Under Carter, the prime interest rate was 21%, and inflation was in double digits. To live in an economy like that was pretty scary. Carter was completely unable to do anything to solve the problem, except to lecture Americans about the need to get out of their "malaise."
Reagan came in, implemented tax cuts, threw out price controls on energy, and after a brief recession which was the inevitable result of coming out of Carter's disastrous economy, started an economic boom that pretty much went through the Clinton years.
Reagan made free market economics respectable after decades of Keynesian idiocy.
Jimmy Carter was my Governor before he convinced America that she needed a "reformer," and won office. I was running small businesses at the time, and by the time the 1980 elections rolled around, I was convinced that he was a disaster.
Just a few things wrong?
1- the fall of the Shah of Iran
2- Cubans in Angola
3- interest rates topping 21%
4- the Soviets ( remember them? ) rattling sabres around Europe
5- unrest in Central America
6- stagflation ( look it up, it's ugly! )
6- the Death of Elvis ( just kidding! )
Actually, there's a lot more, but this old PC is the devil to type on- anyway, almost anyone would have been better than Jimmy C., but luckily, Reagan came along. Let's just say I thought he was our best hope for reversing some of the rot & "malaise" that was infesting the country, and we moved heaven & earth to get him elected. They were good days.
Re-strengthening our military forced the Soviets to do something that they couldn't do: keep pace with us economically. The tax cuts and a return to a market economy in the early 80's (remember the "Misery Index" coined during the Carter administration) sparked an economic expansion that planned economies (i.e. the Soviets) couldn't compete with us.
I somewhat disagree with #5 - Carter didn't disrespect/disgrace the office like the previous occupant did. Carter just didn't handle the situations as they should be. Reagan flexed American military muscle when necessary. There were triumphs (Granada) and tragedies (Beirut). But it's a testimony to America's resilience that it took as short of period of time as it did to re-tool the military and make it effective. Without those steps we could not have responded to the challenges of Desert Shield/Storm.
I remember the 1980 election - I lived in California at the time. My friends were telling me not to vote for Reagan because "he was a Nazi". Looking back on it, I realize that my friends were leftists/liberals. Even though I was not politically aware then, it was Reagan's presidency that showed me that there was a difference between a conservative and liberal/moderate administrations.
Sure. Upon seeing the headline, I reached for my baseball bat. Glad I read past it: good post.
Sun-Tzu must have been beaming with pride.
DU Loser
Reagan went around the media to speak directly to the people and started disassembling the radical left. Unfortunatelt, subsequent presidence did not carry on his thrust.
Throughout the 1970's I read essays by Ronald Reagan, and each one convinced me "he's the man we need to get in the White House." Others have said it better, but Reagan was a man who believed in the goodness of America, and Americans. Rather than the opposite, which you can hear an echo of today from a lot of the European press.
Absolutely. And everything he said in those radio addresses is applicable today.
Maybe someday, we'll have another real Conservative at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
In the 1970's I was pretty disgusted with the way things were going for America. We had hyper-inflation under Jimmy Carter. Me and my wife had just got married, and with our minimum wage salaries were barely getting by. Every week the price of bread and milk was going up, along with everything else. Young people complain about prices now, but at least they're stable. Back then, inflation was running in the high teens. Everything Carter and the Democrats did was a disaster. Carter was dismantling our military at a frightening pace, our economy was in shambles, and we were losing world market share at an increasing rate to the Japanese and others. The democrats had no vision.
So you're thinking, what about Reagan, not Carter? Reagan immediately put into place strong fix-it measures that rebuilt our economy, our military, and our pride. Within two years of being in office the inflation was being put into check, our military was getting revived, and we were proud to be Americans again. I particularly remember the first space shuttle launch during Reagan's administration and his strong speeches reminding us that America was back and could stand strong. Others on this thread have mentioned lots of his accomplishments, among them his tearing down the iron curtain - dismantling of the Berlin wall and the fall of the Soviet empire. Another reason why he'll be remembered in a positive light 100 years from now is his quest to get an international space station built. BTW, it would have been done by the year 2000 except for all the cuts by the Clintoon administration.