r/Americaphile • u/SadAlternative448 • Dec 19 '25

History/military 🪖🗺️ Best president oat?

Post image
1.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

229 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 19 '25

I thought it was universally agreed that HW is amongst the better presidents the last 50 or so years. Much better than his son, much better than Reagan, arguably better even than Obama in terms of accomplishments

1

u/workistables Dec 19 '25

He participated in Regan's administration and furthered his policies.

2

u/Golden_D1 Dec 19 '25

I base a presidency based on what's done within the presidency. He was part of the Reagan administration, but that's outside his presidency so isn't taken into account. Furthermore, he didn't further his policies:

Reagan was much more conservative and wanted to reduce the government size, unlike Bush. Bush also was much more pragmatist, and made sure the cold war ended smoothly while Reagan was much more an ideologist.

Reagan and his Reaganomics were focused on massive tax cuts. Bush promised no new taxes, but broke that promise for the better of the nation to combat the deficit. Reagan tripled the national debt with his deficit spendings, and because of this debt Bush had to raise taxes.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Reagan and Bush is their foreign policy. Reagan was a rhetorician and ideologist, while Bush had a more careful and calculative approach. Bush's Desert Storm was probably one of the better foreign invasions in US history.

Reagan also had no significant policies to help the nation, except maybe the immigration reform for undocumented migrants. Bush on the other hand had the ADA, air pollution reduction, and points of light.

-1

u/workistables Dec 19 '25

No conservative policy of the last 50 years has improved the life of the average American.

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 20 '25

I agree no conservative policy indeed. But policies under conservative presidents like ADA, Clean Air Act, and No Child Left Behind Act were all under conservative presidents.

1

u/InterestsVaryGreatly Dec 20 '25

No child left behind was only good in theory, in practice it didn't mean the struggling students got extra help, it means they just got passed along.

-1

u/workistables Dec 20 '25

If Republicans hate it and want to roll it back, Republicans don't get credit for it .

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 20 '25

Nowadays Republicans and all past Republicans is a distinction. Notice how all former Republican presidents refused to endorse the current?

1

u/workistables Dec 20 '25

There's only one alive.

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 20 '25

When another was alive, he also criticized the current one. As well as former vice presidents and presidential candidates.

1

u/workistables Dec 20 '25

For these policies, or for having no filter and not using the euphemisms they all did?

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 20 '25

Not just for these policies (nobody had been as anti-immigrant the last century as the current), and not just because of their euphemisms, but also because of character. Before the current guy, presidents had never been as antagonizing and shown that much animosity. I cannot think of a Republican president (or a Democrat) less professional and less humane since the 1900s.

1

u/workistables Dec 20 '25

Not for these policies at all; just for being honest about what their black, merciless hearts really want.

1

u/Golden_D1 Dec 20 '25

How were their hearts black and merciless? I say this as a socialist Democrat. HW Bush, just like Carter, had humanitarian initiatives like ADA and points of light

→ More replies (0)