Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General "Reagan Principles"

Prior to AIDS being identified as an "official epidemic", it was called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) - hense the label: Gay disease

I was speaking about Reagan and AIDS to a friend of mine yesterday who tested positive in 1984 and he's still with us today.

He stated that Reagan's silence and lack of Federal monies for research put finding a way to manage the disease behind six years.

Which brings us back to the "principles" of this thread.

Not only that, couple this information with Bob Herbert's OP-ED piece from the New York Times, 11/13/07, and an entirely different picture of Ronald Reagan emerges.

(Fermi, linked to the article on page 12 of this thread)


It's interesting, those who support Mr. Reagan come from the bases of an economic position. Those who do not support Mr. Reagan do so from a social position.

Very interesting...

As hateful a man as Reagan was on social issues, he was equally a disaster economically. He was the first installation of the "shock economics" of Mitlon Friedman. Reagan pursued those callous policies in Latin and Central America, in the process leading to the death and impoverishment of millions of people.

He tried to run up so much debt in this country that it would provide the opportunity to ram through Friedman's plan to transfer wealth from the middle class to the ultra wealthy. It was up to Bush jr. to move the process along. It is the only accomplishment of the latter.

Phil, I whole-heartedly agree with your summation of Reagan's true economic hand print.

I was merely pointing out that Mr. Reagan's supporters use "tax cuts" "bankrupting the Soviet Union" (all economic positions) indicative of how great a president Ronald Reagan was.

You and I have an entirely different view from these supporters.

Only facts bear out which side is truly correct.

I also find it interesting that Mr. Reagan's supporters never, ever use social indicators of Mr. Reagan doing a fantastic job - because there are none.

Wasn't the term "welfare mothers" coined during his Administration?

Rick, coming from the old ACTUP mindset, I will absolutely not let anyone get away with letting Reagan off the hook for having killed thousands of AIDS victims.

And I do mean kill, not let die, not ignore, no, he murdered my friends. He should have been tried for his crimes. He will always go down in history for this heinous crime.

Before it is even typed, I would like to stop Mr. Reagan's support of undocumented aliens in 1986 as a social indicator of his presidency - as we all know this was done for Big Business.

I remember friends pleading with the Reagan Administration for help - and none came.

AIDS was our community's "Katrina" - we had to fend for ourselves.

If it were not for gay doctors, gay researchers, and gay academia - we'd probably be further behind than we are now.

I distinctly remember it was the gay medical community who got the ball rolling on research.

sidebar: It was my mom who told me about AIDS. I was in high school when it was first happening and, it was also in high school that I came out to my parents.

My mom didn't tell me about AIDS to scare me, but more of a "be careful" kinda thing...