Brian Keahl's Political Wit, Wisdom, and Rants
Ronald Reagan: President Of The Century
Brian's Page of Political Wit and Wisdom officially nominates and elects Ronald Reagan as the most influential President of the 20th Century. He brought the country together, restored a weakend military, vanquished our major philosophical enemy and turned many of the resulting freed countries into friends, united us with our international allies, and even brought consensus to Congress. Most of these accomplishments stand to this day. Most importantly, he personified leadership by his thoughts, words, and deeds in the face of overwhelming opposition domestically and internationally.
Ronald Reagan should be considered the most influential President in 20th Century History because of the fact that his actions ran counter to "conventional wisdom". He formulated his philosophy and strategy, communicated it to his fellow citizens and the world, and succeeded in implementing most of them despite the fact that he received the wrath of the media, vial insults from Democrats in Congress, and wild claims by special interests and Soviet-Communist sympathizers. Despite these challenges he stayed the course and history was proven him to be correct in the beliefs he enunciated, the effect his words had on the world, and the results he acheived at home and abroad.We can nitpick specifics but overall influence must be measured in overall performance. Reagan had three issues he wished to persue: Restore our economy, rebuild our military and international respect, and balance the federal budget. He succeeded at two out of three, with Democrats refusing to engage in budget restraints and demanding increased spending in other areas to provide Reagan the resources to achieve the other two. In the end, his strategy of economic growth coupled with the "peace dividend" also brought us to a balanced budget after-the-fact.
Reagan challenged the Soviet Union as the "Evil Empire" that it was and engaged in a systematic effort to weaken the Soviet Economy, strain their military, and oppose appeasement efforts on the part of our congress. A combination of his efforts to use the USSR's own spies to provide disinformation resulting in wasted military expendatures and flawed technology to impede their oil pipeline production; the Arms Race which strained the Soviet Economy to the breaking point; Frightening the Soviets with our SDI program; Implementing the first arms agreement that actually reduced nuclear weapons in our arsenals; Arming the Afghans to further strain the USSR military; and fighting Communisim in South America despite support for the Communists by the Democrats in Congress; resulted in the end of the Soviet Union and the beginning of foreign alliances with former soviet countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations, and even China.
Of course, President Bill Clinton squandered those alliances and nary none of these countries are now such close friends to our country - with the possible exception of China's special relationship with President Bill Clinton.
Ronald Reagan also hastened the end of Deficit Spending because it was the only area Democrats opposed President Reagan in an area the public felt some concern about. The result of this strategy is that Democrats, paradoxically, signed on to the generally Republican issue of a Balanced Budget. How's that for uniting a country behind common goals?
This document subject to change without notice - in order to better communicate my message.