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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Reagan a pathological liar:re to Cramer
Message-ID: <992@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Mar-86 12:21:36 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.992
Posted: Fri Mar 21 12:21:36 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 09:10:55 EST
References: <1016@whuxl.UUCP> <588@kontron.UUCP> <982@cybvax0.UUCP> <611@kontron.UUCP> <12486@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <627@kontron.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 76

In article <627@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
> > In article <611@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP writes:
> > >I think Reagan is the best President I can remember.  (I would say he is
> > >doing a mediocre to fair job.)
> 
> The Presidents I remember:

[Four, one-sentence, subjective characterizations.]

> I stand by my statement.

You know, this isn't even good enough to qualify as pseudointellectual.

How can you imagine it possible to encompass and summarize entire regimes
in one sentence each for the purposes of making a value judgement?
However valid your opinion might be, your argument consists of nothing
better than bumper-sticker thinking.

Rather than COMPARE any of these presidents to Reagan, you've only
enumerated a few things about them which you didn't like.  Where is
the comparable list for Reagan?  What about the things they did that you
liked?

Nor is your list of characterizations particularly accurate.  Calling
Nixon a leftist is about the most ludicrous thing I've heard in years.

Frankly, I'd say your admiration for the Great Communicator is presented
here in an argument as shoddy as the worst Reaganisms.

Finally, a few words about the accomplishments of some of the past presidents,
in things where Reagan doesn't measure up.

> 1. Johnson: a scheming, lying warmonger -- who wasn't even very good at
> fighting a war.

Johnson was responsible for the greatest improvements in civil rights
since Women's Suffrage.  While he may not have initiated the legislation,
he carried through on the enforcement and made desegregation real.  Without
this unpopular action, it would be hypocritical to criticize South African
racism today.

> 2. Nixon: a dishonest leftist (remember wage & price controls?) who engaged
> in political repression (remember the Enemies' List?) and because of his
> unwillingness to resign when Watergate started to consume all of his and
> Congress' time, played a role in the takeover of South Vietnam and Cambodia
> by the Communists.

I'll let someone else say something nice about Nixon.  He's always been an
irrationally emotional subject with me, since it was my body he might have
sent to Vietnam.  If have been presidents worse than Reagan, he's on my list.
However, characterizing wage and price controls as "leftist" is absurd:
examples of these abound throughout history, in a multitude of governments.
 
> 3. Ford: a well-meaning sort who thought that WIN buttons (Whip Inflation
> Now) were going to do something about inflation.

An innocuous president, as opposed to Reagan's irritation.

> 4. Carter: a President who presided over the devastation of the American
> economy (although not entirely his fault, just as the current healthy
> economy is not entirely to Reagan's credit), ignored the intelligence
> reports about the dangers to the American Embassy in Iran until it was
> too late, and maintained the petroleum price controls which crippled the
> economy until 1981.

The president who had to persevere during the greatest stresses to the
American economy since the depression: the drastic increases in cost of
energy, and the burgeoning competition from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.
in major industries: steel, automobiles, clothing, consumer products, etc.
Great gains in environmental quality were made during his term, by
proper funding of and enforcement through appropriate agencies.  For example,
because of his support of environmental law, quite a few rivers are now
safe for both fish and humans again.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh