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Comment by Uchikoma | Hacker News Reader

From talking to friends, most stopped "loving"* Obama years ago shortly after there was no visible difference to Bush in foreign policy, human rights, wars, etc.

* (the only President Germans loved is probably Kennedy, the most misunderstood Reagan)

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Agreed.

Anyone who has fallen out of love with Obama probably wasn't looking hard at him in the first place.

An incredibly good point. He ran in 2008 mainly on the message of "we're not Republicans". However, his message then - and now - lacked substantive policy changes and improvements for governance. It was more of the same, which means growing bloat and overreach of the Federal government. People are now waking up during his second term, when he can do what he wants (e.g., pledge $7 billion to build a power plant in the African desert, spend $100 million to vacation in Africa, etc.)

If it wasn't for Reagan, Germany would still be two countries.

Can you please elaborate on Reagan? How was he misunderstood?

I think a lot of people back then - like me as a teenager in the 80s - thought Reagan to be pure evil. Today the view on Reagan is more differentiated, his later view on nuclear war, the reunification, what he wanted to achieve vs. the cold war hardliner and Thatcherism capitalist, Bitburg, Pershing II, SDI.

Once you look past all the Reagan PR the image is even worse than it ever was. The very nature of our the challenges we are facing today as a society can largely be traced back to his throwing open the doors to unrestrained abuse across society. The problem with excess is that it is exponentially unsustainable.

What kind of excess are you referring to? I'm viewing this in a somewhat simplistic way right now, but if I have an excess (in savings) of 10$ this week instead of 1$, then I don't quite see how my excess would be 10²$/1²$ = 100 times more unsustainable. I might be taking that too literally though.

From priceless quotes like "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_begin_bombing_in_five_minut..., there was always the impression/worry that the Reagan administration was a bit trigger-happy and Western Europe (particularly West Germany) was about to be turned into an atomic wasteland at any time.

Of course the actions by the administration were more constructive than the rhetoric but I certainly grew up in fear of imminent nuclear war.

Yes, that was all down to Reagan. Nothing to do with the evil communist dictatorship on your doorstep.

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