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Greg, are you an idiot? Cause It sounds like it, Reagan did some amazing things, but times were different. People are scared more easily now, medicine has advanced, some of society has evolved. As for Obama, ARE YOU KIDDING ME, that guy is a joke and a piece of shit. I'm a disabled veteran who lost his medals and Purple Heart cause Obama wanted to change military policies, he overlooks and bypasses congress at his own convenience. Not to mention the increased cost in my medical care. Oh and if you're gonna quote it, quote it the way it was said. It wasn't called AIDS in 1982.
Fred, Are you kidding ME?!?!?! Reagan “turned this country around” alright, he encouraged wealth redistribution from the bottom and middle up, which is why we have the current record wealth inequality. He “trickled down” and the working class got peed on. Before you campaign to have him canonized a saint, you might want to know that on a 1996 AIDS Discovery Channel special, C. Everett Koop said that he wouldn’t call Reagan and his administration “homophobic” because that implies “fear.” What he witnessed was downright hatred. Reagan did NOT end the cold war, the former Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight, something George W. Bush put us on the trajectory for. Over 20,000 Americans dead from complications of AIDS before Reagan said the world publicly, and people are now freaking out over 1 American death from ebola?!?!?! As far as the Regan administration was concerned AIDS was killing all of the “right” people. I have survived HIV through it all myself, and I certainly do NOT romanticize Ronnie. Alzheimer’s was too good for him. Of course you know Nancy never had to change a dirty diaper like the rest of us did. She had “people” to take care of Ronnie. As for the economy worse than when George W. Bush left office, you need to get some REAL facts and leave Faux News alone. Obama could have accomplished far more with the cooperation of Congress, but from the very first day they vowed to obstruct and destroy this president. Funny how Republicans like to throw the word “treasonous” around so much, since they were willing to throw the general welfare of the American public under the bus for their own political gain.
Comparing Obama to Reagan, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Reagan turned this country around and was one of the best presidents/leaders the free world has ever had! They just don't make them like that anymore. The country was a different place "I know it was bad under Reagan" ? Do you have a college education?! The disease was brand new and it WAS found in the gay community, BOTTOM line. Comparing Reagan, the man who ended the Cold War with a "Peace through Strength" warrior ethos military, Star Wars and actually CUT Nuclear weapons! He brought this country and the GOP back with Reaganomics while Tax Reform CUT taxes! GENIUS!...AIDS/HIV was brand new and he could only do what his doctors ie Surgeon General were telling him, and they had no idea! Even the Bushs did more for HIV than the Lame Duck sitting in office! I've had HIV through it all, I'm a surviver and to depict Reagan as the AIDS Devil next to a President who completely did nothing while the Middle East fell, made the economy WORSE and on the AIDS/HIV homefront, made it 4 times as expensive for us to get health insurance and medication! The blinders these liberals put on is ridiculous! At least ADMIT your mistake and try to fix it! Instead we get lies and a big fat Veto pen! Mr Peter Staley if you want to represent me as my Gay HIV Activist, PLEASE PLEASE get your facts right and don't spin history to meet your shameful politic goals. The gay poz community in NOT a herd of sheep. You're not helping us with your slanderous articles.
Regardless of the context, Reagan and his cronies behaved in ways that were and are unforgivable. I curse each time he is praised in the media, and I will continue to do so until the number of my curses outnumber the massive numbers of friends I lost as a result of his administration's inaction.
Ronald Reagan: worst president ever!
The White House comments need to be understood in the context of a culture which infantilized gay people and considered them comic fodder. In 1982 the dominant perceptions of gay men were La Cage Aux Folles and Richard Simmons. No one took us serious, and we are still fighting that battle to be considered "adults" deserving of the same rights as others.
WOW! I knew it was bad under Reagan but I had no idea it was that bad. That actually made me shed a tear to know that the President of the United States was so ill-informed and that his Press Secretary thought the deaths of gay men were laughable. WOW 593 cases of HIV/AIDS in 1982 received laughter 3 cases of Ebola in 2014 receives public outrage There is something wrong with the numbers here!
SailorBob
I have to agree, as a newly gay, but long term HIV+ surviver, wounded Salior vet (wheel chair bound), Obama has done nothing but make medical insurance hard to get and frigin EXPENSIVE for us male poz homosexuals! I'm a very liberal democrat (donate to Boy Scout charities EVERY PAYCHECK and volunteer with young homeless homosexual boys each weekend and more) but the man of color sitting on the White House thrown needs to step down as our master. He has failed the Male Gay HIV/AIDS community. Unfortunately if Hillery steps up behind him, she has plans to make it next to impossible for us men to get medication and line the pockets of those on the beltway with an Obama Care TAX the "Hillery Tax", which will tax your medical care's net worth. A double tax? Taxation without representation? Our Conservative Republican big boys might get my vote this go around. We need change and we need HOPE, Peter Staley.
November 3, 2014