leader, but even critics concede that Reagan was an effective leader because he successfully persuaded others to support his bad ideas.
The fight to pushback against the revisionist history around Reagan is an uphill battle. Proponents of Reagan’s ideas have larger platforms and have louder voices since most people view Reagan as one of the greatest presidents of all time. This is largely because conservatives have money behind them to push an image of Reagan that uses little facts to create a glowing image of Reagan. The complicity of mainstream media has helped perpetuate this mythical image of Reagan. This has put a fictional image of Reagan in the minds of people who see themselves as a-political or independent view Reagan favorably. As previously mentioned, a Gallup poll conducted in 2011 showed that most respondents considered Reagan to be the greatest president of all time. This shows the unfortunate reality that the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project has worked for far too long. However, with the advent of the internet and the rise of independent media things are changing. More people have learned the truth about Ronald Reagan and see that America’s problems date back to Reagan. Rush Limbaugh couldn’t defend Reagan’s legacy from a caller trying to confront him on Reagan. Meanwhile, Thom Hartmann, Benjamin Dixon, and Sam Seder have been able to prove callers wrong on Reagan and in many cases change callers minds on Reagan.
The Final Note
The debate over Reagan’s will rage on for years even if progressives win this debate. Conservatives will have their sheep to repeat their propaganda. There is no denying that Ronald Reagan was a transformative figure in American history and part of it is that was the fact that Reagan was outspoken. Being a good public speaker isn’t a necessary quality for being a good leader, but it does help a leader win a great deal of support from his or her people. Just watch any speech Reagan gave, and one will see how he spoke with conviction and came off as genuine. The transformative impact combined with the few facts that conservatives have on their side along with Reagan’s eloquent speeches has helped perpetuate the Reagan myth for too long. Conservatives will claim Reagan was good for America and people will see a Reagan speech and that will help give people a favorable view of Reagan. However, their argument falls apart when detractors provide facts that proponents would like to ignore. For one, proponents only look at statistics regarding how well the rich are doing and ignore the statistics regarding the middle class. When confronted with the damages that Reagan’s policies dealt with the middle class, proponents have more difficulty defending Reaganomics.
In terms of the Cold War, both sides agree that the INF Treaty was the right thing to do and helped bring a peaceful resolution to the Cold War. Will Bunch, the author of Tear Down This Myth, praises Reagan for opening up to Mikhail Gorbechev and signing the INF Treaty to bring a peaceful resolution to the Cold War. Farron Cousins will give Reagan credit for the INF and is, in fact, furious with Trump for pulling out of the INF. However, critics are quick to point out that the Cold War was over before it began, and that the Soviet Union could have never kept up with the United States in terms of weapons manufacturing. Proponents are too quick to unjustly credit Reagan for ending the Cold War, even though the Cold War officially ended during Bush’s presidency. Reagan does deserve credit for some decent policies on guns and immigration. Reagan deserves credit for the Montreal Protocol but that shouldn’t erase Reagan’s anti-environmentalism that lead to him gutting electric cars and removing Carter’s solar panels from the White House. Sure it’s interesting to find out that Reagan may have actually supported same-sex marriage. However, that doesn’t erase the fact that Reagan failed to respond to the AIDs epidemic that disproportionately affected gay communities. Sure it may be refreshing to see a president who became good friends with a member of the opposing party. Ronald Reagan and Ted Kennedy were great friends, and Kennedy even gave Reagan Jack Kennedy’s eagle that Jack kept at the White House desk. However, policywise Kennedy and Reagan opposed each other, and Kennedy did everything in his power to stop Reagan’s vetoes of Civil Rights legislation. At the end of the day, Reagan was a terrible President.
When all of the facts about Reagan are considered, people should see a very different picture than the one spoon-fed to Americans by conservatives and Republicans. The major reason proponents are heard more than critics and are held in higher regard is because the proponents have more money behind them. Fox News is the largest American television news outlet, and they help perpetuate the myth that Reagan was one of the greatest presidents of all time. That seems to be changing with the Internet and the rise of independent media. TYT has benefitted from the rise of the Internet and has become the largest online news network. Now more people are starting to dislike Reagan. People are beginning to understand that Reagan’s usage of the Southern Strategy helped to normalize racism and bigotry in America. The Southern Strategy also helped people like Donald Trump rise to prominence in the Republican Party. The Reagan Revolution as a whole was a giant redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the rich. Ronald Reagan is responsible for the massive income inequality problem that plagues American society today.
In conclusion, Ronald Reagan was one of the most transformative presidents in American history. Reagan’s economic, domestic, and foreign policy helped transform the American political landscape, and those policies spawned many defenders and critics alike. Ultimately, Reagan harmed American society, with only a few upsides. Clearly, the office of the presidency is one with transformative power that can be both positive and negative, and although Reagan had a powerful impact on America, the results of that influence were mostly harmful to the American people. Unfortunately, the revisionism of Reagan’s legacy has worked for so long. For far too long America’s history of great presidents from George Washinton to Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy have all been overshadowed by Ronald Reagan a man who dismantled America’s greatness. It is time to let Reagan’s real legacy speak for itself.
