President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, born to a poor family in Illinois, was taught to read by his mother at home.[1] Like his father, Ronald was unsuccessful at most things in life, but had a positive attitude instilled in him by his mother and the "Disciples of Christ" evangelical Christian faith. He played sports but was not very good; took economics in college but did poorly; became a second-rate sports broadcaster; and then went on to a second-rate movie career. But through it all his upbeat optimism about people and America continued.
After serving in World War II (he was rejected for a promotion), he became a leader of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood at a time when the communists were trying to infiltrate it. Though a Democrat himself, Reagan was alarmed by communist infiltration in Hollywood. He stood up to the communists, but they attempted to intimidate him. As a result of this personal experience, Reagan became strongly anti-communist, a principle that would guide him for the rest of his life.
After campaigning for the conservative Barry Goldwater for president in 1964 (Goldwater lost), Reagan ran for governor of California by emphasizing two points: (1) "to send the welfare bums back to work," and (2) "to clean up the mess at Berkeley" (referring to the student and hippie protests). Reagan won in a stunning upset. Two years later, he showed up at the Republican National Convention in Miami in 1968, when Nixon was being nominated for president. Your teacher's brothers went to shake Reagan's hand instead of Nixon's, and it turned out that Reagan would be much more influential than Nixon was.
Every president who has served since President Reagan has imitated him, or benefited from him. Reagan served from 1980 to 1988, winning reelection in 1984 by a record landslide number of votes. President George H.W. Bush won the presidency by riding on Reagan's coattails; President Clinton imitated the style (but not the substance) of Reagan, and Clinton made a special (and surprising) visit to meet him after winning in 1992; and President George W. Bush imitated Reagan by giving a weekly radio addresses just as Reagan did. Politicians, both Democratic and Republican, cite Ronald Reagan today to gain support for their ideas, and the airport in D.C. is now named after him.
President Reagan campaigned and governed based on all the conservative principles: less government, lower taxes, less regulation, more morality, new federalism (returning power from the federal government to the states), and a strong national defense (particularly against the communists). Every year of his presidency had a major achievement, so much so that bumper stickers afterward were entitled, "Eight Great Years" in reference to his Administration. President Reagan was the only person who became more conservative the longer he was in power.
His nickname was the "Great Communicator" for his ability to connect with the American people, particularly through television. An internet poll selected Reagan as the greatest American president ever, to the dismay of those conducting the survey (who expected someone like Lincoln to win). Yet, like Lincoln, President Reagan was also one of the most ridiculed or despised presidents in history.
Reagan was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 1981. On that very same day, Iran released unharmed all of the American hostages whom it had held in retaliation against Jimmy Carter's support of the Shah of Iran. President Reagan immediately went to work in enacting the conservative agenda. Within one month, on Feb. 18th, Reagan proposed the biggest tax and spending cuts in history. Reagan adhered to "supply-side economics," a new theory advanced by Arthur Laffer that cutting taxes would actually increase government revenue. He drew a curve on the back of a napkin in a restaurant one night to explain his theory: as taxes approach 100%, government revenue decreases towards zero because people lose reason to work (all their income is taken by the government). By cutting taxes, we can actually increase revenue. Most established economists laughed at this theory, sarcastically calling it "Reaganomics". But it worked and led to record-breaking prosperity, and increased government revenue.
On March 30th, John Hinckley shot Reagan as he was walking from a speaking event to his car in D.C. The bullet came with an inch of killing him. But Reagan survived with charm and good spirits. Despite losing a great deal of blood, Reagan was even cracking jokes about his misfortune as he was rushed to the hospital. Hinckley tried to kill Reagan because Hinckley had been inspired by a filthy Hollywood movie featuring a prostitute played by Jodie Foster. Hinckley was trying to impress the actress. Hinckley was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and that led to changes in many laws to limit the insanity defense. Many people became very sympathetic to Reagan at this point. His tax cuts passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, because many Democrats voted for them based on Reagan's promise not to campaign against them when they sought to be reelected. That illustrated how much politicians feared Reagan's ability to connect with the people.
In August 1981, the Air Traffic Controllers Union (PATCO) went on strike in order to obtain much higher wages. Reagan went on television to address the nation and told the government-paid union workers to stay on the job or be fired. He was acting just as one of his heroes, President Calvin Coolidge, did when Coolidge was governor of Massachusetts and the police went on strike. When the PATCO strike continued, Reagan then fired all the PATCO workers who went on strike and barred them from ever being rehired by the government. The airports remained open through use of military traffic controllers who filled in for the strikers, and many pilots commented on how much more polite the substitutes were than the union workers.
In 1982, unemployment hit 10.8%, the worst since the Great Depression. Reagan was blamed for this and things looked bleak. But the criticism did not change Reagan. "Stay the course" was his campaign slogan for Republicans up for reelection in 1982. The Democrats, led by the clever Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, countered with this sarcastic twist: "stay the curse." After hitting rock bottom in 1982 (and losing many Republican seats in the mid-term election), the effects of Reagan's tax and spending cuts began to take hold in 1983. A tremendous economic boom began in 1983 and lasted throughout the remainder of the 1980s.
