Free Republic

Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment is as sacred as the first 10…”Thou shalt not speak ill of any other republican.” Yes, moderates and right wingers can have our healthy disagreements. That makes us an intellectually stronger party than the democrats, which do not allow for dissenting views from the party orthodoxy (Joe Lieberman anyone?). However, we must not question each other’s motives. We are not liberals. We do not cannibalize each other, since we need every one of us to govern. As a Jewish republican, I have always thought of republicans as the Jews of politics. Everybody outside of us hates...

It’s only been a week or so since Tony Snow’s passing, and I can still hear him speaking to me. Snow was an outstanding fill-in host for Rush Limbaugh a decade or so ago, and at times he seemed to be a superior host to “El Rushbo” himself. Snow explained and defended his conservative views with a clarity and skill that was as effective as it was entertaining. Like fellow Limbaugh fill-in Dr. Walter E. Williams, Snow made conservatism intellectually as well as emotionally appealing. I’m sure that he convinced some liberal listeners to reconsider their views. Cancer has not...

<p>In one of the most ridiculous examples of unbridled hyperbole, Reuters has decided that singer Bruce Springsteen is the one responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending the Cold War. Yes, that's Bruce "Scorn in the USA" Springsteen, one of the most anti-American rockers on the scene. I know what you're thinking, "But what about Ronald Reagan?" Forget it, man, it's Bruce all the way as far as Reuters is concerned. Maybe it was his gravely warbling that Joshua-like brought those walls tumblin' down, maybe his caterwauling is what turned the trick, but, quite despite any common sense and in a childishly, foolish and overly simplistic review of history, Reuters is sure that Bruce is the hero of Berlin. It is a great example of reductio ad absurdo if there ever was one, not that Reuters is aware of it.</p>

God bless Ronnie! Video at the link.

Address on behalf of Senator Barry Goldwater Rendezvous with Destiny October 27, 1964 This speech is a verbatim transcript of "The Speech" given as a portion of a pre-recorded, nationwide televised program sponsored by Goldwater-Miller on behalf of Barry Goldwater, Republican candidate for the presidency whom Ronald Reagan actively supported. 4,626 words 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 ideas regarding the choice that we face...

It could have been a coincidence when Barack Obama gave a major policy speech last week at a building named after former President Ronald Reagan. But it comes from the same campaign that until yesterday had pushed to hold a major foreign policy address at the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan in 1987 famously demanded of his Soviet counterpart, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" During his bid for the presidency, Obama has repeatedly praised the political gifts of Reagan, the modern president most revered by Republicans, and whose policies are still held in contempt by many leading liberals. A...

It could have been a coincidence when Barack Obama gave a major policy speech last week at a building named after former President Ronald Reagan. But it comes from the same campaign that until yesterday had pushed to hold a major foreign policy address at the Brandenburg Gate, where Ronald Reagan in 1987 famously demanded of his Soviet counterpart, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” During his bid for the presidency, Obama has repeatedly praised the political gifts of Reagan, the modern president most revered by Republicans, and whose policies are still held in contempt by many leading liberals. A...

MAY I HAVE YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION, PLEASE!!! In the absence of good material, I have opted to spend a few moments in unbridled rant… 1. Are you people really happy with the extreme lack of sincerity when it comes to political candidates? 2. Don’t tell me what “flavor” you are! I could care less if Republicrat or Demican or Greendipendent. 3. If there are no just plain-ol’ “Americans” left let’s just close the dang door and call it what it is… OVER! Today’s politicians stand there with their smug attitudes and silly self-righteous smirks on their faces and pontificate from...

Have you noticed that Barack Obama is actually running unopposed for the Presidency? Not since 1996 has it been this dispiriting, this embarrassing to be on the right. A dozen years ago, we all knew Bob Dole didn’t stand the proverbial snowball’s chance of becoming President, since the conservative base loathed the former Kansas Senator and independent voters regarded the veteran as too old for the job. Now, twelve years later, we’re in the exact same spot with John McCain. I hate to say this, but I have abandoned all hope for a McCain victory in November. The candidate is...

Too funny! Glad i found this clip.

Selected audio from President Reagan's radio spots from 1975 - 1979.

When it comes to Ronald Reagan, we are all pointillists, hoping to create a whole portrait from dots of experience. Consider four scenes from late in his public career: Scene One: President George H. W. Bush is sitting in the presidential limousine after visiting the Reagan office in Los Angeles. "He's such a great guy," Bush says, smiling and shaking his head in wonderment. He describes a private meeting — just the two presidents and Bush's national-security adviser, Brent Scowcroft. Reagan broke the ice with a joke, leavened a conversation with a few stories, and afterward treated the entire entourage...

