He got Camp David, and might have been able to strong arm an Israeli-Palestinian solution.
He was solving problems in the way that he saw as the most effective, but he didn’t know how to sugar-coat anything.
He was a farmer and small businessman who understood about making money and using it wisely, because you have no guarantees.
People look at the things he has been involved with since leaving office, and can’t figure out that he hasn’t changed a bit. He was pursuing the same things in office, but people were looking for a magic solution, and Reagan promised them one.
]]>Unfortunately, Carter had a bad penchant for doing the right thing even when it’s the unpleasant thing, such as appointing Volker to deal with inflation. And his fatal flaw was telling the truth. The American people don’t want the truth. They want lies, bright shiny lies, lies that tell them they can have something for nothing, lies that tell them they’re a good people, a fair people, a charitable people instead of being the most vicious mean-spirited bastards on planet Earth, and Ronald Reagan was willing to tell them the lies they wanted to hear. So it goes. We get the government we want — and deserve. Alas.
– Badtux the Reminiscing Penguin
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