{"id":3669,"date":"2011-02-06T15:32:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-06T15:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/02\/happy-birthday-mr-reagan-2.html"},"modified":"2011-02-06T15:32:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T15:32:00","slug":"happy-birthday-mr-reagan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/02\/happy-birthday-mr-reagan-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Mr. Reagan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a>I may post more later.\u00a0 But Reagan defined the era in which I came of age.\u00a0 I\u2019m old enough to remember the national malaise that we had c. 1979.\u00a0 There was just no real hope.\u00a0 Things were unraveling, the world was laughing at us, our economy was collapsing, and many young people were turning to the sex and drugs disco culture as the way of coping.\u00a0 When Reagan was elected, the Left pounced.\u00a0 Particularly vicious was the younger press, those Baby Boomer ex-hippies who now held microphones and wrote articles for key publications.\u00a0 He was a B-movie actor who made films with chimps.\u00a0 He was a brain dead, senile\u00a0cowboy.\u00a0 He was a right wing warmonger of the Goldwater variety.\u00a0 He would nuke the world!\u00a0 <\/div>\n
\u00a0 <\/div>\n

Everything he did was criticized.\u00a0 Even when he was shot, I remember the pre-cable news world allowed discussions by individuals questioning the way in which he was recovering.\u00a0 Jelly beans on his desk?\u00a0 Yelling at reporters and telling them to shut up?\u00a0 Why, he probably didn\u2019t even know where the Falkland Islands were!\u00a0 And when he called the USSR the evil empire?\u00a0 Wow, that was it.\u00a0 We were all going to die.\u00a0 And his policies in Europe and missile defense were sure to lead to the cataclysmic end of civilization.\u00a0 So sure were those on the Left of this scenario that they released a special TV movie, complete with weeks of\u00a0discussions liking it to Reagan\u2019s policies, called The Day After<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
And yet, by the mid-80s, it was clear to anyone that things were better.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying Reagan was right about everything.\u00a0 Most in my family were Democrats, and while some voted for him, none supported him in everything.\u00a0 But then, in those days, those who didn\u2019t vote for him still found things they liked about him.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t feel that to disagree with someone politically was to hate them.\u00a0 Still, despite any criticisms, and despite the popular culture\u2019s insistence that our economic doom or death by nuclear annihilation was just around the corner, by 1985 we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 Things were better.\u00a0 America was standing strong.\u00a0Things were improving.\u00a0 We had pride once again.\u00a0 And while the Bruce Springsteens of the nation would continue to fuss about Reagan, suggesting it was wrong for Reagan to claim he\u00a0had a monopoly on patriotism though\u00a0Reagan never really made the claim, it was clear he had done what his critics imagined would never happen.\u00a0 <\/div>\n
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And for that, I thank him.\u00a0 For all the problems, short comings, bad decisions, and failures that are common to all who take up the mantle of worldly leadership, he brought an optimism and a hope to our country that was not there in the late 70s, as I began to move into the world of young adulthood.\u00a0 There would be problems, worries, and concerns as there are in any era.\u00a0 But at that crucial time in my life during the mid-80s, we believed there was hope.\u00a0 Something five years earlier so few believed could ever happen again.\u00a0 And so for the good memories, the happier times, the bountiful prosperity that even the critics were happy to enjoy, thanks for the good times.\u00a0 Happy Birthday Mr. Reagan, may you rest in the peace of our Lord.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may post more later.\u00a0 But Reagan defined the era in which I came of age.\u00a0 I\u2019m old enough to remember the national malaise that we had c. 1979.\u00a0 There was just no real hope.\u00a0 Things were unraveling, the world was laughing at us, our economy was collapsing, and many young people were turning to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy Birthday Mr. Reagan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I may post more later.  But Reagan defined the era in which I came of age.  I'm old enough to remember the national malaise that we had c.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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