In 1983, Reagan turned to foreign policy. He called the communist Soviet Union the "evil empire." Then Reagan advanced a completely original idea in a speech to the nation: he proposed a missile defense system called the "Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)." This was probably the most original and powerful idea ever proposed by a president in our entire history, and its genesis remains a mystery among historians. Reagan's enemies derisively called it "Star Wars," after the popular new movie that hit the theaters earlier with advanced new special effects.
To understand the idea, it is first necessary to appreciate our military defense strategy in the 1960s and 1970s. Our foreign policy towards the Soviet Union then consisted of "Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)." Under this approach, each side was deterred from attacking the other side because the result would be the mutual destruction of both sides through massive nuclear war. While neither side could defend against an attack, each side threatened massive retaliation as a deterrent to the attack. Simply put: "if you attack me, then I’ll attack you back and we’ll both be destroyed!"
There were obvious flaws in MAD. What about an accidental firing of a nuclear missile by the other side, which we could do nothing to stop? What about an attack by smaller countries? What about a terrorist missile attack? What about an attack by a crazed dictator who might rise to power and not mind mutual assured destruction? MAD left us defenseless against such attacks.
Reagan wanted a defense against missile attacks. He thought this would bring us to a new level of freedom and security. Critics immediately attacked his theory as impossible, wasteful, and destabilizing. Enormous debate and controversy followed, and many were vicious in their criticism of Reagan over this. Your teacher recalls attending a presentation by a prestigious scientist from IBM who described Reagan's plan as impossible and destabilizing. But questions after his talk were cut off prematurely so he could avoid addressing obvious logical flaws in his own presentation, such as why was the Soviet Union so opposed to our developing a missile defense program if it were impossible to build??
Also in 1983, communists backed by Cuba invaded Grenada, where there were over one hundred American medical students. Reagan immediately sent in our troops and saved the students, bringing them back to the United States safely. Students were seen on television kissing the American soil as soon as they got off their planes.
In 1984, Reagan stood for reelection against Walter Mondale, the former Vice President under Jimmy Carter. Mondale promised to raise taxes. In the first of two debates, Reagan's mind had been stuffed with facts by his advisers preparing him, and Reagan did poorly. Mondale pulled nearly even in the polls. For the second and final debate, conservatives demanded that his advisers "let Reagan be Reagan." Free to be himself, Reagan thoroughly destroyed Mondale in the second debate and even showed a great deal of class in politely accepting the moderator's cutting his closing short (due to time constraints). Reagan then won one of the biggest landslide victories in U.S. history.
In 1985, Reagan began authorizing the sale of arms to Iran in exchange for its work to free some American hostages kidnapped and held captive in the Middle East. Two years later this would turn into the "Iran-Contra" scandal, as the proceeds of those sales were intended to be sent to anti-communist freedom fighters in Nicaragua (the "Contras"). Congress, which was controlled by Democrats, had passed a law prohibiting funding of the Contras, and saw this as a violation of that law. Reagan was never charged with any crime, however. This became known as the "arms for hostages" deal.
In 1986, Reagan cut taxes much further. He also met with Gorbachev (the leader of the Soviet Union) in Reykjavik, Iceland to negotiate an arms reduction deal. Gorbachev was willing to give Reagan almost anything he wanted in return for just one demand: abandon the Star Wars (SDI) program. Reagan stuck to his conservative principles and refused, despite enormous media and world pressure to give in. Reagan left Iceland with the media criticizing and ridiculing him for not reaching a deal. It was obvious that Reagan was not trying merely to be popular; rather, he was trying to do what was best for America.
In 1987, Reagan insisted on visiting the Berlin Wall, despite obvious security risks of being within range of communist East German sharpshooters. In preparing for his speech there, Reagan wrote into his draft remarks this demand: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" His advisors removed this phrase from the speech as being unrealistic, silly and confrontational. As the drafts of the speech went back and forth between Reagan and his advisors, Reagan kept inserting the phrase and his advisors kept removing it. But Reagan included the phrase in his spoken words, the world heard it, and within a few years (1989) the wall was miraculously torn down. Reagan is credited with ending communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, though it still remains in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and Venezuela.
In 1988, Reagan struck a deal for free trade (no tariffs) with Canada. Reagan was also instrumental in enabling his Vice President, George H.W. Bush, to be elected president in 1988 in a close race.
When Reagan became president in 1981 the unemployment rate was 7.5%[2] and the inflation rate was nearly 12%.[3] Reagan reduced taxes and promoted business growth, and by the time his second term expired eight years later the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.4% and the inflation rate had dropped to 4.5%.
Reagan could have done better in certain areas. His appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court were Sandra Day O'Connor (the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court), Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy, and only Scalia proved to be a consistently strong conservative. To Reagan's credit, he probably appointed O'Connor on the recommendation of conservative Justice (and future Chief Justice) William Rehnquist, who had been her law school classmate and friend. And Reagan's first pick for the seat filled by Kennedy was Robert Bork, a solid conservative, but he was not confirmed by the Senate.
Reagan also signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which made it a crime for an employer to hire an illegal alien (illegal immigrant). This Act forced employers to have their employees complete the "I-9 form" to prove that they were here legally. The law imposed financial penalties on companies caught employing illegal aliens, in the hope of discouraging illegal immigration. But the Act granted amnesty to most illegal aliens who arrived before 1982, and that made many think that future illegal aliens would receive amnesty also. Illegal immigration increased even more.