06-06-2004, 01:34 AM
"It's morning in America."
These are the words which so many of us will forever call to mind as so perfectly expressive of what happened to America following Ronald Reagan's election to the presidency in 1980.
I was 10 years old at the time, although I can vividly remember what President Carter so correctly termed the "malaise" which afflicted the American spirit in the years following Vietnam and Watergate. The economy was in sad shape, inflation was high and there was a general pessimism and cynicism which pervaded the American psyche.
President Reagan turned all of that around. His enthusiasm and optimism and love for America were infectious. Because of his leadership, America began to feel good about itself again, the economy turned dramatically upwards and the world became a better place with the fall of the Soviet Union which he was very much responsible for.
It was Ronald Reagan who transformed the Republican Party from a sort of old-school establishment club into a revolutionary factor which served as a vessel for a reborn and re-energized neo-conservatism. This was a reformist conservatism characterized by upright goals of deregulation and government downsizing; it was not by any means the sort of mean-spirited, sometimes even hateful far-right Bible-thumping conservatism which we're familiar with today. Ronald Reagan would have found this sort of conservatism very foreign to his bouyant spirit characterized by hope and optimism and fairness.
It was Ronald Reagan who inspired me to join the Republican Party in the mid 1980s. I wasn't old enough to vote for him in 1984, but I was happy just the same to be involved in some small measure in his re-election campaign. Conservatism was "cool" back then. My friends and I were all proud "Reaganauts" infected by the optimism for America which he exuded. We read the National Review and adored writers like William F. Buckley and George Will.
Although I would watch their shows with friends of mine, I never really found myself a fan of conservative television media icons of the late 80s like Morton Downey Jr. or the rehabilitated G. Gordon Liddy, whose negativity and bitterness seemed so very far removed from Reagan's kindness and generosity of spirit. The equally rude and uncouth Bill O'Reillys and Sean Hannitys of today enchant me even less.
There were no terrorists in America in those happy days. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was open to vehicular traffic. It's a pile of rubble at the moment waiting to be transformed into a pedestrian promenade forever closed to traffic. Today in Washington stands an enormous federal building called the Ronald Reagan Building. He would have hated the thought of it. And he wouldn't like the talk we hear from some of the bombastic loons on the Hill of replacing FDR's portrait on the dime with his own.
Those were Izod Lacoste days when the alligator reigned supreme over a wardrobe of cardigan sweaters, polo shirts with up-turned collars (back again) penny loafers, deck shoes and argyle socks. The "Ollie" became the haircut to sport in the wake of the Iran-Contra hearings which, frankly, no one seemed to loose much sleep over at the time except the media and the White House. U2, INXS, the Ramones, OMD, New Order, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Clash and other bands provided a welcome relief from the cotton-candy pop of the Culture Club, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Duran Duran. And I hated "Miami Vice", no matter what anyone says. I liked "Cheers", though.
It all seems like an eternity ago in one sense, yet watching clips of his speeches on television I find myself at once transported back to those very happy, hopeful 1980s--the Reagan years--when it really was morning in America. The nightfall of today seems cold and lonely by comparison. How I miss the morning.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your outstanding service to a nation which you transformed from a dark and sickly valley of malaise and disappointment into a shining city upon a hill.
"Whatever the world may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will be recorded that I appealed to your best hopes and not your worst fears..."
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fortieth President of the United States
1911-2004
These are the words which so many of us will forever call to mind as so perfectly expressive of what happened to America following Ronald Reagan's election to the presidency in 1980.
I was 10 years old at the time, although I can vividly remember what President Carter so correctly termed the "malaise" which afflicted the American spirit in the years following Vietnam and Watergate. The economy was in sad shape, inflation was high and there was a general pessimism and cynicism which pervaded the American psyche.
President Reagan turned all of that around. His enthusiasm and optimism and love for America were infectious. Because of his leadership, America began to feel good about itself again, the economy turned dramatically upwards and the world became a better place with the fall of the Soviet Union which he was very much responsible for.
It was Ronald Reagan who transformed the Republican Party from a sort of old-school establishment club into a revolutionary factor which served as a vessel for a reborn and re-energized neo-conservatism. This was a reformist conservatism characterized by upright goals of deregulation and government downsizing; it was not by any means the sort of mean-spirited, sometimes even hateful far-right Bible-thumping conservatism which we're familiar with today. Ronald Reagan would have found this sort of conservatism very foreign to his bouyant spirit characterized by hope and optimism and fairness.
It was Ronald Reagan who inspired me to join the Republican Party in the mid 1980s. I wasn't old enough to vote for him in 1984, but I was happy just the same to be involved in some small measure in his re-election campaign. Conservatism was "cool" back then. My friends and I were all proud "Reaganauts" infected by the optimism for America which he exuded. We read the National Review and adored writers like William F. Buckley and George Will.
Although I would watch their shows with friends of mine, I never really found myself a fan of conservative television media icons of the late 80s like Morton Downey Jr. or the rehabilitated G. Gordon Liddy, whose negativity and bitterness seemed so very far removed from Reagan's kindness and generosity of spirit. The equally rude and uncouth Bill O'Reillys and Sean Hannitys of today enchant me even less.
There were no terrorists in America in those happy days. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was open to vehicular traffic. It's a pile of rubble at the moment waiting to be transformed into a pedestrian promenade forever closed to traffic. Today in Washington stands an enormous federal building called the Ronald Reagan Building. He would have hated the thought of it. And he wouldn't like the talk we hear from some of the bombastic loons on the Hill of replacing FDR's portrait on the dime with his own.
Those were Izod Lacoste days when the alligator reigned supreme over a wardrobe of cardigan sweaters, polo shirts with up-turned collars (back again) penny loafers, deck shoes and argyle socks. The "Ollie" became the haircut to sport in the wake of the Iran-Contra hearings which, frankly, no one seemed to loose much sleep over at the time except the media and the White House. U2, INXS, the Ramones, OMD, New Order, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Clash and other bands provided a welcome relief from the cotton-candy pop of the Culture Club, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan and Duran Duran. And I hated "Miami Vice", no matter what anyone says. I liked "Cheers", though.
It all seems like an eternity ago in one sense, yet watching clips of his speeches on television I find myself at once transported back to those very happy, hopeful 1980s--the Reagan years--when it really was morning in America. The nightfall of today seems cold and lonely by comparison. How I miss the morning.
Thank you, Mr. President, for your outstanding service to a nation which you transformed from a dark and sickly valley of malaise and disappointment into a shining city upon a hill.
"Whatever the world may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will be recorded that I appealed to your best hopes and not your worst fears..."
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Fortieth President of the United States
1911-2004
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