Take me back to 1985

 

 

 

"Under President Reagan it truly was 'morning in America'. It was for many of us, the best of times..."

Okay. I am not one to live in the past. I am nostalgic to a degree, but I do try to keep my eyes looking through the windshield, and not the rear view mirror. That being said, I was thinking about what life was like thirty years ago, in 1985.

President Ronald Reagan had just been sworn in for his second term. For many of us, it was the best of times. My family's life changed under President Reagan. Take home pay became real, as the President relieved us of many long standing and choking tax liabilities. In my profession at the time (defense), we were busy - very, very busy. President Reagan was making good on his promise to right the wrongs of the Carter Administration. To build up our defenses once again. Our 600 ship Navy was taking shape, and yes, the Soviets had gone from "bogie man" to a group of nations who were financially falling apart.

There was no Islamic terrorism in 1985. Good thing (for them) there was not. The President we had in 1985 was no apologist. He was no weakling. He was a true American. A patriot. If the 9/11 attack happened on his watch in 1985, all hell would have broken loose. We would have tracked down and killed each and every terrorist. We would have bombed into dust every terrorist camp in the world. Finally, President Reagan would have made sure this growing evil was doused like a burning match in a glass of water.

Flash forward to now. Thirty years hence. Let us just look at the news stories from just this past week:

• Olympian Bruce Jenner is becoming a woman.
• The main news anchor on NBC is a lying Walter Mitty.
• President Obama said at a prayer breakfast that Christians have been just as evil as Islamic terrorists.
• Islamic terrorists burn a man alive in a cage and only one country is outraged enough to do anything about it (hint: it was not us).
• A baby is going to be born using three different parents DNA (welcome to the brave new world where science is becoming scarier than science fiction).
• Our national debt is over $18T and growing.
• We have a nuclear North Korea and soon a nuclear Iran.
• Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continues to butcher innocent people in three African countries and the world can only watch.

Okay. I am done. There were many, many more comparisons I could have made, but then this posting would have looked more like a novel than an article. I do miss 1985. I do miss having a leader who can lead. I miss an economy which is built on real metrics rather than Fed stimulated phony baloney overprinted money. Most of all, I miss the hope embodied in Ronald Reagan's famous phrase, "It is morning in America". In 2015, under President Obama, we have changed President Reagan's words to be something quite different - "We are now mourning for America".