During President Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984, his campaign ran an ad detailing how much the country had grown in the four years Reagan had been in office. The ad, best known as “it’s morning again in America,” detailed how the economy was better, the people were prouder and the country was stronger than ever before. That ad could have never been run today, at least not in its same form. The Lincoln Project ran a parody of that ad with the harsh truths of today replacing the dreamlike America of 36 years ago. Below the article there is a link to the Reagan ad and the Lincoln Project ad.
I dislike highlighting the negativity in the world, but this article will contain a lot of harsh realities that we face today. As I am writing this, America has passed the grim milestone of 160,000 new COVID cases in one day. The United States has been the global leader in cases as it approaches 11 million Americans that have been infected. The U.S. has also had the largest loss as the death toll nears 250,000 Americans.
I am morose at the fact that those are the statistics our country is facing, and I would be wrong in saying no one saw this coming. For centuries the world has faced pandemics, ever-learning new ways to prepare and combat new diseases. The fault of why America has reached its astounding numbers lies on the outgoing president. My hope is that, as a nation, we can come together, heal and once again be fit to wear the title of a united country.
In the beginning of 2020, you would have woken up to a relatively strong economy with a bull market. Now, as we face this new morning in America, we are in a recession, a bear market and have taken the largest percentage hits to our GDP ever recorded. I am, again, not proud to be saying any of this. I love this country dearly, and it hurts to see what state it is in.
Many Americans are still unemployed, businesses big and small are bleeding and it seems that a return to normalcy may take longer than expected. But as our nation continues to suffer, the burden is being slowly lifted by each passing day.
We have all just witnessed a historic election with close to 150 million Americans voting, declaring their voice matters. This election, the whole world was watching, showing that America still has a central place in the world and can help determine its future. Soon, we will have a new president, one that will hopefully lead us out of the darkness and into a brighter future. A vaccine seems to be in sight; businesses and schools alike are innovating, so that they may continue to function.
I believe our country is in a dark place, but that it could be in a much deeper hole than it is in now. We as a country are not alone in our fight against the virus, and we together are not alone in the experiences we are all currently facing. I still hold true to the thought that we will prevail, and I think that one individual best summed up my current thinking.
As American writer, Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel Prize in Literature winner Pearl S. Buck once said, “My faith in humanity stands firm.”
Reagan Ad- https://youtu.be/EU-IBF8nwSY
Lincoln Project Ad- https://youtu.be/t_yG_-K2MDo
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Evan Brooks is a third-year Business Management major with minors in Economics and Civic and Professional Leadership. EB916132@wcupa.edu