Dragonlady
Designing Woman
He started the giveaway to the rich and the stupid covert foreign policy that has given us the worst inequality upward mobility and the stupidest wars ever. And the worst propaganda machine ever. Great job!Ronald Reagan was a leader, but none of our one term presidents this past half century have been anywhere close to being leaders.
We probably have a lot in common concerning our outlook on Reagan's policies, but we definitely have a different view of what defines leadership. Here is a good summary on how I view it:
Great leaders consistently possess these 10 essential leadership skills:
What Are the Characteristics of a Good Leader? | CCL
- Integrity
- Ability to delegate
- Communication
- Self-awareness
- Gratitude
- Learning agility
- Influence
- Empathy
- Courage
- Respect
I agree that all of these charactistics are essential for good leadership, but Reagan was lacking in a lot of them. He was the "Great Communicator", but he was playing the role of President, and his Administration and the corruption of Iran Contra, Abscam, and other indications of out of control underlings, and shadow corruption demonstrates in spades, how weak Reagan's leadership really was.
There were more criminal charges against members of the Reagan Administration that against Nixon's underlings. I remember Reagan going on TV and saying that he didn't know, but he should have known. That was his job. He was correct, in that, but what was most shocking in this was that his subordinates would dare run these questionable operations without his knowledge. The only bosses I would have ever have considered disobeying or hiding something from were the weaklings I could pull shit on with impunity. An old man in early stages of Alzheimers. Yeah, Reagan was very weak in leadership.
I do give him credit for recognizing that "trickle down" wasn't working, and in raising taxes to try to compensate. Too bad future generations of Republicans didn't remember that lesson.