What America Needs: A New Ronald Reagan
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The News & Advance
Published: August 3, 2008
It’s all the rage today in the liberal and socialist political circles: the argument that America’s time on the world stage is on a steep, downward tumble.
High oil prices, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the subprime mortgage crisis and the resulting economic downturn … all evidence, the know-it-alls claim, the nation is toast. Stick a fork in America, ’cause she’s done.
The New York Times, over the weekend, even had a video op/ed featuring two political philosophers, Francis Fukuyama and Robert Kagen, arguing which presidential candidate can best manage an America with its power in decline.
What a load of pseudo-intellectual garbage.
And it’s not even new garbage. Rather appropriately, considering it’s coming from the political left, it’s just recycled, pseudo-intellectual garbage from a generation ago.
For anyone old enough to remember, the 1970s was a horrid decade. The Vietnam War. The Arab oil embargo. Watergate, the mother of all political scandals, and President Richard Nixon’s resignation in August 1974. The Carter presidency and its infamous national “malaise.” The Iran hostage crisis. Skyrocketing interest rates and inflation off the charts.
A whole bevy of “experts” quoted in the media back then said America’s best days were behind her, that we needed to prepare for a gradual descent into our national twilight days.
And then came Ronald Reagan.
Dismissed as a B-movie actor, a “did-nothing” two-term governor of California and an intellectual dolt, Reagan told the nation in the 1980 presidential campaign that America’s best days were not behind her, that the future belonged to those who dared to believe in it.
Reagan moved past a razor-thin margin of victory over Jimmy Carter and embarked on a remarkable eight-year-long journey of turning around the ship of state, exhorting Americans to believe in themselves and their nation once again as being on the leading edge of history, not on its ash heap.
That’s what America needs to find right now in the 2008 presidential election: a leader who, like Reagan, believes this nation’s best days are yet to come, a leader (whether liberal or conservative) who can inspire citizens to buck it up and get over the hurdles we face as a nation, a leader who believes wholeheartedly in America’s role in the world and purpose in history.
There are folks in this world today who believe America and the American people are the greatest dangers the world faces, and they’re not just Islamo-fascist terrorists huddled in caves in Afghanistan. They’re supposedly intelligent people, at home and abroad, who resent America’s place on the global stage and its economic, military and social prominence. They relish in every bit of bad news they come across as evidence of a nation about to tumble.
If we as a nation start to believe what these kooks say we are, indeed, done. Getting us to buy into their drivel is half the battle for them.
That’s the biggest challenge the next president will face, making Americans believe in themselves and in America again. It’s a challenge either President McCain or President Obama will have to meet.
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Posted by ( Gordie ) on August 09, 2008 at 11:48 am
From my perspective, we do not need another Reagon or another Bush. Consider that Reagon destroyed the steel industry in this country. Destroyed the airline industry and the list goes on. One comment was totally correct Reagon had nothing to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall. It was more the defeat in Afganistan or the arms race started by Kennedy which tore down the wall. Reagon was the one who started all these jobs leaving this country and then Bush really esculated his program. Reagon was just like his roll on “Death Valley Days”. A third rate actor who benifited from Iran not releasing the hostages till after the election
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Posted by ( Randolph Knipp ) on August 05, 2008 at 9:27 am
I have not heard anyone say, JacksonPollock, that Obama is a poor communicator! He is an excellent communicator! Some would say “articulate”, but that seems to be off-limits for some reason. In my case, I feel I understand very well what Barack Obama says, however I do not agree with him. My sense of his rhetoric is that he sees business as the enemy, and wealthy people as ogres. In both cases, I see the majority of them as employers, and it is they who actually provide the fuel for our lives. My hope is that the system, through the Congress and Courts, will improve “changes” with the injection of ample discussion and thought into the process.
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Posted by ( JacksonPollock ) on August 04, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Interesting how Reagan was called “The Great Communicator,“ yet Barak Obama is ridiculed for his communications skills by those who claim “the Gipper” to be their ideal president. Obama has intellect and the ability to communicate; McCain has neither.
