Spring 2021 Part 1
Now, Spring will come about soon. Even within a short span of time, the world has changed so much. We have white racist extremists threatening America domestically. You have Joe Manchin promoting his moderate, DLC compromising agenda. Tons of Americans have received both vaccines already, and new vaccines are developing all of the time. Many far right extremists are more concerned about Dr. Seuss books (Even I knew years ago that Dr. Seuss made racist caricature images in his early literature) than freedom of the oppressed. It is the height of absurdity to assume that Dr. Seuss, Donald Trump, and other people are immune from critique. While this is going onward, many folks ignore the real issues of racial oppression, radiation poisoning, imperialism, gentrification, and black consciousness issues. We reject silliness, and we believe in justice for all. The pandemic bill (called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021) has finally passed in the Senate. The vote was 50-49, and all Republican Senators voted no on the relief bill. The Republicans in the Senate have shown that they have an allegiance to laissez faire capitalism instead of helping the people of America. The bill costs $1.9 trillion. This is the first major legislation of the Biden administration that has passed the Senate.
The House will hold the final vote on Wednesday on the COVID relief bill. It has $350 billion for state and local governments. It has money for hospitals and health insurance. The bill includes $1400 direct payments, and it has $300 a month unemployment insurance for people until September of 2021. The bill will send 170 billion dollars to schools and $100 billion to public health services. The GOP made up the tired lie that the bill is too expensive, but they forget that we live in an emergency time. Tons of people are dying, and 76 percent of all Americans support the relief legislation. The GOP hypocrites talk about inflation, but many of them were silent on the trillions of dollars spent on the tax cuts for the wealthy. The bill didn't include the $15 per hour minimum wage not because of progressives (the same progressives that brought America the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and other laws that some folks take for granted. Yes, Dr. King was a progressive along with Ella Baker), but because of the GOP and 8 Democrats who refused to support it in the bill. I'm glad that the bill was passed in the Senate. We will reject the draconian voter suppression bill in Georgia which is the worst anti-voting bill since the days of Jim Crow apartheid. This racist bill is supported by Georgia Republicans and Trump unsurprisingly. The bill is so bad that former President Jimmy Carter has condemned the draconian voting restrictions in Georgia (even targeting Sunday voting) as totally disgraceful. The bill should be challenged in court, even if it takes the Supreme Court to eliminate these evil policies. Also, I support the real heroic Brothers and Sisters making a difference in society.
One of the most important propaganda movements in the world among our people are the FBA and ADOS movements. Both movements claim to be different from each other (as the ADOS movement was founded by Antonio and Yvette Carnell. The FBA movement was created by Tariq Nasheed), but they do have similarities. Both movements readily bash black people of the African Diaspora who aren't African Americans, many of their followers are overtly xenophobic, both movements lie and slander Pan-African unity, and both movements make a near idol out of America instead of loving black people regardless of nationality. That is why I will forever be in opposition to the FBA and ADOS movements period. Yes, I have debated FBA and ADOS followers on the Internet before too. Every single argument that they use are easily refuted, and one of the founders of ADOS had ties to an anti-immigration Foundation whose leader (he's dead now) was a white supremacist named John Tanton. That is why many Hoteps (who are so angry that Trump rightfully lost that election, they they are calling black people dumb and angry in various Internet sites. Some of these traitorous anti-black Hoteps are people that I broke bread with years ago. Now, they betrayed their people when tons of black people now do built and work hard in their lives) believe in Trump who glorified violence, disrespected women, made racist remarks, and agitated the treasonous, terrorist mob to invade the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. One great report refuting the agenda of the ADOS movement is entitled, "Understanding ADOS: The Movement to Hijack Black Identity and Weaken Black Unity," which was written by the Sister Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor. Liberation is meant for all of humanity.
Tariq is the male who once glorified macking women in books without apologizing (like the deceiver Charleston White who admitted that he once pimped women without apologizing. Only a sick person pimps women), Nasheed said that black single women aren't entitled to reparations, Tariq said that white women suffered more than black people, Tariq called black women slurs if they date a certain person (but his wife is a product of an interracial relationship. His mother in law is a white woman and rumored former police officer. I will always believe in Black Love, but I won't call a black person a racist slur), he lusted after Brooke Hogan once, he came to Brazil years ago to lust after white Brazilian women, and he lied about the real progressive hero Kirsten West Savali. Nasheed even lied about the ethnicity of Kirsten's late husband. So, Tariq (who is a notorious misogynist) has deplorable character. Tariq Nasheed is a traitor to black people by Tweeting on March 3, 2021 saying, "This isn't true at all...The white supremacists are the smartest people on the planet. Because none of the victims of white supremacy (including myself) has figured out how replace the system of white supremacy with a system of justice." Tariq should be ashamed of himself, and this person has deluded many people with his documentaries and videos. Obviously, white racists aren't smart by promoting slavery, Holocausts, environmental damage, economic destructive policies, and other evils that have harmed the world. By their fruits, you shall know them. I won't back down from my legitimate core convictions either. One tired argument from ADOS deceivers is that they say that they talk about stats and lineage. Anyone can talk about economic inequality, stats, lineage, the wealth gap in racial terms, etc. without disparaging and slandering Africans and Afro-Caribbeans. The real enemy is not Africans or Afro-Caribbeans. The real enemy is the capitalist 1% who makes it their business to play people against each other for their own political, financial benefit. You will notice how these ADOS and FBA liars don't talk about Wall Street, capitalist exploitation, resisting imperialism, and standing up for black liberation globally, because they don't care about certain black people (which is totally evil). That is why we need healing among the human family, including all people of the blessed black African Diaspora. You can't love black people without loving black people of every nationality. You can't be a true revolutionary unless you desire all black people to be free globally. You can't be pro-black unless you have solidarity with black people worldwide regardless of nationality. I do believe in black pan-African unity.
The Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris Administration
Finally, we have a new President and a new Vice President of the United States of America in early 2021. History has been made among many things during this time. We live in an era unlike any era since the 1960's and the American Civil War. Trump incited a failed coup d'etat against the United States government when mobs of mostly white terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol building. Also, Trump sought the Justice Department intervention to hijack and invalidate the 2020 U.S. election. There is the pandemic killing over 500,000 Americans and infecting over 20 million Americans. Crisis is real. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris has been voted by the majority of American voters. The previous President Donald Trump is one of the worst Presidents in American history. The current President Joe Biden is in a stage of American history where moderation is not enough. A bold vision and bold, progressive policies are necessary in enriching the lives of Americans collectively. Biden and Harris have differences. Both are born in opposite coasts, both have different careers, and both ran against each other during the Democratic Presidential primary. Yet, they are certainly similar in being both Democrats, both winning the 2020 Presidential election, and both being part of history. Kamala Harris being the first black woman and first South Asian woman being Vice President is a monumental achievement, and Kamala acknowledges how Shirley Chisholm and so many other Sisters laid a foundation for her. Biden's challenge is that how to navigate a polarized political world in America. Will Biden's ultimate legacy as President be progressive or a typical, compromising neoliberal moderate? Time will tell. What is important is that we will be objective towards him. When Biden is right (as he is right to promote the Paris Climate Accords, restarting DACA, and promoting the act of targeting white racist terrorist groups), we will note that. If Biden is wrong on issues, then we will make that known too. Our minds must always be politically independent in a progressive sense, as we worship no political party.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should have the opportunity to enact their policies, and we have the right to analyze their policies fairly with objectivity too. Some of the far right conservatives and Hoteps are angry that Trump lost. Some Hoteps even want to blame black people (in using anti-black words) for mostly voting for Biden, but Trump is a notorious racist and sexist. Trump (who wanted to overthrow the results of a legal election in 2020) made a terrible response to handle the pandemic, unemployment is higher at the end of Trump's Presidency than during the beginning, the deficit increased during the Trump era, and we know about Trump's numerous destructive policies. The Biden/Harris administration has to deal with the issues of racial equity, police brutality, domestic terrorism, the environment, women's issues, immigration, the economy, tons of extra social issues, issues important to African Americans (as black people more so than any demographic voted Biden and Harris into office. Black Americans are entitled to have our interests respected and carried out point blank period), the pandemic, and other matters. Any human being should always oppose imperialism, as the military industrial complex has been very destructive in this world. It has been 160 yeas since the start of the Lincoln Presidency, and we have a massive amount of healing that should take place. Yet, healing must exist along with justice and accountability. Those, who were involved in the January 6, 2021 insurrection and treason against our democracy, must be held into account. The start of the Biden Presidency is made up of the good news that Trump is not in office, but we have to use vigilance and independent, progressive political thinking in dealing with the years of 2021 and beyond.
The 2021 Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
The 2021 Inauguration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris outline a new historic epoch of the history of the United States of America. Millions of people worldwide saw the events unfold. News coverage of the 2021 Inauguration existed since the early morning of January 20, 2021. At a little after 8 am., Trump left the White House to leave to go into Florida. He gave final remarks at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The whole vicinity of downtown Washington, D.C. was on military lockdown. Law enforcement snipers were on top of buildings, and about 25,000 National Guard troops were around the U.S. Capitol area. The Washington Monument was closed because of threats from domestic terrorists. Metal detectors are in the doors of the Capitol building. People were required to go through checkpoints and wear a mask during the inauguration too. Jimmy Carter didn't attend because of health concerns. Congressional leaders and former Presidents (along with their wives) of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama came into the inauguration. Lady Gaga gave an emotional rendition of the national anthem. Jennifer Lopez sang the songs of This Land is Our Land and America, the Beautiful. She said some of the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. Kamala Harris was soon sworn in as the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American Vice President of the United States of America. Kamala Harris sworn the oath on the Bible, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor read the oath, and Harris' husband Doug Emhoff held onto the Bible. Then, Joe Biden sworn on the Bible as the 46th President of the Untied States of America by Chief Justice John Roberts. The 59th Presidential inauguration was unlike any other inauguration.With cheers and a sigh of relief, a new Presidential officially became born.
