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Open Thread: Ronald Reagan
Monday, February 6, 2012

February 6, 2012, marks the 101st anniversary of President Ronald Wilson Reagan's birthday, or as he would have phrased it, the 62nd anniversary of his 39th birthday.
Either way, we are grateful beyond measure for his great service to our country, the shining city on a hill, and his steadfast devotion to Essential Liberty.
Reagan both understood the roots of tyranny in the absence of serving anything higher than self and devoted his presidency to fighting it. "Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid. That's why the Marxist vision of man without God must eventually be seen as an empty and a false faith -- the second oldest in the world -- first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with whispered words ... 'Ye shall be as gods.' The crisis of the Western world ... exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God. ... I have seen the rise of fascism and communism. Both philosophies glorify the arbitrary power of the state. ... But both theories fail. Both deny those God-given liberties that are the inalienable right of each person on this planet, indeed, they deny the existence of God."
He also understood and honored the source of American Liberty. "Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God. ... Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience. ... Without God there is a coarsening of the society. Without God democracy will not and cannot long endure. ... America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."
In honor of this day, we invite you to check out our vast commentary and resources on our nation's 40th president.
Mark Alexander's essays:
The Reagan Model for Restoration
Ronald Reagan: North Star of the Conservative Revolution
The Twilight's Last Gleaming -- God Bless Ronald Reagan
And, of course, Reagan2020.US
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Publius
Long live the Reagan Revolution!
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Libertas aut Mortis!
Mark Alexander
Publisher, PatriotPost.US
Posted February 6, 2012 at 7:53:59 AM
CGreen
We remember Reagan as the great stallwart defender of freedom, individual liberty and the limited government established by our founders to ensure the protection of those rights endowed by our Creator. The Reagan Revolution has been through some tough times in the last twenty years. The Republican Party still doesn't really embrace Reagan. So once again, we will probably see the Republican standard bearer for 2012 be a northeastern moderate who believes in a little smaller and smarter big government than the Democrats, and that probably means we will see four more years of the disasterous Obama administration. Woe is we.
Posted February 6, 2012 at 11:06:06 AM
Don G. Dinsdale
As the kids might say; "He is da-man!" There is dough about his legacy, 50 100 years from now they ("We the People") will still be remembering him, I hope in a free America... There are others who have a different agenda for us... Don D.
Posted February 6, 2012 at 12:59:34 PM
M Rick Timms. MD
Ronald Wilson Reagan -- Now more than Ever!
Posted February 7, 2012 at 12:27:04 AM
JeFtFotF
Mark,
Your message captures Reagan's perspective well. He understood, as shown in his writings and speeches, that we are made in the image of God, and of the tendencies of human nature when we act as though we are gods unto ourselves, both individually and as nations.
Thank you for this and the greater work in honor and defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness per the Author of life, liberty, truth, and all that is good, and reflected in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Yours for the Foundation (1 Cor. 3:11) of the Founders,
JeFtFotF >
Posted February 7, 2012 at 8:02:29 AM
Doktor Riktor Von Zhades
I had the pleasure of reading (yes actually reading a book with paper pages, rare these days), the book;
Reagan in His Own Hand
I recommend it strongly if one truly wishes to get a full picture of the way he thought and later acted on those issues about which he wrote. He was extremely true to his positions on 99% of all issues.
Posted February 8, 2012 at 8:48:49 AM
Carlos
Today is a very good day indeed, the 101st birthday of Ronald Reagan.
Here's a great compilation of the good American humor of the greatest President since Lincoln:
I’d like to share a little about what happened on February 12, 1909, the 100th birthday of Abraham Lincoln and something about the president at that time.
In my den, I have an old black and white picture of President Teddy Roosevelt with flags and uniformed soldiers behind him all marching up the hill of Sinking Spring Farm in Hodgenville, Kentucky to a wooden log cabin on the site where Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to her second child, Abraham Lincoln.
Having commissioned the first copper pennies with Lincoln’s likeness, commemorating the Lincoln Centennial there on site in Kentucky, Teddy Roosevelt slapped the first trowel of mortar on the cornerstone of the temple Architect John Russell Pope would build to shelter the tiny log cabin.
Two Februarys later, just North of this Kentucky site in neighboring Illinois, in a second floor flat above a shoe store and a bank in Tampico, Illinois, Nelle Wilson Reagan gave birth to her second son, Ronald Reagan.
George Washington showed America to the world. Abraham Lincoln showed Americans who we are. Ronald Reagan showed Americans what we can be.
More than any other, Reagan made us and the world believe that America was much more than a geographic place in the world, but a creed and a way of life, “a shining city on a hill” that is the last best hope for freedom in the world.
On this 101st anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, it’s unfortunate that so many simply were too young or not even alive to know just how tense the years of the Cold War with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were.
How behind the iron curtain in Easter Europe so many nations lived underneath Soviet domination with political prisoners sitting within gulags for years heard for the first time a voice from America challenging the Russian Soviets and bringing them hope.
When nobody else on the left or even the right in America had the courage and gall not to tolerate and appease, but to defy, defame and outright challenge. Ronald Reagan saw history’s arrival. He like no other politician in the world saw what was happening in Moscow and took full measure of an adversary in Mikhail Gorbachev.
The history of the last century cannot be written without the two names of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
As Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher said, “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.”
The Soviet Union did not collapse on its own as far too many revisionists claim today. How did Reagan win the Cold War ? By clearing speaking truth to power and assembling a strategy of peace through strength against an “evil empire”.
He deployed American Pershing medium-range missiles in Western Europe to counter balance Soviet SS-20’s already deployed in Eastern Europe. He imposed economic embargoes preventing construction of Russian Soviet oil pipelines to the West restricting revenue of hard currency to the Soviets - all compelling Gorbachev to later negotiate from a position of weakness.
