America’s beloved 40th president, Ronald Reagan, spoke at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 1986. His speech reminds us to be thankful for the valor of others and that Memorial Day is a time to remember the “splendor of America” and those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
(For more from the author of “‘They Stood for Something and We Owe Them Something’: Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day Speech” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Photograph_of_President_Reagan_at_a_Reagan-Bush_Rally_in_New_York_-_NARA_-_198556.jpg23823000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-29 22:20:502016-05-30 01:49:11‘They Stood for Something and We Owe Them Something’: Reagan’s 1986 Memorial Day Speech
“We have so many people who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.”
Ronald Reagan powerfully stated this truism in 1964 while campaigning for Barry Goldwater. Reagan had Bernie Sanders pegged while he was a school boy reading Eugene Debs. Bernie Sanders would tell you that the fat man ate the thin man out of house and home, and that’s why he’s fat. In reality, the fat man freely bought food and ate it, and the thin man apparently did the same, just less of it. The Sanders solution is to assure none of us ever get fat again.
Reagan continued in his famous “A Time for Choosing” speech, “If government planning and welfare had the answer, shouldn’t we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn’t they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? But the reverse is true. Each year, the need grows great, the program grows greater.”
Government has worked so well, that the left campaigns every cycle like they’ve never failed the people. Bernie Sanders, like Barack Obama before him, pretend like they are at the dawn of the progressive era, when in fact, they’ve had all day.
Therein lies the rub: Bernie Sanders is nothing new, just the next installment in the series of steps to the workers’ paradise; progressivism was always socialism on layaway, and Bernie’s just here to make the final payment. (Read more from “What Would Ronald Reagan Say About Bernie Sanders’ Socialism” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/reagan-thatcher.jpg9001600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-02-21 23:09:202016-04-11 10:52:26What Would Ronald Reagan Say About Bernie Sanders’ Socialism
In the inaugural broadcast of NBC’s “Christmas in Washington,” part of the program included then-President Ronald Reagan reading A Solitary Life, a parable of the life of Jesus Christ, to children gathered at the White House.
After nearly 2,000 years, Jesus today is “the centerpiece of much of the human race,” says President Reagan. All the armies, govrnments, and powers of this world have not affected the world in any way as powerfully as this “one solitary life,” he explains.
(Read more from “Christmas 1982: Ronald Reagan Reads Life of Christ to Children at White House” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-24 21:39:302016-04-11 10:54:39Christmas 1982: Ronald Reagan Reads Life of Christ to Children at White House [+video]
Donald Trump is just one symptom of today’s cultural pathology of self-validating vehemence with blustery certitudes substituting for evidence. Another is the fact that the book atop the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list is a tissue of unsubstantiated assertions. Because of its vast readership, “Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault That Changed a Presidency” by Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and his collaborator, Martin Dugard, will distort public understanding of Ronald Reagan’s presidency more than hostile but conscientious scholars could.
Styling himself an “investigative historian,” O’Reilly purports to have discovered amazing facts that have escaped the notice of real historians. The book’s intimated hypothesis is that the trauma of the March 1981 assassination attempt somehow triggered in Reagan a mental decline, perhaps accelerating the Alzheimer’s disease that would not be diagnosed until 13 years later. The book says Reagan was often addled to the point of incompetence, causing senior advisers to contemplate using the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove him from office. Well.
Reagan was shot on the 70th day of his presidency. In the next 2,853 days he produced an economic boom and the Cold War’s endgame. Among O’Reilly’s “explanations” for Reagan’s supposed combination of creativity and befuddlement are: He was brave; “on his bad days, he couldn’t work” but on good days “he was brilliant”; Nancy Reagan was in charge; it was “almost miraculous.”
