True Believer

A number of the posts that I've read on the passing of Ronald Reagan from conservative bloggers have noted that at the time of Reagan's presidency they did not support him, but have since realized the error of their ways. In Joe Carter's look at What I Didn't Know About Reagan he explains:

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 I was outraged. Reagan wasn't just a Republican (which would have been bad enough), he was a conservative Republican. That made him even worse than the despicable and hated Richard Nixon. When I heard the election results I was shocked. I couldn't believe so many Americans were stupid enough to choose this mean old geezer over the kind, sprightly President with whom I shared a last name.

And Mitch Berg admits:

When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, I was a senior in high school. The seeds of doubt in my left-of-center upbringing were already there; Jimmy Carter's "national malaise" speech had already affected me with a deep sense of "how dare you?" But I couldn't quite see becoming a Republican. I couldn't quite see myself supporting that man, that being so reviled by so much of my family's social circle, and so many of my own in college.

James Lileks was far too smart to fall for Reagan's schemes as a writer at his college newspaper:

Reagan was worse than stupid - he was conspicuously indifferent to our futures. It was generally accepted that he either wanted a nuclear war or was too dim to understand the consequences. It went without saying that he didn't read Schell's "Fate of the Earth." It went without saying that he didn't read anything at all.

Considering that Reagan himself underwent a political transformation, it would be a bit hypocritical to criticize those who once were lost but now are found. Let's just say that I'm glad that I never viewed Reagan in that manner. I was a Reaganite from the get go and I'm proud of it.

For I never underwent the sort of political turning that numerous, especially in the blogosphere, present day conservatives have. I recounted some of this last year in a post called Right From the Start. I'm not going to rehash the whole thing here (you're welcome), but do want to make a couple of points on the influence that Reagan had in my political development.

When I was young I developed an early interest in history and current affairs. I read just about every military history book I could get my hands on, especially if its subject was the Second World War. By the time I was ten I was regularly reading my parent's weekly U.S. News & World Report magazines and keeping a scrapbook on current events filled with clippings from the local newspaper and USNWR.

In 1980 I was twelve years old and actively following politics. I supported Reagan in the GOP primaries because of his promises to rebuild America's defense and jump start the economy with tax cuts. The "malaise" in America that Jimmy Carter was largely responsible for was, by that time, so pervasive that it even affected my life. I can still recall excitedly watching the news that an attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran had been launched, only to be devastated shortly afterward when the inglorious failure of the operation was reported. Once again our country looked weak and impotent. The economy was racked by high interest rates, inflation, and unemployment. It was not a good time to be an American.

And then Reagan was elected. The 1984 Reagan campaign commercials featuring the "It's Morning Again in America" slogan have been widely lampooned, but that's what it felt like for me after the 1980 election. It was okay to be proud of America again. We had a President who exuded strength, confidence, and hope for the future. Baby we were back.

Not that everything was rosy immediately. It took a couple of years to pull the economy out of recession and there were some hairy moments in foreign affairs when it appeared that war was a distinct possibility. But Reagan weathered these storms and so did the country.

I continued to be a strong supporter of President Reagan. In 1984 I protested an appearance by Geraldine Ferraro in Minneapolis, and had one of my first experiences with the open minded, tolerant leftists who clamor about how much they support "dissent". Most of the crowd was hard-core feminists and they were none too happy to see a sixteen-year-old boy decked out in Reagan-Bush regalia. I also wrote an opinion piece (scroll down to find it) in 1986 for my high school newspaper supporting Reagan's decision to strike Libya.

At college, instead of having a portrait of Che Trotsky on my dorm wall, I had an 8 x 10 of Reagan next to an American flag. I waited outside for two hours to get a chance to see Reagan speak on campus in Grand Forks. He delivered a boilerplate campaign speech on behalf of Senator Mark Andrews, but it was still a thrill to see and hear him live.

Over the years my understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of conservatism has deepened and my knowledge of its foundations has expanded. But my core principal political beliefs have largely remained unchanged. And so has my admiration, respect, and support for Ronald Reagan, the man who defined, clarified, and championed those beliefs during my formative years. I lived, breathed, and loved the Reagan Revolution. And I doubt that I will ever experience the same level of commitment, passion, and excitement for a president again in my lifetime. A great man has passed on. I'm thankful that I was able to appreciate his greatness during his years in the White House as well as being able to look back fondly on them now.