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50 Years Ago: The Speech That Launched the Reagan Revolution

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Photo Credit: Reagan FoundationFifty years ago today, Ronald Reagan gave a speech on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater that launched his own political career and “catapulted him into the political stratosphere,” recalls former aide Thomas Reed.

Reed reminisced about Reagan’s famous Oct. 27, 1964 speech entitled “A Time for Choosing” that laid out what would eventually become his governing philosophy of limited government and fierce opposition to totalitarianism.

Reagan himself later wrote that the speech “was one of the most important milestones of my life.”

“This is the issue of this election,” Reagan said five decades ago. “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.”

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Ronald Reagan's Devastating Critique of the Left's Addiction Entitlements (+video)

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Photo Credit: APNext Monday, October 27 marks the 50th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s iconic “Time For Choosing” speech. It was a speech that sparked the modern Conservative Movement, ignited a fire in the hearts of conservatives, and launched Ronald Reagan’s public policy career.

This week as part of a year-long “Time for Choosing: The Next Generation” initiative, Young America’s Foundation is releasing a series of videos in conjunction with the anniversary of this significant speech. The second video focuses on entitlements.

In his 1964 speech, Reagan warned, “37 cents of every dollar earned was the tax collector’s share, and the government spent 17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in.” Think of how outraged he would be today with our current economy. The Obama administration has racked up a national debt that now exceeds 17 trillion dollars, and more than 50 percent of Americans receive some type of government assistance.

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Barack Obama On A Shot Down Plane Vs. Ronald Reagan (+video)

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MattVIserTweet

People say the meanest things about Our Glorious Lead, Oops I mean President Barack Obama. They accuse him of golfing too much and caring too little. Some have even suggested that he has checked out 2 ½ years before he’s supposed to relinquish the Presidency. Today he had a chance to change all that. A Malaysian Airliner was shot down over Ukrainian airspace and it is more than just possible that Russia played a starring role in the carnage. 295 people are presumed dead. Twenty-three are Americans. This was as tough as President Obama was willing to get.

‘Before I begin, obviously the world is watching reports of a downed passenger jet near the Russia-Ukraine border. And it looks like it may be a terrible tragedy. Right now we’re working to determine whether there were American citizens on board. That is our first priority.’ ‘And I’ve directed my national security team to stay in close contact with the Ukrainian government. The United States will offer any assistance we can to help determine what happened and why. And as a country, our thoughts and prayers are with all the families and passengers, wherever they call home. (HT: Daily Mail)

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Reminders from Ronald Reagan (+video)

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Sarah Jean Seman.

Former president of the United States Ronald Reagan died ten years ago on June 5. While leading the American people from 1981 to 1989 the U.S. economy grew, Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev famously tore down the Berlin Wall, and Reagan earned the title “The Great Communicator…”

If the 40th president were alive today, he might offer the American people these reminders:

1). Government Overreach:

“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

2). Inequality:

“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.”

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Be inspired! WATCH: Reagan’s ‘Boys of Pointe Du Hoc’ D-Day Commemoration

By Jamie Weinstein.

Thirty years ago, on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings, Ronald Reagan delivered one of the most iconic speeches of his presidency.

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College Textbook Paints Reagan as Pessimist, Sexist…

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsThe authors of a textbook used at University of South Carolina earned an ‘F’ in Ronald Reagan 101, according to several conservative Gamecock students.

“Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare: Critical Thinking Perspectives” portrays the 40th president as a sexist who was insensitive to minorities and whose main accomplishments were cutting taxes, jacking up defense spending and “slashing” social programs. The book states that conservatives like Reagan “take a pessimistic view of human nature.”

“I was absolutely shocked and was tempted to throw the book away,” Anna Chapman, 19, a sophomore majoring in political science, told FoxNews.com. “I would even write comments in the actual textbook next to some of the offensive things that I read. I didn’t know that this is what I had signed up for.”

The sexist comments are particular difficult to square with The Gipper’s record. Although the book states that he “ascribed to woman ‘primarily domestic functions’ and failed to appoint many women to significant positions of power during his presidency,” history shows Reagan appointed the first woman, Sandra Day O’Connor, to the Supreme Court.

Reagan also appointed the first woman ambassador to the United Nations, Jeane Kirkpatrick. And among some 1,400 women Reagan appointed to policy-making positions during his two terms in office were Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, Secretary of Health and Human Services Margaret Heckler and Secretary of Labor Ann Dore McLaughlin. The textbook makes no mention of any of these appointments, Chapman noted in a post for education blog Campus Reform.

