You can say that again MataH.

It’s amazing how many parallels you can draw between the politics during Reagan’s time and today. Or maybe it’s not so amazing. The Democrats today, including Obama, are stuck in a timewarp trying to prove that their big government, tax and spend liberalism isn’t the monumental failure that history has shown it to be. They think if they can give it just one more try, they will get it right. And they never do.

The speech above doesn’t address it, but we had a clear choice in 1984 between competing ideas for national security as well. If you recall, the 1984 election was more than one year before Reagan even held his first Summit with Mikhail Gorbachev. Up to then, he had called it an “evil empire” and done everything he could to rebuild America’s defenses. It was only because he stood his ground, in the face of the most vehement opposition, that Reagan was able to succeed for the first time in reducing the threat of nuclear war and eventually winning the Cold War.

Here’s the speech he gave after returning from that first summit in November 1985:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H_phP-imcw

The left would have surrendered to the Soviets in the same way they would appease Islamic fanatics today. If Walter Mondale had unseated Reagan in 1984 the Berlin Wall would likely be standing today. If elected, Barack Obama has already pledged to gut Reagan’s missile defense system even as it has now been proven to work and is essential to detering the Iranians:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COl4soeox6Y

Of course it’s a pledge from Obama so who knows if it’s a “change we can believe in” or not.

The Reagan lesson is that “Peace Through Strength” works. And REAL peace, with justice, is the result. On the other hand, the experience that Democrats would revive leaves us weak and vulnerable.

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The quotes from the above speech are uncannily relevant today. And it was great to re’read those words, Mike’sA. Many thanks for the upbeat reminder.

Ah but that JSM could have such a speech writer and delivery today himself… But then, he’s most certainly no Ronald Reagan.

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You got to love Ronaldis Magnus. Always self deprecating and always looking forward. looking for a better America for everyone

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I always liked this story told by Ron Reagan

He was, as you know, a famously optimistic man. Sometimes such optimism leads you to see the world as you wish it were as opposed to how it really is. At a certain point in his presidency, Dad decided he was going to revive the thumbs-up gesture. So he went all over the country, of course, giving everybody the thumbs up.

Doria (Ron Reagan’s wife) and I found ourselves in the presidential limousine one day returning from some big event. My mother was there and Dad was, of course, thumbs-upping the crowd along the way, and suddenly, looming in the window on his side of the car, was this snarling face. This fellow was reviving an entirely different hand gesture. And hoisted an entirely different digit in our direction. Dad saw this and without missing a beat turned to us and said, “You see? I think it’s catching on.”

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