I was born in 1964, just when things were getting really weird in this country—although I don’t think there was any connection between the two.
I don’t have to tell anybody reading this column that from the mid-'60s until the late '70s, this country underwent a significant political shift to the left. It would take hundreds of pages to explain the causes behind this shift, but whatever those causes, they left this country, by the end of President Jimmy Carter’s presidency, in a very distinct state of “malaise.”
By 1980 our economy, burdened by such suffocating liberal economic policies as exorbitantly high taxes and stifling government regulation, was in severe recession. Inflation, interest rates, and unemployment were sky-high, and nobody in either party seemed to have any answers.
And we were in trouble militarily. The Soviet Union was a very real threat, and outnumbered us in nearly every military category, from tanks to troops to nuclear warheads.
The U.S. military, on the other hand, was starved for money. Not only were we outgunned and outmanned, at any given time a significant percentage of our military airplanes couldn’t fly and warships couldn’t put to sea for lack of parts. Several of my friends who served during this time called this the “Hollow Army.”
Hollywood and the news media had moved radically to the left as well. The patriotic actors who left their Hollywood careers to serve in WWII were nowhere to be found by the 1970s. Nor were the unbiased reporters of earlier ages. The Watergate scandal left the news media with a taste for blood—Republican blood in particular.
In short, this country was in serious trouble, and in danger of following many Western European countries further to the left, where they now find themselves in even worse trouble.
However, at this time, two men radically changed the direction of this country. The first will be obvious to you; the second will not. Many of you will likely agree with my first selection; far less will agree with the second. Be that as it may, I believe that both of these men contributed to changing—and possibly saving—this country. These men are Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh.
Let’s talk about the obvious choice first: Ronald Reagan. Usually political shifts come in small degrees; President Reagan forced this country into a 180-degree, hairpin turn. He cut taxes, deregulated industries, and poured money into the military. He stood up to the Soviet Union, called it was it was—the “Evil Empire”—and at a Berlin speech chided Soviet President Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
In eight years, President Reagan changed this country from one of weakness to one of strength. He altered the entire political map, turned the South into a Republican stronghold, and even changed the way politicians ran their campaigns. (Remember, Bill Clinton ran as a “New Democrat.”) Ronald Reagan changed the mindset of a nation.
And Rush Limbaugh? Many of you will bristle at the idea that I hold Limbaugh at the same level of esteem as Ronald Reagan. Rush Limbaugh, you may argue, has held no elective office, lowered no taxes, and made no stirring speeches to foreign leaders. In fact, I don’t even agree with all of the positions Limbaugh holds.
But let us not underestimate the power of the media. There was a time when the national media propped up the Democratic Party by parroting the party’s positions and presenting them as fact. I remember the days in the '70s and '80s when the Sunday morning news shows included three liberal panelists and (maybe) one conservative. I remember feeling that I must be the only conservative in the entire country—that’s the message I received from the national media.
But that’s not the message I get anymore, and I thank Rush Limbaugh as much as anyone for that. It was Limbaugh’s syndicated radio show, begun in the late '80s, that gave voice to conservatives in this country. It was Limbaugh who pointed out the media’s liberal bias. It was—and is—Limbaugh who, on a daily basis, counter-balances that liberal bias and levels the playing field between Republicans and Democrats. And I believe that leveling has made a huge difference in the direction this society has followed over the past decade and a half.
And thanks to Rush Limbaugh we now have the likes of Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, the Fox News Channel, and other non-liberal news outlets so that people like me never again have to think we’re alone in our views.
I was born in 1964, just when things were getting really weird in this country. But thanks in part to these two men, this country stepped back from the liberal abyss towards which it was headed. This raises the question, of course: we still have Limbaugh and the new media with us, but is there another Reagan out there who can turn us back from our current—and far more dangerous abyss?
Mike Jensen——
Bio and Archives
Mike Jensen is a freelance writer living in Colorado. He received his M.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he wrote his first book, Alaska’s Wilderness Highway. He has since published Skier’s Guide to Utah along with humor, travel, and political articles for various magazines and newspapers. He is married with five sons, and spends his free time at a remote cabin in the Colorado Rockies.
