Age of Obama vs. Age of Reagan: 1981-1982 vs. 2008-2009

At the end of the week, the mainstream media (including the "financial media", joined by the fascists/Communists on Wall Street) were reportting the 3.8% contraction of the economy in the fourth quarter as if it were worse than the Great Depression. With the VOICE OF DOOM, the media was reporting that it was the economy's worst performance in 27 years. The message was that only the Federal Government, and Obama, could "save" us, with infinite spending and borrowing (to the extent we are not just printing the money). As usual, it is like the media people do not even read there own stuff. They defnitiely don't understand it.


27 years ago the economy was just as bad as it is today. That is the relevnat message. This is not the "worst econmy since the Great Depression (although our reaction to what might have been a normal recessson may make it so. Is that not what the mainstream media is reporting? If the economy was this bad 27 years ago, it is hardly a new situation. Whta is new is our reaction to it:: the maintstram media reaction, the political reaction, and the reaction fo the newly minted fascists/Communists on Wall Street.


In 1982 the country was still in our hangover from the disastrous Carter years (where intterst rates reached toward 20%m and inflation toward 15%, at the same time--the combination being Reagan's "misery index"). Howefver, in 1982, Ronald Reagan was President. There was no talk of socialism. There was no talk that we "had" to have the Federal Government spend our way out of our economic troubles--inevitably making them worse. There was no talk by Reagan (such a greater President than either Bush 41 or Bush 43 that the mere thought of the comparison depresses me as to how far the Repubican Party has sunk). Reagan did not go on television and say that we had to betray our free market principles in order to save the free market (as President Bush 43 did, to his eternal shame). President Reagain did not panic the country, as the combination of the media, Democrats, Wall Street, and the Bush Administration has done this time).


What Reagan did was stick to his philosophy of tax relief and limited government (to the extent Democrats in Congress would let him). Reagan put into effect his simple tax structure of two tax rates (three, if you include zero): 18% and 28%. There was no move to socialism. There was no panic. Reagan did not abandon his principles. He merely tolad people, in a way they believed (in contrast to the "modern" Republican Party) that his (Reagan's) vision was the right vision.


The result was about the greatest 20 year period any nation has ever experienced on in the history of humanity on this Earth. Yes, this includes the 8 years of the Clinton Administration, but with the aid of the second conservative revolution--led by Newt Gingrich--which resulted in Republican control of the House on a conservative agenda). That is why it is absolutely stupid to say that it is "mean spirited' to want Obama "to fail" in enacting his socialist policy (yes, I am saying that CNBC, MSNBC, NBC, and the rest are STUPID: Mark Haynes, that means YOU). Clinton extended the golden years iniated by Reagan exactly because he "failed" to move us toward socialism. Unfortunately, President Bush 43 did not so fail. And now Demcrats, led by Obama, are ready to take us the whole way to disaster.


Yes, Reagan resissted the temptation that ruined President Bush. His reward was to iniate the best 20 years in the history of not only this country but--as stated above--almost any country in the hisotry of the world. Our "punishment" for ignoring the lesson of Reagan is going to be dire. I have my doubts that we can survive it.


There was no "stimulus package" under Reagan. For Reagan, the tax cut was stimulus enough, along with trust in the power of the free market to recover and trust in his phiosophy that limited government was best--trusting to the American people to bounce back, as they did, if they were allowed to keep more of their own money (with less incentive to avoid paying taxes--as Reagan knew that, within reason, lower taxes meant MORE Federal tax revenue in the end).


Instead of Reagan, we are now getting socialism. We are now getting the Obama message that only the Federal Government can "bail us out" (although only the favored get bailed out, and not small businesses like that of my brother). The faxicsts/Communists on Wall Street are now running the country, along with the Obama socialists (that unholy alliance of the financial/big business community and authoritarian central planners that is fascism). We now have developed the idea that the Federal Government has to prevent recessions, as well as protect everyone (except the disfavored) int he country from economic pain.


Yes. We are now in the Age of Obama, and not the Age of Reagan. That is the true VOICE OF DOOM. This is going to doom us. The only question is whether we are too far down this road, even now, to recover. I am not optimistic. But then I am a cynical pessimist, even while recognizing that is not the most healthy kind of person to be.


I would feel better if I saw a conservative leader out there ready to return us to the golden days of the Age of Reagan. Michael Steele (new Republican chairman) is a decent start, but I have no illusions aobut Steele. He is not goiingo to be the conservative leader to again sell conservatism to the American people, although he can be a solid lieutenant to prepare the policial ground for that leader. Nor is Rush Limbaugh capable of being the political leader to do so, although he is doing his best (which is pretty darn good) to prepare the ground for that conservative political leader of the future. But is the "modern" Republican Party capable of producing, or supporting, a "new Reagan"? I will stop here, since we are back to my cynical pessimism again.