Pro & Con Quotes: Was Ronald Reagan a Good President?

“There is also the remarkable Reagan record of the second term that includes his three summits with Mikhail Gorbachev that produced the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and set in motion the forces that ended the Cold War without a shot, in Margaret Thatcher’s memorable phrase; his dramatic challenge at the Brandenberg Gate ‘to tear down this wall!’ which came tumbling down some 18 months later; his 1986 tax reform that lowered the top marginal rate from 50 percent to 33 percent, simplified the number of tax brackets, and eliminated hundreds of special interest provisions such as the ‘three martini’ lunch; his leaving office with a final approval rating of 63 percent, the highest of any president to that point…

‘We the people,’ said Reagan, ‘tell the government what to do, it doesn’t tell us.’ The idea of ‘we the people,’ he explained, was the underlying basis for everything he had tried to do as president.

And then, having restored Americans’ confidence in themselves and their future, having ignited an unprecedented period of prosperity with his economic reforms, and having ended the Cold War with a treaty and not a nuclear holocaust, he went home, having done his duty and served his country as few presidents have in our history.”

“[Reagan] transformed a sputtering U.S. economy into a rocket of growth that led to a generation of prosperity. He restored a neglected U.S. military and its alliances, engineering the eventual defeat of the Soviet empire, without starting a war and without firing a shot. Through it all, he revived America’s spirit, restored our hopes, and strengthened our faith…

[H]e cut taxes deeply and equally for everyone, eventually dropping the top rate all the way from 70 percent to 28 percent, while providing enterprises strong incentives to compete and restoring a dollar as good as gold. He fought hard against ever expanding, encroaching bureaucracy, reduced non-defense spending, and eliminated subsidies and price controls… A strong dollar slew double-digit inflation and restored confidence. Lower tax rates encouraged women to enter the workforce in large numbers, many of them starting up new businesses, while minority employment and enterprises also grew. The rising tide of growth gave birth to new industries, propelling America’s technology boom in the 1990s. In short, the American people unleashed the most powerful postwar recovery in history, reducing poverty, raising incomes, and creating a prosperity that benefited every income group, rejuvenated our communities, and lifted up the entire global economy.”

“They said Reagan was too simple to become a great president, but that’s what we loved about him. He was like our father or our grandfather… Reagan inspired us to believe in the power of the individual, in the small business owner, in the strength of our military and the humility of those who live it…

During his administration, the nation added over 16 million jobs. He cut the tax rate across-the-board, including the top rate from a ridiculous 70 percent income tax to 28. His policies lowered the inflation rate from 13.5 percent in 1980, to 1.9 in 1986. Real GDP growth under Reagan averaged 3.5 percent, and it was nearly 5 percent following the recession…

[T]hanks in large part to his heroic efforts rebuilding the United States military, opposing communism at every turn, remaining steadfast, not to mention his Star Wars defensive system… the [Berlin] wall began coming down on November 9th, 1989, just over two years after the [Brandenburg Gate] speech. The Soviet Union, the evil empire, collapsed.”

“We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend.

In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism… His policies had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation, and ultimately, from the very heart of the ‘evil empire.’

He won the Cold War, not only without firing a shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and turning them into friends.”

“Reagan had the best intuitive sense of priorities of any president in the postwar period, when it became a constant struggle to know what to pay attention to. His designation of the Soviet Union as an ‘evil empire’ froze the blood of international diplomacy, but agitated the moral imagination and did more to advance U.S. national objectives than a year’s Pentagon spending. Speaking of which, Reagan was exactly correct in knowing that the resources of the U.S. could not be matched by those of the enemy. His willingness to install theater weapons in Europe, to explore anti-missile technology, and to commit great sums to defense effectively disarmed the potential aggressor. And then who, more resonantly than he, made the case against Big Government? Could he have known that a Democratic president, seven years after Reagan left office, would serve as an echo chamber on the matter of an end to Big Government?

Reagan belongs on Mount Rushmore, and he’ll be there, after the carpers die off.”

“Ronald Reagan was a great communicator not because he said things in an unusual way but because he said great things – things that were true and needed saying. Those on the left in his day always thought Reagan had some magical way of expressing himself. He didn’t. It was what he said that was important, not how he said it…

Reagan brought a constellation of virtues to the office of the presidency – guts, compassion, humor, a lack of pretension, a willingness to face the world and tell the truth, a willingness to make decisions and stand by them – and his leadership changed the world, and for the better. As president, he was a giant.”

“As the 1980s recede into history, three achievements of Ronald Reagan loom larger. In a time of dangerous drift and malaise, he restored Americans’ sense of self-confidence and greatness. He transmuted American conservatism from theory to practice, undermined the intellectual pretensions of long-regnant liberalism, and decisively shifted the paradigm of political discourse for the rest of the 20th century. Above all, he mobilized the resources — rhetorical, military, and diplomatic — that put Soviet communism on the road to extinction. As time passes, Reagan’s stature rises — a sure sign that he will be remembered as one of our most successful and important presidents.”

“My belated respect for [Reagan] grew from appreciating his boldness in dealing with the three miseries of the modern era – one terrifying, the other crippling, the third inhibiting.

The first abomination was a suicidal nuclear arms race of such potential massive destruction that it threatened the world with extinction; the second, an expanding welfare state that had made the poor helplessly dependent, reduced them to debilitating objects of pity, and destroyed any hope for self-esteem; the third, a joyless religious inheritance that told people their kingdom was not of this world and they needed to be careful about pursuing happiness in case they came to enjoy it. Reagan, it is now clear, delivered America from fear and loathing. He stood for freedom, peace, disarmament, self-reliance, eartlhy happiness, the dreams of the imagination and the desires of the heart.”

“Reagan had come into the oval office at a time when the man in it… was declaring political bankruptcy and important voices outside it, in the press and the academy, were decrying the end of leadership. They were wrong. The new President made the system work… The leader was an extraordinary man.”

“Nothing but liberal prejudice can prevent some distinguished Democrats (which most historians are) from discerning the extraordinary achievements of Ronald Reagan. I mention just two: his crucial role in rebuilding American and Western military strength after a period of Western decline and Soviet expansion, and his great success in demonstrating the superiority of free markets and free societies over socialism — especially, but not only, Marxist socialism. His leadership in these achievements strengthened peace and expanded freedom.

This is a president whose deliberate policies produced seven years of economic growth…after Democratic economists said that was impossible.”

“Five years ago, in February 1999, I wrote the following tribute to this extraordinary man.

‘This coming Sunday, Feb. 6, will be the 88th birthday of the greatest president of the 20th century: Ronald Reagan. That Reagan’s achievements exceed those of any president since Washington and Jefferson will unquestionably be the judgment of future historians…

[H]e was an extraordinarily loveable, likeable, good and decent human being, a man whom Aristotle would have said possessed a ‘great soul.’ Take the time this Sunday to reflect on the achievements of Ronald Reagan, on how much you and all Americans owe him a debt of thankfulness and gratitude.

America was truly blessed to have a man such as him to come to her rescue and to raise her from despairing depths to the pinnacle of historic success we all stand upon today.'”