Read it again, Tom. I never said I expected the Reagan administration to lead to fascism, that's just when I first started thinking about it.

None of the conditions I mentioned were in place when Reagan was Prez, and although he had the charisma to pull it off, I don't think he wanted to be a dictator, or for that matter, felt it was necessary. Neither doers Bush, for that matter, and he's rather short on charisma as well, not to mention brains. Nixon might have, he certainly showed himself capable of doing whatever it took to destroy his enemies, although his paranoia brought him down in the end. But the conditions are definitely leaning that way now.

There were other conditions then which made a tyranny unlikely. For starters, the country still had the bitter taste of Watergate in its mouth, and no one wanted a repeat of that. It was just too gut-wrenching and scary. I don't know if you were old enough at the time to really understand just how scary it was. Even an impeachment seemed unthinkable in those days, it was just inconceivable that it would be necessary to dethrone a sitting president, even if he had been caught red handed-breaking into offices and wrecking people's careers,
not because they were suspected spies or enemy agents, but because they had the audacity to be speaking and writing against him.

Of course, in only a few years it became a lot easier to impeach Clinton for his breadcrumb sins, the body politic and the public debate had changed. Things got a lot meaner and uglier during the Reagan years with the rise of the New Right, and the simultaneous decline of the Old Left and the Democrats in general.

In fact, when Reagan himself got caught it wasn't for a little B&E and character assasination. Not only did he delberately and illegally conduct his little war in Central America against Congress's specific instructions, but he tried to do it by raising money from the nation's enemies, the same terrorists he had promised he would never negotiate with. In the end, they demonstrated more integrity than he did by telling him and his sleazeball Vegas houseboys to get packing, and take their choclate cake and matched pistols and Phantom parts with them. I have never been more ashamed for my country than when that sordid little episode became public. Reagan was the little fat boy who pays the schoolyard bully off with his lunch money and then brags how he never gets picked on because he's soooooo tough.

Oh sure, he was trying to get the hostages released. And if the scheme had worked he would have certainly taken credit for that, but we would never have found out about it. The right covered up for him and the left was too scared to stop them.

This is why I really can't take you very seriously when you whine about the liberal press and the big bad mainstream media. Where were all these socialist press lackeys when RR committed an impeachable offense by deliberately disobeying Congress's orders? Not only was there no hue and cry for impeachment, no one even pointed out
that his activities in Iran, bringing aid and comfort to a regime we were for all intents and purposes at war with, was also against US Federal law. He not only deserved to be impeached, he deserved to be hanged for the fucking traitor that he was.