Re: After 25 years, it should be possible to take a step back and take a dispassionate look
So on the one hand, Reagan defeated the Soviets by ramping up spending on SDI to such an extent that the USSR couldn't keep up, but on the other hand, Reagan had zero responsibility for any "bad" spending, that was all Tip O'Neill and the Democrats fault. And, of course, it was a "peacetime economic recovery" even though that (deficit) spending on SDI was at least partially responsible.
The USSR was already moribund when Reagan was elected, and the election of Pope John Paul II and the subsequent rise of Solidarity in Poland, and the presence of Gorbachev in the USSR were at least as significant as Reagan's SDI spending - the reality is that US funding and arming the Mujahideen in Afghanistan made far more difference to the collapse of the USSR than did "clean" SDI spending, but that doesn't suit the legend quite so well.
The notion that Reagan could be responsible for "the largest peacetime economic recovery in the history of the world" and "winning the cold war" at exactly the same time sums up Republican attitudes to Reagan.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