When Lady Thatcher revived the British economy, she was reviving profound social virtues that the British had once exemplified to the world—the Thatcherite “vigorous virtues” described above. In 1979, they seemed utterly destroyed by 50 years of statism and socialism. In fact, they had merely been driven underground by government over-regulation and intervention. As James C. Bennett has observed, it took only a few years of Lady Thatcher’s application of free market solutions for these virtues to become vigorous again. Once that happened, it took only a few more years for those revived virtues to transform Britain from the sick...

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement. "Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op. In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years." But that friendship was strained in the late 1970s by McCain's decision to divorce his first wife, Carol, who was...

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement. "Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op. In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years." But that friendship was strained in the late 1970s by McCain's decision to divorce his first wife, Carol, who was...

Perusing the Sunday newspapers with plagiaristic intent, I come across an article about who's responsible for the current energy debacle. Politicians are mentioned along with the amazingly shortsighted auto executives and the oil industry itself. Names — lots of names — are dropped, everyone from the current Bush to the previous Bush to Clinton. But not a mention of the culprit-in-chief, Ronald Wilson Reagan — still, after all these years, the Teflon president.

The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory and President Ronald Reagan enjoyed a deep relationship for many years. National Day of Reflection By the President of the United States of America Amid the distractions and concerns of our daily existence, it is appropriate that Americans pause to reflect upon the ancient ethical principles and moral values which are the foundation of our character as a nation. We seek, and steadfastly pursue, the benefits of education. But education must be more than factual enlightenment-it must enrich the character as well as the mind. One shining example for people of...

IT IS A great pleasure to be back at Hillsdale. It is some 32 years since I first visited the College for a meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society. Those few days were an important education in American politics for me. The conference was attended by many people who had just returned from the Republican Convention at which President Ford had narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan. They were full of enthusiasm for Reagan and full of conviction that one day he would become president. Their enthusiasm—and their passion too for sound doctrine—swept me along. I think I became a firm Reaganite...

Got to hand it to him. It must have been tough to do. In a speech in which he invoked Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Adams, Truman, King, the Pledge, World War II, Vietnam, and Iraq, he does not mention America’s greatest attribute and the single-most powerful beacon to the world: American Freedom. Now Reagan knew what patriotism was. Compare Obama to this from Reagan. More . . .

"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He's the one who gets the people to do the greatest things. And that's what's lacking now." -Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan made that remark in a 1975 interview with Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes." The interview has been largely forgotten, and was brought to my attention by the good folks at the Reagan Ranch Center / Young America's Foundation, which runs the Reagan Ranch near Santa Barbara, California, where this interview took place. Observing the uninspiring presidential leadership of moderate Republican Gerald Ford, Reagan explained to Wallace...

The near simultaneous publication of historian Sean Wilentz book “Age of Reagan” and the publication of activist / reporter Rick Pearlstein’s “Nixonland”, previously praised on these pages, has caused a dust-up over who most personified and ultimately transformed the modern conservative age which played out on the New Republic website. Although I am neither historian nor an unbiased reporter, I was a participant in the Nixon realignment which ultimately begat the Reagan revolution. ..... The change in Richard Nixon comes with Goldwater’s sweeping nomination and what Nixon then understands can be salvaged, even nurtured,in the ashes of Barry’s defeat. “You...

The man who shot Ronald Reagan would really like to have longer furloughs from the psych hospital, but prosecutors say it's a bad idea. Their reason: Hinckley is "is a womanizing narcissist who juggles sexual relationships, maintains 'fondling privileges' with one paramour, and 'believes himself entitled to a life of leisure,'" The Smoking Gun reports.............."

World’s Largest Reagan Statue To Be UnveiledJune 25, 2008 After four years and several setbacks, the world’s largest Ronald Reagan statue will be unveiled in Covington, Louisiana, this Friday. The statue was not Covington’s idea. “We had nothing to do with it,� said city council president Trey Blackall. A local oil tycoon, however, was interested in building a big Reagan tribute, and Covington volunteered itself as the site. “It’s a weird little story,� Trey conceded, “but when somebody offers something like this, you gladly accept it.�The big bronze Gipper, created by local sculptor Patrick Miller, stands nearly 15 feet tall...

There's a little gem of Newsweek's embarrasing polling history buried under the perpetual poll sucker Howard Fineman's latest piece. http://www.newsweek.com/id/143258/output/print But nothing like in 1984. That was the most embarrassing example of the latter kind of survey. It predates PSR but remains seared into our institutional memory. The day the Democratic convention ended in San Francisco in 1984, the Newsweek poll showed Walter Mondale 18 points ahead of President Ronald Reagan. Mondale ended up getting clobbered, 49 states to one. This is pretty good, can somebody dig out this poll? I'd love to see.

