The Great Rediscovery

42 years ago, our country elected Ronald Reagan as President. With a sense of optimism, he took the reins on a country that seemed down on its luck and led it back to his vision of “a shining city on a hill.”

His message was simple and had four main elements that he wholeheartedly believed would solve our country’s plaguing problems: reduce taxes, deregulation, domestic spending cuts, and inflation reduction.

Do those problems sound familiar?

Yes, we are dealing with these same issues today and we must address them once again.

The most amazing aspect of the Reagan years was that he passed sweeping reforms without having control of all branches of government in any of the eight years he was in office. Once Reagan’s policies were put in place and took hold, the economy soared and our country rebounded and got its “swag” back.

As Reagan stated in his farewell speech in 1989: “I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation -- from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”

Whatever happens in these mid-term elections today, we will still have a divided government.

Good ideas can come from anyone or any party. My hope is that our newly elected leaders use those same smart, simple solutions that Reagan used and referred to in his 1989 farewell speech as the Great Rediscovery: “…a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.”