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From: mahoney@bartok.DEC
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Reagan evil?: re to jj
Message-ID: <1623@decwrl.DEC.COM>
Date: Tue, 11-Mar-86 15:16:17 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1623
Posted: Tue Mar 11 15:16:17 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Mar-86 06:18:58 EST
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Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
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---------------------Reply to mail dated 7-MAR-1986 19:37---------------------

I am sick of reading about Ronald Reagan being a pathological liar.  He is
not a pathological liar.  I do not support Ronald Reagan (I voted for 
Mondale) or his programs.  He is above all a politician and a calculating one
at that. The lies or mistruths that he tells are probably those that the most
Presidents would tell unfortunately. Let us look how Lyndon Johnson got 
Goldwater branded a hawk.  

   *The Goldwater story for those who don't know*

   Senator Goldwater was asked about what he would do in Vietnam. Goldwater
said that if you are going to fight the war fight to win.  If it is neccessary
to use the bomb then use it.  If you are not going to fight to win then we 
should get out of the Vietnam altogether and forget about it.  Lyndon and 
company left the last part out when ever they talked about this.  Thus they
made it look as though Goldwater was a hawk and they were peaceniks.  Now we
all remember what dear President Johnson did in Vietnam.

   * end of Goldwater story.

  Does this make Johnson a pathalogical liar or a cold calculating individual.
I tend towards the cold calculating individual.  How about how Kennedy talked 
about the Diems and other fun persons in Vietnam.  Richard Nixon and how he
kept telling people that he was getting our boys home and kept escalating the 
war.  I purpose the problem is not so much with Reagan as with the type of
person we as Americans elect. 

  This not meant as an attack on Americans more as an attack on human nature.
Humans tend not to like to hear the truth if it is bad so if someone tells
them something nice well it makes them feel better.  So politicians tend to 
tell people not lies but bent truths so it will make things more palitiable
and in that way they stay elected.  (The problem politicians run into is the 
press who tend to unbend these truths and thus they look bad.)  It is this
cycle they get into that is very hard to get out of and thus they can go
overboard.  

  As an end I do not condone this and this is obviously not true for all
politicians.  Most people have told some short of lie in their life so as
not to hurt someone this is an expansion of that.  I personally think it
is wrong but only the American people can do something about. (fortunately 
they can)

 Brian Mahoney