Ronald Reagan

Republican Vice Presidents Since 1969—Vance The Worst Of The Worst Since Spiro Agnew! :(

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In the past 56 years, we have had six Republican Presidents—Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.

In that same period, we have had eight Republican Vice Presidents—Spiro Agnew, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, George H W Bush, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, Mike Pence, and JD Vance.

It is well recognized that three of these six Republican Presidents are rated higher than the other three—meaning Ronald Reagan, George H W Bush, and Gerald Ford.

George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and Donald Trump are in the bottom third, with Trump nearly at the total bottom.

When one looks at the eight Republican Vice Presidents, only Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, and George H W Bush are seen as above average.

Ranking the remaining five is ranking as much lower and far worse in performance, with Spiro Agnew seen as the bottom, but with Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney seen as not much better, and with Mike Pence just slightly above them.

And then, there is the present Vice President, JD Vance, who in seven months has managed to cause outrage by his utterances and his actions, making one fear the thought that he might be the successor to Donald Trump.

At age 41, if Vance became President by succession before the summer of 2027, he would be the youngest President in American history, as Theodore Roosevelt was 42 years and 10 and a half months of age when he succeeded the assassinated William McKinley in September 1901.

Compared to his predecessor, Mike Pence, Vance has managed to be much more controversial, and makes one at least admire Pence for having strong convictions, including refusing to accept Donald Trump’s assertion that he should support a rejection of the Electoral College results in the Presidential Election of 2020.

This led to the threatened hanging of Mike Pence by the January 6, 2021 US Capitol Insurrectionists, who had set up a noose outside the building.

One cannot be sure that Vance would be any improvement on Donald Trump, as he is clearly totally unprincipled and insensitive in his statements and actions, and therefore, cannot be trusted as a potential future Commander in Chief.

Vance should be promoting the preservation of American democracy, but seems more interested in supporting the authoritarianism of Donald Trump, which presents a dire threat to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

By comparison, the Democratic Party has had four Vice Presidents since 1969—Walter Mondale under Jimmy Carter; Al Gore under Bill Clinton; Joe Biden under Barack Obama; and Kamala Harris under Joe Biden.

While the view of Harris is too recent to be reliable, any estimation of the significance of Mondale, Gore, and Biden makes it clear that they are the top three Vice Presidents of modern times, and arguably, of all time!

Preposterous Idea: Nobel Peace Prize For Trump, Or Addition To Mount Rushmore!

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Donald Trump, and those who support him without any qualms, are promoting preposterous ideas, that indicate total delusion.

The idea of a Nobel Peace Prize for Trump is hilarious, as he has no credentials to win such an award, and it seems clear that the Nobel Committee will not consider giving an authoritarian who is Fascist and mentally deranged, such an award.

The fact that Trump is also a convicted felon, and was impeached twice, and has had multiple bankruptcies, and have lied so often that he has no idea of truth, only adds to the craziness of the concept of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Also, the idea of Trump being added to Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota, is immediately a joke.

Of course, then South Dakota Governor, and current Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, was the loon who came up with that idea, which led to her gaining a position in the Trump Administration as close to the worst single appointment of a long list of many. Noem is a danger in her position, and an embarrassment to the idea of women in government!

For one thing, no one can be added to that monument, without creating damage to the tenuous condition of that site.

But also, if there were to be the equivalent of a second Mount Rushmore being created somewhere else on American soil, Trump would not be on the list to be considered.

Instead, the likelihood would be a combination of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman or Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama!

Reagan would be the Republican to add, not Trump!

This is silly season, overall, with the craziness of the Nobel Peace Prize and Mount Rushmore being bandied about as proper awards for Trump, and it will never happen!

Donald Trump Ending Labor Union Protections For Federal Employees: A Total Disgrace! :(

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Donald Trump is in process of ending all labor union protections for federal employees, marking the biggest negative reaction since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 was passed over President Harry Truman’s veto in 1947 by the Republican 80th Congress.

That action and the later Ronald Reagan firing of air traffic controllers in 1981 were among the lowest moments of organized labor history.

