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All the recent 'retro-Reagan' reminisces are delusional.
I remember the Reagan era very well - I was in my 20s - and I never voted for him, never respected him, never liked the man at all.
Ketchup became a vegetable. Ollie North became a 'hero'. Mentally ill people became 'mainstreamed'. Homeless people became commonplace.
Machiavelli was Mr. Rogers compared to Lee Atwater. David Stockman made Ebeneezer Scrooge look like Monty Hall. Next to Edwin Meese, Alberto Gonzales is Chief Justice John Marshall.
Nancy Reagan's photo-ops at food banks didn't go over well because she kept showing up in designer clothes. When athlete Len Bias OD'd on crack, the "war on drugs" was taken to a whole new level so Nancy could have photo-ops at crack house raids instead.
Property seizures for personal use possession of marijuana became the new vogue in law enforcement. Subcontracting and privatizing government services resulted in profiteering and unaccountability which persists to this day.
A lot of people suffered because of Reagan's policies, and a lot of people died. Nancy Reagan had the nerve (for example) to label casual drug users as accessories to murder, even as Reagan's support of fascist dictatorships helped thousands of South Americans to 'disappear'. The School of the Americas educated right wing death squads to become efficient killing machines.
And, by the way, he didn't win the cold war either - the Soviet system crumbled from within.
If his picture is going to be on any US currency, how about the $3 bill?
