Ronald Reagan: Talking About One America and American Pluralism

Source:AZ Quotes- President Ronald Reagan, talking about one America

Source:The New Democrat

“Let me speak plainly: The United States of America is and must remain a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. Our very unity has been strengthened by this pluralism. That's how we began; this is how we must always be. The ideals of our country leave no room whatsoever for intolerance, anti-Semitism, or bigotry of any kind -- none. The unique thing about America is a wall in our Constitution separating church and state. It guarantees there will never be a state religion in this land, but at the same time it makes sure that every single American is free to choose and practice his or her religious beliefs or to choose no religion at all. Their rights shall not be questioned or violated by the state.

-- Remarks at the International Convention of B'nai B'rith, 6 September 1984”

From Dave Vanness 

"The right quotation can change your life. That condensed idea—expressed in just a few words or a sentence or two—can shift your thinking, trigger an epiphany, and alter your way of seeing the world. The wisest, most experienced, and most thoughtful people in history have left us these little thought-bombs, and this book collects them. Surprising, jolting, discomforting, and comforting insights urge us to live a full, unbridled life, question authority and reality, relate to fellow humans, create, risk, love, live with uncertainty, and stay sane in an insane world.

Poets, philosophers, scientists, musicians, artists, presidents, mystics, activists, academics, and others rub shoulders here and give us the benefit of their hard-earned wisdom, breakthroughs, breakdowns, bad choices, sudden illuminations, and lightning wit. Sharing some of life's most important lessons are William Blake and Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln and Lorrie Moore, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Terence McKenna, René Magritte and St. Teresa of Avila, Zelda Fitzgerald and James Baldwin, and hundreds more.

Neatly arranged into topics that everyone wonders about, this inspirational volume is filled with rousing insights and challenging thoughts that will appeal to anyone who is searching, anyone who doesn't fit in, anyone who questions the way things are . . . which is to say, everyone." 

From Amazon 

"Top 21 Ronald Reagan Quotes (Author of The Reagan Diaries)

The  American politician & actor"  

Source:Daily Quotes - The best of Ronald Reagan 

From Daily Quotes

At risk of stating the obvious: does this sound different from any other Republican today who has major power and popularity inside the Republican Party today and not just within his or her own state? You can talk about Senator Jeff Flake and Governor John Kasich, ( to name a couple Reagan like Republicans ) but with all due respect, do either Senator Flake who is leaving office at the end of this Congress and Governor Kasich who is term limited and will be out of office in January, what power and popularity inside of today's Republican party does Senator Flake and Governor Kasich have outside of either Arizona or Ohio.

The modern Republican Party is the Donald Trump-Steve Bannon Nationalist party that picks winners and losers and decides for themselves at least who are the real Americans and who are the Un-Americans. And it's really this simply: you're either pro-Donald Trump and his America First nationalism and are a real American ( according to them ) or you hate America and the so-called real Americans. The Joe McCarthyite-Trumpains versus the rest of the country. 

What President Reagan was talking about here which was part of his speech to the International Convention of B'nai B'rith in 1984 was one America where we're all Americans who love America and what we stand for as a country and our values. Regardless of our race, ethnicity, religion, and any other irrelevant factors about us.

This Reagan speech and quote could've easily been delivered by Dr. Martin L. King in the 1960s when he was talking about an America where his children are judged by the content of their character and not by the color or their skin. Pre-1990 or so African-Americans were a major part of the Republican Party and a group that Center-Right Republicans could compete with for votes. The civil rights laws from the 1960s don't get passed in Congress without Congressional Republicans voting for them in the House and Senate.

Forget about the Republican Party no longer being a conservative party, just look at the big bloated spending bills that this Republican Congress passed in the last two years and the trillions they will be borrowing in their increases in spending and not just in defense, but President Trump's support for authoritarian regimes with Saudi Arabia being the latest today with his America First foreign policy, but they're no longer the party of Ronald Reagan either, with a few exceptions.

Daniel J.B. Mitchell: Ronald Reagan- Campaigns For Harry Truman in 1948

Source:Daniel J.B. Mitchell- Then actor Ronald Reagan, speaking in favor of President Harry Truman, in 1948.

Source:The New Democrat

"Ronald Reagan - then a liberal Democrat - campaigns on the radio for President Truman in 1948.  He also supports Hubert Humphrey for Senator from Minnesota and opposes the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 which had been passed by the Republican congress over Truman's veto."

