Today we bid farewell to Ronald Wilson Reagan.

How do you tell a Communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
– Ronald Reagan – Remarks in Arlington, Virginia, September 25, 1987

Ronald Reagan inherited an America in shambles, coming off of four years of a disastrous Carter administration. The economy was caught tight in the grip of stagflation (high prices and rampant unemployment), the military was falling apart and moral was disgracefully poor, and foreign policy had been bungled for years (the Camp David Accords were an anomalous bright spot amidst the failures of the Olympic games boycott, the Iranian hostage crisis, and giving away the Panama Canal).

Reagan’s courageous eight years of leadership changed everything. “Tax cuts for the wealthy” energized the economy, enabling the rebuilding of the military and funding of the infamous Star Wars program that was a primary cause of the Soviet Union’s demise. He is credited with saving the Republican party and transforming American conservatism “from an intellectual movement into a political revolution”.

He truly let America be America, restoring pride in our nation and returning moral fiber to our policies.
A president’s legacy is often not felt until years, or even decades, after the end of their administration. Just as FDR’s New Deal spawned Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society long after Roosevelt’s death, Ronald Reagan’s legacy made Bush 43 possible.

Tax cuts to counter a deepening recession? It worked in Regan’s time and it has worked today. Clear talk of an “evil empire”? It clearly identified a formidable and frightening enemy, just as “axis of evil” has today. A return to traditional values and prayer in (gasp) schools? Today we are seeking faith-based initiatives and protection for the unborn.

Reagan blazed the trail, we are but following it.

Ronald Reagan’s legacy continues today in the Ronald Reagan Ranch, which teaches young people the “principles of freedom, limited government and respect for traditional American values like patriotism, courage and personal responsibility.” In memory of the great man, stop by if you can and make a donation.

Today I honor a man who served as an example to everyone with the words he used while standing on the sands of Omaha Beach on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day:

We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.
– Ronald Reagan – June 6, 1984

God Bless You, Dutch. May you walk with the angels throughout eternity.

Note: the best Reagan quotes can be found here.