THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Ronald Reagan is born – 1911

Via History.com

On this day in 1911, President Ronald Wilson Reagan is born in Tampico, Illinois.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, served for two terms from 1981 to 1989. Known as The Great Communicator, he was the first actor to be elected president after two centuries of mainly lawyers and soldiers.

Born and raised in Illinois, Reagan took his first media job as a radio sports announcer in the Midwest. Buoyed by his on-air success, he journeyed to Hollywood and began acting in feature films in the 1930s. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps, appearing in training and propaganda films. After the war, Reagan served as president of the Screen Actor’s Guild from 1947 to 1952. At that time, he was a proponent of New Deal Democratic policies. He switched to the Republican Party in 1960.

Reagan delivered a rousing speech in support of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater at the Republican National Convention in 1964, which in effect launched his political career. After two terms as governor of California, he made a bid for the Republican presidential ticket in 1976, losing to Vice President Gerald Ford. In 1980, he gained the nomination and beat out embattled Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter to become president, ushering in a new era of conservatism in American politics.

As a result of his actor’s training, Reagan possessed an uncanny ability to simultaneously project toughness, humility and affability. He survived an assassination attempt just weeks into his first term and bounced back with vigor, retaining his sense of humor. The Great Communicator’s public statements ranged from the profound (There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits to human intelligence, imagination and wonder) to the irreverent (Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first).

An immensely popular and influential leader, Reagan’s administration was notable for freeing American hostages taken captive in Iran during Carter’s term and for resurrecting a no-nonsense image of American strength abroad. Perhaps most notably, his increase in military spending and bold anti-communist rhetoric contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Shortly after publicly denouncing the Soviet Union as the Evil Empire he cultivated a successful diplomatic and personal relationship with Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

While supporters found him charming, his detractors claimed Reagan could not separate film from reality, a charge bolstered by some alarming public gaffes. His comment that trees cause pollution appalled those already infuriated by his policy of industrial deregulation. Once while receiving Israeli dignitaries, Reagan claimed to have accompanied World War II film crews to liberated Nazi death camps, when in reality he spent the war in California. When pushing for the experimental Star Wars defense plan, he compared the system to a weapon used by his character in a film called Murder in the Air.

His popular appeal, which resulted in a landslide second-term election, could not save his second term from scandal. In 1986, many Americans were angered when evidence surfaced that his administration had struck a covert deal to sell Iran arms and used proceeds from the sale to finance anti-Communist guerrillas in Nicaragua. Reagan’s advisors successfully kept Reagan uninformed of the dirty details and he was able to plead plausible deniability, for which he was dubbed the Teflon President.

Despite the scandal, Reagan’s image as the embodiment of traditional American values endured with many. Americans were also captivated by his seemingly picture-perfect marriage. He and his wife Nancy were often photographed together on their ranch in California, dancing in each other’s arms at state functions or holding hands. Nancy placed her husband at the center of her life. My life really began when I married my husband,” she once reminisced.

In 2004, Ronald Reagan died at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

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Old Shoe

My political evolution from a young liberal to a middle aged conservative was much like Reagan’s. There was a saying which I can only paraphrase that said something to the effect that a man who doesn’t want to save the world when he’s 20 has never lived and a man that still wants to save the world when he’s 40 has never grown up.

Ned
Ned

WHAT YOU WILL NOT FIND ON HISTORY.COM:

Some facts about Reagan;

1. He transformed the U.S. from the most creditor nation from 1980 to the most debtor nation by 1985.

2. He reduced taxes on the wealthy, while he doubled the national debt.

3. The Reagan administration supported by Wall Street, economist and financial lobbyist began a 30 year period of financial deregulation.

4. In 1982 the Reagan Administration deregulated the savings and loan companies allowing them to make risky investments with depositors money. By the end of the decade hundreds of S&L companies had failed. This crisis cost taxpayers 124 billion dollars and cost many people their life savings. Thousands of S&L executives went to jail for looting their companies. One of the most extreme cases was Charles Keating. In 1985 when regulators started investigating him, Keating hired a economist named Alan Greenspan. In a letter to regulators, Greenspan praised Keatings sound business practices and expertise and said he saw no risk in allowing Keating to invest his customers money. Keating paid Greenspan $40,000 dollars to write that letter. Keating went to prison afterwards, as for Greenspan, Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve.

5. Civil Asset Forfeiture, introduced by the Reagan administration in 1986 as a tool to fight the “War on Drugs,” removed the presumption of innocence, removed due process where a person would have be convicted of a crime before having property taken, ignored constitutional protection against excessive fines, and had the government taking “civil” action against inanimate property.

6. The National Association of Women Lawyers is the premier organization that spearheaded the “no-fault divorce law”, with it’s first passage in California.

“The earliest precedent in no-fault divorce laws was originally enacted in Russia shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution. They were legislated in the series of decrees that issued in early 1918. The decrees included nonjudicial dissolution of marriage by either party and mandatory provision of child-support.”

Former Governor, U.S. president and self-proclaimed conservative, and self proclaimed anti-communist Ronald Reagan signed this portion of the Communist Manifesto into American law!

7. the Iran/contra affair. Where the Reagan administration had the CIA run drugs in America to buy guns from Iran to give them to terrorists in central America. We had to give up all of our liberties to fight the “war on drugs” while the same government was running the drugs.

8. Furthermore, Reagan was a “Bohemian”, yes as in Bohemian Grove attendee and member. Excuse me but you are known by the company you keep. Like the Bush’s will always be known for their association with the “Skull and Bones” secret society at Yale University that performs macabre rituals, so will those who are informed, that Ronald Reagan will be known for his association with the secret society at Bohemian Grove that also performs macabre rituals and runs around naked in the woods praising “Molech”.

comment image

Another steaming pile politician that is found among the ranks of the right and the left, the democrats and the republicans. All basking in a red, white and blue steaming pile of bullshit.

David Erickson
David Erickson

Ned, very well said. “We had to give up all of our liberties to fight the “war on drugs” while the same government was running the drugs”. That summarizes government in a nutshell.

Harrington Richardson
Harrington Richardson

They are just providing one stop shopping.

Harrington Richardson
Harrington Richardson

Old Dutch was also in the Iowa National Guard in the 30’s when he was an announcer on an Iowa radio station. He served as an officer of horse cavalry. He famously rescued a woman outside his apartment house from a mugger. He ran down stairs with his Guard issued 1917 .45 revolver. As he told the woman, who became a life long pen pal, it was a good thing the guy ran away because it was unloaded.

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