Glad i found this. This speech could be given today. Enjoy!

THERE IS a debate going on today over whether our economy is in recession. Polls show sagging public confidence. But some perspective is sorely needed. The fact of the matter is that we in the United States, and to a lesser degree the entire world, have just lived through—and continue to live in—the greatest period of prosperity in human history. Over the last 25 years, more wealth has been created, more people have been lifted out of poverty, standards of living have been elevated more dramatically, and the quality and length of life have improved, more than ever before in...

NY's Triborough Bridge To Be Renamed For RFKReported by: Clyde Gray Last Update: 6/05 4:01 pm The bridge leading to New York's JFK Airport will soon be named for the former president's younger brother. Governor David Paterson is set to sign a measure to rename the Triborough Bridge after New York Senator "Bobby" Kennedy. At the time of his death, he was running for the democratic presidential nomination.

Reagan's courageous act in '87 is worth noting by today's GOP For conservatives and Republicans who are wondering what in the world happened to their party, we should recall June 12, 1987. On that day 21 years ago, President Ronald Reagan stood before the wall dividing East and West Berlin and directed his famous appeal to the leader of the then Soviet Union: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Two and half years later, the wall was down and a new chapter had begun. It's always worth recalling Reagan's courageous act and words of that time. But we particularly should...

Inside CoverNancy Reagan Joins 'Candy Diplomacy'Friday, June 13, 2008 10:51 AMBy: Jim MeyersFormer first lady Nancy Reagan is lending her support to Move America Forward’s “Candy Diplomacy” campaign aimed at bringing 100,000 bags of “American goodwill” to the children of Iraq and Afghanistan.Nancy said in a statement that her husband Ronald Reagan “would often break the ice in meetings by passing around his jar of Jelly Bellys. It had a way of putting a smile on everyone’s face and putting them in the mood to work cooperatively.“I know the Iraqi and Afghani people will feel the warmth and goodness of...

Fellow Freepers, I'll be on the Michael Reagan show beginning at 5:30 EST tomorrow, June 11, 2008, to discuss my new book (out in Sept.), 48 Liberal Lies About History (That You Probably Learned in School). I know, "LS, how did you limit it to 48?" It was tough, but we did have a page limit. When writing this, I looked at about a dozen major U.S. history textbooks used in colleges, and some of the findings surprised even me---and I'm used to bias in academics. *Other than the A-bomb and FDR, the most common picture or image of 20th...

Since our last meeting we have been through a disastrous election. It is easy for us to be discouraged, as pundits hail that election as a repudiation of our philosophy and even as a mandate of some kind or other. But the significance of the election was not registered by those who voted, but by those who stayed home. If there was anything like a mandate it will be found among almost two-thirds of the citizens who refused to participate. Bitter as it is to accept the results of the November election, we should have reason for some optimism. For...

A little entertainment for a Friday: Click here for the video.

Today is the 64th anniversary of D-Day. Two items for you to commemorate. 1) First, read Ronald Reagan’s unforgettable Pointe du Hoc speech on the 40th anniversary. 2) Watch this brilliant video produced last year by The Combat Report on how today’s media would have covered the 1944 Normandy invasion.

Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of my father's death. For anyone who has lost a loved one, those anniversaries are both sad and sweet. The sadness is obvious—you don't stop missing the person who has gone; you don't stop wishing you'd had one more year, one more day. The sweetness sneaks up on you. It comes in the form of memories, some of them long buried. But mostly it comes with the realization that nothing ever dismantled the love between you, even though many things seemed to along the way. At this time of year in California, the jacaranda trees...

Katherine Jenerette says she has entered the Republican primary for the First District Congressional seat out of frustration with the GOP. "The Democrats have a home team advantage now," Jenerette says, "and Republicans need a congressman who can go toe-to-toe with them. We've had a Republican Congress for six years, and we can have more of the same or we can have someone in there that will make a difference. "I am not afraid to say what needs to be said and push legislation for family and values, fiscal responsibility, national security and subjects like immigration and border control. Republicans...

"If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and 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...

Publisher Peter Osnos, who admits to personally working with former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan on his new book, What Happened, began his career as an assistant to I.F. Stone, the pro-communist "journalist" named as a Soviet agent of influence who was the uncle of Weather Underground communist terrorist Kathy Boudin. But the connections don't end there. Boudin's son Chesa was raised by Barack Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were Boudin's comrades in the communist terrorist group, after Kathy Boudin went to prison for her involvement in an armed robbery and assault that took the...

