As much as St. Ronnie can claim victory over the USSR.
As much as I hated the bastard (really, when he went into forgetful old man mode, I just wanted to string him up), he really had a huge effect.
Make people believe it is better, and shazaam, it's better. And he (ok, yeah, many moments leading to that moment, but he pushed it) bankrupted the soviets, which you may not have liked, but it worked for us.
Before that point, the US lived in a shadow of Russian nukes. Any kids growing up before that should be able to remember the deep gut level fear, programmed in, and that phrase should be enough to trigger it. After that moment, poof.
Talk to kids today and see if their mind set is shaped by nukes falling out of the sky. Nope.
I think that's a good thing, and I think uncle Ronnie was a strong piece of it.
On the family level, we had many arguments over him. My dad loved him. At dinner one night, he said: Say what you will, but all my kids have jobs right now.
A few years later, he wasn't in such close agreement. My dad thought he paid too little in taxes based on RR's tax cuts. My dad was an accountant. He NEVER thought he paid too little in taxes. He fought the IRS for years for his clients. He loved it. He was good at it. And then he became a soda company executive.
He though RR's tax strategy was going to do serious harm to the country, even though it was beneficial to him, and it was wrong.
