Today marks the anniverary of two events that are an important part of history and which, to a large degree, helped shaped the political ideas I hold today.
Twenty-Six years ago today on November 4, 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was stormed and took 66 American citizens hostage for 444 days. It was, in many ways, the beginning of the Islamist war on the West that we are fighting today, and a reminder that a threat greater than Iraq ever was remains in existence in the Persian Gulf. (H/T: Committees of Correspondence)
Twenty-Five years ago today, Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected President of the United States. Coming as it did during one of the lowest points in 20th Century American history, the election of this one man put into motion events that changed the world, mostly for the better. (H/T: Liberty Corner)
I was in 6th grade during the hostage crisis and the election. The humiliation of seeing my country brought to its knees by a bunch of students and clerics taught me that our country needed to be strong enough to defend itself from all enemies. The election of President Reagan was a watershed as well; though he may not have governed perfectly, he was as close to a libertarian conservative as we’ve had in office since World War II and, every time I see another example of what the GOP has become, I wish he were still around.