From Daniel J.B. Mitchell

If you just saw or met Ronald Reagan in lets say 1978 or so and had no idea who he was other than Governor of California and looking to run for President in 1980 and someone told you that Reagan was once not only a Democrat, but a Progressive Democrat who voted for both Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman for President, you might think that you were seeing same-sex marriages being performed at the Southern Baptist Convention, or looking at Martians with four eyes or something. And I’ll give you one more thing that might send you into shock therapy because I’m an evil bastard. Ron Reagan was not only a supporter of organized labor in the 1940s and 50s, but he ran the actors guild in Hollywood.

There’s plenty of evidence that Ron Reagan wouldn’t fit in very well in the Republican Party today at least as a national candidate and leader. Who would still do very well in California and probably could rebuild the Republican Party by himself out there. But today’s GOP at least the hard right believes that it should still be 1930 and things like the Great Society and New Deal should’ve never of happened. And that organized labor or even having the right to decided if you should join a union or is Un-American if not immoral as well. But that was the type of Democrat that Reagan was up until 1960s or so. A Cold War Progressive Democrat who was concerned with working people. Who was against American elitism.

Reagan was an FDR/Truman Progressive Democrat. Not a left-wing far-lefty radical, but a mainstream Progressive who believed in things like national security, national defense, liberty is worth defending, the right to organize, protecting the working class and even civil rights. Which is why he did very well with working class Democrats in the 1960s and 70s in California and won working classic Democrats over when he ran for President in 1979-80, while also being able to win over white-collar Republicans because wanted to cut taxes and regulations. What other Republican could do that today and win over a coalition like that and even be able to win over Latin and African-Americans and even women? Don’t see another Republican like that right now.

Crash Course: John Green- The Reagan Revolution

Source: Crash Course-

Source:The New Democrat

The Reagan Revolution was all possible because of what Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon were able to build in the 1960s and 70s. Moving right-wing Democrats from the Midwest and South over to the Republican Party. It was sort of the final nail in the coffin to the FDR/LBJ Coalition that included Southern right-wing Democrats, to go along with Northeastern Progressives and organized labor being part of both groups. The Reagan Revolution dominated the South and Midwest, but also did well in the Northeast with people who are called Northeastern Republicans today. People who are economic Conservatives and socially moderate to classically conservative, but do not go along with the Religious-Right on social issues.

That is how a right-winger wins 40 and then forty-nine states in America. You convince the Northeast that you don’t want big government into the private lives of Americans. You convince everyone else that you truly believe in economic freedom. And that appoint people who your Far-Right loves and pretend you are with them on the issues, while actually not really doing anything for them.
Source:Crash Course

CBS News: Sunday Morning- Mo Rocca: Ronald Reagan's One-Liners

Source: CBS News-

Source:The New Democrat

I’m surprised with Ronald Reagan’s great sense of humor and not all of it being political, that after his b-movie acting career dried up like fresh dirt in the desert in the 1950s, that he didn’t go into comedy writing and perhaps take that writing which he did anyway on the stage. And try a career as a comedic actor, or a standup comedian, hosting his own late night talk show, which is what Jack Parr, Jack Benny and later Johnny Carson did. That type of format would’ve been perfect for him. He obviously wasn’t a great actor, but someone with intelligence, who could also act and with a great sense of humor.

To sort of build on Ron Reagan’s daughter Patti and what she said about her father in the video, Reagan had a rough childhood. He didn’t have an absent father, but he probably saw his father drunk as often as he saw him sober and that made things difficult for him and his family. And then you look at his broadcasting, entertainment and then later political career, you would almost have to have a great sense of humor to get through those experiences. Out of work in your early forties or so in the 1950s when practically everyone else was working in the 1950s, must have been rough on Big Ron.

Reagan had the GM Theater show, which was similar to what you see now with Turner Classic Movies. Where there would be a host coming out and giving a little preview of the movie and then they would go to the movie. And then after that is was basically straight into politics. First campaigning for Barry Goldwater when he ran for president in 1964 and starting his own political career in 1965. When I think he probably could’ve been successful pre-politics as a comedy writer, or even political satirist. And writing satires and articles and perhaps even books. Telling people what is funny and what he thinks Americans should be thinking about politically as well.
Source:CBS News

The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson: Ronald Reagan: Talks About Balancing the Budget (1975)

Source: Johnny Carson- Ronald Reagan & Johnny Carson.

Source:The Daily Post

I like and respect Ronald Reagan a lot, I've always had even though I'm a Liberal Democrat. Which might be like hearing how much a Boston Red Sox fan loves a player for the New York Yankees. But in my case my affection for President Reagan is real. Both personally and politically, even though we don't agree on a whole lot. Except as it relates to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, individual liberty and limited government. 