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Conservatives Should Adopt Reagan’s No Compromise Position in Dealing with Republican Establishment, Ruling Class

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Ronald-Reagan-APLooking ahead to 2014, Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large and Government Accountability Institute (GAI) President Peter Schweizer said that the best way for conservatives to defeat the permanent political class and the Republican establishment is to not compromise with or be co-opted by them.

On Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot channel 125 with Breitbart News Executive Chairman and host Stephen K. Bannon, Schweizer, regarded as the top expert on crony capitalism in the nation, said Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. are like “two vultures fighting over a carcass.” He said both parties are fighting over “who’s going to pick at the carcass more.”

He said the natural tendency of the Republican establishment is to “compromise and give away.” Schweizer mentioned that this was also the case during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure in office, when much of the Republican establishment that had loathed him, at least since 1976, wanted to “cut a deal with the Soviets.”

Reagan did not, and Americans eventually saw the collapse of the “Evil Empire,” as Schweizer noted….

Ultimately, Schweizer said, despite establishment groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads can spend hundreds of millions of dollars waging war against conservatives, “what elects people is votes not dollars.” He said that the Republican establishment can spend “as much money as they want, but those candidates will have to appeal to Americans for votes.”

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President Ronald Reagan’s First Christmas Message (+video)

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Screen shot 2013-12-24 at 11.37.27 AMAt Christmas time, every home takes on a special beauty, a special warmth, and that’s certainly true of the White House, where so many famous Americans have spent their Christmases over the years. This fine old home, the people’s house, has seen so much, been so much a part of all our lives and history. It’s been humbling and inspiring for Nancy and me to be spending our first Christmas in this place.

We’ve lived here as your tenants for almost a year now, and what a year it’s been. As a people we’ve been through quite a lot—moments of joy, of tragedy, and of real achievement—moments that I believe have brought us all closer together. G. K. Chesterton once said that the world would never starve for wonders, but only for the want of wonder.

At this special time of year, we all renew our sense of wonder in recalling the story of the first Christmas in Bethlehem, nearly 2,000 year ago.

Some celebrate Christmas as the birthday of a great and good philosopher and teacher. Others of us believe in the divinity of the child born in Bethlehem, that he was and is the promised Prince of Peace. Yes, we’ve questioned why he who could perform miracles chose to come among us as a helpless babe, but maybe that was his first miracle, his first great lesson that we should learn to care for one another.

Tonight, in millions of American homes, the glow of the Christmas tree is a reflection of the love Jesus taught us. Like the shepherds and wise men of that first Christmas, we Americans have always tried to follow a higher light, a star, if you will. At lonely campfire vigils along the frontier, in the darkest days of the Great Depression, through war and peace, the twin beacons of faith and freedom have brightened the American sky. At times our footsteps may have faltered, but trusting in God’s help, we’ve never lost our way.

Just across the way from the White House stand the two great emblems of the holiday season: a Menorah, symbolizing the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, and the National Christmas Tree, a beautiful towering blue spruce from Pennsylvania. Like the National Christmas Tree, our country is a living, growing thing planted in rich American soil. Only our devoted care can bring it to full flower. So, let this holiday season be for us a time of rededication.

Even as we rejoice, however, let us remember that for some Americans, this will not be as happy a Christmas as it should be. I know a little of what they feel. I remember one Christmas Eve during the Great Depression, my father opening what he thought was a Christmas greeting. It was a notice that he no longer had a job.

Over the past year, we’ve begun the long, hard work of economic recovery. Our goal is an America in which every citizen who needs and wants a job can get a job. Our program for recovery has only been in place for 12 weeks now, but it is beginning to work. With your help and prayers, it will succeed. We’re winning the battle against inflation, runaway government spending and taxation, and that victory will mean more economic growth, more jobs, and more opportunity for all Americans.

A few months before he took up residence in this house, one of my predecessors, John Kennedy, tried to sum up the temper of the times with a quote from an author closely tied to Christmas, Charles Dickens. We were living, he said, in the best of times and the worst of times. Well, in some ways that’s even more true today….

Let the light of millions of candles in American homes give notice that the light of freedom is not going to be extinguished. We are blessed with a freedom and abundance denied to so many. Let those candles remind us that these blessings bring with them a solid obligation, an obligation to the God who guides us, an obligation to the heritage of liberty and dignity handed down to us by our forefathers and an obligation to the children of the world, whose future will be shaped by the way we live our lives today.

