Defending Charlottesville Nazis is Trap for Conservatives

In the wake of the Charlottesville protests, the equivocations among Republicans are already beginning, starting with President Trump. The president, who seldom fails to speak his mind on Twitter, offered an uncharacteristically judicious tweet in the wake of the violence.

“We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets [sic] come together as one!” the president tweeted.

If ever there was a time for President Trump to issue a strong message that parses no words, this is it. While the message of unity is appropriate, it is also appropriate to condemn the white supremacists who started the whole fracas.

While radicals on both sides deserve to be condemned, it should not be hard to single out neo-Nazis who march under the swastika flag for specific condemnation. The German Nazi flag cannot be considered to be part of our heritage. Far from it. We fought a world war to keep the swastika flag far from our shores.

Neo-Nazi radicals have the right to their opinion. They have the right to peacefully and lawfully assemble. That does not mean that they should not be criticized and condemned for their actions and the violence that they have instigated.

While all the groups involved in the Charlottesville skirmishing are worthy of condemnation, it is especially important for conservatives and Republicans to denounce the alt-right demonstrators for two reasons. First, in the minds of many people, the Republican Party is already associated with racism. Republicans should take every opportunity to distance themselves from that perception.

Second, the demonstrators explicitly claim to be associated with President Trump and the GOP. There are numerous reports of white supremacists wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and other Trump gear. Former Klansman and Republican candidate David Duke said at the rally, “We're going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump, and that's what we believed in, that's why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he's going to take our country back and that's what we gotta [sic] do.”

Failure to publicly renounce Duke’s words is a trap for conservatives. If Republicans do not rebuke racists claiming to act in the name of the Trump Administration it will be an implicit endorsement of their actions. For once, it would be to President Trump’s advantage to fire off an angry tweet specifically rebuking the Charlottesville Nazis in terms at least as strong as he reprimanded Jeff Sessions.

If President Trump fails to condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville, it will be a break with the true traditions of the Republican Party. The GOP was founded as an anti-white supremacist party at the dawn of the Civil War with the Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, as its first president. Another Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, ordered the 101^st Airborne to Little Rock to enforce school integration a century later.

More recently, President Reagan specifically excluded bigots from the big tent of the GOP in his second inaugural address. “In the party of Lincoln, there is no room for intolerance and not even a small corner for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind,” Reagan said. “Many people are welcome in our house, but not the bigots.”

In modern America, what easier target for condemnation is there than white supremacists rallying under a Nazi banner? If the president cannot find words to denounce American Nazis, it will speak volumes about his Administration and the new Republican Party.

Originally published on The Resurgent

My brush with history: Performing for President Reagan

Ronald Reagan (National Archives)

On President Reagan’s birthday, I recall when I had the opportunity to see the man who would one day be recognized as one of America’s greatest presidents.  The year was 1986 and President Reagan had just cruised to a landslide 49 state re-election victory over Walter Mondale.  I was a freshman trombone player in the Hart County High School Bulldog Marching Band. 

We were a high school band from a small town in Georgia, but we had a big reputation. When President Reagan came to Atlanta to campaign for Georgia’s Republican junior senator, Mack Mattingly, the Bulldog Band was asked to perform at the rally.

In those days, the Democratic Party was still a viable force in Georgia.  In fact, most local elections in my home town did not even feature a Republican candidate.  The majority of these elections were settled in the Democratic primary with the general election being a mere formality.  On top of that, President Reagan had vanquished Georgia native (and the only president from Georgia) Jimmy Carter in 1980.  President Reagan was not popular with all of my classmates.

The campaign meeting was a large political pep rally at the Omni.  The band played from our repertoire of patriotic songs, although aside from the Star Spangled Banner I can’t say that I remember exactly what.  At some point, both President Reagan and Senator Mattingly spoke.

My fifteen-year-old brain, though interested in history and politics even then, was simply not programmed to pay attention to political speeches.  The only memory that I have of what President Reagan said that day was a joke that he told.

The joke involved a minor auto accident.  The police were called and, while they waited, the drivers began to talk.  No one was injured, but both were somewhat shaken.  One pulled a bottle from his car and offered it to the other to soothe his nerves.  The second driver took a swig.  They talked a bit longer and the first driver offered the bottle again.  The second driver took another swig.  When the police arrived and asked what happened, the first driver replied, “It wasn’t my fault.  This fellow’s been drinking!”  The Gipper told it better than I do.

