On this day 22 years ago, an assassin almost prevented the greatest President of my lifetime from making the world a better place. This is an interesting story written two years ago by Richard Allen who was Reagan's national security adviser at the time. He recounts what happened that day through transcripts and memory.
All we knew in the first hour was that the President had been shot. We had virtually no information about the assailant or his motives, or about whether he had acted alone. Vice President Bush was in the air over Texas. (I remember vividly the image of Haig, in a trench coat, shouting over a bad connection, "George, it's Al ... turn around ... turn around!") Bush was on his way back, but he had no means of secure voice communications from his aircraft. The first assessments by the Pentagon revealed that more Soviet submarines than usual were off the East Coast.
I was in the 6th grade having two months prior gotten into trouble not returning after recess, because I was sitting in the Music room watching Reagan's inauguration. I knew at twelve it was history even before I understood Goldwater conservatives and the history that led to Reagan's election. I knew it was history because my business-owning dad told me that Reagan was someone different. He was a president who understood economics.
Dad said that Reagan's tax ideas would make it much easier for him to run his clothing store and it would be easier for others to start businesses and that would create jobs. He had recently complained that the local anchor department store in the mall was being bailed out by the city. His business was less glamorous, but profitable. The mall department store couldn't stay in business because the economy was lousy and people were cutting luxuries for utility. He griped that the city would never bail him out, but they could certainly put him out of business with their regulations and tax codes. In fact, it was his taxes that were being used to bail out his competitor. Jimmy Carter had done the same thing for Chrysler using tax dollars from Ford and GM. How was that fair to the businesses who were more efficient? This was an upside down world in which the small guy just couldn't survive with large taxes and a government that cherry picks businesses they want to see succeed. Dad knew Reagan would see things differently, but no one could have predicted how great Reagan was going to be.
The sympathy from getting shot probably helped him pass the tax cut over a Democrat controlled House of Representatives. And the tax cut was the centerpiece on which he built the economy and ruined the Soviets. Right now, the greatest living American doesn’t even recognize his own wife. He probably has forgotten all that he has done for us and why he did it. But I won’t forget him.
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