On this, the 100th anniversary of his birth, it seems only fitting to pay tribute to one of this countries greatest presidents. I was 19 years old when Ronald Reagan took office. Being politically naive, and having had my opinion of Republicans shaped by Watergate, the main stream media and my Democrat friends and family members, I was not altogether happy about the outcome of the election. I was a registered Democrat like my parents and believed that the Republicans were tools of big business and out to get the little guy. Surely the Republicans must be evil. I ate up every morsel of nonsense that the main stream media saw fit to feed me. I was a useful idiot.

Then along came Ronald Wilson Reagan. I thought at the time that he would make a terrible president. And why wouldn’t I believe that? The narrative being advanced at the time was that Reagan was not too bright. He was a warmonger. He was just a “B” movie actor. Of course these were gross distortions, but at 19 years old, I believed them.

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In the years that followed, I became wiser and my opinion of our 40th president changed drastically, until I came to believe, as I do now, that President Reagan was, much like the founders, a gift to this country from God. This was a man of humble beginnings who rose to hold the highest, most powerful office in the world. Despite being the most powerful man on the planet, he had an abiding faith in God and was humble and self deprecating. He believed in hustle and hard work. One need only to look at all the extracurricular activities he was involved in while in school to see this. He was a talented artist. He had a quick wit and was a charming man who was difficult to dislike. He was actually a brilliant man and deep thinker as evidenced by the fact that he wrote most of his speeches himself. His speech “A Time for Choosing” was both eloquent and prophetic, as in it, he warned against many things we are experiencing today. President Reagan was an optimist and it was an optimism borne out of his love for America. He truly believed that this was the greatest place on Earth and that no matter what was hurled at us we would overcome it simply because we are imbued with the American spirit which Reagan believed was indomitable.  read more »