Unfortunately, in 1986 Georgia returned to its Democratic roots.  Mack Mattingly, who had gone to Washington in the 1980 conservative victories that sent Jimmy Carter back to Plains, lost to Democrat Wyche Fowler.  Mattingly went on to become President Reagan’s Assistant Secretary-General for Defense Support for NATO in Belgium at a time when the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was still a very real possibility.  He also served as President George Herbert Walker Bush’s ambassador to the Seychelles. 

The meeting with Reagan was my most direct meeting with the executive branch, but it wasn’t the last.  In 1992, I overflew a meeting in Athens featuring Al Gore.  I was in a vintage 1946 Piper J-3 Cub and Gore was holding a rally for Democratic candidate Bill Clinton on a downtown street. In those days before the TSA and Homeland Security, there were no restrictions on overflying political meetings.  If someone tried that today, they would probably be arrested if they weren’t shot down.

In 2002, I was at Emory Hospital in Atlanta where my brother-in-law was receiving a kidney transplant from his father.  By chance, on the same day, President George W. Bush was coming to Emory to deliver a speech.  I didn’t see Dubya, but I did see his limousine from an upper story window as it pulled into the hospital. 

The only connection that I have with President Obama is that I was flying through Washington-Dulles airport as a corporate pilot a few days before his inaugurations in 2009 and 2013.  In 2009, the general aviation ramp was packed with business jets and the general aviation terminal was equally crowded, not only with flight crews and passengers, but with vendors selling Obama souvenirs.  There were fewer jets and supporters in 2013. Today, some of those corporate aircraft are starting to reappear and the private aircraft ramps are getting a little busier.

I’ve even seen Donald Trump in person. As a corporate pilot, I used to use the same hangar that this helicopter was kept in at Teterboro airport in New Jersey. We would frequently park next to his Boeing 727, and later his 757, at LaGuardia airport in New York and West Palm Beach, Florida. On one occasion, I even snapped a picture of The Donald as he walked between his limo and his jet.

It was years after my encounter with President Reagan that I truly began to appreciate his greatness.  The book The Great Inflation described how President Reagan and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker eradicated stagflation that had plagued the nation throughout the 1970s in a few short years.  I was too young to remember the ravages of inflation first hand, but the high unemployment and stagnant growth of the 1970s are similar to the economic woes we face today.  The economic doldrums of the 1970s also have the same cause as today’s economic problems:  government attempts to control and manipulate the economy.

President Reagan’s conviction that low tax rates and simplified regulation would lead to prosperity led to the one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in American history.  Where the 1970s were a decade of “malaise,” the 1980s became a decade of optimism, wealth, technological innovation, and, of course, ‘80s music.

The economy was not the only area in which President Reagan changed the course of history.  The 1970s had been a decade overshadowed by Vietnam and America’s abandonment of its ally.  America was viewed as weak by its adversaries around the world.  Arab nations punished the US for standing by Israel by launching an oil embargo and raising the price of oil to the unheard of price of $11 per barrel on other nations.  I do remember sitting in long lines to get gas.  The communists were on the march in Afghanistan, Asia, Africa, and Central America.  In Iran, a revolution deposed the Shah and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini while the American embassy staff was held hostage.

President Reagan changed much of that.  President Reagan made it cool to love America again. 

Much of the change in attitude came from the Gipper’s pervasive optimism and humor.  Much of it was also due to the fact that he backed up his words with action.  President Reagan revitalized the American military and freed one country, Grenada, from communism with direct action by American soldiers.  American aid and advisors went to other countries such as Nicaragua, the Philippines, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Afghanistan.

The American struggle against Islamic terrorism was just starting and President Reagan fought back.  In 1983, a suicide bomber killed 241 US Marine peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon.  In 1986, President Reagan ordered an airstrike on Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya in retaliation for support of terrorists. Terrorist bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings were commonplace.  Americans were targeted, but not on US soil.

The hallmark foreign policy triumph of President Reagan’s tenure was the fall of the Soviet Union.  The US military buildup, including the experimental Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”), was something that the Russians could not keep up with.  In particular, SDI forced the Soviets to come to the negotiating table.  The Berlin Wall fell in 1988 and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist in 1991.  Both were after Reagan left office, but he was one of the prime architects of the victory, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.  Just a few years earlier, in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Soviet communism had seemed unstoppable. 

