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« on: February 03, 2011, 03:11:37 PM » |
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The Patriot Post - The Reagan Centennial
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Reagan Centennial
By Mark Alexander · Thursday, February 3, 2011
"No man can well doubt the propriety of placing a president of the United States under the most solemn obligations to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution." --Joseph Story
February 6, 2011, marks the Reagan Centennial, or as President Ronald Wilson Reagan would have phrased it, the 61st anniversary of his 39th birthday. The observance of this occasion provides a vital bond with our national heritage of Liberty, and those who have devoted their lives and fortunes to advance it.
There is much to recall about the Reagan Legacy. Our 40th president was the CEO of the modern Conservative Revolution1 and arguably the most influential political figure of the 20th century.
I first met President Reagan in 1983. He was three inches shorter than I am, but he seemed a couple of feet taller. He remains the warmest and most genuine public figure I have ever encountered; yet his resolve left no doubt that he was stronger than the most formidable enemy.
My undergraduate years coincided with the "great malaise" of Jimmy Carter's administration. Having met Mr. Carter and traveled with him in close quarters, I would describe him much as I would Barack Hussein Obama: He was underwhelming, inept, anemic, misguided and ill-equipped for prime time. In short, he stood in stark contrast to the man who would succeed him.
Over the last 30 years, I have read most of what Ronald Reagan wrote in letters, as well as what he said in public radio and television commentaries, national addresses and political speeches. In addition, I have delved into more obscure records, such as the archived proceedings of national security meetings; these really provided a glimpse of his brilliance. I have also read a fair amount of what has been written about President Reagan.
It is not possible to capture the spirit of this man in multiple volumes, much less a single essay, but I have selected a few of his words, which I think best exemplify his exceptional character, his loyalty to and love of our country, his humility, his affection for the American people, his fortitude, his authentic devotion to constitutional liberty and Rule of Law, his indisputable wisdom, his contagious optimism and his vision for the future.
(For a brief biographical sketch of Ronald Reagan, context necessary to understand his depth of character, link to this Reagan Portrait2.)
The bookends of Ronald Reagan's advocacy are his 1964 speech, "A Time For Choosing3," which defined his political philosophy and challenged the American people to restore Essential Liberty4, and his announcement5 30 years later that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
1964
In "The Speech," Reagan said, "The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. ... You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right, there is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. ... It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, 'We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government.' This idea -- that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power -- is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."
He concluded, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny."
1977
In 1977, Reagan outlined a plan for "The New Republican Party6," stating, "The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind. When we conservatives say that we know something about political affairs, and what we know can be stated as principles, we are saying that the principles we hold dear are those that have been found, through experience, to be ultimately beneficial for individuals, for families, for communities and for nations -- found through the often bitter testing of pain, or sacrifice and sorrow."
He continued: "We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people.
"Families must continue to be the foundation of our nation. Families -- not government programs -- are the best way to make sure our children are properly nurtured, our elderly are cared for, our cultural and spiritual heritages are perpetuated, our laws are observed and our values are preserved. ... We fear the government may be powerful enough to destroy our families; we know that it is not powerful enough to replace them.
"Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business ... frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite.
"Our party must be based on the kind of leadership that grows and takes its strength from the people. ... And our cause must be to rediscover, reassert and reapply America's spiritual heritage to our national affairs. Then with God's help we shall indeed be as a city upon a hill with the eyes of all people upon us."
1980
In his 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan famously asked the American people, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" He added, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his." (Substitute Obama for Carter and, in the inimitable words of Yogi Berra, "It's déjà vu all over again.")
Reagan defeated Carter in the general election, carrying 44 states. He took his oath of office with his hand on his mother's Bible. It was open to a passage from which he read: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) In the margin next to that verse, Nelle Reagan had written, "A most wonderful verse for the healing of the nations."
In his 1981 inaugural address, President Reagan reassured a needful nation: "The economic ills we suffer ... will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom. In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
During his first term, he restored the nation's confidence, corrected the economy's course by implementing supply-side principles, survived an assassination attempt, restored funding to increase our military capability and refused to bow to the "Evil Empire," the Soviet Union. He reinvigorated the debate about the constitutional role of government, taxes and government spending.
Reagan was re-elected in 1984, winning 49 of 50 states, losing only Minnesota, the home state of his opponent Walter Mondale, Carter's former vice president -- and by only 3,800 votes at that. Oh, and of course, he lost the District of Columbia.
His second term was plagued with distractions, but one crowning achievement eclipsed them all. Under Reagan, we won the Cold War.
President Reagan's Cold War victory is perhaps best captured by the words he spoke at the Berlin Wall on 12 June 1987. Reagan symbolically challenged the USSR's General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev: "If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" |
