Ronnie Reagan
Ronald Reagan was born February 6th, 1911 in a small town in Illinois. His father was struggling shoe salesman, John Reagan, and his mother was Nellie Reagon (presumably a housewife). His father's alcoholism made it difficult for him to keep a job, so his family moved from town to town.
Throughout high school, Reagan took interest in drama class, which led to his career in broadcasting and acting. In fact, he became a broadcaster of the Chicago Cubs games, while stationed in Des Moines. He would have to improvise the account of what's happening in the game given a rough description via telegram. He began starring in movies as a "easy-going, wholesome good guy," which observers consider similar to his actual personality. He got married in 1940 to co-star Jane Wyman, whom they had two kids together (1 of which was adopted). They were divorced in 1948, becoming the first president to ever had been divorced.
When it comes to politics, Reagan was a Democrat, dating back to being a fan of what FDR did. However, over the course of the years, his views were gradually becoming more and more conservative. Eventually, he began campaigning for the Republicans. This may be due in part to Nancy Davis, Reagan's second wife as of 1952. Her conservative political views may have swayed Ronnie to become a Republican.
He announced his running for governor of California in 1966. An opponent during the candidacy, Edmund G. Brown, stated that "while he was serving the public, Reagan was starring in a movie with a chimpanzee." ahahaha. Despite his lack of experience, people enjoyed his personality and his genuineness. When a reporter had asked him how he thinks he'd do in office, he was recorded saying that "I don't know, I've never played a governor before." He won the gig with ease.
As governor, he erased an enormous budget deficit caused by the Brown administration, but this coincided with one of the largest tax increases in US history. During his terms as governor, he would leave the day-to-day stuff to the board heads, while he focused on the big picture stuff. This technique would also be used during his Presidency, some noticed.
He made a lazy attempt for the Republican nomination for President in 1968. However, he ended up third in that race. In his next term as governor, he would begin to devise a plan for a more serious attempt for President in 1976. This was changed when Richard Nixon resigned and Ford took over. Reagan challenged Ford on his policies and appointments to prevent waiting another eight years, but he lost the nomination by several dozen votes.
In 1980, Reagan dominated the Republican nomination, and went on to the main vote (alongside George Bush as his running mate) against Jimmy Carter. Their platform was based around steep tax cuts, an amendment to ban abortion, and promises to increase defense spending. Come time for the election, Reagan won with about 52 percent of the popular vote, and over 400 more electoral college votes than Carter.
Reagan being his hilarious self.
The day before the election, the Iranians released American hostages, which Reagan was a bit suspicious of. He thought it had something to do with a deal made with the Carter Administration and the Iranians. A few months into his presidency, John W. Hinckley, Jr tried to kill Raegan when he fired six shots of a .22 calibre revolver at him as he left a Washington D.C. hotel. One of the bullets punctured a lung and nearly lodged into his heart. Despite the horrible occurrance, he was able to joke with the doctors at the emergency room, saying, "I hope you're all Republicans."
After the incident, he made a few staged public appearances, give the idea that he was recovering quickly, although he was still severely injured. In August of 1981, The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), one of the few organizations that endorsed Reagan's Campaign, walked off the job and demanded higher pay and better working conditions. Reagan refused to negotiate and said that they had 48 hours to return to work. Many of the 13,000 workers ignored the ultimatum and were fired on the spot. The public applauded his no-nonsense decision-making.
Reagan proposed 30 percent tax cuts on both individual and corporate incomes, as he thought it would stimulated the economy. He also wanted to increase military spending, and cut spending on social welfare-based programs. For the most part, all of these proposals were passed, however the tax cut was reduced to 25 percent. All the tax increases threw the US into a severe depression, and Reagan was forced to increase taxes, getting the economy back on track. Also, Reagan did what he could to keep the government from affecting the economy too much, so he cut spending on some programs and loosened the leash on regulations. On a different note, Reagan felt as if the military had grown weak and that the US was losing respect as a major power, so he increased the defense budget to modernize our military.
HAAA
Our relations with the USSR didn't mend with Reagan as president. He was very anti-communist and in a speech early in his Presidency, he called the USSR "an evil empire," and he questioned the legitimacy of their government. It certainly didn't help that the USSR shot down an airliner en route to Korea, killing around 60 Americans. However, some blamed the US for the tensions between the nations, stating that the USSR had its rights to be threatened when Reagan was spending a lot of money building up the military.
Reagan also proposed to build a space-based military defense system, using lasers to destroy incoming Soviet attacks. Also during his terms as president: tensions with Lebanon, Libya, and Iran. (I'm sorry but I feel like I've done my work.)
He died on June 5th of 2004 in his home in Bel Air, California.
My opinion: I think that he was a great president, and I can appreciate that he was a funnyman. He truly deserves to be remembered for all of the years he spent trying to better this great nation.
http://www.biography.com/articles/Ronald-Reagan-9453198?part=9
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