Boy, did I do it for Ronald Reagan! I had my eye on that fellow from the gitgo. All right, first let's remember what roles he played over the years. Born a real Chicagoan on 63rd Street over a shoe store, he ended up in the part of Illinois I associate with good asparagus crops. He footballed his way through college by managing the team. Then on to Des Moines to broadcast baseball scores. Whatever made him want to brag about faking it when the wire stopped? But he was a real actor, especially when he and Jane Wyman could play a sweet young couple. And it did his part during World War II by making propaganda films for the army. It took Nancy's daddy to set him on a more profitable path. And he could give a rousing Chamber of Commerce speech, which kinda reminds you of what another Republican president did in 2000.
Don't get me wrong. President Reagan was a likeable fellow and people found him reassuring by the year 1980 when consumers were looking for a way to fit into a changing economy. Those new phenomena such as computers and the pill were causing restlessness among sturdy burgermeisters. Uppity college students needed to understand that there was an evil empire out there and that government was the problem with governing. He fixed things!
Boy! How he fixed things! Almost busted us who were retired and living on fixed incomes which were fast coming unfixed. I could forgive him for those nasty things he said about Social Security until he learned he'd need a little backtracking there. Nice that he could give his check to charity. Reaganomics, to me, was a tussle for survival. As Jimmy Carter said, "Inflation is the cruelest tax of all!"
So we waded through the stock market crash, the Iran/Contra caper, and his fight to the last word with the Soviets. At least he was kinder and gentler than his Vice President who succeeded him.
I write this before I see the first NYSE figures. It doesn't look good. Looks like this time exorbitant government spending may make the 1980's look like a cakewalk. What is it about Republicans who talk of conservatism and spend taxpayer money like drunken sailors? And why is it that they campaign on making the nation a shiny nation on a hill? The GOP may have a memory of an elephant but it must have come from someone's nightmare.
Thank goodness we made it through the Dust Belt and the worst of the Rust Belt. Now is the time to think of the Bible Belt as its Buckle goes to the polls. May the Republicans do it for the Gipper and may we Democrats stop talking about him.