Word: reaganized
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...elected Congress immune from effective voter control." And ultimately "to dismantle the presidency" no less. Of course, 87% of the members of Congress are also fresh from election. But this doesn't count, the argument goes, because Congress has "less turnover . . . than in the Supreme Soviet," as former President Reagan has complained. Only six House incumbents lost re-election bids last year, and more than 85% of current members won by over...
...reasoning from these figures to the conclusion that Congress is "immune from effective voter control" is peculiar. Why is it that Ronald Reagan's 59% landslide re-election in 1984 constituted a mandate but the 60%-plus landslides run up by most members of Congress constituted a scandal? Why is the apparent Republican lock on the White House considered to be a profound ideological message from the voters, whereas the apparent Democratic lock on Congress is considered to be a sign that the system doesn't work...
...because of gerrymandering by state legislatures, most of which are controlled by Democrats. Gerrymandering certainly happens. But gerrymandering hardly explains why the Democrats have a large majority in Congress. Constituency election systems inevitably exaggerate majorities; that is part of their function. (How many times did you hear that Ronald Reagan carried 49 of 50 states? Yet he got barely 29 out of 50 voters.) In fact, though, the Democratic majority is not all that exaggerated. In 1988 in elections for the House, Democrats got 53% of the votes and won 59.7% of the seats. In the Senate, which is constitutionally...
Having failed in his effort two weeks ago to bring Ronald Reagan to the courtroom to testify on his behalf, North took the burden of his criminal defense upon himself. A risky move, it exposes him to cross-examination by the federal prosecutors and leaves him liable to a possible perjury charge if he contradicts his earlier testimony before the Iran-contra committees. Soft- spoken and earnest, he admitted lying to Congress as well as altering documents. But always, he insisted, he was following the orders of his White House superiors. In yet another melodramatic but memorable statement, he declared...
Shortly before North took the stand, the defense read to the jury an extraordinary 42-page "admission of facts," disclosing that secret efforts to provide support for the Nicaraguan contras involved not only North but also Ronald Reagan, former Secretary of State George Shultz, CIA Director William Casey and, most important, George Bush. The court paper was supplied by the staff of independent counsel Lawrence Walsh with the approval of Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. It had been drawn up to satisfy North's attorney, Brendan Sullivan, who had fought for months for the right to use classified documents to demonstrate...