It will happen sooner if you tithe more

Let's tie Reagan to current events, to see how the fucker has screwed us over in yet another way. Prior to Reagan, most insurers were not-for-profits, because there were compelling tax incentives to run as 501.c.4 or whatever, which is why private insurance more or less worked back in the day. Reagan took those tax incentives away, in the interests of letting the free market do what it does best. Once insurers figured out to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, they were able to throw themselves into full profit mode by gouging the customer (again, letting the free market do what it does best), and that explains where we are now.

This is why I'm more optimistic about ObamaCare than some. By capping profits and getting rid of that pre-existing condition business, it forces insurers to provide value to customers. And insurance exchanges will force for-profit insurers to compete against true not-for-profits, and that will not be good news for the big guys.

And while I would have preferred a public option (we have Lieberman to thank for not getting one), the very presence of insurance exchanges will lead in that direction. People are going to stop thinking in terms of "I need to find a job that provides benefits" in favor of "I need to find the insurer that will provide the best deal", which is going to put people in mind of Medicare or something comparable.

Reagan, especially what the GOP did with his "legacy," is how we got Bush II and his preemptive war bullshit.

During his first term, Regan saber-rattled against the Soviets, making just about everyone fear (justly so) WWIII. Then... I still can't believe this, but it's what he said... he saw "The Day After." Only THEN did the horrors of nuclear war dawn on him, and he started talks with the USSR.

The right wing went even more crazy-bananas than usual, calling him a traitor, etc. However, things did eventually get better, the wall came down, and we all didn't die in the glowing rubble of a radioactive planet.

But all the Republicans wanted everyone to remember was the ignorant first-term Regan, playing like he had cannonballs for nuts and refusing to negotiate with our enemies. Eventually, the mythology became that he scared the Soviets into surrender. Bush II and his base bought into that, and instead of realizing how history had played out, every threat became a war, we broke off any negotiations with potential rogue states (see North Korea) the second he got into office.

They also want to immortalize smiling, genial Reagan and not openly spiteful Governor Reagan.

My favorite Reagan moments was his all out war against California higher public education, once a model to aspire to (free tuition!) and now the most expensive public universities in the country. Be sure to check out his advocating violence against Berkley protestors, storming stages to tear out speakers, and taking a play straight from the JOSEPH GODDAMN MCCARTHY playbook by whipping out secret names lists during for speeches.

" Then... I still can't believe this, but it's what he said... he saw "The Day After." Only THEN did the horrors of nuclear war dawn on him, and he started talks with the USSR."

That's a little oversimplified; see here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83

Read that, particularly about Reagan's late 1983 realization that the USSR was genuinely afraid the might start a nuclear war, and he ought to reassure the Soviets he had no such designs. Now here's something you'll appreciate even more. This ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_begin_bombing_in_five_minutes< br />
... happened in 1984.

Reagan fucks everything up, even poeTV tags.

I'd hardly call it oversimplified:

"On October 10, 1983, just over a month before Able Archer 83, President Reagan viewed a television film about Lawrence, Kansas being destroyed by a nuclear attack titled The Day After. In his diary, the president wrote that the film "left me greatly depressed""

It took him until THEN to be depressed about nuclear war. His bubble finally got popped after just about EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET.

Fair enough -- but there was more that happened to get him to start talking with the Soviets.

Of course, some of this information comes from a self-serving biography, so who knows how much of it is whitewashing a shitty presidency. That "we begin bombing in five minutes" business suggests that Reagan still didn't get it in 1984.

'I'll keep on pandering to the crazy people so long as they vote for me!'