Reagan’s belief that “government is a threat to liberty.” It Still Is!

The high point of talk radio in the 1970s was the five minutes editorial period set aside for the Ronald Reagan Radio Address. His radio essays were the most original and thoughtful pieces to be found in all the media then, He was his own think tank. It came through later as he was the most competent and comfortable man to hold the presidency. His successes proved that. 

His thinking process, written out and spoken for his well honed decisions, should be the model for all presidents. m/r

A Time for Choosing at 50 | The American Spectator

Remembering Reagan's famous speech.

By Jeffrey Lord – 10.21.14

October 27, 1964. Fifty years ago. It was a Tuesday night, one week from election day. As the Johnson-Goldwater campaign wound to its end, with Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society liberalism he was championing poised to win in a landslide over GOP nominee Senator Barry Goldwater, Americans turned on their television sets to see one last political commercial. They quickly discovered a very familiar face in a very unfamiliar setting.

Actor Ronald Reagan, longtime movie and TV star, newly the host and occasional star of Death Valley Days, a weekly TV series based on the old West, was introduced by an off-screen voice for a “thoughtful address” sponsored by the Goldwater campaign. Suddenly, there was actor Reagan (here) standing behind a bunting-draped podium in front of a live audience. Within seconds, Reagan was on his way to changing American history. He began as follows:

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks.

I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course….

For the next thirty minutes, Reagan, fully aware of Goldwater’s impending loss, sailed directly against the prevailing political winds. He made the case for conservatism, illustrating repeatedly what biographer Steven F. Hayward terms Reagan’s belief that “government is a threat to liberty.” In the face of a landslide for LBJ and his Great Society Reagan was the warning :

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.

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