Ronald Reagan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ronald Reagan - Essay Example Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown has been known as the â€Å"Republican Giant Killer† after defeating no less than a future president in the person of Richard Nixon. The latter being a highly favored GOP member. The popularity of Nixon as a Republican frontrunner proved no moment when Brown was able to defeat him. He then served as California governor for two consecutive terms when he faced an opponent whom he gravely underestimated, an actor running for the first time for public office in the name of Ronald Reagan. Brown and Reagan have more things in contrast than being from two rival parties. Brown represented the proud Democrat who sees student activism as a healthy exercise of civic participation while Reagan outwardly denounces it and speaks that they should not belong in universities if all they would cause is unrest. The student protests were heavily denounced by Reagan who was heard by conservatives sharing the exact same sentiments. Taxes in the state were excruciatingly high and unrest was evident. Dunnell provides a sensible explanation, â€Å"The postwar baby boomers were of age to vote, and the middle of the road voters in both parties were fed up with the bureaucrats protecting their jobs with expensive programs† (391). The people of California at that pivotal moment were looking for a change in administration and Reagan was able to offer exactly that. Brown had not anticipated the ability of Reagan to deliver good, if not great, speeches at times when it was what was called for. People had become disappointed with liberalism that Reagan’s outwardly conservative stance impressed itself as a better alternative. The failure of expensive social programs has taken its toll on taxpayers and the liberal take on communism as a foreign policy created in the gubernatorial race a chance to reconsider existing state policies by the incumbent