Christmas means so much because of one special child. But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas.

So, in a spirit of gratitude for what we’ve been able to achieve together over the past year and looking forward to all that we hope to achieve together in the years ahead, Nancy and I want to wish you all the best of holiday seasons. As Charles Dickens, whom I quoted a few moments ago, said so well in “A Christmas Carol,” “God bless us, every one.”

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New Poll: Reagan Ranked Greatest President Of Last Hundred Years; And The Worst Is…

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According to a new survey, Ronald Wilson Reagan edges out Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the greatest president of the 20th or 21st century. And the greatest failure? Barack Hussein Obama.

In a survey of 1,000 adults from YouGov/Economist published Friday, Reagan garnered 32 percent of the vote in the “Great” category, followed by FDR at 31 percent and JFK at 30 percent.

The survey looked at presidents since Theodore Roosevelt, the first of the 20th century. Participants were asked to rate each president in six categories: great, near great, average, below average, failure, and don’t know. An approximation of the respondents’ certainty can be seen by “don’t know.”

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Who Killed the Kennedys? Ronald Reagan’s Answer

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This year marks not only the 50th anniversary of the shooting of John F. Kennedy but also the 45th anniversary of the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy, which occurred in June 1968. Was there a common source motivating the assassins of both Kennedys—that is, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan?…

On June 5, 1968, Reagan was full of nothing but sympathy for RFK. He appeared on the popular television show of Joey Bishop, one of the extended members of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack. Bishop and Reagan were old Hollywood friends, and Bishop extended the governor a platform to address the shooting. A transcript of Reagan’s appearance on that show was grabbed by his young chief of staff, Bill Clark, who died just a few months ago. Clark shoved it in a box that ended up in the tack barn at his ranch in central California. It lay there until I, as Clark’s biographer, dug it out three decades later.

That rare surviving transcript reveals a Reagan who spoke movingly about RFK and the entire Kennedy family. Condemning the “savage act,” Reagan pleaded: “I am sure that all of us are praying not only for him but for his family and for those others who were so senselessly struck down also in the fusillade of bullets….I believe we should go on praying, to the best of our ability.”

But particularly interesting was how Reagan unflinchingly pointed a finger of blame in the direction of Moscow. Reagan noted that Kennedy’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Arab and also a communist, had shot Kennedy because of his support of Israel during the Six Day War that had occurred exactly one year earlier. On that, we now know beyond dispute what Reagan knew then: That war had been shamelessly provoked by the Kremlin. RFK supported Israel in that war. Sirhan Sirhan never forgave him for that. He killed him for that…Moscow had precipitated the Six Day War in June 1967, which, in turn, had prompted RFK’s assassin in June 1968.

But Reagan wasn’t finished positioning blame where it deserved to be placed. Eight days later, on July 13, 1968, Reagan delivered a forgotten speech in Indianapolis. Both the Indianapolis News and Indianapolis Star reported on Reagan’s remarks, but the only full transcript I’ve seen was likewise located in Bill Clark’s private papers. In that speech, Reagan leveled this charge at international communism, with an earlier Kennedy assassination in mind: “Five years ago, a president was murdered by one who renounced his American citizenship to embrace the godless philosophy of communism, and it was communist violence he brought to our land. The shattering sound of his shots were still ringing in our ears when a policy decision was made to play down his communist attachment lest we provoke the Soviet Union.”…

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Barack Obama is No John Kennedy or Ronald Reagan

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Two presidents during the last 50 years captured the hearts and imagination of the American people like no others: John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Their rhetoric and their vision stirred people to believe and to act; they helped define the eras in which they lived.

In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama identified both as presidents worthy of his emulation in terms of changing the “trajectory” and the atmosphere of the country. After five years, he has failed to capture the magic of our 35th and 40th Presidents and the reason is becoming perfectly clear. Though he is a gifted orator, the vision he has offered does not comport with reality, nor resonate with the true American spirit.

Some of the most memorable phrases of Kennedy’s and Reagan’s presidencies capture the essence of the vision each cast.

Of course Kennedy’s most famous words were his summoning call from his Inaugural Address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” The vision Kennedy offered was primarily focused on a belief in the American people as the source of change and hope and strength, and not the government.

The Kennedy Administration became known as the “New Frontier,” a phrase taken from his speech accepting the Democratic nomination in 1960. “The New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises, it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook…My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age – to all who respond to the Scriptural call: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed.”

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