I don’t think that you can so easily compare the two regimes. You seem to forget that the reforms in China were led by the Communist Party under the watchful gaze and encouragement of Deng Xiaoping, a veteran revolutionary. And that this process probably began in 1978 and some might claim harked back to some policies of the Chinese Communist Party of the late 1950s.
You also forget that the collapse of communism in russia, in a complete contrast, led to the collapse of the communist party there. In China, the reforms have not created a collapse of the political system.
In that sense, I think the gradual reforms in China have a far better claim to have been internally driven and iternally managed than the abrupt collapse that took place in Russia. A collapse that, in part because of its abruptness, seems to owe a lot more to outside pressure from the US and Europe.
Deng Xiaoping was purged by Maoists during their reign because of his ‘counterrevolutinary tendencies’ and only returned to power after they faded. Changes he set in motion have, by any honest evaluation, completely unraveled everything Mao stood for and tried to achieve.
The ‘Communist Party’ in China today is communist in name only. In reality it’s a mercantile oligarchy intent on the creation of wealth and national power, with private disregard, if not disdain, for everything Marxist, Leninist & Maoist, despite its public pronouncements that conditions today are merely the triumphal culmination of Marxist theory.
Castro is a good case in point as to how hard-line communism almost guarantees its generational demise. His self-aggrandizing cult of personality and fanatical covetessnous of power have created a system which can’t survive without his ego at its center.
[quote]Ronald Reagan was a standup guy of the old school. They don’t make them like that anymore.
RIP [/quote]
Well said, Spook.
I felt sorry for Reagan in his last years as he suffered from Alzeheimers. As someone whose grandparents suffered from this disease, I am grateful that Reagan’s family chose to go public with this information and brought more attention to this disease.
[quote]The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Daily HIV/AIDS Report for June 7, 2001 (see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below) also notes that the San Diego Union Tribune quoted Reagan as telling the conference, “Final judgment is up to God.”
In a 2001 speech at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s National Symposium on U.S. AIDS Policy, Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan’s surgeon general, said that due to “intradepartmental politics” he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan Administration – and that “because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisors to the President, [sic] took the stand, they are only getting what they justly deserve.” (For a link to the complete text of Koop’s speech, see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below.) [/quote]
[quote]The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Daily HIV/AIDS Report for June 7, 2001 (see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below) also notes that the San Diego Union Tribune quoted Reagan as telling the conference, “Final judgment is up to God.”
In a 2001 speech at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s National Symposium on U.S. AIDS Policy, Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan’s surgeon general, said that due to “intradepartmental politics” he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan Administration – and that “because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisors to the President, [sic] took the stand, they are only getting what they justly deserve.” (For a link to the complete text of Koop’s speech, see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below.) [/quote][/quote]
So, Reagan didn’t say “They that live in sin shall die in sin”, right?
[quote]The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Daily HIV/AIDS Report for June 7, 2001 (see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below) also notes that the San Diego Union Tribune quoted Reagan as telling the conference, “Final judgment is up to God.”
In a 2001 speech at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s National Symposium on U.S. AIDS Policy, Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan’s surgeon general, said that due to “intradepartmental politics” he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan Administration – and that “because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisors to the President, [sic] took the stand, they are only getting what they justly deserve.” (For a link to the complete text of Koop’s speech, see ARTICLES & RESOURCES below.) [/quote][/quote]
So, Reagan didn’t say “They that live in sin shall die in sin”, right?[/quote]
According to the article, no. I personally don’t know one way or the other.
[quote]From everything that we can ascertain from the historical record, Reagan’s religious background, feelings or beliefs had nothing to do with the political response to the AIDS epidemic. Rather, his appalling lack of leadership and vision
According to the article, no. I personally don’t know one way or the other.[/quote]
Well, why not say, “Gee, a source from a homosexual lobbying group has acknowledged that the quote was fake. Therefore I shall choose to acknowledge that it was fake”? Or do a quick Google search, and see the hundreds of other groups and people who did the research and learned it was a fraud on the part of CBS’s writers?
According to the article, no. I personally don’t know one way or the other.[/quote]
Well, why not say, “Gee, a source from a homosexual lobbying group has acknowledged that the quote was fake. Therefore I shall choose to acknowledge that it was fake”? Or do a quick Google search, and see the hundreds of other groups and people who did the research and learned it was a fraud on the part of CBS’s writers?[/quote]
Tigerman understands cuz he’s a lawyer.
honestly, because I don’t know enough one way or another. I figure you old people were actually were old enough to vote or not vote for this guy are better situated to voice an opinion.
and secondly, you must be old since you didn’t read further down my posts and check out the googolized articles/excerpt I dug up in support of the fact of a hoax, but tried to explain the context or reasoning behind such a ploy.
This is too sweeping. I think its wrong. But that is for another thread.
The point is that the Chinese reforms were an evolution; Russia’s were a collapse.
Much of China’s current policies hark back to China under the CCP in the 50s.
Russia’s change is of a different order altogether.
And i do think that the extra pressures of its particular role as the military counterweight to the US caused its collapse. reagan’s policies were partly responsible for that.
His role may be overstated on both sides - those that believe he did it single-handedly and those that believe it would have happened without him.
I doubt it. Not in the same way - not so soon.
But we do indeed have to give Gorbachev some credit, too.
The two leaders that inspired me the most in my formative years were Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. A lot of people have conveniently forgotten that when Reagan took over, most economists, government leaders, etc. all ASSUMED that communism was the trend and had already won the war, and that the West would gradually move toward increasing socialism etc. In fact, the opposite was true and we are much wealthier, healthier and happier because of that. Thank God for Reagan.
Out of respect for his passing, I think it would be insensitive to be overly critical of his life and accomplishments. I noticed Kerry has cancelled campaigning for awhile. Maybe next week it will come out that this whole thing was staged to gain sympathy votes for Bush.
The 1980s was truly the decade of the microbrewing pioneers. In a time when industry experts flat out refused to recognize their existence as anything serious, the pioneering companies emerged with their passion and a vision, serving their local communities a taste of full flavored beer and old world European traditions; all with what was to become a uniquely American character. Through extraordinarily difficult market conditions, the microbreweries and brewpubs of the 1980s struggled to establish the foundation for what was to become the proliferation of craft beer in America.[/quote]