The Polish Solidarity labor movement within the iron curtain received secret funding from Washington. Anti communist guerrillas in Nicaragua, Angola, Afghanistan and Cambodia received aid as well. The small Caribbean island nation of Grenada was quickly liberated by swift military action by Ronald Reagan in 1983. He asserted American interests sending air force bombers against Libya after an attack on American soldiers in West Berlin and ordered naval escorts in the Persian Gulf to maintain the free flow of oil. This was all part of the Reagan Doctrine that brought retreat to the tyranny of the Soviet Union and its subsequent defeat and demise.
If brutal and suppressive enough, tyrannies can endure indefinitely. Why did the Soviet empire collapse ? Because previously, there was no Western pressure against the Russian Soviets. It was the time of appeasement, detente and President Jimmy Carter speaking of American malaise while the Russian Soviets were on the march all over the world with their relentless expansionism.
The American people had the good sense to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 whose decisiveness and leadership would with time come to liberate millions the world over. His American life was as if one prepared for destiny.
Ronald Reagan was born in midwest America during a time of gas lights and horse drawn carriages. Paying for college by washing dishes, he was elected his student body president at Eureka College where he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays.
As a Rock River lifeguard he developed a vigilant and watchful eye for danger. He developed his expressive narrative skills as a sports radio broadcaster showing others, well before there was any television, to see things as he saw them, which ultimately led to his career as a film actor and to national fame appearing in 53 films. He was elected president of Hollywood's Screen Actors Guild. He further refined his communicating skills as a traveling spokesman and pitchman for General Electric visiting its plants across America and speaking with reassuring cheerful confidence.
In his 50’s, he then decided to enter politics becoming a Republican, supporting Barry Goldwater in 1964, and later serving as governor of California for eight years.

After two unsuccessful attempts to win his party's nomination, Ronald Reagan never gave up. He finally won the presidency the United States at the age of 69 in 1980 and again four years later in the greatest landslide ever. The rest is history of course. Today’s reverence for his exemplary life is well deserved as it was a class act in his role of a lifetime, and as in the title of his autobiography, An American Life.
Yes, today, Monday February 6, 2012, is a very good day.
A century later, here’s something special as well:
There are so many speeches with which to quote, listen and learn from Ronald Reagan. Here’s part of a favorite and the last speech he made publicly on the occasion of his 83rd birthday:
“They're trying to dress their liberal agenda in a conservative overcoat. After watching the State of the Union address the other night, I'm reminded of the old adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Only in this case, it's not flattery, but grand larceny -- the intellectual theft of ideas that you and I recognize as our own. Speech delivery counts for little on the world stage unless you have convictions and, yes, the vision to see beyond the front row seats. The Democrats may remember their lines, but how quickly they forget the lessons of the past.
I have witnessed five major wars in my lifetime, and I know how swiftly storm clouds can gather on a peaceful horizon. The next time a Saddam Hussein takes over Kuwait, or North Korea brandishes a nuclear weapon, will we be ready to respond? In the end, it all comes down to leadership. And that is what this country is looking for now.
It was leadership here at home that gave us strong American influence abroad and the collapse of imperial communism. Great nations have responsibilities to lead and we should always be cautious of those who would lower our profile because they might just wind up lowering our flag.
I don't think an event of this kind would be complete without something that you probably got used to during my days in Washington: one of my stories. It's a story about a woman who walked into a bridal shop one day and told the sales clerk that she was looking for a wedding gown for her fourth wedding.
Well the saleswoman asked, "Just exactly what type of dress are you looking for?"
"A long, flowing white dress with a veil," she responded with assurance.
Not totally convinced, but afraid to offend the woman, the sales lady said, "You know, dresses of that nature are usually more appropriate for brides who are being married for the first time -- for those a bit more innocent, if you know what I mean."
Well the lady retorted and put her hand on her hip, "I do know what you mean and I can assure you I'm as innocent as the rest of them, despite all of my marriages. I remain as innocent as any first-time bride. You see my husband was a dear, sweet man. It was a terrible tragedy, actually. All of the excitement of the wedding was simply too much for him and he died as we checked into the hotel on our wedding night."
"I'm sorry to hear that," said the clerk, "but what about the others?"
"Well my second husband and I got into a terrible fight in the limousine on the way to our wedding reception. We haven't spoken since -- and got the marriage quickly annulled."
"What about your third husband?" asked the store clerk.
"Well," the woman replied, "he was a Democrat and every night for four years he just sat on the edge of the bed and told me how good it was going to be."
Here in full is Ronald Reagan seated next to Margaret Thatcher. Click, listen and read along as he speaks to us for the last time in February 1994 before his announcement that he had Alzheimer’s Disease later that same year:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ronaldreagan83rdbirthday.htm
We all saw and learned so much from Ronald Reagan’s Irish eyes, here’s something that would have pleased his eyes and ears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DquA6KyHTos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v28is4jFWeo
This first image of Ronald Reagan was done in pencil:
http://reagan2020.us/images/reagan_pencil.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/President_Reagan_speaking_in_Minneapolis_1982.jpg/770px-President_Reagan_speaking_in_Minneapolis_1982.jpg
Posted February 8, 2012 at 1:11:44 PM
Trevor
Ronald Reagan saved the country so much money by proving that deficits don't matter unless they are run up by democrats.
Posted February 8, 2012 at 5:50:33 PM
mark2
The greatest president of the last century?U have to be kidding-he was a borderline nazi who fell asleep in the pressence of the pope!!What about Roseavelts,Woodrow Wilson,Clinton and even JFK,crikey ebeven Eisenhouser waas better-the only fools he elclispes are the Bush gangsters.
Posted February 10, 2012 at 1:11:35 AM