By Allen Clifton
To listen to Republicans talk, you would think Ronald Reagan was the end all be all of conservatism. He is without a doubt their legend – their hero. The party should really be renamed the Grand Old Party of Reagan. The biggest problem with this, of course, is the fact that they’re worshipping a myth. The reality of Reagan isn’t anything close to the fiction I often hear spewed from the mouths of almost every conservative I encounter. So I thought I’d do a little comparison on a few basic facts between “Saint Reagan” and President Obama. Being that conservatives often think of the current president as someone who hates America and is the “worst president ever,” while seemingly viewing Reagan as infallible, I thought I’d compare the two on a few issues to see how they stack up. Right now Republicans are fear-mongering against the Obama administration for trying to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
To listen to Republicans talk, you would think Ronald Reagan was the end all be all of conservatism. He is without a doubt their legend – their hero. The party should really be renamed the Grand Old Party of Reagan. The biggest problem with this, of course, is the fact that they’re worshipping a myth. The reality of Reagan isn’t anything close to the fiction I often hear spewed from the mouths of almost every conservative I encounter. So I thought I’d do a little comparison on a few basic facts between “Saint Reagan” and President Obama. Being that conservatives often think of the current president as someone who hates America and is the “worst president ever,” while seemingly viewing Reagan as infallible, I thought I’d compare the two on a few issues to see how they stack up. Right now Republicans are fear-mongering against the Obama administration for trying to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Negotiations,
by the way, that many of our allies are currently involved in as well.
Well, if President Obama is “weakening” America by trying to use
diplomacy with Iran, then what would they say if he had sold illegal
arms to Iran and negotiated for the release of hostages? Because that’s
what Reagan did. Could you imagine if the Obama administration was
caught selling illegal weapons to Iran? Then there’s always illegal
immigration and the word “amnesty.” While it’s true President Obama has
pushed for a bill that would offer a path to citizenship for some
undocumented immigrants, did you know it was actually Ronald Reagan in
1986 who passed a full-on amnesty bill? In fact, the president’s bill is
basically the same thing Reagan passed almost 30 years ago. Only one is
considered a “conservative legend” while the other is called
“un-American.” Funny how that works.
We also
can’t forget the claims that President Obama is always on vacation.
Never mind that he’s taken far fewer vacation days than George W. Bush
at the same time in both of their presidencies, but he’s also on pace to
take far fewer than Reagan as well. So, if President Obama’s vacations
are “disrespectful and appalling,” what exactly would Republicans say
about Reagan’s? The last one I’ll cover (though there are many more) is
the infamous executive order.
To listen to
Republicans talk, President Obama uses executive orders almost every
day. He’s been called a dictator, a king, an emperor – all based on this
notion that he’s abused the power of the executive order. Funny thing
though, he’s on pace to issue fewer executive orders than both Bush and
Reagan – especially Reagan. So, if President Obama is an
“unconstitutional tyrant” who is constantly trying to bypass Congress,
what was Reagan considering the fact that he issued more executive
orders than any president since Eisenhower?
Again,
I could keep going on several other issues, but these are some of the
bigger ones I constantly see Republicans bring up against President
Obama. I didn’t even get into how Reagan nearly tripled our national
debt or raised taxes several times while in office. Those are
indisputable facts, but they’re topics for another day.
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