On this day in 1964, Ronald Reagan spoke to a nationwide television audience on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee. Here are the words of Ronaldus Magnus:
"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 we can plan them ourselves.
"You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that 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 ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.
"[Socialism] doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? Such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place.
"Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
"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 last step into a thousand years of darkness."
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5 comments:
"there is no place to escape to", "last stand on Earth", "newest and most unique idea"; none of this is true. Why would anybody believe these things? "Thousand years of darkness", right! We already had that epoch, it followed the fall of the Roman Empire when Saint Augustine's "City Of God" bullshit brain-washed the population. "Ronaldus Magnus", yeah right! Reagan was a crook that sold out the American people when he negotiated with outlaws that were holding our citizens hostage. "Ronaldus Magnus", more like "Ronald McDonald". "Impose socialism on a people". What, you mean like public schools and highways? The audacity of some people. I don't know what it is that makes you Republicans tick, but maybe if you get it diagnosed early enough...
Anonymous, May I say, You my friend are a Meathead!
Have the courage to post your name! If you had any knowledge of History you'd realize that Reagan didn't negociate with terrorists. But your so full of the crap your professors force feed you that you're unable to think for yourself. Reagan made it clear release the hostages or suffer the consequences.
The word is "negotiate", not "negociate" [sic]. "Suffer the consequences"? What are you implying? Forget all about the Iran-Contra affair (which was not simply the imagination of the academia); you say the terrorists simply rolled over because Reagan was a "real man", a real tough cowboy? Who's the historian now? "Suffer the consequences?" That's why people like me don't have the courage to post our real names. Bone heads like you are likely to start gunning without any thought beyond a "suffer the consequences" mentality, exactly the same kind of thinking that got us into Iraq without an exit strategy. Of course, we didn’t need an exit strategy anyway. That is not consistent with the Republican credo: “We are better than everybody else and we will stand by anyone that is willing to tell us so and to hell with those that don’t agree”. Well guess what, you are not better than everybody else. This sorely offends you. You cannot accept it. You will cling to any religious or political party that will tell you what you want to hear, but you will never consider that maybe, just maybe we are all the same. What do you care what my real name is anyway? Reagan DID negotiate with terrorists. Everybody who was an adult in the eighties remembers the trials, when the president embarrassed himself over and over with his “I don’t recall”, “I can’t remember” testimony. Where were you? Probably in the basement polishing your gun collection…
Public schools and highways are not socialism, they are a public good, there is a very important distinction there. You could have made some good points, but instead you had to be just another loudmouth with character assisination and telling people what they "really" think and why. Give it a rest...
Bob, if you are still listening, I would like to hear more about how public schools and highways are not socialism. What is the very important distinction that you allude to? Aren’t the police and fire departments that we all count on considered “public goods” as well? These are not free-market enterprises. What distinguishes them from socialism? Thank you in advance.
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