When Reagan’s unsatisfactory Chief of Staff Don Regan was replaced by Howard Baker, a Baker aide wrote a memo that included slanderous assessments of the president from some disgruntled Regan staffers. This memo, later regretted by its author, became, O’Reilly says, the “centerpiece” of his book. On this flimsy reed he leans the fiction (refuted by minute-by-minute records in the Reagan Library) that, in O’Reilly’s words, “a lot of days” Reagan never left the White House’s second floor where he watched “soap operas all day long.” (Read more from “Bill O’Reilly Slanders Ronald Reagan” HERE)
“Killing Reagan,” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, is supposed to be a book of new scholarship on the Reagan presidency. Instead, it restates old claims and rumors, virtually all of which have been discredited by the historical record.
In this best-selling book, there are no endnotes, no bibliography, no long list of interviewees and only a smattering of footnotes. There is a section titled “Sources,” but it is only two-and-a-half pages long. It includes about two dozen sources, but that is not adequate for a subject, Ronald Reagan, who has been the focus of thousands of books and articles and who was one of the most consequential political figures of the 20th century. The works of three of us are not noted at all, and between the four of us, we have written 19 books on Reagan, not to mention countless articles. The sources section does, however, reference long-questionable works, including the sensational 1991 attack by Kitty Kelley — which is clearly incorporated throughout the book — and the 1999 biography by Edmund Morris, roundly criticized for its intermingling of fact and fiction.
To the authors’ credit, the sources section notes the use of excellent archives such as the Reagan Library, the Reagan Ranch Center and the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. And yet, the acknowledgment of those archives is somewhat puzzling, given that the archives make clear that Reagan was a far more hands-on, engaged and all-around deeply involved president than many of the partisan accounts alleged in their unfair caricatures of him in the 1980s. Frankly, we had thought that demeaning, flawed caricature — Reagan as the doodling old fool who spent too much time sleeping at Cabinet meetings and watching old movies — had been permanently put to rest by recent scholarship. Unfortunately, “Killing Reagan” shows that the old misinformation (if not disinformation) still remains with us, like a demon that cannot be exorcised. It regurgitates and resurrects much material that we had thought (and hoped) was dead and done.
There are small and large mistakes throughout “Killing Reagan.” Repeatedly, Ronald Prescott Reagan is referred to as “Ron Jr,” a minor matter but a revealing one. The book states that Reagan’s radio broadcasts of the late 1970s were once a week, but they were delivered five times a week. There are dozens of Kelley-type references to horoscope readers, astrologers, an imperious Nancy running the country and generally a persistent, clueless and oblivious Ronald Reagan — addle-brained, out of touch, dangerously uninformed. The most common word used to describe Reagan is probably “confused.” (Read more from “What Bill O’Reilly’s New Book on Ronald Reagan Gets Wrong About Ronald Reagan” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-16 23:44:582016-04-11 10:57:15What Bill O’Reilly’s New Book on Ronald Reagan Gets Wrong About Ronald Reagan
Many people are comparing Donald Trump to late president Ronald Reagan, but according to his son Michael Reagan, these comparisons are unfounded.
The son of the late president talked about his distaste for the Trump campaign and the American people’s enthralled reaction to the billionaire in a series of regular interviews with Newsmax over the summer. Reagan said his father really believed in what he called the “11th Commandment,” which is “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
Reagan said Trump does nothing but attacks and his father would be shocked.
“My father would be appalled,” Reagan said. “On behalf of my father and the Reagan family to see someone like this who just personally attacks people time and time and time again is absolutely appalling to me and I hope all the voters start to see through Donald Trump and the kind of candidate that he his and the kind of president he may end up being.”
He said the constant attacks is doing nothing for the political system because it isn’t allowing people to be informed on issues that matter. Reagan said that includes himself.
“I don’t like and I don’t appreciate the things he says about Jeb Bush, or what he says about Gov. Perry or anybody else. I want to hear what he’s going to do and when he tells us what he’s going to do, I can be for or against it,” Reagan said. (Read more from “Watch: Reagan’s Son Makes Stunning Announcement About His Father and Trump- Not What Many Wanted to Hear” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-14 00:23:442015-09-14 00:23:44Watch: Reagan’s Son Makes Stunning Announcement About His Father and Trump- Not What Many Wanted to Hear
By Madeleine Morgenstern. The White House on Friday castigated the gay activists who posed for pictures while giving the middle finger to a portrait of former President Ronald Reagan during a recent visit.
