John Hinckley assasination attempt on Reagan

[Dimentio]

Some inches closer to the left, and history would have changed. I think the most bizarre thing with what would have happened is that Reagan's death would have been associated with Jodie Foster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hinckley

[Prairie Fire]

Some inches closer to the left, and history would have changed.

Not terribly so, I imagine.

Anyone who actually believes that a B-movie actor with alzheimers was calling the shots in the USA at one time, is almost as naive as anyone believing that a dopey drunk-driver from Conneticut (with a Texas accent :rolleyes:) has been leading the USA for the past 8 years.

The United States, like all bourgeois states, and it's various regimes are not dictatorships of individuals, but dictatorships of a class, which is the bourgeoisie class. If Reagan got winged, I doubt it would have made a difference.

[Revy]

Jodie Foster came out as a lesbian more recently. Though, that was kind of an open secret. So he really had no chance with her in the first place :thumbup:

[RHIZOMES]

Yeah and then George Bush Sr would have become President 8 years early! :lol: Man how much history would have changed...

/sarcasm

[Dimentio]

Not terribly so, I imagine.

Anyone who actually believes that a B-movie actor with alzheimers was calling the shots in the USA at one time, is almost as naive as anyone believing that a dopey drunk-driver from Conneticut (with a Texas accent :rolleyes:) has been leading the USA for the past 8 years.

The United States, like all bourgeois states, and it's various regimes are not dictatorships of individuals, but dictatorships of a class, which is the bourgeoisie class. If Reagan got winged, I doubt it would have made a difference.

Well, "history" as a subject is moree about perceptions then about content. George H.W Bush was practically - in reality - running the US already in the middle of Reagan's first term.

[ZeroNowhere]

It wouldn't have made that much of a difference. Nixon once famously stated, "We are all Keynesians now." This was at the birth of neoliberalism and inevitable fall of Keynesianism, and accordingly, US presidential candidates may have declared, "We are all neoliberals now."
Of course, that's not to say that Reagan's election was the major breakthrough for neoliberalism in the US, though it had been sneaking in during the Carter administration.

The only way it would have changed history is Reagan's current worshippers being even more religious than they are.

[Dimentio]

As said, more about perceptions than content. John Paul II;s visit to Poland for example, is said to have had an impact upon "the fall of communism".

People are moved by symbols.