Love him or hate him, this man was a great president. Possibly one of the best we had. He made a few mistakes with the Beirut bombings and the Iran/Contra affair but he makes mistakes like all presidents do.
I wonder what Ronald would think how Obama is running the nation if he was still alive today. If you knew Reagan’s conservative views, I think he would be disgusted for sure. Reagan was a great man, though. No doubt about that. He ended the Cold War and wanted the Berlin Wall to be taken down. He did so many great things. Most importantly he was a peacemaker. He did all he could for the US to make peace with other countries like Russia for starters. He did things that President Obama would never do. Reagan did all he could to make America safe.
I’ve read Ronald’s memoir, “An American Life”, and it was a great read. You should read it too. Happy Birthday, Ron!
Kev
K'Brocking 
He was indeed a very influential president – however, by today’s standards he was quite liberal. Reagan’s policies would have no place in current conservative circles. In today’s Republican party he would be labeled a tax-raising, terrorist-negotiating, gay-loving, amnesty- granting, big spender.
Mike Huckabee said “Ronald Reagan would have a very difficult, if not impossible, time being nominated in this atmosphere of the Republican Party,” and Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter called Reagan “a former liberal … who would never be elected today.”
Shows how radicalized and far from center things have become. It’s a shame.
He’s respected by conservatives for a pretty good reason. He started the conservative movement. He did start off as liberal true but made the switch to the right later in the years.
Kev
Yeah, but craigneedsabike’s point is that Reagan’s ideology would be considered more to the left or centered compared to the conservative right today. It’s nothing to do with whether Reagan himself switched. He’s always been Republican, but the conservative ideology has moved even further to the right on the political spectrum that Reagan today (with the views he held in the 80s) wouldn’t be considered a viable candidate. And it has nothing to do with him as a person.
It’s just interesting how the right moves further and further right as the years pass, as if there was some prize or something in that direction. A lot of the stuff Reagan favored in the 80s would be taboo in today’s Republican party.
Whoa, easy. No one’s questioning your right wing beliefs. Just sayin’ by 80s standards he was conservative for the time, but nowadays he would be more left and liberal than those who are in the right wing today.
It’s like saying Abraham Lincoln was a hardcore conservative because he was listed as Republican (which is true), when the Republican Party and the Democratic Party of 1860 were totally different animals and didn’t even have any resemblance to the two parties today.
Yeah, exactly. No one said anything about you or your beliefs at all. Just saying that, like RD912 said, that if Reagan were alive today, his stances on things wouldn’t really align with the current Republican Party. They would call him a liberal or leftist. And it’s too bad because the right answers are usually somewhere closer to the center, not so far to the right or the left. But now both sides pander to extremists and it seems like a silly tug of war.