Reagan vs. Lincoln, Logical Analysis.
Reagan was a bad President and Lincoln was a great one, right? Wrong. Sure, there were actions that Reagan took domestically that some didn't like. (He was a believer in those who could take care of themselves doing so.) His greatness was shown in his international accomplishment of "winning" the cold war against Communism and ending the nuclear arms race with Russia. Many have forgotten, and young persons never knew, what an effect that the end of the cold war had on the world. First, it brought freedom to 300,000,000 persons . The most important result, however, was that the burden of the fear of nuclear war was eliminated. This constant fear pervading the world was a prime cause of stress and malaise. In the U.S. the "duck and cover" exercises created tremendous fear of nuclear annihilation among children. The fear of nuclear war created the stress and lackadasical attitudes of millions of persons. After the end of the cold war, and the terminitation of the nuclear arms race, the attitudes of the persons of the entire world improved greatly and thus created positive feelings. I remember the feelings of relief when that happened, and economists admitted that this euphoria would help the great recovery.
Lincoln is revered as one of the greatest Presidents, but in my opinion he was one of the worst. During his administration, he established the IRS and income tax, suspended Habeas Corpus, established the draft, and,at first, only emancipated slaves owned by Confederate States leaving 300,000 persons under slavery. However his worst action was presiding over the Civil War while not being able to negotiate an end to it. During this war, approximately 600,000 American casualties occurred. These are more casualties than all the wars in our history. This was a terrible tragedy in which Lincoln and Davis just threw men into battle while knowing darn well that most of them would be casualties, without even trying to negotiate until several years into the war. I just cannot get over the heinous behavior of Lincoln and Jefferson. Sorry, Lincoln was not a great President. He was a disaster. I believe that Reagan will prove to be a great President based on his actions against Communism and nuclear proliferation, but years probably will have to pass before a final judgement can be made definitively.