This month article we will pick a topic which I am not sure relates to the title of this page but I am sure a connection will be build up somewhere.
The topic today will be Ronald Reagan. Surprisingly I came across the man rather late in his presidency, it was during the re election campaign of 84. Then he was running against two democratic, opponents one whose ideas were reputed to be as refreshing as a Florida evening breeze and another who turned out to be Minnesota's favourite son.
Earlier on when I had occasionally watched his spats with the democrats, which I enjoyed tremendously. What used to amuse me about the whole issue was the way he would come on TV warn congress not to give him a budget he was bound to veto and congress going on to do exactly what they had been adviced against, if I recall the situation correctly.
It took the moderating effect of Gramm-Rudman, Gramm/Rudman/Hollings for adults to find other pastimes. Well I was vaguely following all this things but my interest I still insist were really wetted from 84.
Even from 84 the man was still a bit of second tier for me since in my youthful subjective thinking he did not appear to be as interesting as the trio of Hanks, Cruise, Candy or the Pop icons such as Jackson, Houston, Ross, Ritchie and the others.
It is only after I became an infrequent and later regular reader of American news magazines that his stature grew in my eyes. One thing that the American magazines prove is that the level of education in that country is very, high the reporters and by, inference sub editors of their journals are trully world class.
With his demise the other day I decided to jog my memory to relive the times as I witnessed them. It is clear today if one is to borrow from Greek mythology that the man was an Aquarian in more ways than one. He was certainly ahead of his time in the way he saw things. Perhaps his Galatic war program the so called 'star wars' was a bit of an Aquarian over indulgence but his views on government freed people from the mindset of FDR, whose ideas had worked for an earlier generation but were now holding back the country as no one was willing to try anything different.
The American system is good because though feted by Europeans I doubt whether he would have been able to go far in their political institutions he would have been too uncoventional.
Reagan depending on your political persuasion brought out the best or the worst in men. After his re election Men had kind of weighed the man they were dealing with and they started getting busy and things got interesting. With the help of the magazines we professionally followed things along. In those days Ted Turner was just a hard working Southerner and CNN a regional cable company.
Money men in New York got busy, they linked up with Texan Oil men and others further west in Los Angeles to create a very interesting financial triangle. There were the brothers in New York, Solomon, Lehman etc, the Texan P'S Perot, Peralman, Pickens and one Drexel dealer further west. All this led to the ultimate in men behaving badly RJR Nabisco, TLC Beatrice and astronomical Japanese stock and real estate prices.
Later on some Irish luck kicked in as his country's political nemesis were having a personnel crisis of leadership as one octogenarian after another died off. In the end they settled for a young man who unfortunately for them turned out to be reflective.
With Reagan in charge the contrast was too vivid. Here is a popularly elected leader with subjects(or is it countrymen)with names as diverse as Madonna and Trump, jumping helter skelter or engaging in all sorts of deals, while his people are bound up in fear. In the end he did the right thing and freed his people to, join the E.U or buy Chelsea football club as per their, tastes anything else would have been cruel. In a roundabout sort of way he also played a role in the end of aparthied though he was viewed in some quarters as being insensitive to the issue.
Summing up it is no doubt that Reagan was a man ahead of his time. Perhaps we need another Aquarian to finish the job he began and come up with a lean government that can finance itself with bonds or some new space age monetary instrument and leave the citizens to enjoy their hard earned cash in peace.
With benefit of the years and reviewing his performance on TV recently. I would concur that he was a great communicator more appealing than that Leo who likes to blow his trumpet and the Cancer preoccupied with his family.