But federal government employees were able to protect their interests over the decades since then, but now a mortal blow to not just federal employees, but really all workers across the nation, has been dealt to the right of workers to organize.

The irony is that many members of labor unions stupidly, and with some bias toward racial minorities, supported Donald Trump in 2024 despite his felony convictions, two impeachments, and the inciting of the US Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021.

This is yet another attack on American democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law!

Financial Graft And Malfeasance From Spiro Agnew And Abe Fortas A Half Century Ago To Donald Trump And Clarence Thomas Now!

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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, we had famous financial graft and malfeasance that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew in 1973, and Supreme Court Associate Justice Abe Fortas in 1969, both over comparatively small amounts of corruption, as one looks back on that time. Both were held accountable, and had to resign their positions of influence.

Now in 2025, we have massive financial corruption by President Donald Trump, and Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (accepting major gifts from Harlan Crowe and others).

And neither Trump nor Thomas, nor many others in the Trump orbit, who are also engaged in financial malfeasance, even try to hide it.

There was a crypto investors dinner last night, hosted by Donald Trump, where wealthy investors, paying at least $1 million to Trump for the opportunity to invest in his memecoin, had the opportunity to have their corrupt requests listened to and accomplished. But apparently, Trump made a brief speech and left the gathering, so those who paid to speak with him did not get that chance, but invested in making Trump and his family ever more wealthy.

This comes after Trump’s business trip to the Arab oligarchs of the Middle East, and his sons and son in law gaining investment opportunities in many countries, because of their connection to Donald Trump. It also follows Trump being offered the “gift” from Qatar of a replacement for Air Force One, which has already been accomplished despite many questions and doubts about the veracity and safety of accepting such a gift, from a nation that has backed the Palestinian terrorist group, Hamas.

This is how deteriorating the sense of honesty and ethics have occurred, as there is no shame in today’s politics!

It makes the corruption of past administrations, including Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, look minor by comparison!

And much of the corruption of those Presidencies was not personal, rather people around the Presidents, who served in their administrations and enriched themselves, as a result of their being part of those administrations.

So in the time of Donald Trump, the corruption level is greater than at any time in American history, and yet, it seems to be unstoppable!

Donald Trump Has Declared War On Supreme Court And Other Federal Courts’ Authority!

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The nation is reaching a crucial turning point, as Donald Trump has attacked the seven members of the Supreme Court, who have ruled that he cannot use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants without habeus corpus and due process.

Trump is ranting on Truth Social about this, and he and his MAGA Republican supporters have also unleashed attacks against District Court Judges and Appeals Court Judges who have ruled against his policies regarding deportation.

Chief Justice John Roberts has also made clear how disturbed he is at the attacks on the rule of law and the Constitution, as has Associate Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and even Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett.

The fact that all three Trump Supreme Court nominees, including Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, along with Barrett, have voted against him, and that some of the District and Appeals Court Judges who have done so, are Reagan, George H W Bush, George W Bush, and even some Trump appointees, is an indication of great alarm in the judicial branch about Trump’s grabbing of power and attacks on the validity and legitimacy of the courts!

It looks as if Trump and his Cabinet officers, particularly Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Thomas Homan, and White House Adviser Stephen Miller, are hell bent on breaking the law and the Constitution, and refusing to obey the federal courts.

This is, if not stopped, a full scale attack on civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, and endangers all Americans, that any excuse could be used, without evidence or investigation, leading to massive deportations to foreign dictatorships beyond just El Salvador, with no appeal or ability to reverse such totalitarian, Fascist actions!

The Problem Of Age In The Presidency Made Clear!

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At the end of his time in the Presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who left office in January 1961 at the age of 70 years and 3 months, was the oldest President in American history.

Eisenhower made the statement that no one older than himself as he left office should be in the Oval Office.

However, that was not to be, as Ronald Reagan entered the Presidency a few weeks short of 70, and had signs of Alzheimer’s Disease detected by his second term, although he was well protected by his staff who denied any issue, and left office nearly 78 years old. Only years later, was it made clear that he had dementia, and he lived on until age 93, but not even knowing his own wife, Nancy, in the last few years of his life.

