Posted on 05/12/2005 5:56:19 AM PDT by RMrattlesnake
Ronald Reagan
By Darren Morrison
To my shame I had two chances to vote for him and didn’t. I turned 18 during the same year Reagan ran against president Carter. My parents were very political and Democrats to their core. It is not fair to compare them to the loose morals and pro-socialist Democrat party of today. My parents are old school Democrats, pro-union and strong on labor issues. Yet they are still Democrats. They have been left behind by the party they support. But growing up with them as I did I was a democrat in my early adult life. In my college years I was liberal. I felt that the world was in trouble and that governments had the solution. I was young. As I grew wiser I became more conservative. The sad thing is I missed out on voting for perhaps the greatest leader of my life time.
In my lifetime no president was loved by as many Americans as Ronald Regan yet hated so much by the people who would want to see this country destroyed. Reagan was able to draw votes from both parties. He won his elections by an overwhelming majority. If I can remember right he won in every state in the United States. He was the only leader I knew of that had a vision and made that vision clear. He didn’t follow the Republican Party lines - as time went on the Republicans followed his line.
Reagan was not a war hero. He was not the son of an oil rich family. Reagan was one of us. Reagan was what he said; a man of his word. He was honest and told you what he was going to do and he did everything to get that done. When Reagan took office I was in the military and after Carter it was in a sad mess. Morale was down and they were using old Vietnam era equipment that was decaying. Reagan came in and right away the enlisted were given much needed raises. Did you know that the lower ranks qualified for food stamps back then? Reagan cared about our Sailors, Marines, Soldiers and Airmen. Reagan brought back Pride in our military. I believe the reason the first gulf war was so successful was because of Ronald Reagan’s build up of our armed forces.
I grew up in the cold war. Thanks to Reagan my kids do not have to grow up in that. In fact, if the cold war had not ended it would have one day erupted in a nuclear holocaust. Reagan stood up to the evil communists and ended the cold war. If for no other reason Reagan deserves to be on Mount Rushmore. I remember when Reagan called the Soviet Union the evil empire. Reagan had the guts so tell the world what communists really were. I wish the George W Bush would follow Reagan’s example in the war on terrorism. Reagan was not afraid to stand up to our enemy and call them what they are to their face. Yes it was Reagan that brought down the iron curtain.
Reagan could pull even Democratic votes because he had a vision you could follow. During the Reagan years America had more democrats than it had republicans. Yet Reagan won with such a landslide it was unmatched in my lifetime. People loved Reagan and part of his charm was because he was one of us. He was not born into a powerful family or from some Ivy League College. Reagan was a man like any of us. He gave a sense that any person who worked hard at it had a possibility of becoming president of the United States.
Reagan had his share of critics and there were those who out right hated him, but if you try to do what is right evil people are going to get angry. This country was damaged because of the Marxism that was creeping in on this country. Our social fabric was being torn apart because of ideas brought to this country from ex-drug induced hippies from the sixties. I remember back then in the early eighties there was still some remnant from the sixties and there were those who longed to bring that time back, but Reagan stood in the way of the socialist pseudo-intellectual radicals from the sixties getting their agenda pushed on the American people. You can say that Reagan stamped out the sixties.
Reagan was a uniter and not a divider. All the presidents from the time I was born (Kennedy to G.W. Bush) could only unite people from there own political persuasion. But Reagan could even get some democrats to rally behind him. Just look at the number of democrats who voted for him. Reagan was truly a man of the People.
Behind every great man is a great woman. I believe that to be true. Nancy was tough where Reagan was weak. It was said, and I believe it that Reagan could not fire anyone. Nancy made sure to screen every applicant and make sure they were people Ron could count on.
Reagan was a man of God, a man who I believe prayed every day. Yes I know Reagan would have a glass of wine from time to time. Even so he was more Godly than any of the worldly leaders I can think of today. I look forward to shaking his hand when I get to heaven.
To sum this all up I think what was so wonderful about this man we know as president Reagan. He was not a Yale scull and bones or scroll and key man. He was not some war hero. He did not grow up in some rich family. He was a workingman who knew what it was like to get dirt under his fingernails. He went to a state college and worked hard to get where he was. He cared about people and you could tell. Bush and Clinton always come across a little phony but Reagan was the real thing. Reagan had a vision for what America could be. He did not care about people by creating government programs but by creating opportunity for people to make it for themselves. We could use a man like Reagan again. Thank you Reagan for all you have done, I am sorry I didn’t vote for you, but I am glad you were my President.
My 3 favorite leaders of my lifetime are on my page.
He just barely missed carrying Minnesota in '84...
I voted for Anderson over Reagan (in my more libertarian/liberal phase) the first time, and Ronald Reagan the second.
I did the same thing, Laz. I even worked his campaign in 1984 and had the opportunity to meet the great man at his campaign kickoff in Orange County, CA in 1984 (and was the butt of a joke he told to the campaign staff). A memory I'll cherish forever.
Who? if I amy ask.
Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul
Oh come on now, you can tell us the truth. You had Mondale bumper stickers on your car.
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