30th Anniversary of Reagan's Inauguration (Ben)

It was on this day thirty years ago that Ronald Reagan was sworn in as our 40th President. When he took office the inflation rate was well north of 10%, unemployment over 7% and the top marginal tax rate was 70%.

Fifty two U.S. citizens had been held hostage by an Iranian theocrat for four hundred and forty four days. Each day of the crisis was an embarrassing public reminder of American timidity and weakness.

We were a little over five years removed from the collapse of South Vietnam.
The Soviet's had invaded Afghanistan and were actively involved in installing puppet governments and allies in Sub Saharan Africa, the Horn of Africa, South East Asia, South America, and one of the Senate seats in Massachusetts.

Preceding Reagan was Carter, Ford, Nixon, and LBJ. Each had handed off an America that was in far worse shape than what they had inherited.

To many citizens the 1970s seemed like a slow motion decline of American power, prestige, and pride. However, on November 2, 1980 America managed to halt to this seemingly inevitable decline with the election of Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Here are some of my favorite videos and speeches of Reagan.

1/20/1981 First Inaugural Address

6/6/1984 Point-de-Hoc

1/28/1986 Challenger Disaster

2/4/1986 State of the Union

6/12/1987 Speech at the Brandenberg Gate (h/t Eman)

3/8/1983 "Evil Empire" Speech

10/27/1964 “A Time For Choosing” (side note: this is my personal favorite and one of the main reasons I became a conservative. If you haven’t seen this speech in its entirety you are doing yourself a great disservice)

Bonus Material

Reagan tells heckler's to shut up (thanks rdbrewer)

Reagan Humor

posted by Open Blogger at 11:23 PM

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