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Joe Biden's first Inauguration speech wasn't overly bombastic. It was straight up about unity, fighting white racism, and healing the nation. The speech was transparent. Biden's desire to make a more united America. I believe in unity but not in a fake unity. Unity must be bounded under justice and righteousness. Garth Brooks sang Amazing Grace. One of the most exciting, eloquent speech was made by the Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman. She read a poem that promoted unity, but she acknowledged the long road ahead. She made known that the evils in America have no justification, and we must defeat racism and any oppression in creating a better future. Amanda Gorman is a superbly outstanding speaker and a real leader of our future. Biden alluded to the challenge and capacity of America solving problems by evoking the U.S. Civil War, the Great Depression, World Wars, and 9/11. Joe Biden criticized nativism, white supremacy, etc. as these evils are in violation of the words of the Declaration of Independence which states that all people are created equal. Then, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, and Doug Emhoff attended many official inauguration ceremonies in Washington, D.C. on a cold Wednesday. The Virtual Parade Across America shown the diversity and strength of the American people. Vice President Kamala Harris swore in the Senators Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, and Alex Padilla. Biden and Harris lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. The Inaugural parade procession included the U.S. military bands and drumline bands from Biden plus Harris's alma marters from Howard University and the University of Delaware.
The Presidential Cabinet
The Presidential cabinet of President Joseph Biden is a reflection of his political ideology and his intentions about what he wants for the United States of America. Vice President Kamala Harris is the first African American and South Asian American to be Vice President of the United States of America. Kamala Harris has been a California Attorney General, a Senator, and a District Attorney of San Francisco. So, she has all of the qualifications in the world politically. Being from Oakland, Kamala Devi Harris knows about diverse communities and dealing with complex economic and social issues. The Secretary of State is Antony Blinken. The Secretary of State heavily deals with foreign policy affairs. He worked under President Barack Obama as Deputy National Security Advisor including Deputy Secretary of State. He worked under the Clinton administration too. Blinken was born in Yonkers, NY whose maternal ancestors were Hungarian Jewish people. He once supported the Iraq War and advocated a 3 regional area in Iraq along ethnic or sectarian lines. That plan was rejected mostly. Of course, I didn't agree with the Iraq War. He has criticized China over the abuse of the Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang. I agree with him that Brexit has become a total mess. The Secretary of Treasury is Janet Yellen. Janet Yellen is the first woman Secretary of the Treasury. She has great qualifications, and she publicly wanted a strong stimulus plan to address the economic distress existing as a product of the vicious pandemic in the United States of America. The Secretary of Defense is Lloyd Austin. Lloyd Austin is the first black man to be the Secretary of Defense. Austin was the 12th commander of CENTCOM or the United States Central Command form 2013 to 2016.
He had a heavy role in the Iraq War. Austin and his wife, Charlene Denise Banner Austin, have been married for over 40 years. Charlene has worked as a non-profit administrator and served the board of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University. Austin wanted to investigate and eradicate white racist extremism that has infiltrated some sections of the U.S. military. Among his early acts as Secretary of Defense, Austin removed Trump appointees from the Pentagon advisory boards. The Secretary of Transportation is Pete Buttgieg. Buttegieg was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana in the Midwest. Also, he was a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer, Presidential candidate in 2020, and graduate of Harvard including Oxford University. Denis McDonough is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Alejandro Mayorkas is the Secretary of Homeland Security. He is the first Latino American to have that position. Mayorkas was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on February 2, 2021, after his confirmation that day. Avriel Haines is the Director of National Intelligence. The Chief of Staff is Ron Klain. Shuwanza Goff is the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
The First 100 Days
On January 20, 2021, President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris went to work. Biden proclaimed the day as a National Day of Unity. Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement from the USA once withdrew on November 4, 2020. In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, President Biden rescinded the United States' July 2020 intended withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Biden also named Anthony Fauci as the head of the United States' WHO delegation. President Biden issued an executive order to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline and overturn various other Trump administration environmental policies. President Biden issued an executive order to halt funding for the border wall along the Mexican border. He made a proclamation to repeal the travel ban from Muslim majority countries. The Senate confirmed Avril Haines as the 7th Director of National Intelligence in a vote of 84–10. President Biden directed the Department of Education to extend the pause on federal student loans through September 30, 2021. Press Secretary Jen Psaki held the first press briefing of the Biden administration, during which she mentioned that the administration will hold briefings daily.
By Thursday of January 21, 2021, President Biden signed 10 executive order in dealing with the pandemic and vaccination efforts. He activated the Defense Production Act in order to speed up vaccine distribution. FBI Director Christopher Wray still has his position. The House of Representatives voted 326–78 and the Senate votes 69–27 to pass H.R. 335, a waiver allowing Gen. Lloyd Austin to bypass a law which forces retired generals to wait seven years before assuming office as Secretary of Defense. Vice President Kamala Harris made her phone call to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. President Biden fired National Labor Relations Board general counselor Peter B. Robb, and he wants a new START nuclear treaty with Russia by 5 years. Biden suspended the distribution of new oil and gas drilling permits, effective for 60 days. Biden promoted the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal workers, and he signed an executive order to help boost food aid including stimulus checks. Biden also signed an executive order to repeal to allow transgender human beings to join the military (the Trump administration banned them from doing so via Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28). Biden used travel restrictions of many nations having the new COVID-19 strains like South Africa, the UK, and Brazil.
The Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the 78th Secretary of the Treasury with a vote of 84 to 15. Biden spoke to Putin on January 26, 2021. President Biden signed executive orders relating to racism (xenophobia against Asian Americans due to the COVID-19 pandemic; ending Department of Justice contracts with private prisons due to the growing number of incarcerated African Americans; discriminatory housing rules) and for the relationships of Native Americans including Alaska Native Tribal Nations. Prior to the signing, domestic policy adviser Susan Rice held her first White House press conference, discussing the executive actions. Vice President Harris receives her second shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. She gave remarks about the efficacy of the vaccine. By January 27, 2021, the White House COVID-19 Response Team holds its first weekly public briefing featuring Anthony Fauci, Marcella Nunez-Smith, Jeff Zients, Andy Slavitt and Rochelle Walensky. Biden goes about to expand the ACA and Medicaid via executive order. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff had his first solo event, visiting an urban farm in Washington, D.C. He gave remarks about food insecurity being exacerbated during the pandemic. President Biden met with 2 wounded soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. By February 1, 2020, Biden threatened sanctions on Myanmar in response to the coup. Biden meet with Republican senators on the pandemic bill, but they realize that they have a long journey in getting it passed into law.
By February 2, 2021, new cabinet members are confirmed like the 19th Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the 7th Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. President Biden signed three immigration-related executive orders: creating a task force to reunite children separated from their families as a result of the Trump administration family separation policy; an order to review legal immigration programs, including Remain in Mexico and the Central American Minors Program; and a review of immigration policies for "integration and inclusion" including the naturalization process. On the day of February 2, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend the memorial for the Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. Brian Sicknick was brutally assaulted by the terrorists at the U.S. Capitol. Biden signed an executive order to allow a safe haven for about 125,000 refugees. On February 5, 2021, the Senate passes a budget resolution as a step to approve President Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package but rejects the minimum wage package he proposed. Additionally, Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tiebreaking vote as Vice President. Biden and Harris meet with Democratic House leaders in the Oval Office to negotiate a deal on the coronavirus aid package. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden gave a video message during Super Bowl LV to thank front-line health workers and offer a moment of silence for the victims of the pandemic.
Former Secretary of State George Shultz died in February too. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the administration will reengage with the United Nations Human Rights Council. By February 9, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris sworn in Denis McDonough as the 11th Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Biden spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. On February 11, 2021, President Biden visits the National Institutes of Health and delivers an address to the staff, declaring that there will be enough vaccines for 300 million Americans by the end of July. He also announces that the United States has signed contracts with Pfizer and Moderna for 200 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses. Biden considered closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by the end of his term. President Biden extends the foreclosure ban and mortgage forbearance through the end of June in an effort to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. By February 22, 2021, President Biden held a moment of silent outside the White House to commemorate the 500,000 Americans who passed away from the pandemic virus.
President Biden ended the use of a more difficult version of the English language and civics test required to acquire American citizenship which was introduced by the Trump administration in December 2020, reverting the test back to the 2008 version. On February 23, 2021, Senate confirmed Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the 31st United States Ambassador to the United Nations in a vote of 78–20. She is sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on February 24, 2021 (on Wednesday). On February 25, the Senate confirmed Jennifer Granholm as the 16th Secretary of Energy in a vote of 64–35. Vice President Harris swears her in. President Biden attends the Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association. President Biden speaks with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. President Biden approves a retaliatory military strike against Iranian-backed militia in Syria, which leaves 17 militants dead. This would be a controversial action as Biden had no Congressional approval to do such an act. Liberals and conservatives criticize Biden on this action. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen an Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi. After debating it through Friday night, the House passes the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act in the early morning of February 27, 2021. President Biden speaks in favor of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, as they conduct a vote considering unionization, saying that employers should use "no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda."
On March 1, 2021, President Biden holds a virtual bilateral meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to discuss migration, COVID-19 and economic and security cooperation. The Senate confirms Miguel Cardona as the 12th Secretary of Education in a vote of 64–33. On March 2, 2021, the Senate confirms Gina Raimondo as the 40th Secretary of Commerce in a vote of 84–15. The Senate confirms Cecilia Rouse as the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in a vote of 95–4. President Biden says that the United States government expects to take delivery of enough COVID-19 vaccine for all adult Americans by the end of May 2021. On March 2, Vice President Kamala Harris sworn in Miguel Cardona as the Secretary of State. On March 3, 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris sworn in Gina Raimondo as the 40th Secretary of Commerce and Cecilia Rouse as the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Cecilia Rouse is an African American woman with 2 daughters. Her husband is Ford Morrison, son of author Toni Morrison.
