What is upsetting about Reagan's name being added to Washington National Airport?

Because Reagan was a dick.

They could name a sewage treatment plant after him though.

Probably because the names “Washington” and “Reagan” probably shouldn’t be seen with equal weight.

I don’t understand it either. An airport can be named after John Wayne but not Reagan? wtf?

Reagan’s name is synonymous with partisan politics and was instrumental in creating national and worldwide issues which we are still dealing with today.

@jonsblond John Wayne shouldn’t have an airport named after him anymore than Nicholas Cage should when he passes. The US loves actors though.

All in all, it’s not a big deal though. Names are essentially unimportant. People don’t avoid the airport because Reagan’s name is on it because planes still fly in and out. The function is what’s important more than the empty symbolism.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic Can’t wait for Schwarzenegger Airport. ~

@jonsblond I’ll remember that when I need to get to the choppa!

@Qingu . . .It would be nice to see some hard facts as to why Reagan was a “dick”.

That was almost too perfect. Did you guys rehearse that?

As a native Washingtonian (well, just outside), I was absolutely appalled when they changed the name of our airport for a living president, who was not a particularly well-loved man locally.

Why is it wrong to name something after someone live? I must’ve missed that day in school.

Norm Minetta has an airport named after him and there’s a lot of people who disapprove of that.

Aren’t pretty much all presidents considered dicks by a good amount of the population? Do we need to wait until they are dead so most of the people alive have forgotten why they might be considered dicks?

Actually, I kind of get the living president thing.

@Supacase The only “Dick” we’ve had for president was Nixon.

There was a special irony in naming an airport after Reagan. He famously broke a strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization…by firing over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers who refused to return to work. I think some people saw naming an airport after him as a great big “fuck you” to labor unions.

Details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_%281968%29

@nikipedia I had totally forgotten that! Thanks for refreshing my memory.

@Sarcasm Typically, we wait to lionize our presidents until after they are gone. In this case, it was doubly insulting because the airport was already named Washington. You know, the first president?

I watched a friend “Jake” die from AIDS. He had never had sex. He just got some bad blood during an operation. And I did actually see him die. I was with him when he took his last breath.

Reagan pushed the idea that it was only a gay problem and he didn’t do shit. For that he can fuck off.

The fact that it is the airport in our nation’s capital confers a kind of special status on it that ought to be reserved for someone worthy. An airport in LA doesn’t have the same standing. It would have made more sense to name that one after Reagan. He wasn’t a standout, presidentially speaking (or theatrically speaking, if it comes to that). And as augustlan says, this airport is already named after a president—our first.

One good reason not to name things after a living person is that they aren’t through doing whatever they’re going to do and still have time to disgrace themselves. (Parents who name their newborn darlings after currently popular entertainers often find out what’s wrong with that idea.) Another is that it can just inflate them too much in the minds of the people.

I agree that naming the San Jose airport after Norm Mineta was premature. This is not the same as naming the student union after a huge benefactor of the university.

Other than that he was a senile, demented, race-baiting, dishonest, antisocial, disingenuous, war-promoting, gay-bashing piece of shit who trashed our economy and fought against ameliorative programs for people with AIDS, no reason.

Renaming National Airport was part of a giant late-90s push to name something in every state after Ronald Reagan before he died. Regardless of whether he deserved this honor (he was President, but he was also a dick and not a very good one), conservatives in this country want to use his name again and again to push their own Reagan-esque agenda. Ronald Reagan is still a largely popular figure in mainstream America, and by tacking his name on everything, Republicans can claim kinship.

Let’s see if they try the same thing with their most recent fuck-up of a President.

One thing Reagan was good at was being charismatic. The neat tailored appearance, the twinkle in the eye, and the folksy manner all appealed to a lot of folks who actually had no idea of what he did or didn’t do as President. Thus, a lot of people think of him fondly and thus he is a popular figure, even going so far as to be the first ever President to have been divorced (a political no-no).

In addition, he died with Alzheimer’s, which is a truly tragic disease (not that others aren’t, like my mother’s Parkinson’s). In any case, he has been transformed into a lovable and tragic character, hence folks like naming things for him.

Besides, was Washington National named for George, or was it named for the town it serves?

His two most memorable achievements for me were the breaking of PATCO, the air traffic controllers union mentioned above in this thread, and his granting of amnesty to a large number of otherwise illegal farm workers, which effective wiped out the UFW (United Farm Workers) a union that Cesar Chavez and others had spent decades building for the protection of farm workers, mainly in California.

I call these memorable because it showed him for the hypocrite he was. You would expect a former president of SAG (Screen Actors’ Guild) to be less anti-union.

Well, he also allowed the weapons for hostages trade (Iran/Contra), and should have been impeached for it.

Although Reagan was one of the worst US presidents in my opinion there’s one good memory: “Tear down this wall!” he told Mikhail Gorbachev. Well, it came true years later.

I’m glad they don’t start naming airports after popular brands. Imagine Pepsi National Airport or Goldman Sachs International Airport. I wouldn’t mind a Fluther Space Port on Mars.

@mattbrowne – They already do that with stadiums, ballparks, and Bowl games.

QUALCOMM Stadium, San Diego
American Bank Center, Corpus Christi
Bank of America Stadium (in which is held the Meineke Car Care Bowl), Charlotte
Reliant Stadium, Houston
Raymond James Stadium, Tampa
Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
Gillette Stadium, Buffalo
Comerica Park, Detroit
Tropicana Field, Tampa
U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago
Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Minute Maid Park, Houston

And so on.

@Darwin – Same here. In Nuremberg the stadium is called EasyCredit Stadium. See

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

Easy credit? Now look what this crack-brained concept has done to the world!

You think airports are next?

I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, to get your company name on something big like a stadium or an airport you have to hand over a lot of money.

Hey, maybe that’s how we can pay for health care!

@Darwin – I wonder what will happen to the euro – dollar exchange rate when Larry Page and Sergey Brin replace Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill. Sponsored by Google.

I don’t know, but if they put Sebastian Deisler or Heidi Klum on the euro would that make its value go up or down?

@Darwin – Does the exchange rate depend on beauty or intelligence?

@Darwin we also have Petco Park here in San Diego for Baseball.

@mattbrowne – I think Sebastian is actually rather attractive, even if he didn’t turn out to be the champion folks hoped he would be. Heidi isn’t my type. Perhaps we need to define “beauty”?

@Sarcasm I know but the list was getting too long.

@mattbrowne If they started selling naming rights for airports, we could have some interesting combinations.
For example, Apple Macintosh Airport might be popular because it doesn’t crash as often.

@filmfann – Yes, I’d take aisle seats (not windows) and avoid planes which land at Vista International Airport and rather jump on the Linux train.