The American Spectator

Special Report

The Educator

By Lawrence Henry on 2.8.08 @ 12:08AM

(Page 2 of 2)

AT THE TALL SHIPS REGATTA in New York in 1986, Ronald Reagan made the welcoming speech from the Statue of Liberty. "He has hit the American sweet spot," said NBC's Jane Pauley, reporting on the event. He was our national MC, and he reveled in it. Like most things that look easy, it had taken long, hard practice.

But Ronald Reagan was far more than a practiced technician. He had something to say. By the end of his stint with GE, in 1962, he had developed a number of themes, themes he continued to propound through the rest of his public life.

In 1964, Reagan made what has come to be known as The Speech, a special television presentation of about 4,000 words in support of the candidacy of Barry Goldwater. The major themes are all there:

Government takes too much: "No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income. Today, 37 cents of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend $17 million a day more than the government takes in."

America owes it all to freedom: "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."

A government that has the power to gives has the power to take away: "The Founding Fathers...knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose."

Welfare creates more welfare: "Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer and they've had almost 30 years of it, shouldn't we expect government to almost read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing? But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater, the program grows greater."

Government is the problem: "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this Earth."

Confront tyranny in the world: "We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion now in slavery behind the Iron Curtain, 'Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skin, we are willing to make a deal with your slave masters.'"

CONTRAST REAGAN WITH GEORGE W. BUSH and you see the difference immediately, and not only in the obvious contrast of Reagan's verbal fluency with Bush's legendary clumsiness. Bush has in fact delivered some magnificent speeches of telling consequence, notably his address to the United States Military Academy in July of 2002, where he announced the change in American foreign policy that embraced preemption of threats, not just proportional response.

Imagine President Reagan having had to implement such a policy change. He would have introduced it to the public and reinforced it with speech after speech. He would have been prepared to elucidate it and defend it in any venue, and he would have done so -- preemptively, one might say. By contrast, President Bush made his point once -- and then, outside of using the same few phrases over and over again in contentious press conferences, never -- it seemed -- said it again. He said it once and expected it to work. It doesn't work that way.

"The Teflon President," the press used to call Ronald Reagan. Why? Because Reagan used to talk to the American people. He talked all the time. He made his key points over and over again, patiently, like a teacher. He did not make one good speech and then wonder why nobody followed him. People saw him and heard him over and over again. He was near impervious to spin and propaganda.

"Tell me the old, old story," says the hymn. Ronald Reagan told us the old, old story, over and over again, with a religious intensity and the patience of preacher. He had put in the time and effort to make himself an effective teacher. Most important, he taught what he believed. And what he believed was true.

Jed Babbin's source thinks John McCain's use of a Ronald Reagan video at CPAC will backfire. By now, we'll know if McCain actually had the gall to do it.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Foreign Policy, Education, John McCain, Television, Business, Movies, Founding Fathers, Military