The Deacde of the 'EIGHTIES Poetry Challenge on AC (April 8, 2009)

I
President Reagan looms large over the 'eighties
A beaming great communicator, communist-hater
He took the fight not to Lebanon, Saddam, the Euphrates:
"Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Iraq was left for later!

II
It was the decade of many a lost opportunity
After President Carter, his peacemaking via Camp David ...
We took the fight to the USSR, wars by proxy
Recall his apartheid pals, nukes, Nicaragua ... were you outraged?

III
But our oldest Prez kept us entertained, late-night fodder
Until he got Alzheimer's and it was no longer funny
But look-alike masks, well-oiled hair remain familiar
And senators Dole and Cheney gave and took Iraq's money

IV
More senators were persuaded to join in against Apartheid
They got two-thirds of the Congress to over-ride Reagan's veto
Of the bill that placed sanctions on Africa's pariah state ...
And Jesse Jackson ran for president twice, Obama's hero?

V
The 'eighties came with recession, attempted assassination, uber-greed:
Yet ... as we recall, it was not for naught or zero ...
The Unions lost out, Wall Street&Friends rejected FDR's creed
Yet we outspent the Communists, won with excess, found many a hero:
Right out of Congress: remember Congressman O'Neill ... Patrick Moynihan?
The roots of this Wall Street collapse - many a remedy - look back again!