But our policies look a lot different, not a difference between big government and small government. But more relating in the role of government, not so much the overall size, but what it should be doing. But to listen to Ron Reagan talk about the need for a balance budget, is like listening to an obese person talk about the need for a healthy diet and exercise. Whatever they know about what they are talking about, is only through bad experiences. 

Its like saying, "we now know what doesn't work, had we known now then, we wouldn't of done a, because now we know a doesn't work. We would've done b or c instead, because we now know that b or c works". Its speaking in hindsight rather than foresight and not very visionary as far as this is what we should do, because we know it works based on this evidence. 

Had President Reagan listened to then candidate Reagan back in 1975, when he was talking about deficit reduction, he probably wouldn't of proposed the Economic Recovery Act of 1981. At least in that form, the economy was awful and needed a lot of stimulus and perhaps he would've proposed the tax cuts he did, the taxes then were way too high on everyone. Ranging somewhere between 20-70%. But since he felt the need for a balanced budget, he would've at least proposed to pay for those tax cuts. He would've proposed the increases in the defense budget, but proposed to pay for them. 

The fact is that President Reagan inherited a national debt of around 1T$ or more. Left office with around a 5T$ national debt, inherited a budget deficit from President Carter who had one of the worst economies we've ever seen. But it was 40B$, which thirty years ago wasn't a large deficit. Defenders of President Reagan like to say, "well thats the fault of the Democratic Congress's". The fact is President Reagan only had one Democratic Congress, his last two years. 

He had a Republican Senate for his first six years. President Reagan never sent a balanced budget to Congress or proposed a balance budget plan. What they did was deficit reduction, including tax hikes during his presidency. To say the Reagan Administration spent money like drunken sailors, would be an insult to drunken sailors. To use Senator John McCain's joke, they spent money like drunken Congressmen at a Congressional pork party, who are worried about reelection. Ron Reagan should've trusted his first instincts. 
Source:The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson

Young Americans For Freedom: Governor Ronald Reagan (1975)

Source:YAF- Governor Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) addressing YAF in 1975.

"Ronald Reagan gives this address to Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) at a 1975 meeting.  He talks about how to use bold banners, not pale pastels, when activists advance conservative ideas."

Source:Young Americans For Freedom

Back in this time period of 1974-75 just as then Governor Ronald Reagan was leaving the state house in California and looking into running for President in 1976, he described his politics as libertarian. His politics were very similar to Senator Barry Goldwater. These were both "get big government out of our wallets and bedrooms" Republicans and Barry Goldwater would probably be called a Libertarian today. 

Representative Ron Paul comes the closest to Goldwater-Reagan today. Foreign policy would be where they are different and both Goldwater and Reagan believed in at least some forms of taxation as well. And would be probably be (excuse the term, but this is how it is) shitting bricks if they were alive today and saw what had happened to the Republican Party. 

If Barry Goldwater and Ron Reagan were alive today, instead of seeing a party that they built a lot of it on themselves, a party that was around to fight big government. Instead Reagan and Goldwater they would see a party that was promoting big government. Thanks to the Christian-Right and Neoconservatives and all their new big government ideas, with their borrow and spend fiscal policy of the last decade. 

Ronald Reagan was talking about a new Conservative Republican Party that would be dominated by Classical Conservatives, Constitutional Conservatives, Federalists. That wouldn't make race, ethnicity, cultural, or gender, as issues in their party, but instead constitutional conservatism, that could appeal to Constitutional Conservatives of all racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, or economic backgrounds. That would take on the left-wing of the Democratic Party. And he accomplished a lot of what he was talking about in 1980, when the he won the presidency and the Republican Party finally won back the U.S. Senate and picked up 30 seats in the U.S. House.

Reagan Foundation: Governor Ronald Reagan vs President Jimmy Carter: 10/28/1980

Source:Reagan Foundation-

Source:The FreeState

How times have changed for the Republican Party. Because back in 1980 they actually did have a Conservative Republican leading their ticket. And leading them back into power in the White House and Senate. After spending another four years as they spent eight years, in the 1960s as the opposition minority party in the United States. With Democrats controlling both the White House and Congress.

Back then the GOP had a Conservative Republican, because Ronald Reagan actually understood what conservatism is, which is how Barry Goldwater laid it out as conserving the individual liberty of individuals. Big Government out of our wallets and bedrooms, letting free people live their own lives. Not using government to try to control how people lived their lives. Which is what we see with the GOP today, with its Religious and Neoconservatives. The same-sex marriage debate case in point.

