Ronald Reagan’s words on the foundation of freedom, so timely now as we are on the verge of the subservience of the individual to the state on the most fundamental aspects of our lives:
“Rejection of the arbitrary power of the state. The refusal to subordinate the rights of the individual to the superstate. The realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkBwvDWp0g]
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Related Post:
Margaret Thatcher: Free Society Speech (1975)
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When Reagan was president, I did not appreciate him. I am now thankful for him, and the videos of his inspiring speeches, as well as those who today are working tirelessly to continue his legacy – Conservatism. True Reagan Conservatism. Constitutional Conservatism.
He and Maggie Thacher are now my heroes! 🙂
I'd almost forgotten what a great speaker Reagan was. His words about the Salvadoran people could apply today to the Iraqis, who've braved death now twice to vote in free elections. Thanks for posting this.
I spent the afternoon reading and listening to some of Ronald Reagan's great speeches. In his speech titled, "A Time for Choosing", which he delivered while stumping for Barry Goldwater on Oct. 27, 1964, he uttered these timeless words:
"…If we lose freedom here, there's 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 the sovereign people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election.
Whether we believe in our capacity for self government, or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite, in a far distant capitol, can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well, I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down. Man's age old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."
It was good while it lasted. R.I.P. individual freedom.