February 6 - Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan!

nPosted on February 6, 2017

nI am trying to do some profiles in presidency, this year, hitting on some of the U.S. presidents who hadn’t yet been recognized as famous birthdays.

nToday is the birthday of one of the most famous U.S. presidents – one of the first celebrity presidents. Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois on this date in 1911. He worked as a sports announcer on the radio, then as an actor. He was president of the labor union for actors, and in the early sixties, he started getting into politics. He served as a Governor of California for two terms before becoming a two-term president of the United States.

nReagan has mixed reviews of his presidency (like most presidents) among historians, but he still enjoys pretty high approval ratings among people in general. He survived an assassination attempt; long after leaving the presidency, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his suffering that debilitating disease called a lot of attention to it and helped raise money for a cure. Reagan died in 2004 at age 93.

nSome aspects of Reagan’s economic policies were helpful to society in general, and in the long run, but other aspects of his economic policies didn’t work for the middle class and poor, so therefore had a bad overall effect. Also, some of Reagan’s policies resulted in mental hospitals that faced a shortfall of funding discharging mental patients that still needed treatment, which led eventually to more problems with homelessness and violence.

nThe Reagan administration also made a few mistakes in international affairs, including the Iran/Contra Affair and a failure in Lebanon. Other international actions were very successful.

Some of Reagan’s best achievements included:

nCommunicating with people, and making many people feel positive and safe.

nNominating the first female Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor.

nThe reduction of nuclear arms and a general detente between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., which was a strong contribution to the splitting up of the latter into more democratic republics. Basically, the Cold War was over, partly because of Reagan, and overall world peace was strengthened.