This is the perfect time to be talking about Ron Reagan, since it would be his 103rd Birthday this year. And since he was the best Republican President we’ve had since Dwight Eisenhower and the best Republican President we’ve had since. And George W. Bush being the worst President we’ve had since, well maybe all-time. Ron Reagan described his politics as libertarian as late as 1975. He backed Barry Goldwater for President in 1964.

Politically its hard to tell the differences between Goldwater and Reagan. Except for maybe foreign policy, Reagan I believe became a classical Conservative, because what he saw in the 1960s what he saw as the growth of big government with the Great Society, but he also saw the growth of big government in the late 1970s, in California. That in 1978 passed a law that would allow employers to fire homosexuals just because they are gay. And he disagreed with that law.

The Christian Right came to power and influence in American politics in the late 1970s. Perhaps even as early as the mid 1970s, with Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority. Arguing against things like homosexuality and pornography, arguing for censorship of certain forms of entertainment, that of course they see as immoral. And even though President Reagan would talk to these groups, he played them like a politician, he knew he needed their votes. But never gave them anything, unlike Republican politicians today who don’t seem to be able to say no to these Far-Right big government groups. And that’s how the GOP is different today.
Source:Reagan Foundation

Bob Parker: VABC News Nightline: October 1980 Presidential Campaign

Source:The New Democrat

By 1980, but probably much further back than that going back to 1968 or 64 TV and TV news especially was already a huge factor in how Americans got their political news and other current affairs news. Because even by 1980 ABC News, NBC News and CBS News broadcast news was the really the only game in town when it came to TV broadcast news coverage from. There was radio, but most Americans got their radio news in the car and not so much at home except when they are getting ready to go to bed or getting ready for work in the morning.

CNN was the only cable news network on TV and they were just getting started in 1980 and C-SPAN again had just gotten started and them along with CNN probably had about the same amount of viewers as PBS. This was way before the whole menu of cable news networks and so-called news networks like FNC, MSNBC and RT. This was also pre-internet, so of course there were no blogs and as a result the print publishing business was in much better shape with newsmagazines and newspapers. So broadcast TV news was the leader at this point in how Americans got their news.

Time Life: The Dean Martin Roasts- Governor Ronald Reagan: Man of the Week (1973)

Source: Time Life- Governor Ronald W. Reagan R. CA.

Source:The New Democrat 

Lets see the life of Ronald Reagan? Well he grows up in small town Illinois roughly two-hours or so south of Chicago and comes from a family with a loving, but struggling mother and an alcoholic father who was somewhat absent. And from that he manages to become a lifeguard of their local  swimming pool, which was as important and a prestigious of a job as being their town Mayor. And from that he manages to get himself a college education and gets a job in Iowa as one of the Chicago Cubs broadcasters. And telling Cub fans and others what wasn't happening on the field.

Ronny moves out to California to become an actor and makes it small as a b actor. Well as big as b actors can be, but runs into trouble with some of his movies flopping as badly as a Bill Maher comedy festival and a Richard Dawkins lecture at a Southern Baptist Convention. Ronny discovers in the late 1950s or so that perhaps he's not quite cut out to be a b actor and sees if there are any openings for c actors and discovers there are no such thing as c actors and moves all the way down through the alphabet and finally arriving a w and discovering there are no w actors and decides that perhaps he needs to find a new career.

Ronny finally gets a job as a General Motors spokesman and hosting the General Motors Theater on NBC. And as he's doing these appearances for Corporate America he finds that he actually believes the, well garbage (even I have my standards as a blogger) that he's telling other people and finds his political voice and becomes a spokesman for Senator Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign which is where he finds his political voice and from that he gets recruited by California businessman to run for Governor of California in 1966.

Ronny wins the California gubernatorial election in 1966 and not only discovers that he's not the dictator of California, but Governor of California and that he has a Legislature to deal with and that it is run by the Democratic Party, both the Assembly and Senate. He also discovers that it is also the 1960s and that the hippie movement is in full view especially in California. And then talks to some of his well trusted political advisers who know almost as much about politics as fish know about cars and planes. And tells them "if I knew these things about being Governor of California going in, I wouldn't of run in 1966".

Governor Reagan's political advisers talk the Governor out of resigning and from trying to impeach himself. By telling him that "the voters of California voted for you and trust you to do the job they elected you to". And also telling him that "governors can't impeach themselves, only the Assembly can". Ronny stays on as Governor, gets reelected in 1970 after he was successful in making sure no one else was allowed to run against him by personally erasing all of the other names from all of the ballots. And Dean Martin and his crew take it from there.
Source:Time Life

CBS News: Election Night Coverage 1980- President Jimmy Carter's Concession Speech

Source: CBS News.

