Reagan Hatred

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/060309.html

The above article is from the Consortium News and was created on June 3rd 2009 by Robert Parry.

As 2009 marked the year after George W Bush’s Presidency, there were many articles and reports which stated that his eight years was the worst Presidential term ever. Rick Parry’s article therefore is a direct response to those opinions and argues instead that Ronald Reagan was worst, going against the conventional view that he was one of the better Presidents, This is shown by the Siena Institute 2010 Presidential Rankings in which Ronald Reagan is rated 18th overall.

This article is a clear example of Reagan hatred as Parry gives no consideration to the opposing view, or even that there were positives during Reagan’s Presidency. Instead he argues that Reagan’s Presidency is to blame for the current decline of America due to many of his policies, such as economic and environmental. One of the main points which Parry makes is that the three Presidents immediately before Reagan, Nixon, Ford and Carter who are generally rated as among the worst Presidents actually did a better job than they are given credit for. This is shown by the following quote. “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." This shows that Parry feels that because Reagan did not deal with many of the problems his Presidency faced, such as the oil situation and dictators in other countries, America is now suffering as a result. Although this could be seen as a valid view, by saying this Parry is not blaming any of the seven Presidents which followed Reagan’s Presidency for not dealing with those problems and instead is just criticising Reagan. This therefore seems unfair and suggests that the author has some kind of personal animosity towards Reagan.

Finally, another way in which Robert Parry has criticised Reagan’s Presidency is that it inspired George W Bush, who is considered one of the worst Presidents. This is shown in the following quote “Ironically, George W. Bush has come in for savage criticism, but the Republican leader who inspired Bush’s presidency Ronald Reagan remained an honored figure, his name attached to scores of national landmarks including Washington’s National Airport.” This is a very unfair view as if Reagan was to be labelled the worst President, it should be because his policies and performance were poor, as opposed to him just inspiring someone who turned out to be a poor President.

In conclusion although Parry does make some valid points in his article, in particular the fact that the Presidents before him contributed towards many of the successes which Reagan is credited for, such as the ending of the Cold War, most of his other points are unfair. This is because many are not related to his performance as President and therefore Reagan had no control over them such as inspiring George W Bush. As a result the overall article is an unfair criticism of Reagan and seems to indicate that the author has personal hatred towards him as opposed to feeling that his performance as President was poor.