It’s commonly said, especially among the intellectualoids, that the downfall of communism in Europe was due mainly to Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Polish people aren’t buying it — at least not a group of them.

From Newsmax:

Polish admirers of Ronald Reagan plan to raise a statue of the former U.S president in Warsaw, where he is revered for his role in the downfall of communism in Europe.

The 3.5-metre (3.8-yard) stone-and-bronze statue will stand across from the U.S. Embassy, the head of the group raising money for the memorial said on Monday. The group includes Poles living in Poland, Canada and the United States.

“Reagan was the person who defeated the communists and opened the way for freedom in Poland,” Janusz Dorosiewicz said. “The statue is a way for his legacy to live on.”

I love Ronald Reagan — always have — and it’s nice to see the man getting further recognition for what he accomplished.

I first voted for Reagan in 1984 (a small part of the reason is that I didn’t want to be known for the rest of my life as, “The guy who voted for Mondale“). Reagan got my vote because he came across, at least to me as an 18 year old, as the father figure to a nation that had spent the better part of a decade as orphans, abandoned and left for dead by Vietnam, Watergate, malaise, stagflation and disco.

The facts are simple. Reagan inherited a nation that felt like Jimmy Carter looked and got rid of the collective bags under our eyes and made us feel good about ourselves for the first time since Ike got a hole-in-one. All this was accomplished while making the Soviet Union his woman, riding horses, eating jelly beans and towing the weight of vicious comments from his pirouette-brained, ungrateful punk of a son, Ron Jr.

Sure, his presidential years had some setbacks. Reagan was shot for nothing more than some unbalanced bubble-wrap brained, uber-nerd’s attempt to impress Jodie Foster. Reagan lived, Hinckley was sent off to “Our Lady of Swatting at Imaginary Flies” hospital for a few decades, and Foster never called him. Another evil plan thwarted by Reagan.

There were many setbacks, but even more successes– Culminating with what Reagan will be remembered for best in the history books, and also recently by the Polish.

The Great Communicator headed up “Extreme Makeover: Eastern Bloc Edition,” and presided over the collapse of the Berlin Wall — a demolition which rippled right on through to Moscow, ending in the implosion of the Soviet Union. What Reagan left behind for us pales in comparison to what he didn’t leave behind.

Many in Poland understand that, and it’s time everybody did.

A hundred years from now, you’ll see many statues around the world in honor of Ronald Reagan. How many of Gorbachev will you see? There may be a few on Ebay sitting dormant, forever stuck on $1.99 minimum bids.

Sure, there are still people who think that it was mainly Gorbachev who ended the cold war. These are the folks who also believe that dead possums on the side of the highway died tragically of cancer.

——–

Note: If you’re seeing only this post, the entire blog can be accessed at DougPowers.com

Stumble It!

Rate this post:

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...