Oh, damn! Bloggers at The Root are still bitching about Ronald Reagan’s legacy. Now, with black folks up in arms, Reagan’s legacy will be tarnished!!
Just kidding.
Prior to Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, I was a committed, bleeding heart liberal. That all changed during the administration of Jimmy Carter (the worst voting mistake of my life) when Carter and the Democrats decided to raise my taxes, already among the highest in our history at the time, to help pay for all the social programs that helped them get re-elected year after year, and my tax contributions DOUBLED from one paycheck to the next.
At that point, I stopped listening to the black politicians who had been feeding me the crap over the years, saying the same stuff you guys are spouting now. I decided to study the issues, focusing on what the candidates (Jesse Jackson, Reagan, John Anderson, Jimmy Carter, Lenora Felani) and a host of others had in mind to FIX the interest rate, unemployment and inflation rates, ALL of which were above TEN PERCENT) and to lower the income tax rates, at the time as high as SEVENTY PERCENT.
ALL of the Democrats and most of the others were telling me how they would get the RICH to pay “their fair share” and thus make life better for the rest of us. Well, after what happened to ME I wasn’t dropping my pants (again) to allow THAT kind of government to continue, so I staked out a platform of my own and raised the flag. Ronald Reagan was the only one to salute it. His platform was closer to my own than all the others.
Of course I heard and considered all the other stuff that The Root’s constituency is so up in arms about, NONE of which have anything to do with SUBSTANTIVE issues like the economy, national defense, social issues that I care about.
All I had to do was figure out: Am I more concerned with whether or not the president says bad things about me or whether he would take my money against my will and give it to to other people who, in my opinion, were not deserving of MY family’s resources at the expense of our needs and problems.
I didn’t focus on the Confederate flag flying, Trent Lott’s social commentary or Ronald Reagan’s veiled snipes at blacks, poor people or liberals in general.
I saw then and I see now that what a politician says has nothing to do with what he does, and I am ONLY interested in what he does.
Talk about selective amnesia… all the wailing and whining about Reagan said this and the GOP said that also forgets that the Dems have been SAYING for decades that the GOP is “for the rich” or “anti-poor”, and we blacks have voted for them without remembering (perhaps not even realizing) that we have gotten NOTHING in return. When prices rise, we pay just like the rich do. When the economy gets a sniffle WE still get pneumonia.
Fortunately for me and my family, I chose to vote for the candidate I thought would best allow me to earn as much as I could and keep more of it. In other words, I was tired of being poor and wanted to become one of the rich, and I KNEW I had a better chance at a better economic future if I helped elect someone who, while maybe not giving me a handout, would not stand in my way of pulling myself up.
Well, I am still not rich but much better off than YOU are because I own my own business and I have people who depend upon ME for a job. I still feel the pain when prices rise, but I have enough of a cushion that it doesn’t upset my life, just means I don’t save to invest quite as much.
I still try to drive the biggest car I can afford and I don’t even look to see what price gas is when I fuel it up because no matter how much it is I can afford it. I do not depend upon the poverty pimps (Reagan was too nice a guy to use that term) to lobby for me at the White House or to secure more benefits for me because I know that SOMEBODY has to pay for the freebies that I would get.
I can and am taking care of myself and my family and I owe Ronald Reagan a great debt because he helped me see that all the goodies the Democrats were trying to get the government to provide for me would taste a lot better if I got them for myself.
For sure, I didn’t get as high as I wanted, but at least the height to which I was able to rise was my own doing.
So, you guys who need the nanny state to fill in for the holes in your own capabilities, and if you think that bad mouthing some politician makes you feel better, go for it. Just make sure you keep thinking like you do.
Tags: affirmative action, black conservative, Reagan, trickle down
