A Time For Choosing [aka 'The Speech', a Reagan Classic]

It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self government."

This idea? that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. 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 capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.

We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments....

We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with nations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward I restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we can not have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure....

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation? . . . Today in our country the tax collector's share is 37 cents of -very dollar earned. Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits-not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

The greatest Republican to have ever served in the White House was this man . .

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This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. 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 capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves." -- Ronald Reagan's Speech at the 1964 National Convention: A Time for Choosing

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Memorable quotes from former President Reagan

WASHINGTON - Here are some memorable quotes from former
President Ronald Reagan:

``Government should do only those things the people cannot do for themselves.'' (June 23, 1971)

``If we get the federal government out of the classroom, maybe we'll get God back in.'' (Washingtonian magazine, July 1976)

`` Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.'' (March 3, 1978)

``With our eyes fixed on the future, but recognizing the realities of today ... we will achieve our destiny to be a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see. (March 17, 1978)

``Honey, I forgot to duck.'' (Comment to his wife, Nancy, after being shot outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, March 30, 1981)

``We cannot, as citizens, pick and choose the laws we will or will not obey.'' (Comment on firing striking air-traffic controllers, Sept. 3, 1981)

``We're the party that wants to see an America in which people can still get rich.'' (May 4, 1982)

``So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride - the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.'' (March 8, 1983)

``These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.'' (40th anniversary of the Normandy invasion D-Day ceremony, June 6, 1984)

``My fellow Americans: I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.'' (Jesting comment while testing a microphone before a broadcast, Aug. 11, 1984)

``And let me add, in the party of Lincoln, there is no room for intolerance and not even a small corner for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind. Many people are welcome in our house, but not the bigots.'' (Acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, Aug. 23, 1984)

``Four years ago we raised a banner of bold colors - no pale pastels. We proclaimed a dream of an America that would be `a shining city on a hill.''' (Acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, Aug. 23, 1984)

``The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America.

``Her heart is full; her door is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support. For the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the '80s unafraid, unashamed and unsurpassed.

``In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is.'' (Acceptance speech, Republican National Convention, Aug. 23, 1984)

``Well, what they will say about us 100 years from now depends on how we keep our rendezvous with destiny.(Oct. 21, 1984)

``I will not make age an issue in this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.'' (Oct. 21, 1984)

``America's view of apartheid is simple and straightforward: We believe it is wrong. We condemn it. And we are united in hoping for the day when apartheid will be no more.'' (Sept. 9, 1985)

``We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God." (On the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, Jan. 28, 1986)

``The White House is the leakiest place I've ever been in.'' (April 9, 1986)

``The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." (Aug. 23, 1986)

``General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'' (Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, June 12, 1987)

``We've done our part. And as I "walk off into the city streets," a final word to the men and women across America who for eight years did the work that brought America back: 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. And so, goodbye. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.'' (Farewell address, Jan. 11, 1989)

``I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.'' (From his letter to the American people about his Alzheimer's disease, Nov. 5, 1994)

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