In the twenty-two years since he left office, Reagan’s mystique has even reached the Democrats.  President Obama is on record as admiring President Reagan.  Every Republican candidate are compared to President Reagan, but few measure up.  Reagan’s policies of economic and political freedom would work as well in the twenty-first century as they did in the twentieth (or the nineteenth for that matter), if they were put into practice. The problem is that most politicians just can't stand to let go of their power and control.

Originally published on The Resurgent

Here are a few of President Reagan’s words of wisdom:

• Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
• Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
• Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
• A people free to choose will always choose peace.
• Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
• Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Gas prices, Obamanomics, and the return of inflation

Drivers around Atlanta have undoubtedly noticed rising gas prices over the past few weeks.  Georgiagasprices.com reports that the average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Georgia is $3.428, just below the national average of $3.487.  Georgia’s average price has risen 42 cents per gallon in the past month and 78 cents in the past year.  This is an even sharper increase than the national average which is up 36 cents in the past month and 74 cents in the past year.

Part of the reason for the increase in gasoline prices is undoubtedly the unrest in the Middle East.  Whenever there is political instability in oil-producing regions of the world, which is fairly often, the price of oil tends to rise.  This, in turn, causes the price of gasoline and other items made from oil to rise.  The problem is compounded by the Obama Administration’s attempts to stop new domestic oil exploration and the EPA’s new carbon regulations. 

The rising price of oil may both mask and contribute to something more insidious as well:  a return of inflation.  Rampant inflation and resulting stagnant economic growth characterized the entire decade of the 1970s.  The inflation of the 1970s was caused by many of the same factors that are present in our economy today.  President Nixon ran up federal deficits and imposed wage and price controls.  Along with Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Brooks, Nixon also increased the money supply sharply in an effort to end a recession and reduce unemployment.  Further, oil prices spiked twice in the 1970s as well; first, in 1973 with the Arab Oil Embargo and again in 1978 with the Iranian Revolution.

These factors are mirrored today in President Obama’s economic policies.  The federal deficits under Obama have led to an increase in the federal debt of $3.5 trillion.  Obama has also launched controls in some areas of the economy.  The president capped the pay of Wall St. CEOs of companies receiving federal bailouts.  He has also openly considered the idea of price controls as a remedy for health insurance costs that are rising even more sharply in the wake of the passage of Obamacare.  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is currently increasing the money supply by printing money under the guise of “quantitative easing.”

It is axiomatic in economics that as supply increases, price decreases.  Therefore, we can predict that as the supply of dollars increases through quantitative easing, increasing the money supply, that the price (or value) of those dollars will decrease.  Essentially this means that as the government prints more dollars, each individual dollar is worth less. 

Already, the specter of inflation is rearing its head in world markets.  One of the most notable areas of price increases is in world food markets, where food prices are at the highest point since the UN started tracking them in 1990.  Ironically, the rising cost of food in poor Arab countries may have been partly to blame for the outbreak of revolts against Middle Eastern dictators.  The unrest then further drives up oil prices, which leads to more inflation. 

President Obama with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke

Bad weather and crop failures around the world have contributed to rising food costs, but economists believe that government mandates to use more food for ethanol production instead of consumption also play a major role in rising food costs.  Economics teaches that when something becomes more scarce, as when food is diverted to manufacture ethanol, it becomes more expensive. 

At the same time, ethanol remains uncompetitive in spite of government subsidies.  A plant in Soperton, Ga. that produced ethanol from wood recently shut down in spite of receiving over $150 million in government loan guarantees and grants, while a corn ethanol plant in Camilla, Ga. is in bankruptcy.  Ethanol subsidies and mandates are detrimental in that they add to the federal deficit while also driving up world food prices.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation, has been relatively steady.  The CPI, however, does not typically include food and energy.  When food and energy prices are included, the CPI shows a sharp uptick in recent months. 

A further indication of the onset of inflation is the rising price of gold and silver.  Precious metals, gold in particular, are often considered a hedge against uncertainty and inflation.  After falling with the economy in 2008, the price of gold has rebounded sharply.  Since President Obama took office in 2009, the price of gold has risen from less than $900 per ounce to $1,467, an increase of more than 60%.  Silver has reacted even more dramatically, rising from just over $9 per ounce to $35, an increase of almost 300%.

Many economists do believe that monetary policy is the sole cause of inflation and that rising oil prices are a symptom of inflation, rather than being one of its causes.  In this case, rising oil prices are still bad news for the U.S. and world economies.  There is a strong link between spikes in oil prices and recessions.  The typical pattern is that oil prices increase dramatically, at least partially causing the recession.  As the economy slows, demand for oil decreases, which leads to a decline in the price.  This often allows the economy to rebound. 