Changing Times
Times are changing in the world. Not too long ago, black people and women didn't have the right to vote. Not too long ago, pollution in the air was so bad that thousands of people died because of environmental complications regularly. Not too long ago, the life expectancy of Americans were only 50 years old. These events changed by social activism, by determination, and human beings just wanted an end to the status quo. Soon, it will be the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Time is going so fast as I remember 9/11 just like yesterday. It was on Tuesday Morning when it occurred. Now, we have seen a diversity of people being leaders, political activists, architects, and scholars of every background in America including the rest of the world. This year is the 160th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, the 60th year anniversary of the North Carolina sit-ins, and the 40th years anniversary of the start of the Reagan Presidency. Historical significance is an understatement to describe these times. My generation saw the fruit of Reaganism harm the lives of so many people. It isn't just one party involved in the compromising politics of our time. Historically, both major parties, which has spanned for centuries, have been complicit in corruption. It is just that for years, one party has been so overt in their promotion of voter suppression, austerity, overt imperialism, and the allegiance to Trump instead of honoring truth. The combination of events like the devastating coronavirus, the increase of mail in voting, the widespread increase of registered voters, and the mobilization of social activism nationwide contributed to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris having a victory in the 2020 election. Today, many heroic Congressmen and Congresswomen want to eliminate the filibuster and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. As the late House of Representative leader John Lewis has said, "I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma. I almost died. Some of my friends and colleagues were murdered. I'm not asking you to give any blood. I'm just asking you to go and vote like you've never voted before."
I'm glad that Trump lost the 2020 election, because enough was enough. Likewise, we can't be naive during this time. Even in 2021, there continues to be a rise of racist terrorists, right wing extremism, and those who love misinformation instead of wisdom. We still have safe drinking water problems in Texas and Jackson, Mississippi. For weeks, Jackson has lacked safe, healthy drinking water. Even some Republicans (including every Republican Senator) voted against a relief bill that had $1400 per person, $300 a month for unemployment,, $3,000 per child tax credit, rent assistance, and help for small businesses. During the 2022 midterms, Americans ought to make the GOP (when almost 2 million Kentuckians are unemployed now, but Mitch McConnell tried to block the COVID relief bill) be known of the callousness nature of reactionary Republicans who voted against the interests of the American people.
Epilogue
We are at near the quarter century mark of the 21st century. Time is speeding away, but our core convictions remain the same. This is just the beginning of the Biden administration. Years and decades into the future, we will witness the true legacy of his Presidency. Yet, from the policies that we have seen so far, the Biden/Harris administration is far different than the Trump administration in enumerable ways. He has signed progressive executive orders in dealing with immigration, the economy, the response to the pandemic, the environment, and on other issues. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has spoken out overtly to condemn the myth and the lie of white supremacy. Yet, we ought not to be naive to assume that Joseph Biden is a super progressive man with powers to make all things right immediately. We are not children anymore. I have lived through many Presidents since Reagan. Biden does have his moderate, neoliberal streak by refusing to cancel $50,000 of students loans, of supporting imperialistic foreign policies (like supporting the illegitimate regime in Haiti), building special prisons for migrants, and deporting thousands of immigrants (including black immigrants), etc. You can't claim to be progressive on domestic issues and promote the reactionary status quo on foreign policy issues in claiming to be revolutionary. Life doesn't work like that. So, we should welcome Biden's policies that he's right on that deals with ending the XL Pipeline on indigenous lands while fairly critiquing him when he's wrong on issues. Also, it is our responsibility to mobilize people in placing pressure on government in order to make real social change.
Our ancestors did it during the old school Civil Rights Movement (from 1954-1968), and we have the First Amendment right to do it in our generation as well. Without black people, Biden would have never been President. Therefore, Biden is required to promote the interests of black people in America as we are the demographic that voted for him with the most percentage wise than any other demographic. Racial oppression and economic/class oppression have permitted poverty, the prison industrial complex, health disparities, police brutality, and other evils in this capitalist system. It is important to resist imperialism, racism, sexism, and any form of oppression. Voter suppression bills, the threats to the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and bills that restrict the right to protest should all be on our radars. After a fascist, terrorist mob invaded the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, we realize that democracy is fragile. There is no need to play around the subject. We should never unite or compromise with fascists and racists who want democracy to end. That is why it is important to note that I'm glad that Trump lost the 2020 election, and we should be clear to pressure the current administration in making sure that progressive ideals are promoted in the United States society prodigiously.
40 Years After Reagan's Presidency
When Ronald Reagan's name comes up, debate and emotions come up. Depending on who you talk to, some view Reagan as a terrible person or a conservative, heroic crusader. The truth about Ronald Reagan is that he was a man with a complex, controversial history. Not too many people know that Reagan was once a FDR Democrat and later became an anti-Communist Republican by the 1950's. Very few people know that Ronald Reagan was a honorary 33rd Degree Freemason, a honorary Knight of Malta (historically, many heads of the CIA and large multinational corporations are members of the Knights of Malta or the SMOM. Ronald Reagan's father was a member of the Knights of Columbus or a Catholic fraternal organization), and a participant in the Bohemian Grove (which has the Cremation of Care ritual that burns a fake human effigy near a large owl statue). Not to mention that many people know that Ronald Reagan opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and legislation that would later be Medicare. Many human beings don't know that Ronald Reagan said that the Confederate President Jefferson Davis was a "a hero of mine." The truth that Jefferson Davis was a racist traitor to the United States of America. This and other reasons definitely cause me to not view Ronald Reagan as a hero of truth and justice. With Reagan, what you see is what you get. He didn't lie about his reactionary politics, his massive far right extremism, or his intentions. Reagan didn't sugarcoat his nefarious views. He was a man who eloquently displayed his conservative views that convinced tons of people to make him have 2 terms of President of the United States. As a black man, you know how I feel about Reagan. It is what it is. Ronald Reagan is the face of modern day white racist conservative extremism. The world loved Reagan as many news companies, publications, ministries, and many mainline religious leaders praised him constantly. If the mainstream media is completely liberal (as the far right claims), why does the corporate media constantly praise Ronald Reagan to this day? Obviously, the media is not all progressive.
Yet, it is important to evaluate his life and legacy as it is now 110 years after his birth, and it has been 40 years after the start of the Reagan Revolution (or his inauguration as the 40th President of the United States of America). Ronald Reagan was a political man. He loved the competition of politics. That is why he ran for President in in 1968, in 1976, and in 1980. In our time, he was the most influential voice of conservative thought. He gained massive prominence politically by speaking in favor of Barry Goldwater's candidacy via his 1964 speech entitled, "A Time for Choosing." That speech signified the complete thinking of conservative thought. He was an actor, an Air Force veteran, a father, and a person who abhorred Communism. He called fascism as the basis of the New Deal in 1976 which isn't true. In fact, the fascists planned a right wing coup to try to overthrow the administration of FDR. The late Ronald Reagan lived to see the end of the Cold War. Queen Elizabeth II awarded Ronald Reagan the Knight of the Most Honorable Order of Barth, and the Knight Grand Cross on June 14, 1989. He lived from 1911 to 2004. He passed away when I was almost 21 years old. Regardless of my ideological disagreements with Reagan on many issues, he was the most influential 20th century President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The recent revelation of Ronald Reagan using a racist slur against Africans confirmed what us black Americans were constantly telling people about what Reagan's legacy is. Forty years of the Reagan Revolution is finally over (I'm thankful of it being over), and now it is time for this new generation of human beings to witness the real truth about President Ronald Reagan completely.
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His Early Years
To understand the life of the far right person Reagan, you have to comprehend his origins. Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 at Tampico, Illinois. He was born in an apartment in the second floor of a commercial building. His parents are Jack Reagan and Nelle Clyde (nee Wilson). Jackson Reagan was a salesman and storyteller shoe grandparents were Irish Catholic emigrants from County Tipperary. Nelle was of English, Irish, and Scottish descent. Reagan's older brother of Neil Reagan would become an advertising executive. Reagan's father nicknamed his son "Dutch", due to his "little Dutchman" appearance and Dutch-boy haircut; the nickname stuck with him throughout his youth. Reagan's family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C. Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon, Illinois. After his election as president, Reagan lived in the upstairs White House private quarters, and he would quip that he was "living above the store again." Reagan's mother was very religious. She attended the Disciples of Christ church all of the time. She led Sunday school services and gave Bible readings to the congregation during the services. Reagan was at the services. His mother believed in the power of prayer. She was a believer in the social gospel movement or using the Gospel of Jesus Christ to impact the world positively in politics and social issues. Her strong commitment to the church is what induced her son Ronald to become a Protestant Christian rather than a Roman Catholic like his Irish father. He also stated that she strongly influenced his own beliefs: "I know that she planted that faith very deeply in me." Reagan identified himself as a born-again Christian. In Dixon, Reagan was strongly influenced by his pastor Beh Hill Cleaver, an erudite scholar. Cleaver was the father of Reagan's fiancée. Reagan saw him as a second father. Stephen Vaughn says:
"At many points the positions taken by the First Christian Church of Reagan's youth coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan. These positions included faith in Providence, association of America's mission with God's will, belief in progress, trust in the work ethic and admiration for those who achieved wealth, an uncomfortableness with literature and art that questioned the family or challenged notions of proper sexual behavior, presumption that poverty is an individual problem best left to charity rather than the state, sensitivity to problems involving alcohol and drugs, and reticence to use government to protect civil rights for minorities."
Paul Kengor said that Reagan had a strong faith in the goodness of people. His mother's optimism influenced his life. Reagan was baptized in 1922 as part of the Disciples of Christ faith. Back then in the 1920's, he opposed racial discrimination, which was rare back then. He recalled the time when his college football team was staying at a local hotel which would not allow two black teammates to stay there, and he invited them to his parents' home 15 miles (24 kilometers) away in Dixon. His mother invited them to stay overnight and have breakfast the next morning. His father was strongly opposed to the Ku Klux Klan due to his Catholic heritage, but also due to the Klan's anti-semitism and anti-black racism. After becoming a prominent actor, Reagan gave speeches in favor of racial equality following World War II.