Source:The New Democrat


President Jimmy Carter stepping up to the plate and taking his loss to Ronald Reagan like a man. Definitely one of the earliest concession speeches at least at the presidential level. The sun might of still been out on the West Coast when President Carter gave his speech. I say that half-jokingly, but President Carter was told by his campaign leadership team over the previous weekend before the election when they got their last polling information that they were going to lose. So there was no real surprise here.
Source:CBS News

ABC News: ABC Evening News- Saturday Before Start of 1976 GOP National Convention

Source: ABC News-

Source:The New Democrat 

Just a few days before the start of the 1976 Republican National Convention and the GOP didn't know who their presidential nominee would be. Even though they held the White House with President Gerald Ford. But President Ford wasn't elected President obviously being Richard Nixon's Vice President and he wasn't even elected Vice President, but appointed to that position after Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced to resign in 1973. And former Governor Ronald Reagan was very already very popular inside the Republican Party.
Source:ABC News

Kansas Politics: CBS News- 1980 GOP Convention: Ford/Bush VP Drama

Source: Kansas Politics-

Source:The New Democrat 

CBS News trying to figure out who Ronald Reagan had nominated for Vice President at the 1980 Republican National Convention. Reagan had narrowed it down to former President of the United States Gerald Ford of all people who had already served briefly as Vice President for Richard Nixon before President Nixon resigned in the summer of 1974. And of course former Ambassador to China George H.W. Bush who had served in other positions as well.
Source:Kansas Politics:

CBS News: Governor Ronald Reagan- Talks President Gerald Ford: On Face The Nation (1975)

Source: CBS News-

Source:The New Democrat 

I don't have the exact date on this, but I believe this is early 1975. The year I'm sure of and it was just after Ronald Reagan left the California Governor's Mansion as a two-term Governor of California. 1975 representing a new Congress with the next major national election being the 1976 presidential election. With the speculation in Washington being who was going to run for president. President Gerald Ford who inherited the job from President Richard Nixon in 1974 when President Nixon resigned. And would Ron Reagan run against the President or not in the Republican presidential primaries.
Source:CBS News

The American Conservative: James Antle- 'Five Ways Reagan Nostalgia Misleads Right-Wingers'

Source: The American Conservative- President Ronald Reagan. Don't know about the date and where the photo was taken.

Source:The New Democrat 

"This week marks Ronald Reagan’s 103rd birthday. Non-conservatives often mock the right’s nostalgia for the fortieth president, but the enthusiasm is as well placed as the FDR portraits that hung above many a New Deal Democrat’s mantle." 

From The American Conservative 

"This is really American big "C" Conservativism in a nutshell... they just know better than you, facts and logic be damned!  Oh yeah, you think you might have an insight about what your father thought?  Wrong you are Mr., because I read a book written by a guy who read another book about another guy, so that makes me an expert!  Okay, so I had someone tell me about both books and both guys, but I trust and believe them and therefore don't need to think critically for myself." 

From Craig Ipedia

I saw a book event last week on C-SPAN that featured Ron Reagan the son of Ronald Reagan. Now I know that politically the two Ron’s in the Reagan Family are different politically. But it is clear that Ron Jr. respects and loves his father dearly and his father loved and respected him dearly. As well and the more Ron Jr. talks about his father, the more you could see that he respected his father’s politics as well. And considers his father to be a successful president. They just didn’t agree on all the issues like as they related to the environment, aids research, and homelessness.

I bring this up because Ron Reagan wrote a book about his father’s life a few years ago. 2010 or 2011 and wrote about his father’s life a biography about his father and that is what this book event was about. And it was held about the time of President Reagan’s 100th Birthday late January, 2011. And after he was done speaking he was asked by one of the people at the book event at Politics and Prose, a Washington bookstore not very far from where I live in Maryland: “What do you think your father would feel about today’s Republicans talking about your father and comparing themselves to him?”

I’m paraphrasing here, but Ron Reagan said something to the effect that today’s right-wingers liked the political success of his father and the fact that he was a Conservative Republican or called that. But they wouldn’t of liked his politics that the party is much further to the Right today than it was when President Reagan left office back in 1989, some twenty-five years ago. 

You gotta know that Ron Reagan Sr. considered himself a Libertarian up until 1975 or so when he was first considering a strong run for President of the United States. Well, the word Libertarian and libertarianism is considered as bad as Communist or Communism by today’s Religious-Right and the broader Far-Right in the GOP.

