Reagan: A Time for Choosing

Ronald Reagan gave this speech in 1964 on behalf of Barry Goldwater; I'm struck by the parallels with today:


Highlights:

• "This is the issue of this election, whether we believe in our capacity for self-government, whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far off capitol can plan our lives better than we can plan them ourselves."

• "I for one resent it when a representative of the people refers to you an me, the free men and women of this country, as the masses; this is a term we haven't applied to ourselves in America."

• "The full power of centralized government, this was the very thing the founding fathers sought to minimize."

• "It's not that our liberal friends are ignorant, it's that they know so much that isn't so."

• "The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan."

• "A government bureau is the closest thing to eternal life we'll ever see in this world."

• "Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution for peace without victory; they call their policy accommodation."

• "There's only one way you're guaranteed peace, surrender."