How the 2nd and 5th worst Presidents begat the 1st worst President

Yes, that is true. I believe that the the 2nd and 5th worst President's (Reagan and Nixon, respectively) helped create the 1st worst President ever (that would be the current idiot occupying the White House).

Let me explain.

After Nixon and the Watergate scandal began the steep decline that was the apathy of most Americans towards politics. This apathy, I believe, began after JFK was assassinated and continued until his brother was murdered years later. You see, the Kennedy brothers brought an idealism and wonder to the office. People paid attention and began to care deeply about their country. They trusted the politicians.

This was shattered by Nixon.

After Nixon (and Ford), Jimmy Carter took the helm as President and the right-wing got nervous. They began their 30 year quest to take over the United States and were quite successful until last year. This "revolution" began with the two-year Presidency of Reagan (the 2nd worst President, if you'll remember).

People already mistrusted the government when Reagan took over and thought that he would save the world from the Soviets and poverty. In fact, Reagan just made things worse but the neo-cons dug their claws in deeper and deeper and held out for the man who would bring the world into the right-wing republican revolution on the new century. Led by Karl Rove and the brain child of Cheney and others, George W. Bush stole the 2000 election and has reeked havoc on our nation since day one.

From Tom Paine today:

Over the last six years, with Bush in the White House, Tom DeLay ramrodding the Republican Congress, and Karl Rove focused on mobilizing the Republican base, conservatives have largely had their way. Bush pursued the core ideas of each strand of “movement conservatism” largely to catastrophic effect. In each case, he was simply walking in Reagan’s footsteps.

The neo-cons got the Iraq war they plotted for, and produced the worst foreign policy debacle in U.S. history. Their toxic mix of militarist unilateralism, scorn for allies and the United Nations, dismissal of international law, embrace of an imperial presidency above the law was Reagan’s opening act. In his first term, Reagan scorned détente, arms control, the U.N. and global accords. Reagan also fecklessly exposed U.S. troops in Lebanon—and had the intervention literally blow up in his face. He just had the good sense to cut and run, and then pick on a target easier to deal with—hapless Grenada in the Caribbean.

Bush also has allowed big business to run the government with blatant disregard to how that kind of economy would affect the citizens of this nation (not like he'd care, after all, it's not like he was elected by the American people). This scenario wasn't anything new--Reagan did the same with the savings and loan scandal.

Nor was Bush the first Republican to use moral issues to get himself and colleagues elected. While Bush used gays and lesbians and attacked the very foundation of our families, Reagan used race as his a way to divide people to elect more republicans. Which one is more despicable, I'm not sure.

Scandals plagued Reagan's administration too. Only, the American people were too caught up in their own lives to notice. It took the blundering and interfering in a civil war in another country because of oil and the misuse of billions of dollars to get people truly outraged.

Both Presidents were not too different:

Small government conservatives didn’t get much from either president, since both favored top-end tax cuts and military spending over balanced budgets. But both Bush and Reagan cut back on spending on the poor and on domestic programs. Both disdained the civil servants they were elected to lead. Both starved vital infrastructure investments from levees in New Orleans to sewers in our cities. Both stocked regulatory agencies with corporate lobbyists intent on gelding the agencies that monitored their former clients.

I bring all of this up because tonight, the Republican Presidential candidates debated tonight "invoking the persona of Reagan." They do this like it's a good thing that will save our country and solve all of the problems.

I attest that it is because of Reagan we have the problems we do today. Having another Reagan in office will only make things worse--not better.

If I were to give advice to a Republican candidate running for President, I would tell him to give it up. The American people are not stupid and are tired of being spoon-fed the rhetoric of the right-wing. They want honest and ethical leadership. They crave change. We can no longer keep doing the same things over and over again and electing the same people over and over again. IT'S NOT WORKING!

In 2008, it is my personal goal to register 10 people a month from January until October and get them engaged in the Democratic Party. They need to know what is going on with their country and that this can not go on any longer. If people aren't truly pissed off about the way our country has been run for the past 30 years (except those 8 years under Clinton 1), then they need to be.

I will find them.

This will be MY quest. And I will succeed.