When Reagan was at Dixon High School, he had interests in acting, sports, and storytelling. He worked as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over 6 years, Reagan performed 77 rescues. He attended Eureka College. It was a Disciples-oriented liberal arts school. He was a cheerleader and part of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He majored in economics and sociology. He graduated with a C grade. He excelled in campus politics, sports, and theater, He was a member of the football team and captain of the swim team. Ronald Reagan was elected student body president and participated in student protests against the college president.
Acting
Ronald Reagan was a well known actor. He graduated from Eureka in 1932. He took jobs in Iowa as a radio announcer at many stations. He later was in WHO radio at Des Moines as an announcer for the Chicago Cubs baseball games. He did the descriptions of the game via play by play accounts. He signed a 7 year contract with Warner Brothers in 1937. This was in California. He on the film of The Bad Man in 1941, 1937's Love is on the Air, and other films. He was on the Santa Fre Trail with Errrol Flynn in 1940. His favorite acting role was in 1942's Kings Row. He plays a double amputee who recites the line "Where's the rest of me?"—later used as the title of his 1965 autobiography. Many film critics considered Kings Row to be his best movie. Reagan became a star. After his military service, he was on films like The Hasty Heart, Bedtime for Bonzo, The Voice of the Turtle, etc. Ronald Reagan was a Captain at World War II at Fort Roach. He did 14 home study Army Extension Courses. He was enlisted in the Army Enlisted Reserve, and he was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps of the Cavalry on May 25, 1937. On April 18, 1942, Reagan was ordered to do active duty for the first time. He had poor eyesight, so he was classified for limited service only. He was excluded from serving overseas. Reagan' first assignment was at the San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California. He was a liaison officer of the Port and Transportation Offices. The Army Air Forces approved him doing a transfer form the Calvary to the AAF on May 15, 1942. He came to the AAF Public Relations. He joined the First Motion Picture Unit (the 18th AAF Base Unit) in Culver City, California. By January 14, 1943, he was promoted to first lieutenant and sent to the Provisional Task Force Show Unit of This is the Army at Burbank, California. He came back to the First Motion Picture Unit after finishing his duty. He was promoted to captain on July 22, 1943.
On January 1944, Ronald Reagan was ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the opening of the Sixth War Loan Drive, which campaigned for the purchase of war bonds. He was reassigned to the First Motion Picture Unit on November 14, 1944, where he remained until the end of World War II. By the end of the war, his units had produced some 400 training films for the Air Force, including cockpit simulations for B-29 crews scheduled to bomb Japan. He was separated from active duty on December 9, 1945, as an Army captain. While he was in the service, Reagan obtained a film reel depicting the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp; he held on to it, believing that doubts would someday arise as to whether the Holocaust had occurred.
Ronald Reagan was first elected to the Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1941. He served as an alternate members. After WWII, he resumed service and became the third vice president of SAG in 1946. When the SAG president and six board members resigned in March 1947 due to the union's new bylaws on conflict of interest, Reagan was elected president in a special election. He was subsequently re-elected six times, in 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951 and 1959. He led the SAG through implementing the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act, various labor-management disputes, and the Hollywood blacklist era. First instituted in 1947 by Studio executives who agreed that they would not employ anyone believed to be or to have been Communists or sympathetic with radical politics, the blacklist grew steadily larger during the early 1950s as the U.S. Congress continued to investigate domestic political subversion. Also during his tenure, Reagan was instrumental in securing residuals for television actors when their episodes were re-run, and later, for motion picture actors when their studio films aired on TV.
Also, Reagan was an FBI informant. In 1946, Reagan was on the national board of directors for the Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions (ICCASP). He was a member of its Hollywood chapter (HICCASP). His attended at a July 10, 1946 meeting of HICCASP brought the FBI's attention. The FBI interviewed him on April 10, 1947 in its investigation of HICCASP. Four decades later, it was revealed that during the late 1940s, Reagan (under the code name T-10) and his then-wife, Jane Wyman, provided the FBI with the names of actors within the motion picture industry whom they believed to be communist sympathizers. Even so, he was uncomfortable with the way the SAG was being used by the government, asking during one FBI interview, "Do they (ie. the House Un-American Activities Committee) expect us to constitute ourselves as a little FBI of our own and determine just who is a Commie and who isn't?" Obviously, the FBI was wrong, because an American has the right to be Communist or non-Communist in a free and open society. Being progressive shouldn't merit political persecution.
By October 1947, Reagan was part of the HUAC Hollywood hearings. HUAC dealt with red baiting, violating people's civil liberties, and promoting the myth that even holding extremely progressive views merit political persecution. He testified at the hearings as President of the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan opposed Communists. He did oppose measures soon to manifest in the Mundt-Nixon Bill in May of 1948 saying that, "As a citizen I would hesitate, or not like, to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology... I detest, I abhor their philosophy, but I detest more than that their tactics, which are those of the fifth column, and are dishonest, but at the same time I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group, that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment." Reagan did not play around questions whether he was aware of Communist efforts in the Screen Writers Guild. He was on television by the 1950's. He was the host of the General Electric Theater. Reagan was in many weekly dramas. They were popular. He earned about $125,000 or $1.1 million in 2010. He was on 10 seasons from 1953 to 1962. On January 1, 1959, Reagan was the host and announcer for ABC's coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade. In his final work as a professional actor, Reagan was a host and performer from 1964 to 1965 on the television series Death Valley Days. Following their marriage in 1952, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who continued to use the stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three TV series episodes, including a 1958 installment of General Electric Theater titled "A Turkey for the President."
Ronald Reagan married and had many children. His first wife was Jane Wyamn (1917-2007). He had 2 biological daughters with her named Maureen (1941-2001) and Christine (who died on June 26, 1947 prematurely). They adopted a son named Michael (b. 1945). Reagan and Wyman broke up as Wyman was a registered Republican and Ronald Reagan was a Democrat back then. Yes, Ronald Reagan was a FDR liberal Democrat before becoming a far right conservative Republican. Both of them felt distant as Reagan worked on the Screen Actors Guild. They broke up completely in 1949. Reagan and Wyman became friends after the divorce for decades. Reagan met actress Nancy Davis (1921–2016) in 1949 after she contacted him in his capacity as president of the Screen Actors Guild. He helped her with issues regarding her name appearing on a Communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis. She described their meeting by saying, "I don't know if it was exactly love at first sight, but it was pretty close." They were engaged at Chasen's restaurant in Los Angeles and were married on March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the Valley (North Hollywood, now Studio City) San Fernando Valley. Actor William Holden served as best man at the ceremony. They had two children: Patti (b. 1952) and Ronald "Ron" (b. 1958). Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan had a very close, intimate relationship. Nancy was with him for long decades. He called her Mommy, and she called him Ronnie. Nancy Reagan passed away on March 6, 2016 at the age of 94.
Political Activism
How did Reagan change to be a far right Republican extremist? First, we have to look at the times. Reagan was first a FDR Democrat as he praised Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a true hero. He joined left wing groups like the American Veterans Committee. Reagan once fought Republican sponsored right to work legislation and supported Helen Gahagan Douglas in 1950. She was defeated for the Senate by Richard Nixon. He once spoke out against nuclear weapons. He was stopped from leading an anti-nuclear rally in Hollywood by the Warner Brothers Brothers. Later, he disagreed with mutual assured destructed. He supported Harry S. Truman in 1948. He campaigned with Truman in public in Los Angeles, which is wild to imagine. Ronald Reagan voted for FDR. By the 1950's, he moved into the right wing. Reagan supported Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956. He supported Nixon back in 1960. Nancy Reagan inspired him to be more conservative as she was a lifelong conservative Republican. Reagan gave pro-GE speeches in a conservative, pro-business mindset. He became a Republican in 1962. That is why he was a public supporter of Barry Goldwater's 1964 Presidential campaign. Ronald Reagan was radically anticommunist, wanted lower taxes, and loved limited government. When Medicare legislation was proposed in 1961 (Medicare is universal health care for elderly people), Ronald Reagan publicly opposed it in a speech for the American Medical Association (AMA). Reagan said that the legislation would be the end of freedom in America which wasn't the case.
-On May 20, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave his speech at Madison Square Garden to promote universal health for elderly Americans. This would be Medicare by 1965.
President John F. Kennedy gave an eloquent speech in support of universal healthcare for the elderly which would be Medicare at New York City's Madison Square Garden. JFK's speech proved that he was no conservative. President F. Kennedy was a liberal as he stated that he was a liberal in 1960 at the Liberal Party meeting. Other Democratic initiatives Reagan opposed in the 1960's included the Food Stamp Program, raising the minimum wage, and the establishment of the Peace Corps. In 1965, Ronald Reagan described Medicaid recipients as, "a faceless mass, waiting for handouts." In 1966, Reagan opposed the expansion of the Redwood National Park by saying, "A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?" Reagan also joined the National Rifle Association (NRA) and would become a lifetime member. Reagan believed in limited government in his A Time for Choosing speech. That speech brought Ronald Reagan higher into the national political stage. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote elqouent words on his reasons for disagreeing with the Republican candidate Barry Goldwater:
"...In 1964 the meaning of so-called Negro revolution became clear for all to see and was given legislative recognition in the civil rights law. Yet, immediately following the passage of this law, a series of events shook the nation, compelling the grim realization that the revolution would continue inexorably until total slavery had been replaced by total freedom.
The new events to which I refer were: the Republican Convention held in San Francisco; the hideous triple lynchings in Mississippi; and the outbreak of riots in several Northern cities.
