One of Reagan’s finest speeches
Forty-five years ago yesterday, Ronald Reagan gave a televised speech that laid out much of what today’s conservatives believe, and not a few things we have forgotten and need to remember. Watch or read the whole speech here.
A couple of things in it particularly caught my eye:
1. Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.
In four and a half years in Europe, I realized that there were plenty of places there for liberals to flee and find the kind of government they want, if they were ever to make good on threats to “leave the U.S. if _______ is elected.” But there isn’t anywhere else for similarly discouraged conservatives to go. Indeed, this is still the place to which discouraged conservatives in Europe and elsewhere in the world look. This is truly the last stand on earth. And that matters because of the next quote:
2. But beyond that, “the full power of centralized government”—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don’t control things. A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.
This is as good a summary of what conservatives oppose about today’s power grabs in Washington or other world capitals — from people whom Reagan dubbed “a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol” — as any that exists.
If you have time, watch or read the entire speech.
Thanks to Erick Erickson of RedState and Peach Pundit for reminding us of this anniversary (even if I’m a day late in noticing his reminder).
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114 comments Add your comment
Ghetto Grandpa
October 28th, 2009
4:07 pm
My ouija board says that Reagan ran up huge deficits, catered to military contractors and the extremely rich. Ignored the AIDs epidemic, did nothing to help those in poverty better their situations (he cut student aid drastically for example), spent billions on a Star Wars missile defense that still cannot hit a target (unless that target conveniently includes a tracking beam that we installed) and basically ignored the plight of ordinary Americans.
In other words, typical conservative hypocrite.
Oh, to Mr. Axelfraud, if George Wallace were alive today, he’d be a Republican. A party that owes its growth and national standing to racial polarization. (Check LBJ’s quote when he signed the Civil Rights Act in ‘64 about the dems losing Southern Whites for a generation over that legislation.)
jconservative
October 28th, 2009
4:08 pm
“The contrast between his beliefs and those of the current Whitehouse occupant is striking.”
This would be better stated as follows: The contrast between his beliefs and what he actually did as President is striking.
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:09 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
3:56 pm
Obama has added about #300 billion for FY2009. The FY2010 appropriation bills are still winding their way through Congress. $8 trillion of that projection is a holdover from the previous administration. If it ends up being half of that I’ll be surprised, and deeply disappointed. But get ready to pay more in taxes.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:10 pm
Ghetto Grandpa, if MLK was alive he would be a republican.
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:11 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:06 pm
According to Cheney he implemented his plan.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:12 pm
Ghetto Grandpa, you failed US history right? More Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act than did Democrats. Fact Ghetto!
Also, George Wallace was a Democrat. HA HA HA!
Oh, and your democrat party has an active member of the KKK.
MR ROBERT BYRD!!!!!!!!!
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:12 pm
Ghetto Grandpa, don’t you have taxpayer money to steal?
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:14 pm
TnGelding, HA! You just admitted that King Hussein will raise taxes. What is it about libs and loving to pay taxes for stupid government projects?
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:15 pm
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:11 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:06 pm
According to Cheney he implemented his plan.
Ahhhhhh, a Cheney joke! Hey, if you try hard enough maybe you can get a Palin or Limbaugh joke in there somewhere!
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:15 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:14 pm
Better to tax and spend than borrow and spend.
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:16 pm
Tummy ache. Got to go. RIP Gypper.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
October 28th, 2009
4:18 pm
Plain Jane, save the lecture for someone who gives a damn for what you think. I don’t! Reagan was a moron, he was a traitor and he was the worst president in history until we suffered the insult of George W. Hitler. I don’t mind you calling me a liberal at all. I hope you don’t mind if I call you a fascist.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:18 pm
Can any of you Obama cult followers please tell us clueless conservatives just WHAT it is that Obama has accomplished since becoming president?
Here let me help you all:
1: 10% unemployment
2: 2 wars in which he has no clue as to how to run
3: Europe still hates us.
4: Muslim countries still hates us
5: Allowed Russia to bend him over a table
6: Left our allies high and dry in Poland
7: He still thinks he’s campaigning against Bush
8: He’s helped destroy his own party
9: He helped destroy a once great auto industry
10: Waged war on a news channel………and lost.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:19 pm
Algonquin J. Calhoun, ah, did you stay home today from your Hitler Youth meeting? Poor whittle nazi!!!
