Ronald Reagan - American

When Reagan was elected I feared him as I feared no man in America. When he left office I admired him as much as any man in America. How did eight years of the presidency change him that much?

Of course it wasn't Reagan who changed, but my perception of him.

During the run up to the election I bought the Mainstream Media's (MSM) propaganda about Reagan. He was going to subjugate women, enslave blacks, rob the poor, cut every tree, poison the air, poison the water, and lead us into nuclear war with the Soviet Union. But, as I watched him and listened to him, he didn't act like the MSM claimed.

Instead of doing things to screw the poor, the actions Reagan took looked like attempts to control the rising growth of government or to strengthen to country, both admirable tasks. I would see what he would say and do and compare it to what the MSM said he was doing, and I'd notice a huge disparity, The MSM said every thing he said and did was wrong, but I saw different.

His speeches were exceptional. Instead of moaning about how evil America was like the "Blame America First" media, Reagan talked about the simple greatness of the American people. He believed that as great as America was, its best years were still to come. After the malaise of the Carter years, it was refreshing to hear someone believe that America hadn't reached its true greatness yet. By the time he retired I had come to realize that Reagan was telling the truth and it was the media that was lying.

Tear down this wall!
- Ronald Reagan

"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
- Ronald Reagan

"We meant to change a nation, and instead we changed a world."
- Ronald Reagan

"Love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism."
- Ronald Reagan

"We are a nation that has a government - not the other way around."
- Ronald Reagan

"Government is like a big baby - an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."
- Ronald Reagan

"There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit."
- Ronald Reagan

"And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps and opportunity's arm steadying your way. My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for young people -- is that you will love your country, not for her power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for your having been here. May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, God-given optimism. And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that shining city upon a hill."
--Ronald Reagan (1992)