Off the Publisher’s Desk 08-21-2024

Ronald Reagan, the best!

I know some people will not agree with me, but in my mind, Ronald Reagan was the best president that this country has ever had. He was, at least during my lifetime. He pushed for limited government, a free enterprise, a strong national defense, and traditional values.

“Unlike many presidents, Regan understood there was no loftier achievement for any society than freedom,” said the Foundation for Economic Education.

Reagan received credit for the release of 60 Americans held hostage back in November 4, 1979, when a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. But, it was President Jimmy Carter’s work that accomplished the release, with millions of dollars given to Iran. The Iranian Regime hated Carter and waited until Reagan’s Inauguration to release those 60 Americans. But it also could have been because during the presidential campaign Reagan told the Iranians that he would send troops to accomplish the releases.

According to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, “When Reagan was elected president in 1980, the country was in the midst of, in his words, the ‘worst economic mess since the Great Depression.’ Unemployment was at 7.5 percent, and eight million people were looking for jobs. Inflation was at its highest point in decades, nearly 15 percent in March of 1980. Marginal tax rates were as high as 70 percent, and economic growth was stagnant.”

“The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.” -Ronald Reagan First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

Fifteen days later, Reagan addressed the Nation saying; “It’s time to recognize that we’ve come to a turning point. We’re threatened with an economic calamity of tremendous proportions, and the old business-as-usual treatment can’t save us. Together, we must chart a different course.”

Do not those last paragraphs sound like what is happening today with the costs skyrocketing and the political differences.

A couple of Reagan’s quotes that I like are: “Government is like a baby, an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.” The other is: “There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism—government.”

One other quote I would like to print is from the actor Dennis Quaid, who plays Reagan in the new movie “Reagan” in Theaters on August 30th.

“We all, regardless of our politics, can learn from Reagan. For instance, while Tip O’Neill (D-Massachusetts, served as the 47th Speaker of the House) and Reagan often fought vehemently about politics, it was always important for them to remember each other as humans.

“Our politics, social media, and news are so polarized these days. Everyone creates their own little bubble. We need to remember the humanity of one another and love our neighbors. Reagan fought his opponents, but he didn’t hate them, and he believed in principled compromises. He would say, ‘Half a loaf is better than no loaf,’ and, somebody who agrees with you 80 percent is an 80-percent friend, not a 20-percent enemy.

“We’ve got to remember that we’re all Americans, and we have to work together to get things done.”

Thanks for reading!     ~Carlton