President Ronald Wilson Reagan is my biggest hero in life (aside from my father).
In several places in, and at the end of her new book, America By Heart, Sarah Palin makes several comparisons between Reagan and Barack Obama that reflect exactly how I feel about Reagan, and our current President.
Ronald Reagan's visionary leadership. Thanks to the president's unfailing belief in our country, our economy recovered and "morning in America" replaced the seeming stagnancy of the preceding years. And because we were once again strong at home, we were also strong abroad. The cold war ended—and Reagan won— without a shot being fired. (pg. 261)I’m also well aware of what Jimmy Carter did to our country during his 4 year Reign of Error. So I know what a job it was for Reagan to accomplish what he did in turning this country around. To quote Sarah Palin from her book again;
Yet here we are, more than forty years later, back where we started, with a crisis of confidence at home and of security abroad.(pg 261)This time it’s even worse than when Reagan took office because we’re involved in two wars in the Middle East, and foreign leaders look at and think of our president as somewhere between a joke, and to borrow an expression from Anne in Pa, an insufferably stupid and weak fool. They mock and defy him at every turn and he’s too self absorbed and arrogant to see it.
Reagan believed in and loved this country. He called us “A shining city on a hill.” He made us PROUD to be Americans again. Reagan would never have bowed to a foreign leader. Especially a tin horned despot who mocks this country to his face and gives him a book describing all of our faults as a country.
Foreign leaders would never have dared to mock Reagan. They feared him because they knew that he was a man of his word. If he threatened to kick their butts, they ran and hid. Foreign leaders would never have thumbed their noses at him then gone back to developing nuclear weapons right under his nose. Because of this, under his administration we became admired and respected in the world again.
Reagan proudly told us “It’s morning in Amerca again.”
“But a new morning in America hasn't broken over the Capitol dome. We're not succeeding in Washington. America is losing her way there; losing the sense of herself as an exceptional nation.”(Pg. 262)
Sarah Palin then goes on to say;
“The reason, I think, is that we have leaders today in Washington who don't share this fundamental view of American greatness. I thought of this disconnect recently when I was watching the Blue Angels at the Alaska Air Show at Elmendorf Air Force Base. There I was, brought to tears by the magnificence of these amazing aviators, when my brother, knowing what I was thinking, handed me a note. Scribbled in black Sharpie on the back of his entrance ticket was the message
"I'd rather have an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep."
Various forms of this quote have been attributed to everyone from Alexander the Great to Napoleon, but I knew what my brother meant. There we were, looking at these great lions of the sky, overwhelmed by love of country and appreciation for America's finest: our men and women in uniform. But who was leading them ? And to what end ?
“We have a president, perhaps for the first time since the founding of our republic, who expresses his belief that America is not the greatest earthly force for good the world has ever known.”
WE ARE an army of lions being led by a sheep. Our Commander in Chief despises the military and has gone out of his way to let us know this. He has admitted publicly that he “has a real problem with the concept of American military victories.” He went so far as to stall for almost six months after the field commander that he personally sent to Afghanistan told him how many additional troops were needed to finish the job victoriously. Then, when he finally did decide which way to go, he went on worldwide television to announce that not only was he only giving his commander three quarters of the requested troops, but also that “We’re going to start withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan in 18 months.”
My dad has told me many times how the morale in the military suffered under Carter. When George Bush was our Commander in Chief, we were PROUD of our leaders. We would have followed him into Hell. We knew that he cared, and wanted to win. Now, we know our leader doesn’t want to win, he just wants to fulfill a campaign promise to end the wars. He doesn’t care that it will mean that so many of our brothers and sisters, mom’s and dad’s, and aunts and uncles will have died in vain. It means nothing to him as long as his base supports him.
I long for the day when we can address our new Commander in Chief and say, “Good Morning Madame President (Palin). Thank you for supporting and caring about us.”
Captain Kid
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