“While the White House does not control the conduct of guests at receptions, we certainly expect that all attendees conduct themselves in a respectful manner. Most all do,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye told Fox News. “These individuals clearly did not. Behavior like this doesn’t belong anywhere, least of all in the White House.”
Matthew “Matty” Hart and Zoe Strauss were among a group of activists invited to an LGBT reception at the White House earlier this month. Photos first published in Philadelphia Magazine showed them posing in front of the Reagan portrait with their middle fingers raised. Hart, the national director of public engagement at Solutions for Progress, posted his photo on Facebook with the caption, “F–k Reagan.” Strauss, who also took a photo beneath the portrait kissing another woman, posted hers on Twitter with the caption “F–K YOU, REAGAN.” (Read more from “White House Rebukes Activists Who Flipped off Reagan Portrait: ‘Behavior Like This Doesn’t Belong Anywhere'” HERE)
Obama tells WH staff that he’s like RONALD REAGAN!
By Michael Schaus. The Gipper is turning over in his grave.
Speaking on a conference call to White House staffers and administration officials, President Obama claims he has led a new Reagan Revolution, paving the way for Hillary Clinton to be the next “Bush senior.”
Using his policy to “normalize” relations with a brutal communist regime in Cuba as a backdrop, Obama compared himself to President Reagan – the man who crushed the Soviet Union and brought the Cold War to an end . . .
“Much in the same way that the Reagan Revolution required Bush Senior” to complete his transformation of American politics, Obama told alumni of his White House staff, “we’ve got to make sure that we’re laying the foundation” for the next Democrat elected. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 04:00:232016-04-11 10:59:20Activists in White House Flip-Off Reagan Portrait While Obama Claims He’s Like Reagan
Former president Ronald Reagan’s outspoken son, Ron Reagan, Jr, is not afraid to tell the world about his atheism, and is also not afraid of burning in hell, according to a TV commercial airing on CNN and Comedy Central.
“Hi, I’m Ron Reagan, an unabashed atheist,” the commercial begins. “And I’m alarmed at the intrusions of religion into our secular government.”
The commercial for the Freedom From Religion Foundation first aired last May, but Comedy Central’s The Daily Show has again picked up the spot to air on afternoon reruns of the program starting in April. The ad has already been airing on morning reruns of The Daily Show as well as on CNN for months.
Originally, the FFRF had trouble getting the commercial to be broadcast on network television as ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox all declined to run the ad. The FFRF’s co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, told Newsmax that it’s hard to get non-Christian commercials to air. “We believe in free speech, but in this climate even paid speech by unbelievers is often censored,” she said.
“That’s why I’m asking you to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest and most effective association of atheists and agnostics, working to keep state and church separate, just like our Founding Fathers intended,” Reagan claims in the commercial. (Read more from “Watch: Ronald Reagan’s Son Proclaims Lifelong Atheism in TV Ad” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-28 03:30:462015-03-28 03:30:46Watch: Ronald Reagan’s Son Proclaims Lifelong Atheism in TV Ad, “Not Afraid of Burning in Hell”
Little-known fact: The late comedian Jackie Gleason was good friends with President Richard Nixon. Even weirder? Both men were obsessed with UFOs.
This new book by Larry Holcombe — who’s been studying UFOs for 50 years — does make some wild and thinly substantiated claims. But it’s too fun to pass up.
To wit: Gleason’s ex-wife told Esquire magazine that one night, after a day spent golfing, Nixon “showed up at Gleason’s home and whisked him away to Homestead Air Force Base, where they entered a hanger in a high-security area.” There, the two men supposedly gazed upon the wreckage of a UFO and its dead alien cargo. Holcombe, a clear believer, breaks down every rumor about UFO visitation and the government’s “involvement” in it.