Ghetto Grandpa
October 28th, 2009
4:20 pm
Glad to see that Mr. Axelfraud agrees that the GOP’s growth in the south among southern whites is a result of a democratic Congress and President passing Civil Rights legislation.
And Mr. Axelfraud you are wrong about MLK. He would not join a party that is so steadfast in its opposition to health care for those than cannot afford it. He believed that we all need to help those less fortunate, not just those that can afford it, which is the GOP way.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:20 pm
TnGelding
October 28th, 2009
4:15 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:14 pm
Better to tax and spend than borrow and spend.
You could not be more right!!!!!! I hope every democrat repeats your honesty! If so, we will never see another democrat elected ever again!!!!!!
saywhat?
October 28th, 2009
4:21 pm
minor correction: For almost 75 years, the start and end dates of recessions have been set by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private non-partisan research group based in Cambridge, Mass. They say the Bush recession started in March of 2001.
Also, the only reason Bush had 9/11 to deal with is because he didn’t prevent it. Neither he nor anybody in his administration took the available warnings seriously enough. Perhaps you have noticed we haven’t been successfully attacked during the current administration ( and 45 days further into the term, too).That is how its supposed to be done.
As for Reagans conservative ideals, he also predicted that Medicare would cause massive oppression and loss of freedom in America. Go ask today’s seniors how oppressed and un-free they feel. I shudder to think what the end of life would look like these days for most American seniors had Medicare not been passed. As for Reagan himself, I always think of him when republicans trot out the tired old “empty suit”, or “sure he gives a good speech, but…” memes against Obama.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:24 pm
Ghetto Grandpa, can you not read? Seriously, lay off the crack rock old man. You are either an idiot or you have chosen to ignore the last 20 years of the south. Georgia was a democratic state from the 80s up to the late 90s! Look at the list of governors.
Oh yes, MLK would be a democrat! That’s right, MLK loves people like Jesse and Al who race bait and call Jews Himmie Town and Diamond Merchants!!!! Yes, that MLK was such a white hating black man. He wanted government to control the black man.
Wrong Ghetto!!!!! MLK wanted blacks to be treated equally and have their own lives outside of government. Your democrat party has kept black people down for over 40 years. You can’t blame dead beat baby daddys and baby mommas on white people or the GOP! Your own race needs to get their act together and quit blaming their problems on everyone else.
Jesse Jackson has done more harm to the black community than the entire history of the GOP combined.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:25 pm
saywhat?, soooooooooooo after 5 attacks on America during the Clinton years?????????????
Oh yeah, if its a democrat they can’t be wrong!
Democrats = Perfection Republican = Evil
dbm
October 28th, 2009
4:40 pm
JF McNamara
October 28th, 2009
1:26 pm
It’s not so much stupidity as being led astray by mistaken fundamental ideas. This is why religion leads to socialism and why we need the ideas of Ayn Rand.
lmno
October 28th, 2009
4:41 pm
“lmno, do you have a magic 8 ball? Must be nice being able to see into the future.”
You JUST made a prediciton about unemployment yourself.
Mine is at least based on historical evidence that the dow jones is a leading indicator and employment is a lagging indicator. Generally, employment begins to improve 6 to 9 months after the Dow. The Dow bottomed early March. Add 9 months to that and you have Christmas. Thats what I based my prediction on. I am sure your 25% is based on just as sound logic.
Also, there is no victory in Iraq. There is no possible outcome that will have made it worth it.
Afghanistan was a winnable war until we invaded Iraq. Any success that comes in Afghanistan after 8 years is not worth the trouble it caused.
Marcos
October 28th, 2009
4:43 pm
Please! There are plenty of fascist states operating around the planet that conservatives — who think that the country should be run JUST THE WAY THEY WANT IT — would feel at home.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:44 pm
dbm, religion leads to socialism? Never heard that one before.
Fang1944
October 28th, 2009
4:45 pm
“[Evolution] has in recent years been challenged in the world of science and is not yet believed in the scientific community to be as infallible as it once was believed. But if it was going to be taught in the schools, then I think that also the biblical theory of creation, which is not a theory but the biblical story of creation, should also be taught.”
How did this country elect somebody this dumb and misinformed?
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:47 pm
lmno, are you really that pathetic? You would have made the French very proud. Hell, I bet the democrats just love you! You can’t stand the site of victory unless it involves our country being defeated. Nice.
