Granted, the very idea of rating Reagan as one of the worst presidents ever will infuriate his many right-wing acolytes and offend Washington insiders who have made a cottage industry out of buying some protection from Republicans by lauding the 40th President.
But there’s a growing realization that the starting point for many of the catastrophes confronting the United States today can be traced to Reagan’s presidency. There’s also a grudging reassessment that the “failed” presidents of the 1970s – Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter – may deserve more credit for trying to grapple with the problems that now beset the country.
Nixon, Ford and Carter won scant praise for addressing the systemic challenges of America’s oil dependence, environmental degradation, the arms race, and nuclear proliferation – all issues that Reagan essentially ignored and that now threaten America’s future.
What would Reagan do if he were president today and NOT ignoring the importance of peak oil, global warming, environmental degradation, terrorism and a GWOT, a housing crisis, hundreds of billions of toxic asset purchases, a global financial calamity, crumbling infrastructure, high unemployment, volatile energy prices, etc?
Seems like we have reached some sort of debt apex, the culmination of a trend begun under Reagan.
