I see a lot of comments posted about Reagan, like this one, that infer that he was the mastermind behind reaganomics. The evidence though suggests otherwise. It more likely that Reagan was the perfect headpiece to the administrators that pulled the levers.

There’s a great story that was told by former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, about how on his first trip to the USA he had dinner meeting with Reagan to talk about economic matters globally, and domestically between the US and Australia. Hawke told of how once the pleasantries were over and they started to talk shop, Reagan handed the conversation to the advisors, who were also present, whilst Reagan sat there munching on his steak. Hawke said Reagan looked oblivious and was uninterested in the discussion.

Destructive president, absolutely. Evil genius, not so sure. I think that title silts squarely on Maggie Thatcher.

Perhaps that's where this timeline went off the rails.

He wasn't supposed to survive.

Don't forget the AIDS crisis.

I'd say Nixon, without the Southern Strategy, the republican party wouldn't have been basically taken over by the subsumed Dixiecrats.

Reagan and certainly Nixon are two we could have done without. Pretty much every ill and evil of the modern conservative movement can be traced back to one or the other, or both.

It's Oklahoma they absolutely did.

Source: lived in Tulsa for a few years. That whole state can just get sent to the shadow realm and nothing of value would be lost.

Having been around during 9/11, Reagan was a bigger inflection point. He was directly responsible for ramping up the arming of the groups that would go on to form al Qaeda. But, that's a small contribution compared to overseeing the decoupling of productivity from pay and his war on labor.

Yeah he did more damage, IMO, than can be literally calculated.

I mean, for a given value of vileness, I don't see anything wrong with being privately amused about a person in a position of power getting some form of suffering inflicted upon them, though calling for it is nothing less than a plea for civil war. The problem with the whole Paul Pelosi incident was:

1. Republicans openly make calls for political violence and then take no responsibility when it happens.

2. Paul Pelosi wasn't a politician or anyone of serious note. He simply had the sheer gall to be a member of a politician's family.

I hope he's gotten over Jodie Foster.