And, no Elmo, I don’t pretend to see the future. But from what I can from history, America has never done well when government controls everything.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:48 pm
Fang1944, I wonder. If you truly believe in evolution then anyone could just come up and kill you. You know, since you don’t believe in one true God or morality. Just saying.
jconservative
October 28th, 2009
4:48 pm
Re national debt. Some are coming up with bogus figures on the national debt. From the Bureau of the Public Debt:
Day 1 of Reagan’s 1st FY budget the debt was $1.142 Trillion
Day 365 of Reagan’s last FY budget the debt was $2.857 Trillion
Day 1 of Bush 43’s 1st FY budget the debt was $6.215 Trillion
Day 365 of Bush 43’s last FY budget the debt was $11.921 Trillion
Obama is in the 1st month of his first FY – FY 2010. And if he does not do something to slow the trend after FY 2013 the debt will be approaching $18 trillion per his figures.
Lesson: if you cut income and do not reduce expenses, deficits are created and the deficits continue to get bigger until the problem is resolved. Business people have known this since, at least, the days of Hammurabi, 1780 BC.
The national debt – $290.5 billion in 1960 — $11.9 trillion is 2009.
Now does anyone really think the USA has had a conservative president since Eisenhower?
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:49 pm
Fang1944, Marx was an atheist and so was Mao. Yet they killed millions of their own people.
How could a country be so dumb as to have leaders like that?
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:51 pm
Fang1944, I’d rather have someone who puts the American people first before they put their own inflated ego and cult like status ahead of them.
Cutty
October 28th, 2009
4:52 pm
Wingfield, I speaking in a figurative sense. Being that if there were any robust ‘regulations’ the debacle of 2008 would never have occurred. Bankers making bets with pension money, then insuring those bets so they’d get paid regardless.
But hey, at least ‘conservatives’ are for small government. Good that you picked the comedic part of my argument to refute and left the facts on the table.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:54 pm
dbm, if religion leads to socialism then explain China, Russia, North Korea and Cuba. I don’t remember Christianity leading those countries to communism which is the next step after socialism.
America was founded on Biblical believers who escaped England and tyranny. America was and still is, until President Dope and Chains destroys it, a free country.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:55 pm
Cutty, yeah, just like a liberal to leave out facts. You must not remember the housing meltdown that led to this. Hmmm, talk about selective amnesia.
Algonquin J. Calhoun
October 28th, 2009
4:57 pm
Axelchump, you are the fascist! It’s hilarious to hear you bulbous bumpkins blame Obama for the idiocy, regression and crimes that Bush is responsible for. You are probably a third grade dropout that gets his opinions from Limburger and crying Beck. You’re an idiot without the intellect to understand you are just another Nazi stooge. Don’t presume yourself to be capable of giving advice to anyone on any topic. You are a racist, war monger who has never been more than an armchair patriot. Shut the hell up!
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:00 pm
Hey libby liberals out there, ya know how all you morons are always making fun of FOX and saying that they employ Bush cabinet members? Well, explain to me why its ok for CNN to employ a former Clinton member AND Obama campaign worker.
It’s hilarious that the GORE VP candidate is now the most hated man in the democrat party. I mean, former democrat. LOLOLOL
This is too good!!!!!!
Traitor Joe
The ex-Democrat now says he’ll join the GOP in a health-care filibuster. Paul Begala on Lieberman’s latest and most shameless betrayal.
It’s journalistic shorthand to note a politician’s party identification and state after his or her name. For example: Jane Doe (D-NY). And so Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is identified as (I-CT). But the “I” does not stand for “Independent.” It stands for “Insurance Industry.”
Lieberman says he will join a Republican filibuster against President Obama’s health-insurance reforms. You could see this coming from a mile away—actually from 15 years away.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-27/traitor-joe/?cid=bs:archive7
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:03 pm
Ms. Algonquin J. Calhoun writes: Axelchump, you are the fascist! It’s hilarious to hear you bulbous bumpkins blame Obama for the idiocy, regression and crimes that Bush is responsible for. You are probably a third grade dropout that gets his opinions from Limburger and crying Beck. You’re an idiot without the intellect to understand you are just another Nazi stooge. Don’t presume yourself to be capable of giving advice to anyone on any topic. You are a racist, war monger who has never been more than an armchair patriot. Shut the hell up!
