Reagan, Passover, and Easter (1983)

Expanding Ownership: an op-ed by Ronald Reagan, October 1980

Expanding Ownership

This is an interesting piece...and I recommend reading it in full.  As you'll see, there are "pull quotes" that even President Obama might seek to pluck and use.  For example:

Our Founding Fathers well understood that concentrated power is the enemy of Liberty and the rights of man. They knew that the American experiment in individual liberty, free enterprise, and republican self-government could succeed only if power were widely distributed. And since in any society social and political power flow from economic power, they saw that wealth and property would have to be widely distributed among the people of this country...Could there be anything resembling a free enterprise economy, if wealth and property were concentrated in the hands of a few, while the great majority owned little more than the shirts on their backs?

Before any socialists try to play this as a trump card, however, I'd point them to what else Reagan says:

It should be clear to everyone that the nation's steadfast policy should afford every American of working age a realistic opportunity to acquire the ownership and control of some meaningful form of property in a growing national economy[.]

This is not to say that the government should confiscate from the "haves" and bestow upon the "have-nots", beyond the requirements of a compassionate welfare programs to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Far from it. But it is to say that our duty is to foster a strong, vibrant, wealth-producing economy...

Reagan the Patriot

This was a fascinating little find:  an audio recording of Reagan narrating an adapted version of the award-winning documentary Freedom's Finest Hour.  Enjoy!

Reagan’s Creative Society: The forgotten conservative answer to LBJ’s federal leviathan

In his January 7, 1966 assessment of the Reagan gubernatorial announcement, veteran journalist Henry MacArthur described Reagan’s vision for a Creative Society as “somewhat nebulous.” 

For anyone who might share MacArthur’s desire for more specifics, the RSS Ronald Reagan would encourage you to read the text of Reagan’s April 19, 1966 speech on this topic, made available by the Free Republic at this link. 

Occupy Eureka (circa 1928)

Watching the unfolding spectacle of aggrieved young “adults” toting iphones and dining on gourmet food as they occupy Wall Street and rage against “the man,” I am literally dumb-founded at the confluence of ignorance and an abject sense of entitlement.   Consider the profound difference between the attitude on display in OWS, and that exhibited by a confessional Ronald Reagan when he looked back on his own youthful days.  In writing of his arrival at little Eureka College, Reagan confessed to his own deeply harbored perceptions of “specialness”: 

 At Eureka, I was getting ready to save the day.  Dixon High School wasn’t tiny and football was pretty important.  Eureka had gone through two disastrous seasons, so I anticipated quite a welcome...It’s tough to go from lordly senior to lowly freshman and even tougher to go from first string end to the end of the bench before the whistle blows for the first game.  I managed to accomplish this all by myself.  But in my mind I had help—heaven forbid I should take the blame!  I told everyone who would listen that the coach didn’t like me, I was the victim of unreasoning prejudice.  (Reagan, Ronald & Richard Hubeler, (1965),  Where’s the Rest of Me?, New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce. p. 25)

Reagan wanted a chance to contribute to the team, while the foot soldiers of “Yes we can! (but why should we, when there’s so many other hard-working people out there who could just take care of us)” just want to wear the championship ring for participation; But I’ll grant there’s some degree of similarity in their self-perception.  The real difference, between young Reagan and the latter-day aggrieved is in his mature reflection on that time of life.  When Reagan, with the wisdom born of years of hindsight, looked back on his youthful self-perception and wounded self-esteem, he therapeutically concluded:   I needed a damn good kick in the keister! (Reagan, Ronald & Richard Hubeler, (1965),  Where’s the Rest of Me?, New York: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce. p. 25) [emphasis added]