Just read a column in the so-called American Conservative, even though it doesn’t sound that conservative to me at least in the Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan tradition. That said that and I’m paraphrasing here and the link of that column is on this blog, that said even though President Reagan did a lot for the conservative movement, he didn’t do much for advancing what is called social conservatism. Well, again Ron Reagan was a Classical Conservative, again think of Barry Goldwater. Not a Religious Conservative or a Neo-Conservative, which is very different.

Not arguing that Ron Reagan Sr. was a pure Libertarian because he wasn’t. The way he built up the military that by the way started under President Ford and President Carter, is a perfect example of that. But he did believe that people should have the freedom to live their own lives. And was more interested in how people interacted with each other, than what they did in their privacy. He ran on decreasing the role of government in Americans lives, not expanding it. Which makes him very different from the Religious-Right who believe Americans have too much personal freedom.

TV Days: 'John F. Kennedy vs. Ronald Reagan- On Medicare'

Source:TV Days- President John F. Kennedy, 35th POTUS.

Source: The New Democrat 

"Does Medicare = Socialized Medicine? - John F. Kennedy vs Ronald Reagan

This video contains segments of Ronald Reagan's 1961 audio LP recording made for the American Medical Association's "Operation Coffee Cup," which was a campaign against proposed senior citizen healthcare legislation called Medicare. This video also contains segments of President John F. Kennedy speaking of the real need for Medicare senior citizen health insurance."

From TV Days

I have a lot of respect for Ronald Reagan, but he was simply dead wrong about Medicare. And by the time he was President of the United States at least, he was even a supporter of Medicare and spoke in favor of it. Were there members of Congress looking to nationalize the health insurance system, if not the entire health care system in the 1960s, I’m sure there were. But that is not what President Kennedy and then later President Lyndon Johnson were proposing. And what President Johnson then later got passed out of Congress in 1964, what they got out of Congress was guaranteed health insurance for senior citizens and the poor. Which is Medicare and Medicaid and I wish they went further and allowed for all Americans above poverty to pay into Medicare if they chose to. In other words the public option, but they didn’t even go that far.

CBS News: Mike Wallace- Interviewing Ronald Reagan (1975) 'Opinion On Libertarian-Conservatism'

Source:CBS News- Governor Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) being interviewed by CBS News's Mike Wallace, for 60 Minutes, in 1975. 

Source:The FreeState

"If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism." -Ronald Reagan" 

From Constitutional War

Definition of fascism: "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition" 

From Merriam Webster

Definition of liberalism: "A political ideology centred upon the individual (see individualism), thought of as possessing rights against the government, including rights of due process under the law, equality of respect, freedom of expression and action, and freedom from religious and ideological constraint. Liberalism is attacked from the left as the ideology of free markets, with no defence against the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few, and as lacking any analysis of the social and political nature of persons. It is attacked from the right as insufficiently sensitive to the value of settled institutions and customs, or to the need for social structure and constraint in providing the matrix for individual freedoms." 

From Oxford

I only show you these definitions of fascism and liberalism, because Ronald Reagan in this interview said that fascism is private enterprise and property that's controlled  by the state. And then he said that's what liberalism is today. And he's just dead wrong about that. 

Ronald Reagan described his own politics as libertarian as late as 1975.  If you look at his career from 1975 to 81 when he wasn’t a politician in office and spent that time running for and then getting elected President in 1980, that’s where he was politically. Not just on economic policy, but social policy and did not believe it was the job of government to interfere with how Americans should live their own lives.

And even though President Reagan escalated the War on Drugs in the 1980s, he didn’t really have much to and want to give the Religious-Right. Or what I call the New-Right in America. Much if anything officially and even though he talked to those groups he was never really with them. And was more about using them to help him politically so they would vote for him. And keep the Far-Right off is back when he ran for reelection in 1984. Something that his Vice President George H.W. Bush wasn’t able to do when he ran for reelection for President in 1992.

I agree with most of what Reagan said in this short clip. Except for when it came it liberalism, where he is dead wrong about liberalism being another word for fascism, which is a different subject. But what Reagan got right was that libertarianism is conservatism. At least in the sense that government shouldn’t be involved in people’s personal or economic lives, as far as trying to direct people in how they should live their own lives. 

That the real difference between what I at least would call classical (not religious conservatism conservatism) and libertarianism has to do with foreign affairs and national security. Not when it comes to government’s involvement in culture and people live their own lives.

