[SMGFan]

I was only 16 at the time and I forgot about the details of the Senate victory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_elections,_1980

[SMGFan]

Yes “to” should be “Too”

[posterchild]

Exactly 1 year after hostages were taken in the US embassy in Iran.

[Tennessee Nana]

the 1st time I got to vote in the US as a naturalized American citizen..

A very good start

:)

[JPX2011]

Born in '79 so missed out on the Regan Revolution. But it was an interesting time being a little kid and going to elementary school in the 80's. In the time of movies like Rambo, Wargames and Red Dawn, etc. you had an acute sense of the Soviet threat.

I have this memory of drawing epic tank battles while in class and what was interesting is that I would draw a swastika on the tanks representing the Soviets, being too young to know the difference but intuitively making the link between that symbol (which as kids we knew was bad) and the Cold War rhetoric of the time.

Also reminds me of the time I was walking to school and I happened to see a US Army supply truck parked on the side of the road. Not having seen one before I came home and announced to the whole family that the Russians were coming and proceeded to set up trip wires in the yard.

So if 2014 is 1980 redux I'll be happy to see it. God I miss the 80's!

God I miss the 80's"

[ScaniaBoy]

Remember it like it was yesterday. At the time I was living in southern Sweden and watching the morning news with my whole family. We could get both the Danish and Swedish channels. The contrast was fantastic:

Danish TV showed clips of Ronald Reagan and Nancy smiling, happy crowds waving US flags. The news of the hostage release had come through.

Swedish television was doom and gloom. The question was how many weeks into Reagan’s reign before he would unleash WW III?

The propaganda was immense - and in those days it was more difficult to find alternative news sources. You had to subscribe to foreign newspapers and magazines (which we did).

Well, we celebrated Reagan’s victory, oblivious to how the rest of Sweden perceived the events. The same day my mother traveled to Stockholm for a meeting with her colleagues (all conservatives). They were shocked by the election result, but even more so when mother told them about the coverage on the Danish news. Unbelievable, they thought. The world was heading for disaster. How could anyone rejoice?

That was not the last time we got to see how little interest even so called conservatives had in the political events outside our borders, and how indoctrinated the media kept them.

Anyway, Reagan and Thatcher - some disaster! I’d take much more of the same anytime!

[lovesdogs]

I remember that day so well. I was 18 and so proud to cast my first vote. I got out of class at a little after 930p so excited to go home and watch electon returns with my dad. Once I got the car warmed up and grabbed a cup of coffee boy was I surprised to hear Carter concede the minute I turned on the radio.

I pray that at least one more time, I will have the privilege of casting a vote for a decent man who has the courage to state his values our loud and defend them at every challenge.

[muir_redwoods]

Reagan was the only president I ever voted FOR. I have, before and since voted AGAINST candidates.

[Dan in Wichita]

I was 21 years old on Election Day 1980, so I was casting my first vote for president. At that time, I thought I was a Democrat, so I voted for Jimmy Carter.

As the election returns were coming in that night, I was sad because my guy was gonna lose.

I decided I would listen to Reagan's victory speech. I was impressed and decided he deserved a chance and tepidly gave my approval. Let's see what Reagan can do, I told myself... and the rest is history.

Needless to say, I was first in line to vote for RR in 1984.

[defconw]

I was 16 as well.

[lormand]

As a democRAT, I cast my first vote ever *for* Ronald Reagan. With the exception of the 84’ election and my votes for Ted Cruz, I’ve been voting *against* democRATs ever since.

[VanDeKoik]

I was just about to turn 2, but his election gave me a wonderful 8 years of knowing what a real president is supposed to be like. Not to mention growing up in a country where being optimistic was the default setting.

[Sam Gamgee]

I was only 8 I guess, and all I knew about Reagan was he was a crazy old koot ready to blow up the world - I remember the Genesis video with the muppets and Reagan pressing the button. Then I grew up.

[abb]

Remember it well. It was one of the best days of my life, ever. I was honored to be the phone bank chairman for Lincoln Parish (county) here in North Louisiana. I can still recall the stunned appearance of Walter Cronkite and the NYT’s Tom Wicker that night.

[SamAdams76]

I was waiting to go to Parris Island when Reagan was swept into office. That was a pretty memorable year for me. The U.S. Olympic team won the hockey gold medal (Mike Eruzione lived in next town over from me), I graduated high school, enlisted in the Marine Corps and Reagan got elected - though the full significance of that was lost on my until a little later as I was still only 18 years old and politically naive.

About a month after Reagan's landslide, John Lennon was shot to death. That affected me much more greatly at the time. Some 35 years later, I hardly think about John Lennon at all but I think about Reagan constantly.

[Impy]

I was just a wink in my daddy’s eye in 1980.

On this day 30 years ago, I was a 13 months old, Ronald Reagan was reelected in one of the great landslides, I’m sure it was called very early, shortly after 8 eastern perhaps, he lost only DC, and by a scant margin, the home state of his foe, he’d have carried it if he tried.

But oh what a lonely landslide the 2nd one was was, we lost 2 net in the Senate (with Al Gore easily taking Baker’s open seat) and in the House, though I’m told Reagan carried 370(!) Congressional districts, only 181 of them elected Republicans (less than half!!! and 1 Republican was elected in a Mondale district, Bill Green in Manhattan).

We could end up with as many as 250 House seats this January, Ronnie wasn’t old enough to vote the last time there were more (270 elected in 1928). Gotta think he’s smiling somewhere.

[DoodleDawg]

I was one day old that November 4th so yeah, I was too young to remember.

[going hot]

I was shooting pool with a guy trying to convince me that Reagan would start a nuclear war with the USSR as soon as he was sworn in.

I sunk the 8, took his money and laughed my *** off.

Reagan was a whole eight years of fresh air.

[AF_Blue]

November 1989 I was in England at RAF Mildenhall, watching the celebration at the Berlin Wall, and watched the Wall come down.

Thank you, President Reagan.

[trisham]

"It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit
ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe,
doomed to an inevitable decline.

I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do.
I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.

So, with all the creative energy at our command,
let us begin an era of national renewal.
Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength.
And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams.
Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes,
they just don't know where to look."

~Ronald Reagan

please click the pic
donate today!
Help support and sustain Free Republic