This is the pattern followed in 2008 when record high gas prices were experienced just prior to the financial collapse.  After the onset of the recession, oil and gas prices dropped dramatically.  The Obama Administration’s regulatory and financial policies postponed the recovery and kept oil prices low until recently.  As the economy slowly recovers, oil prices would normally start to creep upward again.  The unrest in the Middle East provided more upward pressure as well.

Algerians riot over high food prices in 2009 (Flickr: 110109 Algeria slashes food prices amid riots)

In the current economic climate, the Federal Reserve is dramatically increasing the money supply.  At the same time, political unrest in the Middle East and Obama Administration policies at home are driving up the cost of oil and energy.  Problems with crops and diverting agricultural resources to ethanol production are increasing the cost of food as well.  If these trends continue, Georgians can expect gas prices to continue to rise, along with the prices of milk, bread, meat and other foods.  Eventually, if left unchecked, inflation will spread to other areas of the economy as well.

The cure for runaway inflation is almost as bad as the disease.  The rampant inflation of the 1970s was defeated only by the strategy of Ronald Reagan and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to tighten the money supply (by increasing reserves of central banks and reducing the supply of money in the economy).  This strategy led directly to the recession of 1980, but ultimately inflation was defeated and the economy entered a strong recovery.  Other policies that President Obama is unlikely to embrace, such as tax cuts and reducing regulation, helped to ease the transition to tighter monetary policies.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-atlanta/gas-prices-obamanomics-and-the-return-of-inflation#ixzz1G2Dv4hbc"> 

What would Reagan tell Obama?

Does Reagan's ghost linger in the White House?

Barack Obama and I have at least one thing in common.  We both came of age in the era of Ronald Reagan and the Pax Americana.  While Obama was attending Columbia University and becoming a community organizer, I was growing up in a small town in northeast Georgia.  What we learned from President Reagan was vastly different, however.  Obama grew to oppose all that Reagan stood for, while admiring his charisma and political prowess.  I grew to appreciate the truth of Reagan’s words and beliefs.  If Obama really admires President Reagan, he should look past his personality and the mere fact of his political success to see effectiveness and truth of the ideas behind Reagan’s actions. 

The first and most obvious thing that President Obama should learn from President Reagan is that economic freedom works.  That President Obama’s push for more centralized economic planning, more government spending, and more taxes has not worked should be obvious to anyone by this point.  President Obama has spent (and printed and borrowed) trillions of dollars to little effect.  Unemployment has stabilized at a higher rate than when he took office and the economy as a whole has become mired in the doldrums in spite of Obama’s assurances that the recession is over.  (Georgia’s unemployment rate has consistently been even higher than the national average during Obama’s tenure.)  A plethora of government programs designed to spur growth and create jobs have all failed.

President Reagan would tell Barack Obama that “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”  President Reagan’s economic policies were almost diametrically opposed to those of President Obama.  Years of policies resembling Obama’s had fueled inflation in the 1970s.  To fight inflation, Reagan and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker attacked inflation by cutting the money supply, cutting federal spending, and cutting taxes.  These actions caused the economy to contract sharply in the first two years of Reagan’s presidency.  His approval ratings plummeted but he stayed the course.  Ultimately, President Reagan’s “voodoo economics” (which became “Reaganomics” when they started working) beat back inflation and ushered in a long period of dynamic economic growth.

If President Obama continues on his course of spending, borrowing and printing, the effects will be similar to what the nation experienced in the 1970s.  Inflation is already a concern as Ben Bernanke’s “quantitative easing” strategy floods the market with new dollars.  Dick Morris recently pointed out that most GDP growth is accounted for by the rising prices in the Consumer Price Index. In other words, the economy is not really growing.  It just looks that way because things are getting more expensive.

History has repeatedly shown that low tax rates and low government spending are an effective means of creating economic growth.  Four times in the past hundred years, US presidents (Harding, Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush) have cut taxes and each time the effect has been positive.  In contrast, Obama’s policies reflect those of Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt that turned a recession into the Great Depression.