Reagan Foundation: Ronald Reagan- ‘A Time For a Choosing (1964)’

Source:Reagan Foundation- private citizen Ronald W. Reagan speaking in favor of Senator Barry Goldwater, in 1964.

“The Speech” is what Ronald Reagan called it. Today we call it, “A Time for Choosing,” and it was a pivotal turning point in Ronald Reagan’s life.

Ronald Reagan began a long side-career of public speaking as his acting career closed out. He traveled across the country meeting Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce and any other civic-minded local groups. This continued and intensified during his service as the General Electric spokesperson while hosting their sponsored television series. “The Speech” was delivered in various forms and to different audiences as each word was honed, measured and memorized.

During the 1964 Presidential campaign, Republican party officials in California, who knew Reagan’s powerful message and delivery, asked him to film a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater. The speech was aired on October 27, 1964 and it was electrifying. Donations to the Republican party and candidates increased dramatically.

The Republican Party took note and they targeted Reagan as a candidate from that point forward. He agreed in 1966 to run for Governor of California. He won two terms, and eventually won the Presidency.”

From the Reagan Foundation 

The so-called Reagan Revolution of 1980, that brought Ronald Reagan to the presidency and thirty or so new House Republicans and the Senate Republicans winning control of the Senate for the first time since 1952, actually started in 1964 under Barry Goldwater. Ron Reagan just had the personality to sell American conservatism to the country and show Americans that it wasn’t scary. It took really sixteen years for the Republican Party to control both the White House and at least one chamber of Congress.

But all of these steps were put in place starting in 1964, when the message was put together. When Republicans started winning in the South consistently in 1966, a big reason Richard Nixon was elected President in 1968, won a landslide in 1972, because Southerners were becoming Republicans. The Democratic Party was losing its grasp on the South and hasn’t gotten it back since. Congressional Republicans lost overwhelmingly in Congress in 1974, but a lot of that had to do with Watergate.

Republicans lost again in at least partially due to Watergate 1976 and Ron Reagan ran for President in 1976. And came damn close to winning the Republican nomination from President Gerry Ford and kept this message of individual freedom and personal responsibility alive. The tax revolt of the late 1970s, especially in California, all of these things were part of the Goldwater/Reagan Revolution. Thanks to Barry Goldwater, the Republican Party was changing from a yes fiscally conservative, socially moderate party.

The GOP was mostly in the Northeast and Midwest and became a party that was able to communicate this message across the country and take this message to the South. The only thing with the South, is they brought in the Religious-Right to go along with Republicans who are more libertarian than statist when it comes to social issues. But the GOP understood that they were simply too small and had to grow their base to compete with Democrats in the future. 

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Reagan Foundation: '1980 Presidential Candidate Debate: Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter - 10/28/80'

Source:Reagan Foundation- President James E. Carter (Democrat, Georgia) debating Governor Ronald W. Reagan, for President of the United States, in 1980;

"The full-length 1980 Presidential Candidate Debate between Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter on 10/28/80." 

From the Reagan Foundation

Source:Reagan Foundation- Governor Ronald W. Reagan, debating President James E. Carter, in 1980.

Even though the 1980 presidential election between former California Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter turned into a landslide, with Ron Reagan winning something like 44 States, and with around 56% of the popular vote. and with Senate Republicans picking up eleven seats and winning control of the Senate for the first time since 1952, (these stats coming from doing too much research) the election was a tossup, with perhaps a slight edge to Governor Reagan, before the 1st debate.

Reagan, not looking to go to war with the Soviet Union, or anything like that. That he was a cool in the political sense, calm intelligent man, that had core classical conservative beliefs. But that conservatism wasn't crazy and neither was he. 

For President Carter, really his last opportunity to show Americans, when this election was still close and have a chance to beat Reagan and put himself in position of winning the election by giving Americans an alternative vision of where he would want to take America in a 2nd term. The difference between front- running politicians and underdog politicians when it comes to political debates, is that the frontrunner tends to take a positive approach to the debate and just tries to sell themselves:"This is what I'll do if you elect, or reelect me."

The underdog politician, the one who's trailing in the election, tends to take the opposite approach. And decides:"The voters clearly don't like me and so what I have to do, is to convince voters that they should like my opponent even less." And then win the election by default and thats exactly what this debate had. Ron Reagan was clearly in cruise control and tried to make this debate a referendum:

"You should vote for me because I will take this country in a different direction, much different from where we are going now, which is clearly not working." 