An excerpt related to energy, from Ronald Reagan's speech to the nation on November 13, 1979, announcing his candidacy for President of the United States. ... ... Another serious problem which must be discussed tonight is our energy situation. Our country was built on cheap energy. Today, energy is not cheap and we face the prospect that some forms of energy may soon not be available at all. Last summer you probably spent hours sitting in gasoline lines. This winter, some will be without heat and everyone will be paying much more simply to keep home and family warm. If...

YOU CAN'T APPEASE EVERYBODYMay 28, 2008 After decades of comparing Nixon to Hitler, Reagan to Hitler and Bush to Hitler, liberals have finally decided it is wrong to make comparisons to Hitler. But the only leader to whom they have applied their newfound rule of thumb is: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While Ahmadinejad has not done anything as starkly evil as cut the capital gains tax, he does deny the Holocaust, call for the destruction of Israel, deny the existence of gays in Iran and refuses to abandon his nuclear program despite protests from the United Nations. That's the only...

We have a three way Republican Primary in South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Henry Brown is an incumbent Congressman running for this fifth term. I really have no feelings toward Brown one way or the other. He isn’t one to show up in the media much. He received a rating of 96 from the American Conservative Union for 2007, not too shabby and he’s been involved in government for about 27 years, starting in the city council, moving up to state office and then Federal.He has two challengers in the primary. The first, Paul Norris, is the President of...

Where did she go wrong?Clinton says her campaign's not over, but that hasn't stopped the post-mortems Sunday, May 25, 2008 By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Early on, she was too stodgy. Later on, she was too negative. She spent too much money in Iowa. She didn't spend enough money in Iowa. She should have campaigned on women's issues. Being a woman hurt her. Her campaign was stacked with experts on party rules -- who ignored the party's rules. She didn't catch on to small-donor fundraising until too late. She concentrated on a few big states and didn't try in smaller...

...Is Barack Obama really an agent of POSITIVE CHANGE, or is he merely a return to the rhetoric and idealism of McGovern, Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis? Is he really offering a dialect that is new to Washington, or is he merely repeating the very talking points of President Carter? ...

Will American conservatives ever get their fight back? The American left has many nonsensical slogans, but there is one “progressive” catchphrase that has always sustained a logical test: “History is written by the winners.” American liberals know that average Americans do not agree with them—so they fight like UFC contestants in order to implement their vision. Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts “liberal lion” whose cancer diagnosis has saddened Americans of all political persuasions, is a textbook example of left-wing tenacity. Kennedy has worked his tail off for nearly five decades to remake America in a manner amenable to his socialist vision....

What 1980's event helped re-shape your life, thoughts, person and/or change your focus and outlook on life? You can answer as many times as you desire.

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan singlehandedly turned around the American economy. On the heels of the lackluster Carter years that saw high inflation and a poorly performing economy, Reagan proposed sweeping income tax cuts that transformed the American tax system. Indeed, Reagan’s policies have been credited for ushering in a new era of American prosperity. By all accounts, the tax cuts of the 80’s were a massive success as were many other conservative wins over the last two decades. Defeating the “Evil Empire,” reforming the failed welfare bureaucracy, and winning confirmation of conservative judges — these are just some examples...

THE GIPPER “[W]e are currently in the midst of a re-ordering of the political realities that have shaped our time. We know today that the principles and values that lie at the heart of conservatism are shared by the majority. Despite what some in the press may say, we who are proud to call ourselves ‘conservative’ are not a minority of a minority party; we are part of the great majority of Americans of both major parties and of most of the independents as well.” —Ronald Reagan

And The Winners Are....

So you want answers, eh? Not satisfied with the CNS report? I’ve got answers. There’s a new book on Ronald Reagan making the rounds, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Its author, Paul Kengor, unearthed a sensational document from the Soviet archives. That document is a memo regarding an offer made by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts via former Senator John Tunney, both Democrats, to the General Secretary of the Communist Party, USSR, Yuri Andropov, in 1983. The offer was to help the Soviet leadership, military and civilian, conduct a PR campaign in the United States as...

I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this. 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...

“We, the members of the New Republican Party, believe that the preservation and enhancement of the values that strengthen and protect individual freedom, family life, communities and neighborhoods and the liberty of our beloved nation should be at the heart of any legislative or political program presented to the American people... Our task now is not to sell a philosophy, but to make the majority of Americans, who already share that philosophy, see that modern conservatism offers them a political home... The job is ours and the job must be done. If not by us, who? If not now, when?...