Ronald Reagan

Freedom’s best friend

by Heidi Parent
06/15/04

Not only did Ronald Reagan change my world, he changed the world. I’ve written before about the impact President Reagan had on my life. (See my archives for the column titled "Thank You, Mr. President.") Coming of age during the Reagan years, I can say with certainty that it was he who made me the conservative I am today. And I am quite certain I am not alone in that inspiration.

I consider myself lucky to have lived while he was president. A whole generation has grown up without knowing President Reagan and his accomplishments. This became apparent to me while watching the coverage of his passing with a friend’s 12 year-old son who asked me, “He was never President, right?”

It is long past time his generation understood who Ronald Reagan was and what he did.

If I had to choose one word to describe what Ronald Reagan stood for that word would be freedom, for freedom was behind his every decision.

Reagan took office with really only two goals in mind: lowering tax rates and defeating communism; in other words, creating an atmosphere of economic freedom and liberating the millions living under communist rule.

In January 1981 President Reagan took the reins on the worst economy since the Great Depression. Unemployment was over 7%, inflation approached 14%, interest rates were at an unbelievable 19%, and the top marginal tax rate was 70%. Reagan knew the way to get the economy moving again was to lower tax rates across the board so people could keep more of what they earned and in turn, reinvest it in the economy. He campaigned heavily on this issue and once in office managed to get the tax cuts passed in the summer of 1981 with the rate reductions taking effect that fall.

But the economy didn't immediately respond. In fact, things got worse (unemployment approached 10%) and the tax cuts were immediately blamed. Many in Congress were calling for the tax cuts to be repealed lest they make the economy even worse. And when his approval ratings dropped to 35%, even some in his administration were begging Reagan to reconsider. But Reagan remained steadfast to his program and urged Congress and the nation to be patient and allow the full effects of the tax cut to take effect. "Stay the course" became the slogan. And “stay the course” proved the right strategy.

By the spring of 1983, the effects of the tax cuts were being felt and the economy began responding. Inflation fell to under 5%, unemployment fell to 5.5%, and the prime interest rate fell from it's all time high of almost 20% to just 9.6%. And, just as Reagan predicted, as the economy grew and more Americans found jobs and began to pay taxes, the revenue to the U.S. Treasury increased. But perhaps most importantly, our country was well on its way to the longest sustained peacetime economic growth in our nation’s history. In other words, Reagan was right.

The second area on which Reagan focused was defeating communism. For many years before he became President, Reagan had been critical of the manner in which American presidents had been dealing with the Soviets. Reagan recognized détente had only led to Soviet expansion. So once he became President he was determined to take a different approach. And he wasted no time making it clear that he was not going to be content merely containing communism; instead, he intended to challenge it.

In his very first press conference, Reagan said this: “So far détente has been a one-way street the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims. I don't have to think of an answer as to what I think their intentions are; they have repeated it. I know of no leader of the Soviet Union since the Revolution, in and including the present leadership, that has not more than once repeated, in the various communist Congresses they hold, their determination that their goal must be the promotion of world revolution and a one world socialist or communist state, which ever words you want to use. Now, as long as they do that, and as long as they at the same time have openly and publicly declared that the morality they recognize is what will further their cause. Meaning, they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat in order to attain that; and that is moral and not immoral, and we operate on a different set of standards. I think when you do business with them, even at a détente, you keep that in mind.”

The media and the Left went crazy and warned Reagan’s plan would put us on the road to World War III. But Reagan remained steadfast. He realized that the 40-plus year stand off between our two countries would go on forever unless one side was defeated; and he was determined that it would be the Soviets who would be on the losing end. As such, he didn’t let up. He continued to pound the Soviet Union calling them an “evil empire” and predicting that, “The West won't contain communism. It will transcend communism. It will dismiss it as some bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written.” And when he challenged Soviet Premier Gorbachev to “open this gate” at the Berlin Wall in 1987, the Left once again went into a tizzy calling his comments reckless and undiplomatic.

But Reagan was right (again!). Two years later the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Today, the Left defends their position by saying, “the Soviet Union was on its way to collapse and it would have happened with or without Reagan.” But that position begs the question: if their collapse was so inevitable, and so seemingly apparent, how come we didn’t hear these predictions from the Left at the time Reagan was implementing his plan?

The truth is, Ronald Reagan recognized the incompetence of communism and knew, with unwavering certainty, that if we remained steadfast in our position it would produce a "march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people."

He had the foresight to envision a world that did not include the Soviet Union, and stood virtually alone in that view. More importantly, he had the courage to make it happen. As a result, millions of people tasted freedom for the first time.

Despite what his critics say about him, history will remember Ronald Reagan as he truly was and for what he did. He brought our country back from hard economic times. He renewed America’s strength and confidence. But most importantly, he ended the Cold War and in doing so, liberated millions of people around the globe.

We are a better people because he was our President and the world is a better place because he stood by his convictions and fought for what was right.

Ronald Reagan was a man of integrity, class, grace, dignity, humor, humility, deep religious faith, indomitable optimism, and great conviction. But it is that one word – freedom – that encapsulates Reagan best.

“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.” --- Ronald Reagan