Taking back America, Reagan-style – a Reagan biographer explains
February 11, 2013 at 12:28 pm in News by Tea Party Patriots 10 Comments
In 1979, America was in dire straits. Interest rates were high, as was inflation. We were a laughingstock around the world, and the USSR was gaining strength. Unemployment was high, and national morale was very low.
Ronald Reagan changed that. His election in 1980 rebounded America’s domestic and foreign reputation and policies, and set our nation on a path to the greatest economic quarter-century the world had ever seen.
In order to find out how Reagan’s attitude, strategies, and policies can best be applied to today’s world, Tea Party Patriots has launched a multi-speaker series entitled Patriot Town Halls. Last night the first call took place, with two-time Reagan biographer Craig Shirley discussing both what Reagan did in office and what led him to run for President. Shirley, who authored Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All and RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America, spent an hour lecturing and answering questions from callers.
According to Shirley, historians often misunderstand how close Reagan came to upending the entire establishment even during his failed 1976 insurgent campaign against then-President Gerald Ford. When Reagan announced his candidacy in 1975, for example, the Big Three TV stations switched from their normal programming to watch the announcement. (Shirley played a few minutes of that speech, and the language from candidate Reagan could easily be applied to any speech made by a Tea Party-minded activist or politician today.)
Also, at the GOP Convention in 1976, Reagan was only two states away from victory. Like former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Reagan’s legions of supporters and activists were active at all levels of the Republican Party, and worked hard to get support at the convention. Like Tea Party activists of all stripes, they knew change would only come at the grassroots level, not from the top down.
Shirley explained to listeners that President Reagan had many qualities, but one of his most important was partnerships. An example was the 1983 immigration reform law rightly decried today as a failure. Yet Shirley pointed out that much enforcement was never followed up on by Reagan’s successor. And while even the original law was imperfect, the President understood in order to provide a united front against the USSR he needed all people with him. So immigration reform was as much a policy against Russia as it was for immigrants. And so it should be today, with Tea Party activists working with people of all political beliefs against the major issues of today: the economy and the national debt. We may not get perfect changes, but they will be major steps in the right direction.
Over the next few weeks, more Reagan staffers will offer their own advice. Mark Levin, Becky Norton Dunlop, and others will provide insights few others can into the most successful anti-establishment presidency in modern America. Be sure to sign up for these calls at Patriottownhall.com. Also, once you sign up, you can hear Shirley’s presentation on the site, in case you missed him last night.
Those of us who kew the 70s era, there is one thing that was very obvious to us then that is completely being ignored. In that era, the entire population had been duped by the Democrats and the so-called “mainstream media” into believing the United States was evil, defeated, and was inclined to believe that justice would be served if bad things happened to the United States. Ronal Reagan being elected president allowed people to show pride in the United States again, something they had been indoctrinated to not do before Reagan became president.
That is the most important thing that happened when Ronald Reagan took office. The American people regained their pride, and as a result we accomplished all the amazing things of the 80s.
When the 1976 Bicentennial rolled around I was 17 and getting ready to start my Sr. year in High School. Everything you looked at that year was red white and blue! It made a real impression on me and I have ever since been one of the most patriotic people I know! I have for years flown a flag in front of my home and recently got a light hooked up so Old Glory can fly 24/7. My son went into the Marines and served a tour in Kuwait, a year in Okinawa, and a tour in Iraq. My last home was decorated with a different theme in each room of the red white and blue. (That was my way of coping with the stress of wondering about my son’s situation.)
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to politics when I was young – most don’t. But Reagan caught my heart! He was a man of quiet wisdom who could handle any situation, and usually with a bit of humor. He may not have done everything right, but he did it with the right intentions. His memory will live for ever in American Patriot’s hearts!
Reagan raised the debt and gave illegals amnesty! Not sure if I could support that today.
You are already supporting. We have the highest debt this country has ever had under the current administration and you surely don’t think our illegals problem is fixed.
Reagan worked a deal with the Democrats, 1 dollar in new taxes-3 dollars in spending cuts—they lied.
He worked a deal with the Democrats, amnesty for those here- enforcement of the immigration statutes and the border controlled–they lied.
He gave them multiple opportunities to prove good faith, they lied.
Reagans success was due mostly to Paul Volker letting interest rates be determined by the markets. Yeah, they (rates) got very high, but that is EXACTLY what must happen in order to clear up financial messes like we had then and have now. The fed is a disease and Reagan knew it; all that’s really needed is freedom.
Is it me or are we slowly moving towards support for Amnesty for illegals? First Marco Rubio and now this article about Reagan’s amnesty program as a policy to defeat the Soviet Union.
Reagan the man was exemplification of the principles he represented, if we are to be able to use the leadership of a Reagan type leader, we must first re-introduce the principles that were present in the great generation, something alien to the secular-humanist culture of today.
What is heartening is the knowledge that those principles were established over millennia, the secularist are a flash in the light of history, never have endured and cannot.
When Reagan left office the economy was beginning a self inflicted recession which carried into Big Bush’s term. Reagan also refused to acknowledge the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Besides, he would most likely be appalled at what the Republican Party has become.
Hiv-aids was-and is-a lifestyle choice, since Reagan wasn’t foisting lifestyles onto the american public, he wouldn’t have spent money on it. To expect a person to follow family practices that have proven over several millenia is not repressive, to forcably, via tax and spend, enable practices and lifestyles that are a 1 generation terminal experience is not a governments job, it is the practioners choice.