Gosh, I remember that so well! I was around 19 or so, and I recall thinking, "Is this what my adult life is going to be like?" There was a dismal pall over the whole country. We had gas shortages, gas rationing, the hostages in Iran. Carter was pulling the rug out from under US-supporting governments and promoting the Sandinistas.
I eventually turned off the news and went out to serve my church in the mission field. The Church sent me to France where I got a close look at socialism first-hand. Working among the Arabs, trying to convert them to Christianity, the Iranians, Moroccans, and Algierians we visited openly mocked America.
Then came Reagan. Being in the mission field, I really couldn't follow his election very closely, but the French media and all the Arabs hated him. Two weeks before the inauguration, there came a knock at our apartment door. It was a group of Iranian students who threatened to come after us if Reagan sent troops in Iran. When Reagan was inaugurated, a Frenchman called us in to watch the "cowboy" get elected. As "unplugged" as I was from US news at the time, there was a perceptible transformation of the United States that took place.
Over the next year, the French media were "peeing" on themselves because Reagan was going to put the Pershing missiles in NATO to counter the Russian's SS-20s in East Germany. They villainized the guy, but you know what. The Arabs didn't mess with us any more and the French people showed a whole lot more respect for him than they did for "the peanut farmer."
When I came home from my mission, America was a different place. The world was a different place because of it. Carter's "malaise" was gone. Reagan's optimism and vision transformed the US at home and in the world. Even the Clinton years, as bad as they were, didn't approach the sense of hopelessness that was fostered by the Carter regime. The Cold War could have turned out very differently. Thank God for Ronald Reagan!
GW
thanks for sharing your # 204
And the democrats today still say the Reagan years were the worst. Such know nothings. I am just greatful I was employed through that entire mess. It sure was a 4 years of crap. On top of that, Carter gave away the Panama Canal back to the Panamanians who did n't want it and it is now being managed by China. So now we have Chinese Military wandering around in Mexico and South America. The man is an uneducated peanut farmer who deserves no respect.