The Republican Party geared its appeal and program to racism, reaction, and extremism. All people of goodwill viewed with alarm and concern the frenzied wedding at the Cow Palace of the KKK with the radical right. The "best man" at this ceremony was a senator whose voting record, philosophy, and program were anathema to all the hard-won achievements of the past decade.
It was both unfortunate and disastrous that the Republican Party nominated Barry Goldwater as its candidate for President of the United States. In foreign policy Mr. Goldwater advocated a narrow nationalism, a crippling isolationism, and a trigger-happy attitude that could plunge the whole world into the dark abyss of annihilation. On social and economic issues, Mr. Goldwater represented an unrealistic conservatism that was totally out of touch with the realities of the twentieth century. The issue of poverty compelled the attention of all citizens of our country. Senator Goldwater had neither the concern nor the comprehension necessary to grapple with this problem of poverty in the fashion that the historical moment dictated. On the urgent issue of civil rights, Senator Goldwater represented a philosophy that was morally indefensible and socially suicidal. While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulated a philosophy which gave aid and comfort to the racist. His candidacy and philosophy would serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes would stand. In the light of these facts and because of my love for America, I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy.
While I had followed a policy of not endorsing political candidates, I felt that the prospect of Senator Goldwater being President of the United States so threatened the health, morality, and survival of our nation, that I could not in good conscience fail to take a stand against what he represented. ...." (The Autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chapter 23, Edited by scholar Clayborne Carson).
Goldwater lost the 1964 election, and I'm thankful that he lost.
Governor of California
Later, Ronald Reagan desired to run for Governor in California. Many California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's political views after his Time for Choosing speech. He started his campaign in late 1965. The 1966 election came about. He defeated former San Francisco mayor George Christopher (who was a moderate Republican mayor of San Francisco back then) in the Republican primary. In Reagan's campaign, he emphasized two main themes: "to send the welfare bums back to work", and, in reference to burgeoning anti-war and anti-establishment student protests at the University of California, Berkeley, "to clean up the mess at Berkeley." This type of ignorant, illogical rhetoric from Ronald Reagan is typical of his classist, extremist mentality. In 1966, Reagan accomplished what both U.S. senator William Knowland in 1958 and former vice president Richard Nixon in 1962 failed to do: he was elected Governor of California, defeating Pat Brown, the Democratic two-term governor. Pat Brown was a well known progressive man who invested heavily in building up California's infrastructure in a massive way. Reagan was sworn in as Governor of California on January 2, 1967. In his first term, he froze government hiring and approved tax hikes to balance the budget. Reagan even ran for President in 1968. He was part of the Stop Nixon movement. Reagan was conservative, Nixon was center right, Nelson Rockefeller was liberal, and George Wallace was a reactionary (like Trump). However, by the time of the convention, Nixon had 692 delegate votes, 25 more than he needed to secure the nomination, followed by Rockefeller with Reagan in third place. As Governor of California, Ronald Reagan was hostile to the progressive movements of the 1960's. He opposed the Civil Rights Act. Reagan supported Proposition 14, which violated the housing rights of black people and other people of color.
Reagan was opposed to student demonstrations at the Berkeley campus. On May 15, 1969, during the People's Park protests at the university's campus (the original purpose of which was to discuss the Arab–Israeli conflict), Reagan sent the California Highway Patrol and other officers to quell the protests. This led to an incident that became known as "Bloody Thursday", resulting in the death of student James Rector and the blinding of carpenter Alan Blanchard. In addition, 111 police officers were injured in the conflict, including one who was knifed in the chest. Reagan then called out 2,200 state National Guard troops to occupy the city of Berkeley for two weeks to crack down on the protesters. The Guard remained in Berkeley for 17 days, camping in People's Park, and demonstrations subsided as the university removed cordoned-off fencing and placed all development plans for People's Park on hold. One year after the incident, Reagan responded to questions about campus protest movements saying, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement." When the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped Patty Hearst in Berkeley and demanded the distribution of food to the poor, Reagan joked to a group of political aides about a botulism outbreak contaminating the food.
Reagan was a piece of work. Folks wonder why tons of black people have no respect for Reagan. By 1967, the abortion issue was on the national stage in a higher level. In the early stages of the debate, Democratic California state senator Anthony Beilenson introduced the Therapeutic Abortion Act in an effort to reduce the number of "back-room abortions" performed in California. The state legislature sent the bill to Reagan's desk where, after many days of indecision, he reluctantly signed it on June 14, 1967. About two million abortions would be performed as a result, mostly because of a provision in the bill allowing abortions for the well-being of the mother. Reagan had been in office for only four months when he signed the bill and later stated that had he been more experienced as governor, he would not have signed it. After he recognized what he called the "consequences" of the bill, he announced that he was anti-abortion. He maintained that position later in his political career, writing extensively about abortion.
Ronald Reagan had issues with the heroic Black Panthers. The Black Panthers carried guns to protect the black community in Oakland, Oakland. Doing that was legal until Reagan signed the Mulford Act in 1967. That law repealed a law allowing the public carrying of loaded firearms (becoming California Penal Code 12031 and 171(c)). The bill, which was named after Republican assemblyman Don Mulford, garnered national attention after the Black Panthers marched bearing arms upon the California State Capitol to protest the Mulford bill. Reagan was not recalled in 1968 after the effort came about to do it. Reagan also criticized the 1965 Voting Rights Act too. During the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. via assassination, Ronald Reagan gave the following disrespectful comments about Dr. King in describing his death as: "a great tragedy that began when we began compromising with law and order and people started choosing which laws they'd break.'' What Reagan didn't see that people have every right to peacefully oppose unjust laws, and that Dr. King promote nonviolence and peace not anarchy. Dr. King wanted a large Bill of Rights for the poor and disadvantaged. He advocated the Poor People's Campaign which wanted the federal government to spend billions of dollars to build housing, to promote jobs, and to eliminate poverty as we know it in America. Here is what Dr. King said about Ronald Reagan:
"... When a Hollywood performer, lacking distinction even as an actor can become a leading war hawk candidate for the Presidency, only the irrationalities induced by a war psychosis can explain such a melancholy turn of events...."
Reagan was re-elected in 1970 as Governor defeating Jesse M. Unruh. He chose not to seek a third term in the following election cycle. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office was the controversy of capital punishment, which he strongly supported.
His efforts to enforce the state's laws in this area were thwarted when the Supreme Court of California issued its People v. Anderson decision, which invalidated all death sentences issued in California before 1972, though the decision was later overturned by a constitutional amendment. The only execution during Reagan's governorship was on April 12, 1967, when Aaron Mitchell's sentence was carried out by the state in San Quentin's gas chamber. In 1969, Reagan signed the Family Law Act, which was an amalgam of two bills that had been written and revised by the California State Legislature over more than two years. It became the first no-fault divorce legislation in the United States. Years later, he told his son Michael that signing that law was his "greatest regret" in public life. Reagan's terms as governor helped to shape the policies he would pursue in his later political career as president. Ronald Reagan didn't want Angela Davis to teach in an university, because she is a Communist. Davis was allowed to teach, because there should be no ideological test in terms of teaching human beings in America. Reagan called Africans a racist slur to Nixon in 1971. People released the tape of it recently. So, Ronald Reagan was indeed a serious, slick racist.
The 1970's
Ronald Reagan was Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. By 1975, the Vietnam War was over. Liberals ran the U.S. Congress, and people were exposing the evils done by the FBI and the CIA left and right. In 1976, Ronald Reagan ran for President for a 2nd time. John Sears was his campaign manager who made up his strategy. Gerald Ford was the center right man while Reagan was a far right conservative during the 1976 Republican primary race. It was a fierce political battle. Reagan won North Carolina, Texas, and California. He lost New Hampshire, Florida, and his native Illinois. The Texas campaign lent renewed hope to Reagan when he swept all 96 delegates chosen in the May 1 primary, with four more awaiting at the state convention. Much of the credit for that victory came from the work of three co-chairmen, including Ernest Angelo, the mayor of Midland, and Ray Barnhart of Houston, whom Reagan as president would appoint in 1981 as director of the Federal Highway Administration. As the GOP convention neared, Ford was close to victory. Reagan chose the moderate senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania as his running mate if nominated. Ford won the primary with 1,187 delegates to Reagan's 1,070. Reagan's concession speech emphasized the dangers of nuclear war and the threat posed by the Soviet Union. Though he lost the nomination, he received 307 write-in votes in New Hampshire, 388 votes as an independent on Wyoming's ballot, and a single electoral vote from a faithless elector in the November election from the state of Washington. After the campaign, Reagan remained in the public debate with the Ronald Reagan Radio Commentary series and his political action committee, Citizens for the Republic, which was later revived in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2009 by the Reagan biographer Craig Shirley.
The Reagan Revolution
The Reagan Revolution was the culmination of the Goldwater movement of the 1960's. The Reagan Revolution had a coalition of religious conservatives, neo-cons, anti-Communist war hawks, economic conservatives, and other people who desired an end to New Deal liberalism plainly speaking. Before the 1970's, many religious conservatives believed in a separation of church and politics. By the late 1970's, the religious conservatives became more engaged in political matters first with Jimmy Carter and then with Ronald Reagan. The 1980 Presidential race was between the incumbent Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Carter by 1980 had political scandals from the Iran hostage crisis to the economy. Reagan was clear that he wanted lower taxes and less government along with a strong national defense to build up the economy. Also, Reagan was known for slick race baiting. He started his campaign in Mississippi where the 3 civil rights workers were murdered by racists. Reagan used the racist "welfare queen" trope. He picked establishment leader and center right person George H. W. Bush as his running mate. He debated Carter on October 28, 1980 that boosted his polls. On November 4, Reagan won a decisive victory over Carter, carrying 44 states and receiving 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 in six states plus D.C. He also won the popular vote, receiving 50.7 percent to Carter's 41.0 percent, with independent John B. Anderson garnering 6.6 percent. Republicans also won a majority of seats in the Senate for the first time since 1952, though Democrats retained a majority in the House of Representatives. Ronald Reagan's first term lasted from 1981 to 1985. Reagan believed in individual freedom, military growth, and desiring to end the Soviet Union. He wrote in his diaries his views. The diaries were published in May 2007 in the bestselling book The Reagan Diaries. He hated expansion of the federal government when the federal government expansion brought civil rights, voting rights, labor standards, and environmental protections that helped the lives of millions of Americans comprehensively.
Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981 being 69 years old. In his inaugural address, he addressed the country's economic malaise, arguing: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." Reagan is wrong, because the government is by and for the people. Therefore, government corruption and corporate corruption are the problems, not the essence of government in general. Good government used to help humanity in positive ways is good. Reagan wanted a mandatory prayer in school which is illegal. So, he promoted a moment of silence which is not illegal. In 1987, Reagan renewed his call for Congress to support voluntary prayer in schools and end "the expulsion of God from America's classrooms." On March 30, 1981, a deranged man named John Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. I'm glad that all of the victims survived the shootings. Ronald Reagan had surgery. He recovered and was released from the hospital on April 11, becoming the first serving U.S. president to survive being shot in an assassination attempt. The attempt had a significant influence on Reagan's popularity; polls indicated his approval rating to be around 73 percent. Reagan believed that God had spared his life so that he might go on to fulfill a higher purpose. One of the controversies of Reagan's first term was the Air traffic controllers' strike. In August 1981, PATCO, the union of federal air traffic controllers, went on strike, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. That federal law is an unjust law. Declaring the situation an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act, Reagan stated that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated." They did not return, and on August 5, Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order and used supervisors and military controllers to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained. It was one of the most cruel actions of President Ronald Reagan. Nancy Reagan was a lover of the occult, as she consulted astrologers and soothsayers while she was in office. Nancy wanted to do these things in her mind to protect her husband after he was almost assassinated while he was in office. According to Ronald Reagan's 1965 autobiography, "Where's the Rest of Me?", Reagan and Nancy were friends with the Hollywood astrologer Carroll Righter (and read Righter's advice). They worked with astrologers Joan Quigley and Jeanne Dixon.
Ronald Reagan promoted the neoliberal policy of Reaganomics. During Jimmy Carter's last year in office (1980), inflation averaged 12.5 percent, compared with 4.4 percent during Reagan's last year in office (1988). During Reagan's administration, the unemployment rate declined from 7.5 percent to 5.4 percent, with the rate reaching highs of 10.8 percent in 1982 and 10.4 percent in 1983, averaging 7.5 percent over the eight years, and real GDP growth averaged 3.4 percent with a high of 8.6 percent in 1983, while nominal GDP growth averaged 7.4 percent, and peaked at 12.2 percent in 1982. A lot of that happened when Reagan promoted some tax cuts and compromised with many Democrats. Reaganomics is supply side eocnomics by using large tax cuts. It was promoted by Arthur Laffer. Reagan increased military spending by 40 percent from 1981 to 1985. During Reagan's presidency, federal income tax rates were lowered significantly with the signing of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which lowered the top marginal tax bracket from 70 percent to 50 percent over three years (as part of a "5–10–10" plan), and the lowest bracket from 14 percent to 11 percent. Other tax increases passed by Congress and signed by Reagan ensured. Congress and Reagan passed more tax increases from 1981 to 1987. Many government programs were funded by TEFRA (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982), Social Security, and the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (DEFRA).
Unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent monthly rate in December 1982—higher than any time since the Great Depression—then dropped during the rest of Reagan's presidency. Sixteen million new jobs were created, while inflation significantly decreased. The Tax Reform Act of 1986, another bipartisan effort championed by Reagan, simplified the tax code by reducing the number of tax brackets to four and slashing several tax breaks. The top rate was dropped to 28 percent, but capital gains taxes were increased on those with the highest incomes from 20 percent to 28 percent. The increase of the lowest tax bracket from 11 percent to 15 percent was more than offset by the expansion of personal exemption, standard deduction, and earned income tax credit. The net result was the removal of six million poor Americans from the income tax roll and a reduction of income tax liability at all income levels. Reagan was wrong to assume that massive tax cuts for the rich would trickle down to the poor and grow the economy. If Reagan was confident in that trickle down philosophy, why did he promoted tax increases? The reason was that he knew that tax increases done right can benefit the economy in general.
Reagan's economic regimen included freezing the minimum wage at $3.35 an hour, slashing federal assistance to local governments by 60 percent, cutting the budget for public housing and Section 8 rent subsidies in half, and eliminating the antipoverty Community Development Block Grant program. The widening gap between the rich and poor had already begun during the 1970s before Reagan's economic policies took effect. Along with Reagan's 1981 cut in the top regular tax rate on unearned income, he reduced the maximum capital gains rate to 20 percent. Reagan later set tax rates on capital gains at the same level as the rates on ordinary income like salaries and wages, with both topping out at 28 percent. According to Paul Krugman, "Over all, the 1982 tax increase undid about a third of the 1981 cut; as a share of GDP, the increase was substantially larger than Mr. Clinton's 1993 tax increase." According to historian and domestic policy adviser Bruce Bartlett, Reagan's tax increases throughout his presidency took back half of the 1981 tax cut. Ronald Reagan cut Medicaid, food stamps, the EPA, and federal education programs. He didn't cut massively Social Security and Medicare. Yet, his administration was evil and wrong to try to purge many people with disabilities from the Social Security disability rolls. That is why you saw massive poverty and economic inequality during the Reagan years. It is easy to see that Ronald Reagan had a hostility towards many civil rights legislation as President. In 1982, he signed a bill extending the Voting Rights Act for 25 years after a grass-roots lobbying and legislative campaign forced him to abandon his plan to ease that law's restrictions. He also signed legislation establishing a federal Martin Luther King holiday, though he did so with reservations. In March 1988, he vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, but his veto was overridden by Congress. Reagan had argued that the legislation infringed on states' rights and the rights of churches and business owners. Reagan's argument is nonsense, because no church and business should violate the civil rights laws of America. Human rights are superior to states' rights.
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During his first term, Ronald Reagan escalated the Cold war. He rejected detente as found in the Carter administration. He built up the American military while the Soviet Union declined militarily and economically during the 1980's. Reagan grew the B-1 Lancer program. He promoted the MX missile. Reagan promoted NATO troops at West Germany. It got so heated that many people feared that Reagan might promote WWIII against the Soviet Union. Margaret Thatcher and Reagan both criticized the Soviet Union on political and ideological terms. In a famous address on June 8, 1982, to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster, Reagan said, "the march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history." Reagan called the Soviet Union as evil empire. After Soviet fighters downed Korean Air Lines Flight 007 near Moneron Island on September 1, 1983, carrying 269 people, including Georgia congressman Larry McDonald, Reagan labeled the act a "massacre" and declared that the Soviets had turned "against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among people everywhere." The Reagan administration responded to the incident by suspending all Soviet passenger air service to the United States and dropped several agreements being negotiated with the Soviets, wounding them financially. Reagan promoted GPS to help aircraft travel in locations. Reagan funded anti communist movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This was the Reagan doctrine. He even supported the Afghan Mujaheddin as they opposed the Soviets.
America and the Soviet Union gave money and arms to the anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan. The SDI or the Strategic Defense Initiative was a defense project wanting to use ground and space system to protect America from strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. It was difficult to achieve. Many people questioned it as 'Star Wars.' Reagan also funded anti-communists who were human rights violaters like Hissene Habre of Chad and Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala. Montt was accused of using genocide against the Ixill peopel and other indigenous peoples of Guatemala. Reagan said that Montt was a person of "great personal integrity." Later, Reagan cut aid to Guatemala over human rights violations. Reagan sent U.S. troops to Lebanon to deal with the Lebanese Civil War. On October 23, 1983, 241 American troops were killed and others were wounded by a suicide truck bomber. Reagan withdrew all Marines from Lebanon. Reagan invaded Grenada on October 25, 1983 via Operation Urgent Fury. Reagan wanted to end a pro-Communist government. Operation Urgent Fury was the first major military operation conducted by U.S. forces since the Vietnam War, several days of fighting commenced, resulting in a U.S. victory, with 19 American fatalities and 116 wounded American soldiers. In mid-December, after a new government was appointed by the governor-general, U.S. forces withdrew. Farm Aid and Comic Relief were created by people to fight homelessness and cuts to small farmers during the 1980's
Developments and Scandals
The 1984 campaign of Ronald Reagan was a total victory. He accepted the Republican nomination at the Republican convention at Dallas, Texas. His campaign was about it was "morning again in America." He said that the economy was recovering and the domination performance by American athletes in the 1984 Summer Olympics on home soil, and other things. He became the first U.S. President to open an Olympic Games. Previous Olympics taking place in the United States had been opened by either the vice president (three times) or another person in charge (twice). Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee who competed against Ronald Reagan. Reagan didn't perform greatly during the first Presidential debate. Reagan's age was questioned. Reagan said, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." This remark generated applause and laughter, even from Mondale himself. The election was over on November of 1984 when Reagan won 40 out of 50 sates. Mondale only won his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. Reagan won 525 of the 538 electoral votes, the most of any presidential candidate in U.S. history. In terms of electoral votes, this was the second-most-lopsided presidential election in modern U.S. history; Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 victory over Alf Landon, in which he won 98.5 percent or 523 of the then-total 531 electoral votes, ranks first. Reagan won 58.8 percent of the popular vote to Mondale's 40.6 percent. His popular vote margin of victory—nearly 16.9 million votes (54.4 million for Reagan to 37.5 million for Mondale) was exceeded only by Richard Nixon in his 1972 victory over George McGovern.