Whereas President Carter was on the attack almost the whole debate and trying to make it about Ron Reagan. The famous line in this debate is of course Ron Reagan saying in his closing statement saying: "Are you better of today, then you were four years ago: Is the cost of living lower, are jobs more secure, have the taxes gone up, or down?" That sort of thing. People clearly didn't feel better off in 1980 than they did in 1976 and Reagan was successful in making this election a referendum on President Carter.

Reagan Foundation: 'Candidacy for Presidency: Ronald Reagans Announcement of Candidacy For President of U.S. 11/13/79'

Source:Reagan Foundation- Governor Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) announcing his run for President, in 1979.

"Ronald Reagan's Announcement of Candidacy for President of the United States on 11/13/79.

For more information on the ongoing works of President Reagan's Foundation, visit us at:Reagan Foundation."

Source:Reagan Foundation

You could make a case that when Ronald Reagan announced that he was running for President in November, 1979 that he won the 1980 presidential election and defeated President Jimmy Carter right there. Because of how different the message that he was giving, then what was being delivered from President Carter. 

President Carter constantly told the country how bad the situation was. Reporting on from one disaster from another, especially economically and even telling the country that they were partially at fault for this. Living too well and that was contributing to the economic problems. The country feeling as bad, or if not worse than the President said we were doing. 

To sound really corny: what Ronald Reagan was saying in 1979-80 is that our best days are still ahead of us, if we change course, go in a different direction, get the economy going again. And he had a plan for all of that. We can argue about how successful he was with the all the economic growth and jobs, but in exchange for high deficits, debt, and interest rates. But he was laying his vision for America being the City on a Shining Hill.

HBO: Ronald Reagan (2011)

Source:HBO- President Ronald W. Reagan (Republican, California) I believe his daughter Maureen is in the background there.

"Reagan examines the enigmatic career of one of the revered architects of the modern world—icon, screen star, and two-term president Ronald Reagan. This HBO documentary, which premiered this year on Reagan's 100th birthday, traces the 40th president's meteoric rise from B-movie actor to General Electric salesman to California Governor to the most powerful office in the world, examining how an impassioned anti-Communism fueled an unexpected but seismic political career, one whose reverberations still shape Americanlife. It also explores how a self-proclaimed group of modern-day Reagan acolytes have come to repackage his legacy, seeking to turn a deeply textured human being into an oversimplified marble icon for their own contemporary political purposes. Who is selling Ronald Reagan and to what end?" 

From Roco Films 

I just saw the Ronald Reagan documentary last night on HBO and I thought they did a pretty good job. Jumped through his California governorship, focused on the student protests at Berkley and his brief presidential run in 1968. Yes, Ron Reagan ran twice for president before being elected. I would've like to of seen more of Governor Reagan and see what type of Governor he was, even though I already have a pretty good idea from other films I've seen. I would've like to have seen how he worked with the Democratic legislature. How he defeated Governor Brown in 1966, how he got reelected in 1970.

I would also like to know how Governor Reagan closed the budget deficit, Welfare reform, all issues he focused on as Governor of California. As well as how he dealt with President Nixon in the 1970s. The fact he considered himself to be a Libertarian up until 1975 and then became more of a Classical Conservative like Barry Goldwater. His failed 1976 Presidential run against President Gerry Ford, what he did when out of office before he announced he was going to run for president in 1979. His involvement in 1978 California Proposition that would have allowed California employers to fire homosexuals because of their sexuality, that Reagan came out against, when he knew he was going to need the Religious-Right to be elected president in 1980.

There are so many aspects about Ron Reagan, that doing an hour and forty-five minute film about him, doesn't really do justice as far as telling the story of Ron Reagan the man. Someone because of his conservatism, couldn't win national office as a Republican today. The Religious-Right, as well as the Tea Party Nationalists wouldn't allowed that to happen. They would've treated him like Ron Paul. Accusing him of being a Liberal or Libertarian, which is one reason why he still remains one of our most popular former president's. Because except for maybe leftists, who still go out of their way to speak against him, he has broad support.

Conservatives love Reagan because he's against big government across the board, for the most part. George Will being an excellent example of that. Libertarians like him because he believed in low taxes and didn't want to tell Americans how to live their lives. Liberals such as myself and others respect him because he's a real Conservative and could work with Democrats. Centrists like him because he made government work and was practical. Reagan has support almost across the board. 

What you get with the HBO film, is a look at certain targeted aspects of his life, intended to appeal to a broad audience of people. Who don't follow politics and history very closely and feel the need to be entertained, which is one reason why this movie focused a lot on his Hollywood career and his two marriages, as well as his kids and Nancy. And there should be a movie about him, which is how LBJ and FDR have been covered where you get a big picture. 

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