I can just see John McCain, standing in front of a wall and trying to be Reagan-esque by going off script and saying, “Tear Down This Wall”; Lieberman would then move over to McCain and whisper in his ear, “John, we are in front of the wall we are building between the U.S. and Mexico.“ McCain would respond, “Oh . . . why are we building a wall here, Joe?“ Joe would just shake his head in disbelief, but as McCain’s VP choice would know that he is just a heartbeat away from becoming the first Jewish president of the USA. Oy vey.
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Posted by ( Rider ) on August 04, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I find it strange that a newspaper that one day is deriding the “shallow” Obama as not qualified for the job can two days later mock the people who claimed that, prior to his election, the great Reagan was also considered a lightweght due to his resume.
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Posted by ( David ) on August 04, 2008 at 4:17 pm
So Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War? When? How? Randolph, what ended the cold war more than anything else was the fiscal inprobability of the Soviet system, exacerbated by the Soviet’s misadventure in Afghanistan. His mythology has taken on epic proportions. And, yes, he gave a speeech, written by someone else and delivered the same way he delivered his lines in his movies. It’s pretty well acknowledged (maybe not yet in Lynchburg) that Reagan’s alzheimers was advanced in his second administration. I don’t think he did much of anything except appear as the King while his minions, orchestrated by Nancy and his closest advisors ran the show and kept the press at bay.
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Posted by ( el queso grande ) on August 04, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Fred- Thanks for the compliment.
BigJimm- I don’t perennially use Clinton and Carter. They just happen to be the only 2 Democrat presidents that served in my lifetime. I agree that each president who has served has at least something that can be respected. I also agree that Bush doesn’t seem to respect the office himself. My point was that no one party and no single president can be blamed for the nation’s woes.
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Posted by ( bigjimm ) on August 04, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Mr. Knipp RR was a great communicator. I also agree that no one will refer to you the same way.
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Posted by ( Randolph Knipp ) on August 04, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Excellent article. In spite of these posts, most who were there regard Reagan as one of the best. He did not get the nickname “The Great Communicator” by writing wretched posts to the N/A! He is seen on national TV even today, giving that wonderful speech at the Berlin wall to Mr. Gorbachov. He is widely credited with ending the cold war. He truly was a great President. I think we do need less government, and a whole lot more honor and integrity. Term limits for Congressmen would be a fine first step.
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Posted by ( David ) on August 04, 2008 at 1:17 pm
El queso grande, I disagree. The ten scariest words are not “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.“ Republicans tend to run on that notion and then give us more government than ever before. Reagan and Bush II are responsible for the biggest expansions of government power since Lincoln, from outrageous deficit spending to ease dropping on the conversations and communications of Americans, not just terror suspects. Reagan talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. The reality is, government is necessary. The most frightening words are “I’m the decider, let me worry about it”. And, indeed, so many Americans do that, without regard to the real issues involving money borrowed and spent and the loss of those rights that made the United States unique among nations. In the last eight years, for whatever reason (fear, greed, bigotry, ignorance) most Americans have turned a blind eye to what our government is doing. That’s much more frightening than those ten words.
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Posted by ( bigjimm ) on August 04, 2008 at 12:05 pm
In response to el queso grande I would just have to say that it’s pretty sad when you have to dredge up Carter and Clinton, the two perennial democrats that the right always uses as their justification and excuse for wrongdoing. Clinton certainly has a great deal to answer for where trade and jobs are concerned but to get to Carter you have to go through Reagan and another Bush.
I will gladly stipulate that both of these democrats had many weaknesses but they pale when compared to the ineptitude and wrongheadedness of George W. Bush.
I have lived under a lot of presidents starting with Truman and I can think of something I respected about every one of them. That is until you come to this Bush and while I don’t hate him, I have absolutely no respect for him. It is said that you should respect the office, but the fact is, he doesn’t appear to respect it himself. If he did respect the office then he would take some responsibility for his actions and the actions of those that work for him.
Harry Truman was famous for “The buck stops here.“ Bush seems to go for “What, me worry?“
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