Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by Bob_VT

Hmmmmm Is there a lesson here?

"It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope." -- Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address on Jan. 20, 1981.

I voted for Reagan in 1980. Figured that "Morning in America" was the real thing. Went through hell at school from lefties, I was at CMU when conservative was synonymous with idiot.

The Russians were in Afghanistan and almost everywhere else. The world was falling apart. Stagflation, misery index, the works. Jimmy Carter looked like a dimwit in his sweaters, talking of malaise and tolerating gasoline lines. Meanwhile each night the news shows counted up the days that US diplomats were in captivity.

Reagan seemed like a savior under such conditions.

I carried water for the "War on Drugs", the Nicaraguan Resistance and a lot of the other stuff. Figured it was to save society and freedom. Nothing illegal or illicit, just common garden ward heeling.

We started to dismantle some of the crazy Carter era stuff. The gas lines soon went away, but yeah, gasoline cost a little more.

Figured that ending investment in coal gasification was being prudent, wish now that we'd kept it going. It wasn't a satrapy, it was simply ahead of its time.

The War on Drugs turned into a disaster. More people in jail today than ever in history. Entire towns are cooking Meth and Mexico is turning into a shooting gallery over drugs. Just like the last time the US tried this crap, back in 1917 when liquor was outlawed.

The Nicaraguan Resistance was left to die in the field. Today Daniel Ortega Saavedra is in power, except instead of dialectical materialism he is into revolutionary theology. One wonders what it was all about?

The military Reagan built to stop the Soviets was pissed away in Kuwait and then dissipated by Clinton in "reinventing Government". What is left is being destroyed by being an occupation force rather than a deterrent to Soviet invasion - which was the damned point in 1982.

The Soviet Union collapsed, Clinton and Tony Lake held the people down while Marc Rich raped them, and then the US pissed off the Russians by bombing Serbia. The GOP didn't left a finger to stop it. Today Russians are generally suspicious of the US, which isn't surprising given our antics in the former Eastern Europe. We promised them that we would not expand NATO, but instead we're whittling away land and populations that have been under Russian influence for centuries.

Domestically we got something call "Civil Forfeiture". Reagan signed away our ability to register new machineguns in 1986, his successor worked to ban ugly firearms and Reagan personally lobbied Congress to pass the Feinstein ban in 1993. I guess all of this talk of Freedom was the freedom to be good little boys and girls and obey? Don't think so.

Today we have a massive debt. The Republicans couldn't spend money any wiser than the Democrats. We're stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't smile too much thinking of Reagan. Nothing personal, Bob, but I literally bled for those people and all I have to show for it are memories, a few scars and a bad taste in my mouth.

Obama? I don't think he has even understands the problem let alone how to solve it. Spending our way to prosperity is like putting out fires with gasoline. Ron Paul might have made a nice President but he's too "radical" for the tastes of our betters.

Gene

[GeneW]

Originally Posted by bobselectric

No one is denying that President-Elect Obama is a really bright guy, probably the most educated president in the history of the nation.

Woodrow Wilson gained a PhD in Political Science from Johns Hopkins University in 1883, back in a time when PhDs were not given away, there was no grade inflation and Presbyterian boys from Rebel States (Wilson came from South Carolina and had survived Reconstruction) were not cut much slack in Baltimore.

Wilson taught at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, and Princeton. He eventually became President of Princeton before going into New Jersey State Politics.

No way in hell can you claim that a PhD in Poly Sci from Johns Hopkins awarded in 1886 is less than a JD from Harvard awarded in 1991. To this day Wilson is the only President who has achieved a PhD.

FWIW, George Bush Jr may be the only US President who has ever achieved a Masters Degree. Yes, Bush has a Harvard Business School MBA. They're not given away like tickets to the homecoming game. Gotta earn 'em.

I'm gonna ask it - why does a JD from Harvard and a BA from Columbia give Obama the prerogatives to be President but a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard does not qualify Bush for anything in particular? Both men achieved post graduate degrees from the very same school - why is Obama better? His progressive credentials? His cult of personality? Maybe some covert racism from some people who consider a man of color achieving so much to be a marvel of sorts?

Where I come from lawyers are not necessarily better Presidents. Richard Nixon and Abraham Lincoln come to mind.


I realize that it is very difficult for a young person to achieve much before they decide to run for President.

Bill Clinton managed to serve two terms as Arkansas Governor and one term as Arkansas Attorney General. He also taught Constitutional Law at the University of Arkansas. I don't consider him a good President but that's due to my own convictions - I'm not sure that his opponents would have done any better.

John Kennedy, who was a young man when he decided to run for President, actually accomplished a few things in the Senate before he opted to run for President. Ironically this included supplementing the Kefauver hearings with his own hearings on organized crime and helping to lead US support for a free Algeria.

Obama owed it to himself to achieve a few things besides three terms in the Illinois legislature, part of a US Senate term, teaching Constitutional Law classes, running a "Community Activist" organization, trying a handful of cases and doing clerical work on several more at one Chicago law firm.

If he had any damned sense he would have done a bit more case law in Civil Rights, maybe work a bit more with running poverty programs in Chicago and Detroit. Definitely do something practical before jumping into politics.

I think if Obama's Presidency achieves much it's going to be in spite of his lack of practical experience in executive management.

I think one thing we can rule out right away - nobody is gonna get their gas tanks filled up and their mortgages paid by Obama.

Gene