If so, Obama should listen for his advice. (Elizabeth Cromwell)

President Reagan would also probably tell President Obama that “History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”  The United States has the strongest and best equipped military in the world, but it is worthless without the will to use it.  If tyrants feel that they will be unchallenged, then they are more likely to attack both their neighbors and their own countrymen.  This is in evidence throughout history as well as in our own time.  Dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez flout the UN while cracking down on dissent at home and exporting violence abroad.  Hosni Mubarak clings to power while sending out his police and party thugs to attack peaceful demonstrators.  It is up to the US to lead the way in challenging these men.  Otherwise, as the Gipper put it, “To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last--but eat you he will.”  War is more likely when we don’t stop dictators early. 

Events in the Middle East directly affect us here in Georgia.  There have been many Georgians killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan).  The best way to ensure that our children do not have to fight is to face down evil ourselves.  As President Reagan put it, “There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace–and you can have it in the next second–surrender…. Admittedly there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement….”

The best hope for peace is through freedom.    President Reagan also believed that “A people free to choose will always choose peace.”  President Obama should adopt the freedom agenda of Presidents Reagan and Bush.  In 2009, President Obama missed a golden opportunity to support groups opposed to the Iranian government when they took to the streets to protest fraudulent presidential elections.  By failing to push for Mubarak’s immediate resignation and cutting off aid to Egypt in reprisal for government violence, President Obama may actually push the Egyptian people toward the radical Muslim Brotherhood.  The US has backed Dictator Mubarak for far too long.  It is time to back the democracy groups.

Finally, President Reagan would tell President Obama that there is more to being a great communicator than smoothly delivering speeches.  President Reagan would say that a truly great communicator communicates great ideas.  Reagan did not try to bamboozle the country into becoming something different.  His message “came from the heart of a great nation--from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”  To Reagan, the Reagan Revolution was not something new and untested; it was a “great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.”

President Obama can save his presidency if he takes President Reagan’s advice and follows his example.  If not, unemployment is likely to remain high, the economy will continue to be stagnant, and the federal debt will continue to rise.  If that is the case, it will be up to conservatives and the American people to take one last bit of advice from President Reagan:  “…  sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper.”

When President Reagan came to town

Courtesy of Ronald Reagan Library

On the hundredth anniversary of President Reagan’s birth, I recall when I had the opportunity to see the man who would one day be recognized as one of America’s greatest presidents.  The year was 1986 and President Reagan had just cruised to a landslide 49 state re-election victory over Walter Mondale.  I was a freshman trombone player in the Hart County High School Bulldog Marching Band.  President Reagan was coming to Atlanta to campaign for Georgia’s Republican junior senator, Mack Mattingly, and the Bulldog Band was asked to perform. 

In those days, the Democratic Party was still a viable force in Georgia.  In fact, most local elections in my home town did not even feature a Republican candidate.  The majority of these elections were settled in the Democratic primary with the general election being a mere formality.  On top of that, President Reagan had vanquished Georgia native (and the only president from Georgia) Jimmy Carter in 1980.  President Reagan was not popular with all of my classmates.

The campaign meeting was a large political pep rally at the Omni.  The band played from our repertoire of patriotic songs, although aside from the Star Spangled Banner I can’t say that I remember exactly what.  At some point, both President Reagan and Senator Mattingly spoke.

My fifteen-year-old brain, though interested in history and politics even then, was simply not programmed to pay attention to political speeches.  The only memory that I have of what President Reagan said that day was a joke that he told.

The joke involved a minor auto accident.  The police were called and, while they waited, the drivers began to talk.  No one was injured, but both were somewhat shaken.  One pulled a bottle from his car and offered it to the other to soothe his nerves.  The second driver took a swig.  They talked a bit longer and the first driver offered the bottle again.  The second driver took another swig.  When the police arrived and asked what happened, the first driver replied, “It wasn’t my fault.  This fellow’s been drinking!”  The Gipper told it better than I do.

Unfortunately, in 1986 Georgia returned to its Democratic roots.  Mack Mattingly, who had gone to Washington in the 1980 conservative victories that sent Jimmy Carter back to Plains, lost to Democrat Wyche Fowler.  Mattingly went on to become President Reagan’s Assistant Secretary-General for Defense Support for NATO in Belgium at a time when the possibility of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe was still a very real possibility.  He also served as President George Herbert Walker Bush’s ambassador to the Seychelles. 

The meeting with Reagan was my most direct meeting with the executive branch, but it wasn’t the last.  In 1992, I overflew a meeting in Athens featuring Al Gore.  I was in a vintage 1946 Piper J-3 Cub and Gore was holding a rally for Democratic candidate Bill Clinton on a downtown street. In those days before the TSA and Homeland Security, there were no restrictions on overflying political meetings.  If someone tried that today, they would probably be arrested if they weren’t shot down.