HAAAAAAAAAA! She calls me a nazi AND a fascist YET is telling me to shut the hell up!!!!! Yeah little girl, you libs are all about free speech, huh?
OH, AND…..DUN DUN DUN………SHE CALLS ME A RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF OF ME BEING A RACIST, THIS LITTLE TURD CALLS ME A RACIST!!!!!!
Well Calhoun Buffoon, here is what I think of you.
Um….mmmm…..let me clear my throat! You’re a pansy little trailer trash piece of scum, who lives off her mom’s social security checks!!!!!!!
Now, why don’t you cry to Jay Bookman and tell him to make me shut up.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:05 pm
Algonquin J. Calhoun, you also state that I am “without the intellect to understand that I am another Nazi stooge.”
Hmmmmmm, well, I do have two degrees and I did go to Duke University. You had better have gone to an Ivy League school like Harvard…….or else………….that…….would…..make…….you……..a moron.
HAAAAAAA! If you want to compare degrees and universities, lets do it!!!! Bring it on comrade!!!!!
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:07 pm
Algonquin J. Calhoun, just like your other troglodyte college drop out friends, you may want to actually think before you throw out the word nazi etc.. to other bloggers. Moron.
dbm
October 28th, 2009
5:13 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:48 pm
Let us leave aside the people who believe in both evolution and God.
It is possible to have morality, including not killing people, without religion or God. If you don’t believe me, read Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness.
dbm
October 28th, 2009
5:16 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:54 pm
China, Russia, North Korea and Cuba were religious before they were Communist, and religion paved the way for Communism.
Some of the colonists in what later became the United States came here for religious FREEDOM. Some came for other reasons. When we became a country, our founding documents emphasized freedom a lot more than religion.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:21 pm
dbm, I was just making a point about evolution. I have read every single Ayn Rand book.
Now, as far as the founding fathers go, if you read documents from them you will find religious pieces in a lot of the writings. Letters and other documents.
Now, I don’t really understand your remark on China and the other communist countries. The point of communism was to ELIMINATE religion altogether. So……….
Algonquin J. Calhoun
October 28th, 2009
5:57 pm
Marx argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will inevitably produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. Those internal tensions, stemming from unrepentant greed are at work right now and capitalism is on its way to the dumpster of history.
As for you Axelchump, you are intellectually inferior and your claiming degreed status doesn’t make it so. If I were you, I wouldn’t be telling anyone you went to Duke. Your grasp of history seems a bit too lacking, even for one who dropped out of high school.
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
4:49 pm
Fang1944, Marx was an atheist and so was Mao. Yet they killed millions of their own people.
Whom did Marx kill? Are you speaking of Karl or Groucho? How many of our people have been killed by our government? A war death equates to a purge.
Now listen racist douchebag, anytime a white person presumes to tell black people that they are responsible for the racism that is wielded against them I know I’ve just heard some racist garbage. Save your tough guy stuff for your boyfriend because I’ll stick a jackboot up your rear end if you mess with me!
samuel
October 28th, 2009
6:12 pm
David Axelfraud (Ad naseum), If you would do your research, instead of ranting and raving on this blog, you would find that the highest annual unemployment rates in the last 60 years, 9.7%(1982) and 9.6%(1983) were under Ronald Reagan. Also, Jimmy Carter’s last budget(FY 1981) contained a 78 billion dollar budget deficit. Reagan’s last budget(FY 1989) contained a 152 billion dollar budget deficit. No Republican president since Eisenhower has presented a budget with a surplus. The previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton, ended his presidency with 4 budget surpluses in a row. David Axelfraud, you’ve been posting repeatedly for almost 6 hours now. I would say that you’re a psychopath on a keyboard, if you were not such a sad man. The next time you post on this blog, as I’m sure you will (over and over and over again) please state some facts, instead of regurgitating every bit of rhetoric and generalization you’ve ever heard. You are yet another bitter, white Southern man who still cannot get over the fact that we have a black President.
Fang1944
October 28th, 2009
6:14 pm
Reagan illegally sold arms to Iran so that he could arm and support the Contras in Nicaragua. Some of the Contras’ cute little activities:
Rosa had her breasts cut off. Then they cut into her chest and took out her heart. The men had their arms broken, their testicles cut off. They were killed by slitting their throats and pulling the tongue out through the slit.[15]
Americas Watch – which was subsequently folded into Human Rights Watch – stated that “the Contras systematically engage in violent abuses… so prevalent that these may be said to be their principal means of waging war.”[16] It accused the Contras of:
targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination.
kidnapping civilians.
torturing civilians.
executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat.
raping women.
indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses.
seizing civilian property.
burning civilian houses in captured towns
And they smuggled drugs into this country.
