system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Ronald Reagan is responsible for the worst domestic/foreign policy failures in modern US history.

The level of adulation for Reagan among conservatives is incredible to me. Nearly every Republican nominee has tried to tie themselves to his legacy during the debates. Ted Cruz has barely been able to hide his erections at the mere mention of Reagan's name. 


I find it difficult to reconcile this adoration with my opinion that  Regan has been directly responsible for two of the worst policy decisions in modern US history:  

**War on Drugs**  
I can't think of a more harmful domestic policy over the last 50 years. It has cost hundreds of billions of dollars, with literally no measurable impact on the prevalence of drugs in America. Worse, it has sent millions of young men to our prisons for victimless crimes and forced their children to grow up in homes devoid of father figures, thus forcing them to look elsewhere for male role models and greatly increasing their chances of repeating the cycle.


**Cold War Strategy in the Middle East**  
Under Reagan, the United States funded fringe Islamist groups like the Muhajideen in Afghanistan in an effort to combat the threat of Communism. For all the credit Reagan gets for winning the Cold War, he rarely gets blamed for the long-term consequences of this strategy. Sure it contributed to the Soviet Union suffering a major defeat in Afghanistan, but it also introduced/fortified a dangerous radical Islamic presence into the region. Back then we called them "freedom fighters" and hosted them in the White House, but these are the same groups that would eventually morph into the Taliban, Al-Queda and ultimately ISIS. It seems evident now that Reagan's strategy was, at best, incredibly short-sighted.
gpt
It's a bit unfair to blame Reagan for all the "War on Drugs" when it was Nixon who started it. The idea didn't pop up during Reagan's time in office, it was one of Nixon's campaign platforms.

And Reagan's administration did use diplomacy to push Gorbachev to dismantle the USSR. That's a good thing! To not have two superpowers polarizing the world is a good thing.