{"id":26009,"date":"2012-02-06T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26009"},"modified":"2012-02-05T09:10:43","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T15:10:43","slug":"its-reagans-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=26009","title":{"rendered":"It’s Reagan’s Birthday!"},"content":{"rendered":"

While we won’t be doing the traditional Reagan’s Birthday family dinner tonight, there’ll be jelly beans for all at work today. \u00a0It’s Reagan’s Birthday!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today would be the 101st birthday of the greatest president of my lifetime, so far.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It’s hard, and a little humbling, to admit that I was a flaming liberal who deeply feared (as deeply as a bobble headed 17 year old can do anything) Reagan when he was elected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was about a month too young to vote in 1980, and had I been that month older I’d have voted for…well, not Jimmy Carter. \u00a0I knew he was a disaster, as liberal as I was. \u00a0I’d have voted for John Anderson, probably. \u00a0Reagan, I just knew<\/em>,was going to lead us to war in Saudi Arabia over oil, and end up getting us all nuked!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The media said so!<\/p>\n

And it was over the next four years that Reagan, his example, his style and his leadership – along with some acerbic coaching from my college professor, Dr. James Blake, who may have been the only English professor in the past century to convert students to <\/em>conservatism – converted me. \u00a0It seemed like a gradual thing back then, and I suppose it was, although four years is nothing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And in 1984, while I didn’t tell my parents – my mom would likely have disowned me – I pulled the lever for Reagan. \u00a0And have, like so many other conservatives, kept him before me as an example of how conservatism should work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are examples in Reagan’s story for conservatives to remember today. \u00a0Reagan was a coalition-builder; he built “big tents”, not by offering something to everyone, but by convincing others that his way was the right\u00a0<\/em>way. \u00a0He started with a vision, and focused like a laser beam, delegating everything that didn’t lead to achieving that vision. \u00a0He shook off the negative with a wry quip, and kept his focus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He never once used the term RINO. \u00a0He issued his eleventh commandment; focus on the 70% of things you agree on, rather than bashing them for the 30% you don’t.<\/p>\n

I strongly recommend reading “Ronald Reagan: How An Ordinary Man Became An Extraordinary President<\/em>“, by Dinesh D’Souza; it captured, more than anything I’ve ever read, the essence of Reagan. \u00a0It’s worth climbing mountains to find.<\/p>\n

In trying to explain Reagan to people who weren’t there, it’s hard to know where to start. \u00a0The economy was in the crapper? \u00a0And under Reagan, it came roaring back? \u00a0That’s a good place to start, naturally; kids today can identify what what us kids from 1980 faced.<\/p>\n

In terms of the world, though? \u00a0Our kids grew up in a world with threats – terrorists who’d lop of Americans a few, or once a few thousand, at a time. \u00a0But it was nothing like the Armageddon that seemed to lurk around the corner in 1980. \u00a0Both of my kids were born after the fall of the USSR. \u00a0And so this speech – one of the pivotal ones in western civilization…:<\/p>\n