Talk:Ronald Reagan

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Featured articleRonald Reagan is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on February 6, 2008.
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March 6, 2007Peer reviewReviewed
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August 25, 2007Featured article candidatePromoted
February 6, 2008Today's featured articleMain Page
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May 21, 2009Featured article reviewKept
On this day... Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on June 12, 2004, June 5, 2005, and January 2, 2014.
Current status: Featured article

Nonsensical sentence in the lead[edit]

In the lead this: "Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending contributed to increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation." Makes no sense. (It even has a grammar error, it is missing a determiner before "contributed".) Cuts in discretionary spending and cuts to taxes do not increase federal outlays, whatever that made up term means. They increase federal deficits, which is the appropriate and well defined term. I think it would be more precise, and obviously more correct, to change the sentence to: "Reagan enacted cuts in domestic discretionary spending, cut taxes, and increased military spending which contributed to increased federal deficits, even after adjustment for inflation." 2600:1700:1111:5940:D9F6:63D1:857A:104 (talk) 16:21, 21 July 2018 (UTC)

spelling error in portion on Reykjavík summit.[edit]

at Reykjavík in October 1986, where they met alone, with translators but with no aides. To the astonishment of the world, and the discussed of Reagan's most conservative supporters

Obviously the word should be "disgust". I would propose, however, that a better word to use would be "chagrin" or "displeasure".

Hope this helps. 203.13.3.94 (talk) 06:48, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Done. Thank you for noticing. The section also included grammar errors. Dimadick (talk) 11:53, 25 July 2018 (UTC)

Changes to environmental policy[edit]

The article is missing a section on environmental policy changes introduced by Reagan.

His actions to severely inhibit the U.S. climate change movement and increasing the exploitation of fossil fuels may have most significant effects on the future of mankind and should be mentioned.

Please refer to chapter six of Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change By Nathaniel Rich for more information.

A little hard to take this seriously considering it claims that the science of Climate Change was "settled" in the 80's. (And it all could have been fixed then.) In actuality, this is the period when consensus was just beginning to form. The article also goes with the (oft repeated) idea that Carter would have somehow fixed this issue while omitting the fact that the cornerstone of Carter's energy plans (far more than the synthetic fuels program) was a two-thirds increase in coal production. Pound for pound, we are talking more CO2 production with Carter than without him. About the only nation that has eliminated this issue (in terms of emissions) is France and that is because of massive use of nuclear energy. And Reagan was a advocate of nuclear energy, while the same people who worry on this issue traditionally haven't been.Rja13ww33 (talk) 13:56, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 September 2018[edit]

Change 1949 to 1948 Coolguy1029 (talk) 03:47, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

Where in the article should this be changed and why should it be changed? This request seems to be too vague to be actionable. Sakura CarteletTalk 15:59, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Sir Joseph (talk) 16:43, 28 September 2018 (UTC)

Why is There No Mention of Reagan's Defunding of Solar Energy?[edit]

Why is there no mention in the article of Ronald Reagan's repeal and defunding of the solar energy research and business initiatives that had been begun under the presidency of Jimmy Carter? Aside from the glaring ommission of his anti-renewable energy stance, this article is very biased in its depiction of Ronald Reagan's political administrations. Apparently, the article has been written by pro-Reaganite supporters without any counterbalance from editors that don't see him as a god... How did this article get a gold star? How did that slip through the cracks? Stevenmitchell (talk) 18:07, 25 October 2018 (UTC)

Mostly because it did not matter to his main BLP. You could try Presidency of Ronald Reagan if you like though. PackMecEng (talk) 18:09, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
It would seem to me to be a fairly minor point in his Presidency. Solar (even by the most generous estimates) has very little potential in satisfying future power demands. (Due (in part) to it's intermittent nature.) In Reagan's time, the collapse of oil prices pretty much dealt a death blow to such research. Carter himself (as I note elsewhere on this page) slated the vast majority of future energy to come from coal.Rja13ww33 (talk) 18:16, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
As I mentioned above that is only the most immediately apparent gap. There have been a significant number of omissions in general on his history that are pushed in the press. There is nothing quite like rewriting history by suppressing information is there? It is a way of making a room look sunny even when it is cloudy overhead. Stevenmitchell (talk) 18:50, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
Eh, the info is already in the article it belongs in. PackMecEng (talk) 18:58, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
In my opinion there are a number of myths/distortions about the man that are regularly pushed by the media. But this is not a forum.Rja13ww33 (talk) 19:11, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
We are not talking about myths or opinions, just missing facts. This article only presents some "facts," many of which are skewed, that have been "selected" through the bias of their editors... It is a pervasive problem throughout Wikipedia, and a significant reason for why universities or vetted or peer-reviewed publications will never be able to use the contents of Wikipedia as "factual" contributions from a properly researched encyclopaedia. It will forever remain a mob-based reference. I assume that the two of you are here, because you are watchers who have assigned yourselves as "watchers" to "protect" or "guard" against editor contributions that do not meet your approval. That is thuggery, not collaboration, as was the original intention of this encylopaedic repository. Stevenmitchell (talk) 04:55, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
This version of the Reagan article was as is before I even contributed very much to it. So that assumption is incorrect. The article is actually in better shape than it has been in years. Facts need to be put into perspective. We cannot put every last thing that happened during his presidency into this article. (It's already been criticized for being too long.) So the significance has to be weighed. (Which I have done above.)Rja13ww33 (talk) 17:58, 27 October 2018 (UTC)
The problem with the article is the perspective. It is entirely one-sided and biased. You and your cohorts who are obviously fans, have rewritten history to remake Ronald Reagan into a myth, rather than a historical figure. Stevenmitchell (talk) 10:56, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
There is nothing "one-sided" about this article. I have noted the issues with your proposal. Personal attacks will get us nowhere.Rja13ww33 (talk) 13:04, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
And by the way (just to settle this)...the numbers for Federal R&D dollars are here: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22858.pdf (see Figure 1). As you can see Federal spending on all renewables wasn't even 2 billion (in 2016 dollars) in 1981. Even assuming this trend continued, what grand breakthrough would have happened with solar that didn't happen considering the hundreds of billions that have been spent on solar R&D globally since that time?Rja13ww33 (talk) 16:11, 16 November 2018 (UTC)

"That is thuggery, not collaboration, as was the original intention of this encylopaedic repository. " Stevenmitchell, may I remind you that we have a policy called Wikipedia:No personal attacks? : "Do not make personal attacks anywhere on Wikipedia. Comment on content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks harm the Wikipedia community and the collegial atmosphere needed to create a good encyclopedia. Derogatory comments about other editors may be removed by any editor. Repeated or egregious personal attacks may lead to sanctions including blocks or even bans."

I am not a fan of Reagan, and personally consider him to be much worse than Jimmy Carter. But the ONUS for including additional material is on you. "While information must be verifiable in order to be included in an article, this does not mean that all verifiable information must be included in an article. Consensus may determine that certain information does not improve an article, and that it should be omitted or presented instead in a different article. The onus to achieve consensus for inclusion is on those seeking to include disputed content." Dimadick (talk) 12:40, 16 November 2018 (UTC)