There are many stories of sightings by high-level people, and it’s no secret that the government has looked into many of these reports over the years.
In October 1969, outside of a Lions Club meeting in Leary, Ga., Holcombe writes that Jimmy Carter and some fellow club members “noticed a strange light in the western sky.” (Read more from “New York Post: Aliens Killed Kennedy! And Other Wild Tales of UFOs vs. The USA” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-03-23 03:00:142015-03-23 03:00:14New York Post: Aliens Killed Kennedy and Other Wild Tales of UFOs and Presidents
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was born 104 years ago today. The same battles he fought and often won against Big Government are at issue once again. The Gipper always knew the best way to win these struggles in the court of public opinion was by telling the best story.
A look back at some of his most prominent addresses reveals that they were often structured as one big story. It should come as no surprise that our nation’s first and only Hollywood actor turned governor, turned President would know how to tell a compelling story.
Certainly the most memorable public speakers of all time knew telling a good story is the best way to hold your audience’s attention and convince them what you are saying is true. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln going all the way back to the most impactful communicator of them all, Jesus of Nazareth, used stories to connect powerfully and emotionally with their audiences.
The story Ronald Reagan, “the Great Communicator,” most often told as a political figure, particularly in the years leading up to his election as President, went something like this. The United States, a great nation, faces an uncertain, perilous future due to threats both at home and abroad. At home our heroes–the American people—are up against a gargantuan, menacing foe–the federal government (and those who support its further growth)—hell bent on stealing the people’s liberty and the American dream. A restoration of the nation’s status as a “City on a Hill” is possible, if liberty-loving people courageously rise up, slay the Big Government beast, and return to the constitutional government that our Founders intended.
Reagan’s first major political speech, “A Time For Choosing,” in support of Barry Goldwater for President in 1964, employed this structure. It was “The Speech” that put him on the political map. Early in his remarks, Reagan said, “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 capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”
In “A Time for Choosing,” Reagan predicted if the United States followed the liberal ideology and policies being implemented by President Johnson and the Democrats (the Great Society foremost among them), it would lead to American decline. He was right. By the late 70s, the full weight of these programs and the liberals’ profligate taxing, spending and borrowing had come home to roost. Even Democrat President Jimmy Carter admitted a malaise had settled over the country as Americans’ faith in the future waned. The nation experienced stagflation: double-digit inflation coupled with slow economic growth, something economists did not think was possible.
Enter Ronald Reagan, stage right. He offered an alternative vision. In announcing his candidacy in late 1979, he followed his tried and true story structure: America is in peril; the federal government is largely to blame; a restoration is possible. He said, “They [those who support the Big Government status quo] tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where – because of our past excesses – it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself…The people have not created this disaster in our economy; the federal government has. It has overspent, overestimated, and over regulated.”
Later in the address, Reagan said, “[The American people] want someone who believes they can ‘begin the world over again.’ A leader who will unleash their great strength and remove the roadblocks government has put in their way. I want to do that more than anything I’ve ever wanted. And it’s something that I believe with God’s help I can do.”
Reagan followed this same story structure in his speech accepting the Republican nomination and in his First Inaugural Address, during which he memorably pronounced, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
What was the result of all of Reagan’s story telling? The American people listened and believed him. Reagan won his 1980 election against Carter 44 states to 6, and won his re-election 49 states to 1. They also believed what he said about how to get the country moving again. During the 1980s, the United States experienced a decade of unprecedented economic growth, a restoration of the American spirit, and a return to the position of the unrivaled leader of the free world.
In his Farewell Address, Reagan ended the story of his Presidency with a deep sense of satisfaction saying, “My friends: We did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.” Is it possible to win the public debate and end the era of big government once again? I know the Gipper would say (with a twinkle in his eye), “Sure it is. Just tell them the right story.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00rdesotohttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngrdesoto2015-02-06 02:27:342016-04-11 11:02:42How Reagan Won By Telling the Best Story (+video)
