President Barack Obama said Friday in his final press conference of the year that Ronald Reagan would “roll over in his grave” if he knew how many Republican voters supported Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“How did that happen? It happened in part because for too long, everything that happens in this town and everything that’s said is seen through the lens of does this help us or hurt us relative to Democrats or relative to President Obama. And, unless that changes, we are going to continue to be vulnerable to foreign influence because we lost track on what it is that we are about and what we stand for.,” Obama said.
Since news broke that Russia directly influenced and hacked the DNC in order to sway the election for Donald Trump, some Republicans have shrugged. Obama said Friday that was because partisanship in the U.S. has begun outweighing unity against foreign powers trying to influence our elections.
“You start to see certain folks in the Republican Party and the Republican Voters sudden finding a government and individuals who stand contrary to everything that we stand for as being okay because that’s how much we dislike Democrats,” Obama said.
The president cited a poll showing that 37 percent of Republican voters approved of Putin.
Obama warned that something needed to change.
“If we want to really reduce influence for our elections, we better think about how to make sure that our political process and political dialogue is stronger than it is been,” Obama said.
Reagan is whirling in his grave but he already was.
All roads to this debacle lead back to Reagan but he was nothing if not a symbol of his idea of the dignity and power of the office and he would be appalled in the first place at how it is being dragged down into the gutter.
As far as the GOP playing footsie with the Russians goes, it isn’t just Reagan. Those of us who grew up during the Cold War are pretty gobsmacked. But Zombie Reagan by rights should rise up out of his grave and go right for Mitch McConnell.
The word you are groping for, Mr. President, is “spin.”
Not so sure about the dignity of the office. Ronnie’s false bonhomie wasn’t very dignified–he never really rose above being the B-movie actor.
I agree with you but most of the country didn’t and that doesn’t really address how Reagan himself saw things.
Thing is I’m debating whether or not he would hate it. The Cold War was the highlight of his career, but looking at his presidency I can see nothing but a weak little man who just let his Rep buddies do what they wanted while he stood by and acted like his beloved 50s were coming back. He didn’t care about anything other than white heterosexual men which was why basically everyone else who got screwed over were invisible to him.