Ronald Reagan was sworn in President for the 2nd time on January 20, 1985 in a private ceremony at the White House. He was 73 years old. The only man older than him to take a Presidential oath of office was Joe Biden in 2021 when Biden was 78 years old. Because January 20 fell on a Sunday, a public celebration was not held but took place in the Capitol Rotunda the following day. January 21 was one of the coldest days on record in Washington, D.C.; due to poor weather, inaugural celebrations were held inside the Capitol. In the weeks that followed, he shook up his staff somewhat, moving White House Chief of Staff James Baker to Secretary of the Treasury and naming Treasury Secretary Donald Regan, a former Merrill Lynch officer, Chief of Staff. By this time, the War on Drugs continued. The War on Drugs existed since the days of Nixon and before, but this time saw the increasing crack epidemic. Reagan started the campaign as early as 1982. He wanted the federal government to reduce the illegal drug trade. Reagan wanted more aggressive policies. He said that "drugs were menacing our society" and promised to fight for drug-free schools and workplaces, expanded drug treatment, stronger law enforcement and drug interdiction efforts, and greater public awareness.
In 1986, Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill costing 1.7 billion dollars. He wanted mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenses. The problem was that the bill was racist, classist, and didn't address drug addiction with care. It promoted the prison industrial complex and ruin many families in America. It promoted racial disparities in the prison system. The bill did little to reduce the availability of dangerous drugs on the street increasing a financial burden for Americans. Adolescent drug use was reduced, and more people were placed into prison. Marijuana use among high school seniors declined from 33 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 1991. First Lady Nancy Reagan made the war on drugs her main priority by founding the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign, which aimed to discourage children and teenagers from engaging in recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying "no". Nancy Reagan traveled to 65 cities in 33 states, raising awareness about the dangers of drugs, including alcohol. Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a classified scenario and drill developed by the United States federal government to detain large numbers of United States citizens deemed to be "national security threats", in the event that the president declared a National Emergency. The plan was first revealed in detail in a major daily newspaper by reporter Alfonso Chardy in the July 5, 1987 edition of the Miami Herald. Transcripts from the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 record the dialogue between Congressman Jack Brooks, Oliver North's attorney Brendan Sullivan and Senator Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the joint Senate–House Committee about Rex 84. Contingency plans by the US Government for rounding up people perceived by the government to be subversive or a threat to civil order have existed for many decades. For example, from 1967 to 1971, the FBI kept a list of over 100,000 people to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list. Of course, such plans are antithetical to human civil liberties.
Ronald Reagan had controversy over his response to the AIDS epidemic back in the 1980's. According to AIDS activist groups like ACT UP and scholars like Don Francis including Peter S. Arno, the Reagan administration heavily ignored the AIDS crisis which started to spread in America by 1981. 1981 was when Reagan first took office. They also said that AIDS research was chronically underfunded during Reagan's administration and requests for more funding by doctors at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) were routinely denied. By the time President Reagan gave his first prepared speech on the epidemic, six years into his presidency, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 20,849 had died of it. By 1989, the year Reagan left office, more than 100,000 people had been diagnosed with AIDS in the United States, and more than 59,000 of them had died of it.
Reagan administration officials countered criticisms of neglect by noting that federal funding for AIDS-related programs rose over his presidency, from a few hundred thousand dollars in 1982 to $2.3 billion in 1989. In a September 1985 press conference, Reagan said: "this is a top priority with us...there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer." Gary Bauer, Reagan's domestic policy adviser near the end of his second term, argued that Reagan's belief in cabinet government led him to assign the job of speaking out against AIDS to his Surgeon General of the United States and the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Ronald Reagan had another controversy with addressing apartheid too. Apartheid in South Africa was unjust and evil. From the late 1960's onward, more Americans opposed apartheid in South Africa. Many people support economic and diplomatic sanctions on South Africa. By Reagan's first term as President, the global anti-apartheid movement grew massively. There was the disinvestment from South Africa movement too. College campuses, activists, mainline Protestant denominations, and other black people agreed with that movement. Reagan opposed divestiture. He wrote about his views to Sammy Davis Jr. in the following words that it, "would hurt the very people we are trying to help and would leave us no contact within South Africa to try and bring influence to bear on the government." He also noted the fact that the "American-owned industries there employ more than 80,000 blacks" and that their employment practices were "very different from the normal South African customs." Reagan was missing the point. The money sent to South Africa permitted the apartheid regime where black people in South Africa were abused, discriminated against, and murdered in many cases (like what happened in Soweto). The Reagan administration believed in the token, moderate policy of constructive engagement with the white racist South Africa government to end apartheid gradually. Freedom is not based on a clock. Freedom is meant by all by birthright. Reagan was criticized until he used new sanctions on the South African government including an arms embargo in late 1985. Many anti apartheid activists saw these sanctions as weak. In August 1986, Congress approved the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which included tougher sanctions. Reagan vetoed the act, but the veto was overridden by Congress. Afterwards, Reagan reiterated that his administration and "all America" opposed apartheid, and said, "the debate ... was not whether or not to oppose apartheid but, instead, how best to oppose it and how best to bring freedom to that troubled country." Several European countries as well as Japan soon followed the U.S. lead and imposed their sanctions on South Africa.
America and Libya had bad relations in the 1980's. Muammar Gaddafi was considered by the CIA as an unholy trinity along with USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev and Fidel Castro. A bomb exploded in a Berlin discotheque in early April 1986. 63 American military personnel were injured and one serviceman died. The West said that Libya was involved in the terrorist bombing. Later, Reagan authorized bombings in Libya. It happened on late evening of April 15, 1986 when Libya was bombed. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allowed the U.S. Air Force to use Britain's air bases to launch the attack, on the justification that the UK was supporting America's right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Reagan justified this act by saying he wanted to stop Qaddafi's exportation of terrorism. Many countries condemned the actions. Some say that such a bombing violated international law. Reagan shockingly was quite more moderate on immigration issues compared to Trump. Reagan was not a super progressive on immigration though. Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. The act made it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit illegal immigrants, required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status, and granted amnesty to approximately three million illegal immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982, and had lived in the country continuously. Upon signing the act at a ceremony held beside the newly refurbished Statue of Liberty, Reagan said, "The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon, many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans." Reagan also said, "The employer sanctions program is the keystone and major element. It will remove the incentive for illegal immigration by eliminating the job opportunities which draw illegal al____ns here."
The Iran Contra affair almost brought down the Reagan Presidency. It was a problem for the Presidency since 1986. The deal was that the administration used the proceeds from covert arms sales to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War to fund Contra rebels fighting against the government of Nicaragua. This action violated an act of Congress. The International Court of Justice ruled that America violated international law and breached treaties in Nicaragua in various ways. Reagan then withdrew the agreement between America and the International Court of Justice showing his disdain for the rule of law. Reagan claimed that he was unaware of the plot's existence.
He opened his own investigation and appointed two Republicans and one Democrat, John Tower, Brent Scowcroft and Edmund Muskie, respectively, to investigate the scandal. The commission could not find direct evidence that Reagan had prior knowledge of the program, but criticized him heavily for his disengagement from managing his staff, making the diversion of funds possible. A separate report by Congress concluded that "If the president did not know what his national security advisers were doing, he should have." Reagan's popularity declined from 67 percent to 46 percent in less than a week, the most significant and quickest decline ever for a president. The scandal resulted in eleven convictions and fourteen indictments within Reagan's staff. Reagan was always an anti-communist zealot. He loved the Contras ignoring the human rights abuses of far right regimes in Central America. Daniel Ortega, Sandinistan and president of Nicaragua, said that he hoped God would forgive Reagan for his "dirty war against Nicaragua." In 1988, near the end of the Iran–Iraq War, the U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Vincennes accidentally shot down Iran Air Flight 655 killing 290 civilian passengers. The incident further worsened already tense Iran–United States relations.
Ronald Reagan saw the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union, by the 1980's declined massively in wealth and in its military power. The Soviets has massive military expenses, inefficient planned manufacturing, and other burdens. Oil prices fell. The stagnant economy continued under Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan at first used hardcore rhetoric against the Soviet Union. Reagan appreciated the revolutionary change in the direction of the Soviet policy with Mikhail Gorbachev, and shifted to diplomacy, intending to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue substantial arms agreements. He and Gorbachev held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988: the first in Geneva, Switzerland, the second in Reykjavík, Iceland, the third in Washington, D.C., and the fourth in Moscow. Reagan believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the end of Communism. The critical summit was at Reykjavík in October 1986, where they met alone, with translators but with no aides. To the astonishment of the world, and the chagrin of Reagan's most conservative supporters, they agreed to abolish all nuclear weapons. Gorbachev then asked the end of SDI. Reagan said no, claiming that it was defensive only, and that he would share the secrets with the Soviets. No deal was achieved. Reagan wanted to challenge Gorbachev to go further in reforms by saying tear down this wall at the speech in Berlin on June 12, 1987. Later, in November 1989, East German authorities began allowing citizens to pass freely through border checkpoints. That wall started to go down in 1989 with it completely being gone in 1992.
