I owned a struggling small business during the Carter years. I remember our President telling us the future was dim. We were being held hostage by OPEC and a flagging economy while Americans citizens were being held in captivity by Iranian terrorists. The country was reeling from one crisis to another. For those of you too young to remember those days, it was very similar to America today. During the Carter Administration the news media coined a new expression, "the Misery Index." This was the combination of inflation, unemployment, and mortgage interest rates, all in the high double digits. Malaise was what they called this brush with socialism. Yes kids, that's another similarity. Mr. Carter never observed a problem that was not best served by a bigger and more involved government.

Then along came Ronald Reagan. Media talking heads labelled him "Bonzo", after the lead character in one of his B movies, "Bedtime for Bonzo". I believe Bonzo was a monkey, today that would be a racist thing to say. The media was never kind to conservatives. During the primaries the country club republicans labeled Reaganomics "Voodoo Economics!" The party was split, as usual. Somehow Reagan prevailed in the primaries, then mopped the floor with Carter by offering hope for a better tomorrow and a cool confidence that gained the return of the hostages from Iran on inauguration day. Freely offered on the very first day of a new era of American Exceptionalism.

He brought a couple of youngsters along with him to engineer the economy. John Rutledge, a recent college graduate with a very short resume and different ideas about capital formation. And Art Laffer, the inventor/discoverer of the Laffer curve. They say he first drew the graph on a cocktail napkin. How American is that? Together with the help of a bi-partisan Congress they laid the cornerstone of Reaganomics and the largest post war expansion of the American economy in history. The momentum carried through Reagan's 2 terms, G.H.W. Bush's 1 term, Bill Clinton's 2 terms, and the first term of G.W. Bush. That's about 24 years of momentum. While this was going on, Reagan, "The Gipper", was rallying the citizens of this great Nation. He caused us to believe in our own ability to do better, be better, and create a better lifestyle than the progressive Utopia could ever afford. It was right there, for the grabbing. All we need do is look up at the possibilities instead of down to all the problems. Work together to solve our own problems rather than wait for a government man to "help" us. Progressives will say Bush, the younger, screwed it up. In my opinion I believe it was Usama Bin Laden. He caused us to divert trillions of dollars, at all levels of government and business, on security and other measures we had not planned on spending. That took a lot of steam out of the forward expansion

Why do I create this short synopsis for those that weren't here to remember? To try, in my feeble writing style, to communicate to the generations that follow me, there is a better way. The last great hope of mankind still lives. To all the 99%ers I would say, you have more ability to solve your own problems, rise above the obstacles before you, and become the people you were meant to be, than any EBT card and monthly gov't entitlement can commute. All you need is leadership, an idea, motivation, and a path cleared of government red tape. That may seem impossible, but it can happen over night. It already did in November of 1980.

And to the elders I would say it is our responsibility to provide the generations to come with these four simple tools listed above. Progressives win elections by offering equal success to all. That is a lie! Success is a do it yourself proposition. I can't give my daughter success. I can give her money, but that is not success. Success is creating your own personal magnificent obsession, then each day working to fulfill that dream. It's the step by step journey to something worthwhile. In making that journey the money, marbles, and chalk come along with it, naturally. I can't give her or any younger a dream. If we as elders can give them leadership, motivation, and remove the regulation nightmare, I believe they will supply their own ideas. That's the way I see America, and that's why I am a follower of AS.

The guy was hopeful, and he made us feel good about being Americans again, after the shame of Carter, after Watergate, after the RINO Nixon (whom Reagan ran against previously), etc...

How couldn't you like the guy?

Read Dinesh D'Souza's book "Ronald Reagan - How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader", and Peggy Noonan's "When Character was King" to get some background on the man. Just a great guy.

I mean, there's tons of stories about him, but one, when he was Governor, there was some random hippie protest, and it was either a sit-in or a "die-in" where the students would just act like they were dead (they did lots of stupid stuff). I think this one was a sit-in, and he's walking about of the auditorium building through campus, and they're all just sitting there silently "protesting". He walks past them and starts to tip-toe, and goes "shhh..." and even the protesters start to chuckle.

Back then, I was an Alex P. Keaton, the character from Family Ties that idolized Reagan. I was a dork that acted two to three times my age, and was proud to do so. Reagan was smart enough to realize that his job was putting people in place to succeed and letting them do what they were good at.

He was REVILED by all in Washington and one of the few who has been there in my lifetime that I actually supported.

I think today is an appropriate day for each of us to "remember that the crisis we are facing .... After all, why shouldn't we believe that.... We are Americans." - Ronald Reagan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_OGDOb...

He took an America which was sliding rapidly into the Mr. Thompson paradigm... combined with Carter's bad habit of not being a strong leader (Diplomat? Sure. Bring opposite sides together? You bet. Powerful leader that made America look strong and proud? Um... not.) and turned it, and the national view of itself, around and made us once again proud to be Americans. Damned proud.

Of course, he did have his down sides... in more than one issue he was the "face" behind other politician's mechanizations... I remember hearing more than once (from both sides) that he was an actor, playing a part, in essence a Puppet President... but not unlike what Putin did in Russia recently (maybe this is where Vlad got his idea from???) he gave something to his country that had been devastatingly missing for years - national pride. Took us from a nation of self-hating wimps to a national superpower that could - and did - stand up to our enemies,, foreign, and would not have allowed the current horsepucky of enemies, domestic we are so rampantly stuffed with.

I can see... in a nation where, electing Empress Klinton to replace King Obama, a return to the America we despised and detested in the Carter era... a weak willed, soft nation begging our enemies to please break down our gates and pseudo-"forcing" us into islamo-communism. Look at how we've already thrown that gate wide open... and just wait for 8 more years...

God, how I miss that man. When I think of what did him in, not unlike his counterpart in Britain, it makes me sad. Lost a great generation, we did.

The ONLY great modern-day president, and a good man as well...

I also posted this on the other Reagan post:

I was recently in Southern California and visited the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. If you are ever in the area I can't recommend it too highly. There are great exhibits about every aspect of his career, and the actual Air Force One that he and six other presidents used. I watched the videotape of his speech concerning the Iran-Contra affair. He made a straightforward admission of what had happened, took full responsibility, said he had made mistakes, pledged to take action against those responsible, and then vowed to move on. What a contrast to our current weasel in chief!

For me, perhaps the most rewarding part of the visit were the countless reminders of Reagan's irrepressible optimism. As the article notes, he took office at a time when the economy was a wreck and the nation was mired in a deep "malaise," (Jimmy Carter's term). Reagan knew that if the government got out of the way and people were allowed to pursue their ambitions and dreams, the economy would take care of itself. He did his best to get the government out of the way (he had to work around a Democratic congress) and lo and behold, the economy took care of itself!

Reagan also knew that communism was a dead end and would collapse of its own weight. He stood up to the Soviets, refused to back away from the Strategic Defense Initiative (and even offered to share it with them), challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall (there was a tape of that speech at the Reagan library--fabulous), and lo and behold, the Soviet Union crumbled!

Reagan made mistakes and I didn't agree with him on everything, but I think he was the 20th Century's best president. The man had not only substance but style, and the many "beautiful people" and intelligensia of the time who ridiculed him as an idiot now stand revealed, in the light of history, as the true idiots. The Reagan library is a fitting tribute to the man.

Hello RonC,
Great thread. Good comments, particularly your synopsis. Those were the days. I do not expect perfection, but I am repulsed by malfeasance.
Respectfully,
O.A.