Today marks President Ronald Reagan’s 106th birthday. Every American alive today should know his story and respect his courage. While he is sadly no longer with us, his legacy continues to live on.

Ronald Reagan: you hear that name and you either rejoice at the thought of the good days or you immediately feel sick to your stomach. He is undoubtedly the godfather of modern day conservatism and Democrats can’t stand it.

Politics aside, nobody can argue that Reagan didn’t achieve most of what he set out to do. Besides Franklin Roosevelt, he was the most influential president of the 20th century. Not only did the Great Communicator change the Republican party, but also the direction of the country.

While it’d be very time consuming and monotonous to celebrate every president’s birthday (let alone I wouldn’t want to), I feel as though I owe one for the Gipper today.

I’m not saying he was the greatest president ever, or even the greatest Republican president ever. But I am saying that he was simply a great man. He’s the reason I’m even into politics today.

My Personal History of Discovering Reagan

My personal “rendezvous with destiny” turned out to be when I learned all about Reagan.

During the 2012 election, I felt a desire to understand the world of politics. I started learning about a few political issues and needed to know where I stood.

I took numerous online tests to see which party I belonged to. Test after test I would end up a Republican. So now that my party was identified, I was onto the next phase of understanding the conservative philosophy better.

That then led me to our last great republican president: Ronald Reagan.

Before trying to make sense of politics, I already knew of Reagan. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, is only about 40 minutes away from my house. I’ve probably been there over ten times at this point. It’s almost like a second home.

I’ve gone there before I knew anything about politics, and continued going after, as my appreciation grew. The annual conference meeting for California College Republicans was there last year, as well as my High School Senior Prom.

I soon became absolutely mesmerized by watching countless speeches on Youtube. First, I found his classic 1964 “Time for Choosing” speech he made for Goldwater’s campaign. Next I found him in the debate with Walter Mondale perfectly landing a joke about his old age. The most inspirational, however, was his demanding that Soviet Union Leader Mikhail Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall.

I soon read his autobiography, An American Life, and tried to get a good grasp of not just his presidency, but also who the man was.

Reagan’s talk of lowering taxes to let American workers keep more of what they earn and cutting bureaucratic wasteful government seemed to me like common sense. In the age of the Cold War, he was a fierce anti-communist at a time when America needed one.

It’s funny how an entire philosophy can be summed up in a few words. Reagan did just that in his first inaugural address:

Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.

Previously I had never cared for speakers, let alone politicians. Reagan was different, he resonated with me like no other speaker had before.

The Truth Behind His Myth

As a huge fan of Ronald Reagan, I can admit that conservatives make him out to be more than he was. Sure, liberals also make FDR and Bill Clinton out to be more than they were as well. And don’t even get me started on how they could possibly like their scumbag Lyndon Johnson.

It’s almost like there is a cult around Reagan and liberals can’t understand it. They’re baffled by it. They claim he wasn’t conservative and that he wasn’t a great president. Both claims couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Every president is adored beyond belief by their party. Liberals have been at the throat of his presidency for decades so it should come as no surprise. I even admit, they have a point.

All you have to do is watch a Republican primary debate and you’d have yourself believe Reagan was some saint. Reagan this and Reagan that. What would Reagan do today? Where’s the next Reagan?

The Republican party will never get another Ronald Reagan. There has only been and only will be one Ronald Reagan. Also, there’s no point in pondering what he would do today. Reagan was literally the perfect president for the perfect time. The stars aligned and he was a gift from God.

Often when looking at public figures we forget that they are just like us: human. No president was perfect, no leader has ever been prefect and no human being will ever be prefect.

A big difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals compare the country to their fantasy land utopia. Conservatives compare our country to the rest of the world, realistically.

The same line of thinking can be used for Ronald Reagan, or any other president for that matter. When stacked against an ideal unrealistic perfectionist president, then of course Reagan wouldn’t be great. Every other president before and after him wouldn’t be as well.

Once you compare Reagan to his colleagues, that’s where you can understand his greatness. Reagan came after the tension filled times of the 60’s and 70’s.

After Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal and Jimmy Carter’s failure as president, it’s no wonder why conservatives loved and still love Reagan. He completely transformed politics and changed the direction of this nation.

Some historians claim we are still living in the Reagan era (albeit without him). That’s how enduring the man’s policies and influence was.

Why I Admire him

Ronald Reagan was a great man. His vision and philosophy not only changed the Republican party, not only changed America, but he changed the entire world.

Ronald Reagan led America to win the Cold War, without firing a single shot. Yes I know, how can you really say that, isn’t that myth? No. I’m a simple man who likes simple explanations. I don’t mince words.

Reagan helped put in motion the collapse of the Soviet Union, and ultimately, the collapse of the entire communistic threat of the time. He understood that in order to come to the negotiating table, the United States needed to have the upper hand militarily.

Every previous Cold War president set out to ease tensions and contain the Cold War. Not Reagan though. He set out to achieve his famous statement: We win they lose. And he achieved exactly that. One nation stood while one collapsed and soon ceased to exist.

Reagan was a grandfather figure. He was a cowboy movie star with a heart of gold. He was never afraid to show his strength when need be and he never lost sight of his vision of a “shining city on a hill.”

Nobody thought the actor could one day be president. He’s too old. He’s a right wing extremist. He’ll start nuclear war! How further they couldn’t have been from the truth.

President Reagan is, really the only president, in which when I hear him speak I just instantly smile. He touched my heart like many other conservatives and I can honestly say his influence is part of what’s shaped my politics, and my life for that matter.

May God bless him and the United States.

Happy birthday Mr. President.