Week 2: Reagan hatred

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/28/behind_the_ronald_reagan_myth_no_one_had_ever_entered_the_white_house_so_grossly_ill_informed/

Reagan hatred shown in a contemporary article, published 28th December 2015:   

This article is entitled, “Behind the Ronald Reagan myth: “No one had ever entered the White House so grossly ill informed”. Which suggests that the article will disprove this statement, and prove that Ronald Reagan wasn't ill prepared and was a good president. However, this article details a large number of examples showing Reagan’s political ignorance, and his lack of interest in political matters.

 “Speaking of one far-ranging discussion on the MX missile, the Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton, an authority on national defence, reported, “Reagan’s only contribution throughout the entire hour and a half was to interrupt somewhere at midpoint to tell us he’d watched a movie the night before, and he gave us the plot from War Games.”

This example shows how Reagan seemed to lack an interest in important discussions, and how Reagan didn't take important topics seriously. It also suggests Reagan was just ‘grossly ill informed’ about such topics and therefore he didn't properly take part in such discussions.

Another such example is how Reagan would fall asleep during important discussions as if he didn't care about the fate of his country, an example being how Reagan fell asleep whilst the pope was speaking to him during a televised event in the Vatican. Examples such as these show Reagan had a lack of respect for others, as the article goes on to state “Cabinet officials had to accommodate themselves to Reagan’s slumbering during discussions of pressing issues” which shows this wasn't a one off occurrence.

Furthermore, this article states that in order to get Reagan to pay attention to important information, “his national security adviser had the CIA put together a film on world leaders the president was scheduled to encounter.”

This whole article is filled with examples like these, which show how Reagan was in fact “grossly ill informed” as President and how he didn't seem to care about becoming informed. This article is therefore an example of Reagan hatred, as it discusses a large number of Reagan’s flaws as President, and as a person.