Why We Conservatives Love Ronald Reagan

Today, February 6, 2011, would have been former President Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday.
For many of us in our 40s, he was the single most influential leader during the 1980s. And beyond.
But why do we conservatives love Mr. Reagan?
Because one thing was and is the fact that Mr. Reagan was not afraid to speak the truth. Yes, truth to power.
Whether it was to the communist influence in Hollywood. Whether it was a full-throated defense of the capitalist economic system during the 1950s. When he made a clean break from the Democrat party of his youth and young adult hood and became a Republican. When he gave one of the most rousing political speeches of the 20th century. That speech, known as A Time For Choosing may have not saved the Republican candidacy of Barry Goldwater. But it certainly launched the poilitcal career of Mr. Reagan.
And Mr. Reagan was talkied into running for govenor of California by some new-found political friends and allies. And he won that election by stating the obvious. That the government was getting too big, too fast and too fat. And he was right. By the time he left office as governor in 1975, he was able to reform the state welfare system. And Mr. Reagan, in the most brazen act, ran against the sitting Republican President, Gerald R. Ford for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976. As I once heard his son, Michael, opine, Mr. Reagan was the original Tea Partier.
By 1980, he was in the driver's seat for the Republican nomination to face Democrat President Jimmy Carter. Yeah, there were some bumps in the road. But that was eventually smoothed out by the time of the election. And Mr. Reagan won a 44 state landslide over President Carter. And even then, Mr. Reagan spoke with a clarity few politicians do today. He talked about the over reach of the federal government. Said that wefare had to be reformed. That we did not need a federal Education Department. Or an energy department. That communism and the Soviet Union were evil. That communism can be defeated, not contained.
This is why conservatives love Mr. Reagan. This is why many conservatives have found Sarah Palin so much like Mr. Reagan. Because she too speaks truth to power. And the powerful, as they did to Mr. Reagan, are trashing Mrs. Palin.
One other note that is important about Mr. Reagan.
Mr. Reagan was everything. He was Fox News Channel. The blogosphere. The internets. Talk radio. All rolled up in one. He spoke for positions that were denounced constantly from the dominant, left-wing media culture. But somehow this man, a man from humble beginnings in small town America, was able to cut to the chase, state his case and leave it in the hands of his fellow citizens.
And we gave him the chance of a lifetime. To lead the greatest nation in the history of man. And he did lead. He did not let others do his talking. And that is why we conservatives love Ronald Reagan. That is why we celebrate the 100th anniversary of his birth this day. And that is why we miss his plain speaking and love for the United States of America.