Reply #16: Oh, I remember Reagan [View All]

I also remember a Democratic congress that did put a check on his more obnoxious activities, and I remember that Reagan was much more fiscally and militarily moderate than Bush Jr. (as was Poppy).

The problem now is a perfect storm of factors, and historical analogy to Reagan is not particularly useful. I'm not a doomsday fanatic. In fact, I think most "Oh, woe!" posts are ill-considered and paranoiac.

However, I think between the "impossible to exaggerate" costs revealed by Bremer in his WP interview, the UN bombing (perhaps the most successfully conceived and executed terrorist attack in history), the eye-popping federal deficit and concomitant IMF nervousness, and the global economic situation generally, we have real material conditions for severe crisis and rapid deterioration.

With Reagan, the hullaballoo was generally ideologically driven, though it did, of course, have very real effects. With bush, the ideology trips after itself; we are in a real material crisis that has no real historical analogue, since it is utterly singular in its composition.