And then, we had others even older when winning the Presidency than Reagan, becoming nominees–specifically Bob Dole at age 73 in 1996, and John McCain at age 72 in 2008.

Neither won the Presidency, but the age issue was still there, and then Donald Trump won the Presidency and was seven months beyond the age of 70 when he took the Presidential oath in 2017.

And then, Joe Biden won the Presidency, and took the oath at age 78 in 2021.

And finally, Donald Trump returned to the White House at age 78 in 2025, five months older than Biden was four years earlier.

So the issue of age has become a crisis, and not only for Presidents, but also for members of Congress, and sometimes Governors, who are serving in their 70s and 80s, avoiding retirement.

There is a dire need for some youth in the Presidency, like we had with John F. Kennedy at age 43 in 1961; Bill Clinton at age 46 (and his Vice President Al Gore at age 44) in 1993; and Barack Obama at 47 in 2009.

Sadly, Joe Biden displayed evidence of mental and physical decline, now being debated and published about, and Donald Trump, both in his first, and now his second term, has also shown great evidence of decline.

So in 2028, youth is likely to be triumphant, and all for the better, although one can be sure some political figures who are reaching higher ages, are likely to contend for the Presidential nominations.

Imagining A Ronald Reagan-Donald Trump Meeting!

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Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, is honored and really worshipped by tens of millions of conservatives, seen as an icon of their beliefs in limited government.

But if Ronald Reagan was alive today, it seems very clear that he would be vehemently opposed to everything Donald Trump believes in and promotes.

Ronald Reagan believed in dialogue, and managed to work with opposition Democrats on major issues, and had Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill at the White House on a regular, friendly basis. Most famously, on the crucial issue of Social Security reform, the two men came up with an agreement in 1983 that helped promote the long term survival and extension of Social Security.

Ronald Reagan believed the solution to undocumented immigration, a constant reality over the decades at the US-Mexico border, was to promote immigration reform, as was agreed to in 1986.

Ronald Reagan understood the threat of the Soviet Union, and while supporting all efforts for dialogue and diplomacy, he knew that the nation needed to work to undermine Russian aggression as part of the Cold War.

Ronald Reagan clearly knew the danger of high protective tariffs, having lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s, with a major cause of that horrific economic disaster being the Smoot_Hawley Tariff signed by President Herbert Hoover in 1930, despite the entreaties of hundreds of economists.

Ronald Reagan believed in the power of oratory, and avoided “stirring the pot” of turmoil, and worked to unify the nation through his speeches and public utterances in times of celebration and also, of tragedy.

Ronald Reagan’s children, Ron Reagan Jr. and Patti Davis, have made clear their vehement opposition to everything MAGA Republicans promote under Donald Trump, and as do multitudes of conservative commentators, assert that Donald Trump is NOT a conservative of the Ronald Reagan stripe in any way!

Donald Trump lies incessantly, more than any President in American history.

Donald Trump works to divide and denounce anyone in his Republican party who dares to challenge him, as well as any opposition in the nation, as he conducts himself as an authoritarian figure.

Donald Trump is extremely nativist, connected to racism, and has no concern for the plight or the rights of any undocumented immigrant, and even is out to remove any foreign born individual that has moved toward citizenship, instilling fear by his massive deportation efforts without any common decency, compassion, or empathy.

Donald Trump is a known collaborator with the Russian Federation uncer Vladimir Putin, and is ready to give up our alliances with democratic nations around the world. He and his team, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and others in the Cabinet engaged in national security, are ready to abandon Ukraine, and cozy up to our long term rival that does not have our safety and security as their goal.

Donald Trump is ready to cause a new Second Great Depression in his incessant drive to impose high tariffs, which history tells us is suicidal economic policy. And Trump representa a threat to the longevity of Social Security, in his quest to cut government spending.

