I'm sorry for -- indirectly -- calling your dad an idiot... Reagan committed a lot of social and ethical atrocities, the biggest of them being the Irangate, but let's focus on economics, because that was my point:

• the average growth averaged 2.77% under Reagan, and 2.50% under Nixon, Ford and Carter. However, the unemployment rate averaged higher under Reagan (6.75% vs. 6.35%), while the average productivity growth was slower under Reagan (1.38% vs. 1.92%), and private investment as a percentage of GDP also averaged lower under Reagan (16.08% vs. 16.86%). Furthermore, real wages declined sharply during the Reagan Presidency. This is a copy pasta from Wikipedia, source here.

• to achieve this not so stellar result, Reagan relied on an untenable tax policy, the basis of which could be summarized by "let's lower taxes, it'll turn the economy around, there will be a huge deficit but fuck it, let's borrow until kingdom comes." This policy which, along with an extremely aggressive foreign policy, turned Reagan into a hero for most people, got him re-ellected triumphantly and has since been adopted and prolonged by every government in the West, effectively bankrupting America and the rest of what used to be called the Free World.

To conclude, Reagan achieved just about the same result as his predecessors, but since the he fueled the economy with borrowed growth and people loved it so much they refused any tax hike, he helped turn the world's richest country into a broke nation. Same happened in Europe.

This result was very easy to foresee: this policy was a disaster waiting to happen, that's why I think people who say Reagan saved America while he buried it under debt and gave it to the rich are idiots. Sorry if I put your dad in this group.