| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Ronald Reagan: A Time For Choosing (27 Oct 1964) video |
| 2021-07-02 |
| [Reagan Library] "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. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #1 The impressive thing, aside from the rhetorical quality of The Speech, is how current it remains. All the numbers would have to be increased by several orders of magnitude, and some references changed, but otherwise it's good to go. For example: "We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer -- and they've had almost 30 [make that 85 or so] years of it -- shouldn't we expect government to 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?" |
| Posted by: Matt 2021-07-02 09:05 |