Let us all pray we never have another president like Reagan.
Jefferson
October 28th, 2009
6:38 pm
He raised my taxes, was the 1st of the big spenders, hung North out to dry (his rank was way too low to be calling the shots), started this tzar crap, called out the guard at Berkey, changed parties (I didn’t like him when he was a “D”) was the original Neo-con and was a hell of an actor(how could you tell when he wasn’t).
He was the Pres. of the US and I respect that, because that the way the system works.
Ace
October 28th, 2009
6:51 pm
It was his turn.
LPC
October 28th, 2009
6:52 pm
Is it just me, or does the loudest and most frequent “conservative” voice on this blog sound exactly like the noise generated by the right wing during the last presidential election, both in tone and content? Hmmmm. I seem to recall a landslide victory for the Democrat that year. Hopefully, this gal and her like-minded buddies will never shut up, ensuring Democratic victory after Democratic victory in the future. Keep up the good work!
number1ninja
October 28th, 2009
7:51 pm
Reagan, Kyle? He and Nixon are the only reasons George W. isn’t the worst president in the last hundred years.
number1ninja
October 28th, 2009
7:53 pm
Ayn Rand is watered down Nietzsche for idiots. And it was his narcissistic “philosophy” that justified the Holocaust. Congratulations, nazis.
Michael H. Smith
October 28th, 2009
8:33 pm
JF McNamara
October 28th, 2009
2:55 pm
You must definitely be a hard left liberal as I take it?
I certainly don’t want government providing anything for me that I can provide for myself. Many of the things government now provides are not needed. In that respect Reagan was completely right: Government is the problem, not the answer.
Furthermore, don’t confuse economic “Conservatism” with “Classical Liberalism” laissez faire in regards to regulating market capitalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism
I personally don’t believe anything is free in this life, which applies to market capitalism as well. The concept of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” working to the benefit of all, only happens so long as the greed or aspirations that provides the benefits does not in fact bind the “invisible hand” in manners that would deprive others the efficacy of its’ providence. Therefore, all regulation is not abominable rather it is admirable in defense of sustaining market integrity from the evils of such things as monopoly and the heretofore known “Too Big To Fail” economic conundrum. However, regulation that discourages or prevents creativity in the marketplace, can if not checked, be no less devastating than the forces of an unruly commerce in manipulating or binding the “invisible hand” from delivering economic providence that promotes the general welfare of all.
Which is totally different from government generally providing welfare.
“Fettered Capitalism” is a balancing act between the good and evil; and on the balance of all comparative economic systems, whether as speaking to laissez faire (Unfettered Capitalism) or Socialism, “fettered capitalism” is the kinder gentler version among the three given economic systems that rewards the participating individuals the most wealth, freedom and liberty in the pursuits of individual happiness.
Unfortunately, as the rest of the world moves towards our once “fettered capitalism”, we have moved away from it ,as the warring factions of Neo-Con/Neo Lib Laissez-Faire and the now pressing liberal Socialism attempt to claim the soul of America.
If religious intolerance exist a suggestion may boldly assert the intolerance is more notably present from those apposed to religion, in particularly Christianity, as evidenced on these AJC blogs. Whereas some who left Europe to immigrate (or invade) America did so for religious purposes, many others fled to be free of religion altogether in oppossition namely a State imposed Church, as particular to England at that time.
Though, if religious overtones bother you extremely you might want to consider buying a private island somewhere or start an atheist commune in some godless desolate area of this country, given the majority of this nation’s people which identify themselves with Christianity, their “religious overtones” and religious influences upon our governance will likely be around for a good number centuries to come, as it was from the very beginnings of this country which included Deist.
dbm
October 28th, 2009
9:47 pm
David Axelfraud
October 28th, 2009
5:21 pm
Religion paved the way for Communism by teaching people that they must subordinate their interests to something else, by elevating helping others into an obligation or a primary virtue, and by undermining reason. Of course Communism turned on religion, just as the Frankenstein monster turned on Dr. Frankenstein.