Gorbachev came to D.C. in December 1987. Both he and Reagan signed the INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) at the White House. It banned an entire class of nuclear weapons. It eliminated them. They laid the foundation for the Strategic Arms Reducation Treaty or START I. Reagan insisted that the name of the treaty be changed from Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to Strategic Arms Reduction Talks. When Reagan visited Moscow for the fourth summit in 1988, he was viewed as a celebrity by the Soviets. A journalist asked the president if he still considered the Soviet Union the evil empire. "No," he replied, "I was talking about another time, another era." At Gorbachev's request, Reagan gave a speech on free markets at the Moscow State University. Reagan had an advanced hearing aid in his right ear. He used it on his left ear too. He had multiple surgeries to deal with health issues. He promoted Sandra Day O'Connor to be on the Supreme Court. O'Connor was the first woman on the Supreme Court. He supported William Rehnquist on the court too. Anthony Kennedy was on the Supreme Court as well. Early in his presidency, Reagan appointed Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., of San Diego as the first African American to chair the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Pendleton tried to steer the commission into a conservative direction in line with Reagan's views on social and civil rights policy during his tenure from 1981 until his sudden death in 1988. Pendleton soon aroused the ire of many civil rights advocates and feminists when he ridiculed the comparable worth proposal as being "Looney Tunes." Reagan received his honorary 33rd Degree from the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, ceremony held in the White House on February 11, 1988. Among those in attendance: Raymond F. McMullen, Grand Master of Masons of the District of Columbia; Francis S. Paul, Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction; and Voris King, Imperial Potentate of the A.A.O.N.M.S. (Shrine) of North America. A complete copy of the Certificate is printed at page 67 of the 1988 Grand Lodge D.C. Proceedings - first announced in April, 1988, The New Age Magazine (now called The Scottish Rite Magazine to downplay its spiritual beliefs). Also, President Ronald Reagan ironically was a very pro-Vatican President by praising the Pope, working with the Vatican in the Solidarity movement in Poland, and promoting diplomatic status with the Vatican during the 1980's. Peggy Noonan was Reagan's speechwriter, she has been a dedicated Roman Catholic for decades. From p. 184 in the book of Sleep-Walking Through History: America in the Reagan Years, by Haynes Johnson, (1991, Doubleday), "By the end of his term, 138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations. In terms of number of officials involved, the record of his administration was the worst ever."
Reagan ended his Presidency on January 20, 1989. I was in Kindergarten at the final year of the Reagan Presidency.
His Post-Presidency Life
Ronald Reagan ended his Presidency on January 20, 1989 when George H. W. Bush took office. The Reagans purchased a home in Bel Air, Los Angeles including the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara. By April 13, 1992, another incident happened to Ronald Reagan. He was assaulted by an anti-nuclear protester. This was during a luncheon speech while accepting an award from the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas. The protester was Richard Springer. He smashed a two-foot-high (61 cm), 30-pound (14 kg) crystal statue of an eagle that the broadcasters had given the former president. Flying shards of glass hit Reagan, but he was not injured. Using media credentials, Springer intended to announce government plans for an underground nuclear weapons test in the Nevada desert the following day. Springer was part of an anti-nuclear group. Springer was arrested and was lucky that he didn't get felony charges. Questions were raised about how he would get past the federal agents that guarded Reagan at all times. Later, Springer pled guilty to reduced charges and said he had not meant to hurt Reagan through his actions. He pled guilty to a misdemeanor federal charge of interfering with the Secret Service, but other felony charges of assault and resisting officers were dropped. Ronald Reagan continued to public speak after his Presidency. The Reagan couple attended Bel Air Church regularly. Ronald Reagan gave speeches to support the Republican Party. He gave a speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention to support George H. W. Bush.
Previously, on November 4, 1991, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was dedicated and opened to the public. Five presidents and six first ladies attended the dedication ceremonies, marking the first time that five presidents were gathered in the same location. Reagan continued to speak publicly in favor of a line-item veto; the Brady Bill; a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget; and the repeal of the 22nd Amendment, which prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president. In 1992 Reagan established the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award with the newly formed Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. His final public speech occurred on February 3, 1994, during a tribute to him in Washington, D.C.; his last major public appearance was at the funeral of Richard Nixon on April 27, 1994. At the end, Ronald Reagan unfortunately suffered Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is one of the worst diseases on Earth that eliminates memories and it's an incurable neurodegenerative disease that destroys brain cells. It ultimately causes death as when the brain dies, the body dies.
Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with the disease on August 1994 when he was 83 years . He informed the nation of his illness via a handwritten letter on November 1994. Many well wishers sent him notes to his California home. There has been debate on whether he had Alzheimer's while he was President. Michael Reagan fiercely denies this view. Reagan's other son Ron Reagan suspected this. This is why Michael Reagan accused Ron of making that view to sell books. Regardless of the truth, I don't wish that disease on anyone. Anyone who has it should receive compassion, treatment, and empathy. At a June 1981 reception for mayors, not long after the assassination attempt, Reagan greeted his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Samuel Pierce by saying "How are you, Mr. Mayor? How are things in your city?", although he later realized his mistake. Ron would later temper his claims, telling The New York Times he did not believe his father was actually inhibited by Alzheimer’s while in office, only that “the disease was likely present in him”, for years prior to his 1994 diagnoses. Former CBS White House correspondent Lesley Stahl recounted that in her final meeting with the president in 1986, Reagan did not seem to know who she was. Stahl claims that she came close to reporting that Reagan was senile, but by the end of the meeting, he had regained his alertness. Lay observations that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's while still in office have been widely refuted by medical experts, however, including the many physicians who treated Reagan both during and after his presidency. Neurosurgeon Dr. Daniel Ruge said that he never saw Reagan having signs of Alzheimer when he examined him. Reagan's doctors said that he first began exhibiting overt symptoms of the illness in late 1992 or 1993, several years after he had left office. Reagan fell off his horse in Mexico at July 1989. Nancy Reagan said that this event could have harmed Reagan's memory. Years after 1994, Reagan only could recall a few people like his wife, Nancy. He remained active. Ronald Reagan walked into parks near his home and on beaches. He played golf all of the time until 1999. That was when he came to his office nearby the Century Cub. Reagan suffered a fall at his Bel Air home on January 13, 2001, resulting in a broken hip. The fracture was repaired the following day, and the 89-year-old Reagan returned home later that week, although he faced difficult physical therapy at home.
On February 6, 2001, Reagan reached the age of 90, becoming only the third U.S. President after John Adams and Herbert Hoover to do so. Jimmy Carter would be the fourth U.S. President to reach 90 years old too. Reagan's public appearances became much less frequent with the progression of the disease, and as a result, his family decided that he would live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife Nancy. She told CNN's Larry King in 2001 that very few visitors were allowed to see her husband because she felt that "Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was." During the afternoon of June 5, 2014, Ronald Reagan passed away. He was 93 years old.
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His Passing
Ronald Reagan passed away from pneumonia complicated by Alzheimer's disease. He passed away at his home in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles, California. It was a very sad time for his friends and family. Like always, we wish for no one to suffer death from Alzheimer's disease. We express empathy. After his death, Nancy Reagan released a statement in the following words, "My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has died after 10 years of Alzheimer's disease at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone's prayers." Speaking in Paris, France, President George W. Bush called Reagan's death "a sad hour in the life of America." He also declared June 11, "a national day of mourning." Reagan's body was taken to Kinglsey and Gates Funeral Home in Santa Monica, California. Well wishers paid tribute to him by laying flowers and American flags in the grass. One June 7, 2004, his body was transferred to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. For a brief time, there was a family funeral, conducted by Pastor Michael Wenning. Reagan's body lay in repose in the Library lobby until June 9. Over 100,000 people viewed the coffin. On June 9, 2004, Reagan's body was flown to Washington, D.C. where he became the 10th U.S. President to lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in 34 hours. 104,684 people filed past the coffin.
On June 11, 2004, a state funeral was conducted in the Washington National Cathedral, presided over by President George W. Bush. Eulogies were given by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and both former President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush. Also in attendance were Mikhail Gorbachev and many world leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Prince Charles, representing his mother Queen Elizabeth II; German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; and interim presidents Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and Ghazi al-Yawer of Iraq. After the funeral, the Reagan entourage was flown back to the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Another service was held, and President Ronald Reagan was interred. At the time of his death, Reagan was the longest-lived president in U.S. history, having lived 93 years and 120 days (2 years, 8 months, and 23 days longer than John Adams, whose record he surpassed). He was also the first U.S. president to die in the 21st century. Reagan's burial site is inscribed with the words he delivered at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: "I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
Conclusion
President Ronald Wilson Reagan's legacy is complex and extensive. He transformed his life from being a FDR liberal Democrat to being one of the most conservative Presidents in American history. He saw most of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century. Reagan lived through the end of WWI, WWII, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, Watergate, and 9/11. Reagan's Presidency was divided into 2 parts. His first term saw massive economic decline and the cut of social programs. His 2nd term saw the beginning of the end of the Cold, an expanding economy (along with expanding deficits and the growth of income inequality), and a promotion of Americana. Reagan viewed America in more optimistic terms than what America's history actually is. Not everything in America is evil, but many profound mistakes in America have existed back then and today. How many liberals love and praise Barack Obama is how many conservatives love and praise Ronald Reagan. Reagan had the gift of being eloquent in his words and rising to the occasion at times. His weaknesses was that he failed to look the complex, damaging nature of homelessness, of the Iran Contra affair, and of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Reaganomics failed. One reason why it failed was that philosophically the economy requires government interventions to help our neighbors progressively. Also, even Reagan worked with Democrats to raise taxes multiple times. Ronald Reagan (who promoted lower taxes, a conservative economic philosophy, and a stronger military) was the most influential modern day American President since Franklin D. Roosevelt. I mentioned influential and not greatest as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is a much greater President than Ronald Reagan. The Tea Party, John McCain, George W. Bush, and other conservative leaders were influenced heavily by the views and agenda of the late Ronald Reagan. Even John McCain admitted that he was a student of the Reagan Revolution. Ronald Reagan evolved to work with Gorbachev in finally seeing the end of the Cold War. Reagan was also controversial. On issues of the economy, civil rights, government investments, I have ideologically disagreements with Ronald Reagan obviously. Ronald Reagan promoted the racist trope of "welfare queen" that slandered the lives of black people, especially black women. Even Lee Atwater admitted that Republicans used racist messaging in GOP campaigns in order to gain voters and power. On January 18, 1993, Reagan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded with distinction), the highest honor that the United States can bestow, from President George H. W. Bush, his vice president and successor. Reagan was more popular among Americans now than back then. Nancy Reagan continued to promote medical research to fight Alzheimer's disease until her passing years later. Therefore, Ronald Reagan lived through a transforming time in world history. So, we have that responsibility in the 21st century to use our will, strength, determination, and love of truth to further transform the world to be massively better than the past.
By Timothy
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