Why did Ronald Reagan connect so strongly with young people? After all, he was from a generation with experiences and values far removed from those of the high school and college students who supported his presidency.
The answer is really quite simple: Ronald Reagan created the America that my generation read about but which we had not yet seen.
I was born in 1966. As 6- and 7-year-olds, my class learned about the glory of the American Revolution. Citizens who fought for freedom were called “patriots,” and we celebrated their honor and valor. United we stood. Our objectives were clear. Liberty triumphed over tyranny.
When we arrived home from school, however, the news carried a different lesson. Americans were fighting again, this time in Vietnam. On television we saw a divided country, an ill-defined mission and eroding support for those who fought so bravely.
Then, as 8- and 9-year-olds, we began to learn about our presidents: the courageous George Washington, the brilliant Thomas Jefferson and the honest Abe Lincoln. Presidents were our principal role models. Yet while we watched these school films, our parents watched the Watergate hearings. That summer I watched President Richard Nixon resign in disgrace.
From ages of 10 to 14, we began to learn more about our American history. The America of our textbooks illustrated a land of opportunity and chronicled an economic engine that lifted a world economy. At home, the newspapers told a different story. We heard our parents discuss 18 percent mortgages and 14 percent inflation rates.
During the day we studied our military history as well. America’s involvement in World War I and II were examples of our nation’s willingness to extend freedom to all people. D-Day was the epitome of American sacrifice to share our freedom with those denied it. In the classroom, we learned that nations respected our power, our resolve and our character.
Outside the school building, evidence of such American influence was scarce. Communism advanced throughout Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Terrorists targeted our planes and citizens. And for an unbearable 444 days, 52 fellow Americans were held hostage by a bunch of misfits.
Reagan not only rejected the notion of a defeated America, he spoke of America’s future using the same language our teachers used when describing its past.
President Reagan entered office as I entered high school. During those high school years, America became the world’s economic engine, challenged communism on all fronts and took the war on terror–for the first time–to the terrorists.
By the end of Reagan’s second term, 20 million new jobs had appeared, and the Soviets had shrunk both their weapons and troops. The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism were about to come to the very end that Reagan alone had expected.
When my generation began high school, Reagan’s words made us believe in an America that for us had existed only in textbooks. Yet by the time we finished college–for the first time in our lives–we were living in that America.
Why did Ronald Reagan connect so strongly with my generation? For the simple reason that he made us believe in America’s promise, then delivered on that promise to America.
I miss him already.
