Back When Politics Was Just Politics

Take a good look America, these are the men that have done what communists have not been able too. They and their deregulation have almost destroyed America.

I remember Chris Matthews waxing sentimental on the “loss of the old camaraderie” such as that between O’Neill and Reagan….it’s an interesting comparison to current times, if only because of the severe partisanship between the parties now and throughout the 1990s to present. It doesn’t mean that these people were otherwise perfect or even that their collegiality didn’t act to the detriment of various groups at times. But the ability to see each other as less than enemies, when you think of the gamesmanship displayed by the republicans yesterday, takes the discourse down a notch. Whether it will “change the way Washington works” is unsettled at this point. And I wonder how successful Obama will be if the GOP thinks of outreach as weakness. I keep thinking the GOP statement yesterday, that the stimulus bill wasn’t worth “this president’s signature” was a brilliant counterpoint to “can’t we all get along.”

I mostly agree with DennisQ, but suggest that Reagan had “people/pr” skills that W never had. He also came into office with his “amiable” image well enbedded in the public’s consciousness from his “acting” career. Reagan paved the way for W., that’s for sure. It was Reagan who declared that government was the problem, not the solution.

The Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1991, when Reagan was long gone. While there were augurs of what was to come, I don’t think anyone in 1988 imagined that the USSR would no longer exist three years later.

Short of that (and inspired by the image above), I was reminiscing about the days when Republicans acted “a little bigger,” and personal relationships could exist while “agreeing to disagree.”
Wow! I’m amazed that my reaction to this picture is so different!
I see Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas P. (“Tip”) O’Neill bowing down to Reagan and the surrounding Republican’ts happy they’re getting everything they want.
[This is especially true in hindsight--if it really is signing the package put together by Social Security "Reform" Commission Chairman Greenspan. Workers got an increased rate of taxation and an increasing retirement age, while Rs got an increase in taxes (though they'd never admit it) that would reduce their budget deficits and even allow them to justify Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan's greenlighting of W's leave-no-millionaire-behind tax cuts to solve the "problem" of Clinton's budget surpluses.]

Wow! This pic was taken exactly 7 days before I was born. Oh, the 80s were bad.