Ronald Reagan explained his strategy was an arms buildup that would leave the Soviets far behind, with no choice but to negotiate arms reduction. Finally, displaying his characteristic optimism, he praised liberal democracy and promised that such a system eventually would triumph over Soviet communism. Reagan appreciated the revolutionary change in the direction of the Soviet policy with Mikhail Gorbachev, and shifted to diplomacy, with a view to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue substantial arms agreements. He and Gorbachev held four summit conferences between 1985 and 1988: the first in Geneva, Switzerland, the second in Reykjavík, Iceland, the third in Washington,
Ronald Reagan in music that reimagined hardcore without the anti-establishment ethos of punk rock. Some groups' stances on the president were a bit more ambiguous. When the drunk-rock group Murphy's Law praised Reagan and his films in their 1986 song "California Pipeline," fans could take it as either actual pro-Republican patriotism, or a tongue-in-cheek take on anti-Reagan irony. By the late 1980s, references to Reagan in hardcore music had become so commonplace that the joke was no longer on the president, but on a punk scene where bands were practically obliged to put a Reagan song on their setlist or album. As hip-hop came