President Reagan’s conviction that low tax rates and simplified regulation would lead to prosperity led to the one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in American history. Where the 1970s were a decade of “malaise,” the 1980s became a decade of optimism, wealth, technological innovation, and, of course, ‘80s music.
The economy was not the only area in which President Reagan changed the course of history. The 1970s had been a decade overshadowed by Vietnam and America’s abandonment of its ally. America was viewed as weak by its adversaries around the world. Arab nations punished the US for standing by Israel by launching an oil embargo and raising the price of oil to the unheard of price of $11 per barrel on other nations. I do remember sitting in long lines to get gas. The communists were on the march in Afghanistan, Asia, Africa, and Central America. In Iran, a revolution deposed the Shah and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini while the American embassy staff was held hostage.
President Reagan changed much of that. President Reagan made it cool to love America again.
Much of the change in attitude came from the Gipper’s pervasive optimism and humor. Much of it was also due to the fact that he backed up his words with action. President Reagan revitalized the American military and freed one country, Grenada, from communism with direct action by American soldiers. American aid and advisors went to other countries such as Nicaragua, the Philippines, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Afghanistan.
The American struggle against Islamic terrorism was just starting and President Reagan fought back. In 1983, a suicide bomber killed 241 US Marine peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1986, President Reagan ordered an airstrike on Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya in retaliation for support of terrorists. Terrorist bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings were commonplace. Americans were targeted, but not on US soil.
The hallmark foreign policy triumph of President Reagan’s tenure was the fall of the Soviet Union. The US military buildup, including the experimental Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”), was something that the Russians could not keep up with. In particular, SDI forced the Soviets to come to the negotiating table. The Berlin Wall fell in 1988 and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist in 1991. Both were after Reagan left office, but he was one of the prime architects of the victory, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. Just a few years earlier, in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Soviet communism had seemed unstoppable.
In the twenty-two years since he left office, Reagan’s mystique has even reached the Democrats. President Obama is on record as admiring President Reagan. However, Obama’s admiration of Reagan does not extend to his policies. Obama’s policies have more closely mirrored FDR’s disastrous New Deal or Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy blunders. Rapidly expanding government, high unemployment, rising inflation, national despondency, and a failure to push an international freedom agenda make 2011 look eerily like 1979. Reagan’s policies of economic and political freedom work as well in the twenty-first century as they did in the twentieth (or the nineteenth for that matter).
In 1980, Georgia voted for Jimmy Carter. In 1984, Georgia corrected that mistake by voting, along with every other state except Minnesota, to send President Reagan back to Washington for four more years. We can hope that history repeats itself once again and that the nation unites behind a strong conservative leader who will reverse the growth of government at home and confront tyrants abroad.
Here are a few of President Reagan’s words of wisdom:
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
This article is continued from Part 1: When President Reagan came to town
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/when-president-reagan-came-to-town
Comments
You forgot the classic "Tear down this Wall".
It was coming down anyway. Yet it amazed the simpletons back home to no end.
Reagan was a New World Order first. An actor portraying a US president who would take direction from the people he sold his soul to.
Every president since had done the same. These people aren't leaders, they're puppets. You're telling me that out of over 300 million people in this country, folks like George Bush is the best we can do? Come on.
We're all being taken for a ride. The scary part is you think you're driving.
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Just ten years before the wall came down, the Soviets were invading Afghanistan and spreading communism in our own backyard. If it weren't for Reagan, they would have been successful.
If all presidents take direction from the same people, then why are their policies so wildly different?
Was Ronald Reagan ever hated by the Anti-Defamation League? Because the Tea Party (RINOs) is hated by the Anti-Defamation League.
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Keep up the good work David!
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