My Tribute to Ronald Reagan

A great man died today – Ronald Reagan.  Reagan was a true hero not just to me, but for so many people around the world.  I was 21, in my final year at college, when Reagan was first elected.  Our country was a disaster.  For the previous 3 years we had double-digit inflation (most of you don’t even know what inflation is because you’ve never seen it!), and the country was in a deep recession.  Michigan, my home state, had unemployment around 15% and in some towns it was as high as 25% – and the rest of the country wasn’t much better.  The previous decade was a disaster as well.  We lost the Vietnam War, Nixon left office in disgrace, and we ended up with a smart, nice but completely weak and ineffective president named Carter.  Not only were we all ashamed to be an American, it was looking like maybe “our way” wasn’t any better than the Soviet Union’s way (who were also destroying us in the Olympics as well!).  We all learned the drill, “what to do in case of nuclear attack”. 

Then along came this simple man with a simple message.  Our way, democracy and capitalism, IS the best way.  Ronald was proud to be an American.  He believed in the power of the individual and told us how “Government is not the solution, it's the problem”.  He believed that communism, and especially the USSR, was truly evil because the people were not free – free to choose their government, free to choose their friends, free to choose where to live.  I know many of you are thinking, “this is corny as hell” and you might be right.  It’s almost impossible to appreciate any of this unless you lived through it.  Sort of like my grandparents telling me about the great depression.

I recently read the book “Reagan’s War” which chronicled his 40+ year war with communism.  Much of the author’s information came directly from the USSR archives.  Reagan’s arms race was driving the Soviet economy into the ground.  When Reagan began the famous “Star Wars” program, the media laughed and said it was silly.  However in the USSR, Soviet scientists knew it would work and knew they could not compete.  Reagan’s policies were ridiculed in the US media and by most of Europe who strongly believed in “appeasement”.  Ironically, “appeasement” has never worked in history and the Soviets not only laughed at appeasement, they also secretly funded many of the “appeasement” groups.  I visited Czechoslovakia back when the Berlin Wall came crashing down and had the opportunity to get very drunk with an entire Czech village.  All through the night, people kept telling me in the little English they knew, “Reagan very great man, communists are mafia”.  Reagan is celebrated as a hero today by the free people of Eastern Europe.

“Reaganomics” is another thing all of us should appreciate.  Reagan believed in cutting taxes and giving the money back to business and people who would do a far better job investing the money than Uncle Sam.  People still make fun of “Reaganomics” but we all saw a decade turn around from bust to boom – in fact, one of the longest booms in history.  Ok, so he ran up a $3 trillion deficit.  But he did fix the economy and destroy communism without firing a shot.  Reagan left office with the highest approval rating in history.   

The two most important things I learned from this great man are get government out of the way so people can succeed and freedom is not a luxury, but an inalienable right for all the people in this world. 

Reagan is my hero and may he rest in peace.