In 2002, I was at Emory Hospital in Atlanta where my brother-in-law was receiving a kidney transplant from his father.  By chance, on the same day, President George W. Bush was coming to Emory to deliver a speech.  I didn’t see Dubya, but I did see his limousine from an upper story window as it pulled into the hospital. 

The only connection that I have with President Obama is that I was flying through Washington-Dulles airport a few days before his inauguration in 2009.  At the time, the general aviation ramp was packed with business jets and the general aviation terminal was equally crowded, not only with flight crews and passengers, but with vendors selling Obama souvenirs.  Many of Obama’s supporters have since disappeared and the ramps at Dulles are usually almost empty of aircraft.  This may be partly due to the Obama Administration’s attacks on corporate aircraft, but perhaps it is also symptomatic of the economy in general.

It was years after my encounter with President Reagan that I truly began to appreciate his greatness.  The book The Great Inflation described how President Reagan and Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker eradicated stagflation that had plagued the nation throughout the 1970s in a few short years.  I was too young to remember the ravages of inflation first hand, but the high unemployment and stagnant growth of the 1970s are similar to the economic woes we face today.  The economic doldrums of the 1970s also have the same cause as today’s economic problems:  government attempts to control and manipulate the economy.

Ronald Reagan in 1981

President Reagan’s conviction that low tax rates and simplified regulation would lead to prosperity led to the one of the longest sustained periods of economic growth in American history.  Where the 1970s were a decade of “malaise,” the 1980s became a decade of optimism, wealth, technological innovation, and, of course, ‘80s music.

The economy was not the only area in which President Reagan changed the course of history.  The 1970s had been a decade overshadowed by Vietnam and America’s abandonment of its ally.  America was viewed as weak by its adversaries around the world.  Arab nations punished the US for standing by Israel by launching an oil embargo and raising the price of oil to the unheard of price of $11 per barrel on other nations.  I do remember sitting in long lines to get gas.  The communists were on the march in Afghanistan, Asia, Africa, and Central America.  In Iran, a revolution deposed the Shah and installed the Ayatollah Khomeini while the American embassy staff was held hostage.

President Reagan changed much of that.  President Reagan made it cool to love America again. 

Much of the change in attitude came from the Gipper’s pervasive optimism and humor.  Much of it was also due to the fact that he backed up his words with action.  President Reagan revitalized the American military and freed one country, Grenada, from communism with direct action by American soldiers.  American aid and advisors went to other countries such as Nicaragua, the Philippines, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Afghanistan.

The American struggle against Islamic terrorism was just starting and President Reagan fought back.  In 1983, a suicide bomber killed 241 US Marine peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon.  In 1986, President Reagan ordered an airstrike on Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya in retaliation for support of terrorists. Terrorist bombings, kidnappings, and hijackings were commonplace.  Americans were targeted, but not on US soil.

Bush, Reagan, and Gorbachev in New York, 1988

The hallmark foreign policy triumph of President Reagan’s tenure was the fall of the Soviet Union.  The US military buildup, including the experimental Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as “Star Wars”), was something that the Russians could not keep up with.  In particular, SDI forced the Soviets to come to the negotiating table.  The Berlin Wall fell in 1988 and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist in 1991.  Both were after Reagan left office, but he was one of the prime architects of the victory, along with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.  Just a few years earlier, in Jimmy Carter’s presidency, Soviet communism had seemed unstoppable. 

In the twenty-two years since he left office, Reagan’s mystique has even reached the Democrats.  President Obama is on record as admiring President Reagan.  However, Obama’s admiration of Reagan does not extend to his policies.  Obama’s policies have more closely mirrored FDR’s disastrous New Deal or Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy blunders.  Rapidly expanding government, high unemployment, rising inflation, national despondency, and a failure to push an international freedom agenda make 2011 look eerily like 1979.  Reagan’s policies of economic and political freedom work as well in the twenty-first century as they did in the twentieth (or the nineteenth for that matter).

In 1980, Georgia voted for Jimmy Carter.  In 1984, Georgia corrected that mistake by voting, along with every other state except Minnesota, to send President Reagan back to Washington for four more years.  We can hope that history repeats itself once again and that the nation unites behind a strong conservative leader who will reverse the growth of government at home and confront tyrants abroad.

Here are a few of President Reagan’s words of wisdom:

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.