I Miss The Days of A President Who Leads

I was driving home yesterday listening the local radio station that has been playing only Christmas music since Thanksgiving.  A song came on that I hadn't heard in its entirety in years, but clearly recall listening to it over and over as a kid: Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  I had to smile, imaging my parents were probably driven to the brink of insanity with how my sister and I loved to hear so much that we probably darn near wore out the needle on the record player. 

I began to picture how fun it would be to be in a huge gathering of people singing a bunch of the good ol' Christmas caroles together -- some kind of holiday show.  As I pictured it, I oddly found myself starting to choke up.  A somber mood quickly overtook me.  How odd, I thought, to go from a "warm, fuzzy" feeling to one of sadness.  I wondered why.

I first began to think that perhaps life is not so innocent and sweet as it was "back then."  I am greatly troubled by so many things going on in our society today -- and our government, in particular.  And yet, I know my parents had their fears, too, when my sister and I were small.  In those days, our nation had to face the Communist threat, and not only across the ocean, but also in our own backyard with the Cuban Missile Crisis.  There was the blocking off of eastern Germany by the Soviets and building of the Berlin wall.  Kruschev promised to bury us with the advent of the nuclear age.  My father had just transitioned into the reserves from the Airforce, having been a pilot with SAC (Strategic Air Command) -- he trained to bomb Moscow should the U.S. ever go to war with Russia.  (Yep, he flew the Bomb around the world in a B-47.  Now that was a stressful job!) 

What's missing today is a President who leads, who pushes back against evil, rather than bowing to heads of state or, worse yet, considering establishing ties with wayward wackos.  I long for a President and a Congress that puts the welfare of the American people above all else, rather than cutting backroom deals to push, at best, ill-conceived laws and at, worst laws, designed to line the pockets of elitists who desire to totally morph the U.S. into another Socialist country.  I long for a President who doesn't concern himself with being "cool", but rather one that kicks ass when needed.

I read this on American Thinker today and know it's perhaps bad writing to copy the whole piece here, but it's an excellent read.  It's a wonderful reminder of the days when we had such a President that stood up to evil countries and backed them down.

A Candle for Iran?

By Paul Kengor
American Thinker

President Obama could learn a lesson from President Reagan on dealing with Iran.

Twice in this space last summer, I wrote about Iran -- specifically, about the dramatic June protests against the theocratic-totalitarian regime of Holocaust-denying despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. More than that, I focused on President Obama's reaction to the Iranian cry for freedom and justice.

President Obama's initial response was outrageous. It improved only after widespread criticism hit him from all sides. Still, even given the improvement in his rhetoric, our new president's treatment of the protests was a telling display of his tragic lack of recognition of what presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush termed the "March of Freedom."

I concluded those articles by emphasizing the need by Obama to employ the bully pulpit of the presidency to consistently encourage this vital groundswell of freedom in Iran. I noted that Reagan in particular had done precisely that in places like Poland in the 1980s -- with grand historical results. For Obama, this means not simply reacting to occasional incidents in Iran -- if and when they rarely present themselves -- but to be proactive, to be creative, to regularly call out the tyrants and encourage the dissidents. Obama must do this if he wants to push the freedom tide --and yes, if he wants to change the status quo in a dungeon like Iran, which for thirty years now has been the world's worst terrorist state.

If I may, I'd like to offer a specific example from the Reagan playbook. It happened 28 years ago -- Christmastime -- this week. You will not hear about in our public schools and liberal universities. That's a loss for liberals, too. They're missing a moving lesson that their guy -- President Obama -- could benefit from considerably.

The moment occurred in December 1981. That year, throughout the Evil Empire, "church-watchers" were on duty: sitting in chapels, taking notes on the "stupid people" entering to worship. The communist "war on religion" (Mikhail Gorbachev's apt description) was in full rot, as was the ugliness of communist repression generally.

The prospects for shining light upon that darkness seemed bleak. The Soviets were on the march, having added eleven proxy states as allies since 1974. The new man in Washington, President Ronald Reagan, was sure he could reverse Moscow's surge. He would jump-start the process in Poland, one of the most repressed Communist Bloc states -- but one where hope survived.

And just then, on December 13, 1981, the lights went out again. At midnight, as a soft snow fell lightly on Warsaw, a police raid commenced upon the headquarters of Lech Walesa's Solidarity labor union. The Polish communist government, consenting to orders from Moscow, declared martial law. Solidarity's freedom-fighters were shot or imprisoned. The flames of liberty were being snuffed out in this pivotal Eastern European nation.

But as Poles prayed for light to pierce the shadows, some remarkable things began to transpire. A week and a half later, the Polish ambassador, along with his wife, defected to the United States. Right away, they wanted to see Ronald Reagan. Reagan welcomed them into the Oval Office. They were overwhelmed. The ambassador's wife wept as Vice President George H. W. Bush put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.

The ambassador then made an extraordinary request: "May I ask you a favor, Mr. President? Would you light a candle and put it in the window tonight for the people of Poland?" Ronald Reagan rose and walked to the second floor, lighted a candle, and put it in the White House window.

But Reagan wanted to do more than that. He saw a window of opportunity. So on December 23, with Christmas only two days away, speaking to all of America in a nationwide address, Ronald Reagan connected the spirit of the season with events in Poland: "For a thousand years," he told his fellow Americans (watch video here), "Christmas has been celebrated in Poland, a land of deep religious faith, but this Christmas brings little joy to the courageous Polish people. They have been betrayed by their own government." The president then took a remarkable liberty: He asked Americans that Christmas season to light a candle in support of freedom in Poland.

It was a significant gesture -- for Poland, for America, for a free world. Poles heard about it and took it to heart. They still talk about it today.

What does this have to do with President Obama and Iran? Everything. To wit: How about doing something similar for Iranians today? Why not light a candle as a sign of hope for Iran's freedom-fighters? If not a candle, then something -- some kind of overt public display.

Would such an action offend the Iranian leadership? Of course -- just as the light of day and light of truth repels a vampire.

The point, again, is for the American president to be proactive, to be creative, to be encouraging, to advance positive change in the world. He can make these simple but profound gestures even as he proceeds with his domestic agenda. Reagan did. Reagan -- quite apart from Obama's mindset -- passed his massive tax-reduction program in 1981.

Of course, there's an interesting juxtaposition there. Both domestically and in foreign policy, Reagan sought to remove power from the state and transfer it to the individual, whether through tax cuts for Americans or through undermining the communist totalitarianism shackling Poles. Obama is looking to empower the state domestically, while not undermining the theocratic totalitarianism shackling Iranians. It's a very instructive contrast.

And so, President Obama, I once again go back to my conclusion in my earlier articles: If you want to employ America as that light, as that beacon of freedom, then get going. Bring a flicker of hope, the light of liberty, to freedom's dungeon. Shine it into the terror-state of Iran.

Of course, proclaiming liberty to the captives means desiring to do so. A proclaimer must first be a believer. Like Reagan, and yes, like George W. Bush said too, you need to believe in the American ideal -- in the heart, in the soul, in the gut. You need to believe, as Ronald Reagan did, that America is as much an idea as a place.

Is Obama a believer? I said six months ago that only time will tell. So far, the story isn't promising.

Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College. His recent books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand.

[I encourage you to read the original article at American Thinker, because there are a lot of good links throughout that, unfortunately, did not copy.]

That stroll down memory lane -- of a President who fought to make a difference in the world -- brought tears to my eyes.  I remember the days of the liberation of Poland, East Germany, and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.  THOSE were the good ol' days!!!!