Happy Birthday President Reagan
Posted on 02/06/2002 1:23:35 AM PST by JohnHuang2
MIAMI - Ronald Reagan turns 91 Wednesday. He has lived longer than any other U.S. president, a man widely respected and beloved, but his family plans an observance that is more commemoration than celebration.
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Ronald Reagan is the reason I became interested in politics in the first place.
I didn't know much about 'issues' back then, beyond what I knew from high school; monetary policy, the Laffer curve, M1 -- none of that stuff particularly interested me. Yet.
Back in those days, I shared a typical cynicism for politics in general.
'They're all crooks', my dad would tell me. 'Every last one of them'.
Ronald Reagan changed all that.
There's something so utterly different about him. Something so honest, so genuine, so real. Intuitively, you know you could trust him. Believing in him comes so naturally.
It's hard to believe more than twenty years have slipped by since that grand and glorious night of triumph. The former governor of California -- written off by the media as a Hollywood joke and a loser-- had swept the nation in a landslide, crushing incumbent President Jimmy Carter, 51%-40%. In electoral votes, Reagan's victory was truly colossal: 489-49.
The Reagan revolution was born -- and America never looked back.
Candidate Reagan promised a renaissance; President Reagan delivered.
The 'Laffer curve' burst onto the scene -- and into the lexicon. The presstitutes derided the idea with burlesque contempt. To the pompous elite set, who clung to Keynesianism like some pagan religion, the notion of lowering taxes was itself anathema. But the Laffer curve went beyond that, promising, if implemented, to revive the economy, kill inflation while raising revenues.
'Sheer lunacy! Unvarnished buffoonery!', the liberals scoffed.
They mockingly dubbed it "Reaganomics".
Eight years later, guess who had the last laugh?
Not only did Reagan put the kabosh on the Carter recession, he sparked the longest peace-time expansion in American history. Revenues, contrary to the naysayers, exploded as lower taxes restored incentives to work, save and invest. Inflation? Ha! Are you kidding? A little dose of "Reaganonics" and poof! It was gone. Interest rates -- as high as 22% under Carter -- followed suit, plummeting back into single digits.
The "experts" had egg on their faces.
But Reagan's Presidency was more than just about economics. A lover of liberty, Reagan hated communism, and all the evil it represented. He spoke out against it at every opportunity, loudly, clearly, fervently -- even against the counsel of his closest advisors. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these walls!", Reagan thundered before a cheering crowd at the Brandenburg Gate. Bureaucrats from Foggy Bottom weren't too happy -- they kept trying to scratch out that line from his speech! They just didn't get it.
President Reagan loved freedom, passionately, fervidly, fiercely. His Presidency was a tribute to it. It's why he called the Soviet Union the Evil Empire, rightfully condemning its appalling record on human rights. The shilly-shally "establishment" had a conniption fit.
But President Reagan was also the quintessential optimist. He knew communism's days were numbered, turning the cherished policy of containment on its head.
At a Notre Dame commencement address in 1981, President Reagan, in these immortal words, confidently predicted communism's eventual demise:
"The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom, and for the spread of civilization. The west will not contain communism, it will transcend communism. We will not bother to denounce it; we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written."
In less than a decade, those words were vindicated. The west went on to win the Cold War, with President Reagan leading the way. The critics, yet again, were wrong.
Small wonder why an overwhelming majority of Americans remember the Gipper so fondly.
President Reagan's poise and grace -- even under the most excruciating circumstances -- is the stuff of legends. Barely two months into his Presidency, an attempt was made on his life.
As the nation anxiously waited for word on the Gipper, his famous wit and charm was unflinching.
Reagan had just regained consciousness in the emergency ward at George Washington University Hospital, when he jokingly said to a nurse who was holding his hand: "Does Nancy know about us?"
"Honey, I forgot to duck", he told Nancy Reagan moments later.
He uttered his most memorable quip that day as he laid on the operating table just before surgery. Gazing up at his surgeons, he said: "Please tell me you're all Repubicans".
Yep, that's the Gipper we all know and love.
Happy Birthday, President Reagan!
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Happy Birthday President Reagan
Do you mind if I republish it on TaxFreeTennessee this morning. (Complete with a FR link, of course.) I am setting up today's edition now.
Of course not -- go right ahead =^)
Thank you both! JH2--for the beautiful heartfelt essay on a man that history has only began to measure the contributions of, and kattracks, a wonderful photo tribute showing this great man in both his strength and his gentleness.
It brought tears to my eyes to remember how fortunate and blessed we are as a nation that God gives us the best leaders in times of crisis, including today.
God bless you, President Reagan...and Happy Birthday!
For the Gipper........
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