The Changing Attitude By Liberals Toward President Ronald Reagan
The Changing Attitude By Liberals Toward President Ronald Reagan
I was fresh out of the Army when my landlord and neighbors ganged up on me about my intent to vote for Ronald Reagan - although I was not a Christian then, I thought that anyone who was against abortion had my vote… not-with-standing his take on race or the other cumbersome issues of the day that affect the modern Presidency. It is rather pleasantly surprising to hear many Liberals lauding President Ronald Reagan, on this his 100th birthday. Those who were not around during Reagan’s Presidency must know that this man was hated here and abroad. I remembered when I served in Germany… President Reagan decided to place Nuclear Missiles in Europe, which brought about much vitriol against him and America… that soldiers like myself heard when we engaged in conversation with some Europeans. The hatred here for the ‘Gipper’ was no less… coming from most Liberal Americans – go back and look at the editorial pages and political cartoons from that era to see what I am speaking about.
Even our current President, the epitome of Liberal ideology, is in the habit of lauding President Reagan. This seemingly aberration only proves that there are times when we cannot judge the policies of a President until years later. I know by reading history that President Truman was hated when he too left office, and now, Truman is considered among the great Commanders in Chiefs. To many of us, we did not need the passing of time to see the merits of President Reagan’s policies: curtailing Communism; willing to speak out against the demerits/detriment of the cradle to grave mentality; the incubus that is burdensome taxes; and espousing the economic benisons of the free market. Believe it or not, the same vitriol used against President Reagan is now being used against Governor Sarah Palin. Like now, the elites then would say that President Reagan did not have the intellectual curiosity, and they especially made fun of Reagan’s past vocation of being an actor. What I remembered is that our enemies feared us and I got that same feeling again, to a lesser extent, when the younger President Bush was in office, but under President Reagan… this respect and fear from our enemies were more palatable and lingering.
Perhaps there is hope that the younger President Bush too in the future will be lauded for his stance against the Jihadists – wasn’t there signs plastered on billboards asking the pointed query: miss me yet! There are those who want to include President Ronald Reagan’s face among those Presidents memorialized on Mount Rushmore – I say let the chiseling begin. There are many Eastern Europeans and the Poles who also should be lauding President Reagan for defeating the Soviet Union and lest I should forget… much respect for the assist Pope John Paul and Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher gave to President Reagan in helping him combat and win the great ideological struggle of the twentieth century… happy birthday President Reagan.
