Posted on 06/06/2004 8:19:52 PM PDT by miner89
Ronald Reagan Believed in America
It is hard to know what to write upon the passing of Ronald Reagan. President Reagan had such a deep impact on American and conservative thinking that it is strange to even contemplate what the current state of political thought would be without his presidency.
I have noticed already in coverage of his death a still persistant denial on the left and in the leftist media of the true legacy of Ronald Reagan. According to these sophesticates, Reagan was a simplistic man. They are right.
What they never understood and still do not understand is that there is a great power in the right sort of simplicity. Ronald Reagan believed in that sort of simplicity, the simplicity of principals and ideals.
To the sophisticate, the measure of a man is the ability to follow with excruciating attention all the miriad of details that arise and interact in complex situations. The ultimate leader is one who can manage all the fine details, fixing complex problems with complex plans and implementation.
The problem with such an approach is that ultimately one sees only the details and not the forces driving the complexity. Amazingly, in our world, complex behavior is almost always driven by very simple principles that interact resulting in greater and greater complexity. Understanding this, it is often useful to address the simple principles directly, which cuts through all the detail and gets directly to the root of the problem.
Ronald Reagan understood the importance of focusing on principle over procedure. And he knew that average Americans understood these things too. And so, he talked to us, explained the importance of basic principles, that freedom was good, that communism was evil, and that America was a great place to live.
Many in the media and academia never under why Reagan was great because they never understood why America was great. That the principles of freedom, democracy, and capitalism were superior to dictatorship, communism, and socialism. They believed that if we just had the right plan we could cooperate with the socialists and negotiate peace without any conflict.
Ronald Reagan dared challange the world with the principles he believed in, the principles of American greatness. In doing so, he accomplished a far greater victory than a truce with communism. He tore down the wall.
"An America that is militarily and economically strong is not enough. The world must see an America that is morally strong with a creed and a vision. This is what has led us to dare and achieve. For us, values count" - Ronald Reagan
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