This author and blogger is NOT defending Ronald Reagan, who he considers terrible in many ways, BUT in comparison to Donald Trump, he is to be seen as in the main wave of conservatism, while Trump is clearly NOT a conservative, just an unprincipled opportunist, who is conducting himself in a Fascist authoritarian manner!

55th Anniversary Of Earth Day, But Trump Is Promoting Defiance On Environmental Issues!

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Wisconsin Democratic Senator Gaylord Nelson is considered the brainchild of Earth Day, first celebrated on April 22, 1970, and embraced by President Richard Nixon, who went on to accomplish one of the best environmental records of all Presidents, considered just behind Theodore Roosevelt.

Later Presidents, and especially Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton (with the encouragement of Vice President Al Gore), Barack Obama, and Joe Biden—all Democrats—advocated for the environment, while Ronald Reagan in particular, and even more so, Donald Trump, have worked against facing the threat of climate change and global warming.

Instead, Trump is promoting drilling for oil and natural gas, mining for coal, and cutting down forest lands, all undermining the future of the planet, and American conservation of natural resources.

Already, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin is on a campaign to reverse the great progress made under Joe Biden and earlier Democratic Presidents.

Ronald Reagan On Tariffs And Immigration Totally Diametrically Opposite From Donald Trump!

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Ronald Reagan, the 40th President (1981-1989), was the most conservative President of the 20th century, who most Republicans have modeled themselves on, regarding his beliefs and record in office.

But today, most Republicans are subservient to Donald Trump, the 45th (2017-2021) and 47th (2025- ) President, and it is very clear that the two men have very little in common, despite both technically being Republican Presidents.

Reagan, for all of his faults, and the criticisms that have been made of his record in office, and his beliefs, was diametrically opposite from Trump on two key issues that now dominate the Trump Presidency.

Reagan made clear his opposition to high protective tariffs, while Trump is promoting a national and world wide crisis with his “Tariff Wars” against all nations, with many nations being assessed a totally insane level of tariffs on their goods.

Reagan also signed immigration reform in 1986, legitimizing many undocumented immigrants, perceving their positive contributions to the American economy and society, while Trump is determined to deport, if he is successful in doing so, ten or more millions of immigrants, despite the dire need for their labor, and the contributions most of them have made to the nation!

Republican Presidential candidates since Reagan, including the two Bush Presidents, but also John McCain and Mitt Romney, supported further immigration reform, as did some Republicans in Congress, but now most Republicans remain silent as Trump declares war on immigration.

So it seems quite obvious that if Ronald Reagan were alive today, he would be a vehement opponent of Donald Trump!

Fact: Democrats Clean Up Republican Economic Disasters Since 1933!

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It is historical fact, whether Republicans and conservatives believe it or not, that Democratic Presidents clean up Republican Presidents’ economic disasters since 1933.

Franklin D. Roosevelt with his “New Deal” helped to resolve the Great Depression that occurred under the watch of President Herbert Hoover.

John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson brought about great economic prosperity in the 1960s after three recessions in the 1950s under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Jimmy Carter had to deal with the economic recession in 1974-1975 under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and the economy revived in the first three years of his term in the late 1970s.

While Jimmy Carter had to deal with a brief six month recession in 1980, a contributing factor in his defeat for reelection that year, successor Ronald Reagan had to deal with a much more damaging recession in 1982, and later again with a stock market crash in 1987.

Bill Clinton brought about great economic prosperity after the recession that occurred under President George H. W. Bush in 1992, which led to his defeat for reelection. And Clinton brought about a balanced budget in his second term in the late 1990s.

Barack Obama brought about a recovery from the Great Recession that began under President George W. Bush, leading to the greatest economic recovery in American history.

Joe Biden brought about a recovery from the COVID 19 Pandemic under Donald Trump, which caused a massive loss of employment, but economic growth in the stock market and lowering unemployment made Biden a success.

Now, with Donald Trump, second term, undermining the American economy with his lunatic Tariff Wars against the entire world, the stock market has had massive losses, and unemployment is rising, and inflation is occurring, and it wil be up to the next Democratic President in 2029 to work to overcome the massive damage being wrought!