Tag: Ronald Reagan

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(Updated at 8 p.m. EST) Strategists in both major political parties continue to digest this year’s elections (we can’t call it “Election Day” anymore), and mail-in votes continue to trickle in and are counted. And we still have a US Senate election to resolve in Georgia. Who knows how that will turn out? Preview Open

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Israeli political philosopher Yoram Hazony (’86) discusses the Enlightenment, the American Founding, his latest book: Conservatism: A Rediscovery, and Conservatism’s past and future.

Dr. Hazony is the the President of the Herzl Institute, based in Jerusalem, and the chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, a public affairs institute based in Washington D.C., which recently hosted the popular National Conservatism Conference in Miami, FL.

In this Labor Day edition of “The Learning Curve,” Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and the author of The Polish Revolution: Solidarity. Professor Garton Ash shares insights on what both the public and students should know about Poland’s Solidarity movement, the first independent trade union (with 10 million members) behind the Iron Curtain, and its charismatic co-founder, Lech Walesa. They discuss the wide range of support for it, from U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, to peace campaigners and socialists, and how it helped topple Soviet communism. He explains Poland’s role during World War II as ground zero of the Holocaust, how Allied decisions at Yalta set the stage for the Cold War, and lessons that we should remember in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The interview concludes with a reading from his book.

Stories of the Week: Loan forgiveness programs and other issues surrounding higher education are already political – but could politicos push the envelope by imposing tuition caps or outcome-based funding, interfere with autonomy in hiring, or target affirmative action programs? A new initiative is tackling big, structural problems in K-12 education, developing tools that can help parents with more flexible learning options, greater equity, and access to postsecondary college and career opportunities.

Quote of the Day: Inflation

 

“Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.” — Ronald Reagan

I graduated from college and began my career in 1979. Inflation had been out of control since the first oil shock in 1973. Jerry Ford, despite a well-intentioned attempt to Whip Inflation Now, had not.

Mikhail Gorbachev, RIP

 

The first time I met Mikhail Gorbachev he ignored me for a couple of minutes, devoting himself instead to my wife. 

 This was in the early two thousands. Communism had collapsed so completely that even the last leader of the Soviet Union had become a capitalist, visiting the United States on a paid speaking tour. My wife and I met him backstage before one of these events. Chatting with Edita, Gorbachev asked where she was from, how she liked California, and if she had ever visited Russia. As they spoke, I realized he was good. Really good. He had the touch. Unlike Brezhnev, Andropov, Kosygin, and the other aging tyrants he had succeeded, Gorbachev proved human, even, heaven help me–he had lead a country officially pledged to the destruction of our own country, after all–likeable. He may have risen to power in a Communist system, but he’d have done just fine in a democracy, too. When at last Gorbachev turned from my wife to me, his translator explained that I had composed President Reagan’s Berlin Wall address. Gorbachev smiled. “Ah,” he said, “dramaturg!”

Quote of the Day: Taxpayers

 

“The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.” – Ronald Reagan

With the almost-certain passage of the Manchin-Schumer Bill, it appears they are raising our taxes again. But don’t worry, the new taxes will only be paid by people making more than $400,000 annually and corporations. Except it does not work that way. Those making more than $400K each year generally got there because they are smart. They will hire accountants and tax preparers to find ways to shelter that money and make less than $400K/year. As for corporations? They will pass the costs of the extra taxes to their customers in the form of increased prices. That results in inflation.

‘Embrace the Suck’: It’s Time to Bridge What Divides the GOP

 

There’s nothing more zealous than a convert, goes the old saying. Conversions are deeply transformative. Converts more deeply embrace and evangelize their new faith, whether in religion or politics.

It doesn’t just happen with party switchers. Sometimes, someone wakes up and is politically charged when teacher unions keep schools shut down, or they read the homework assignments their kids bring home in utter horror. Or being unable to find infant formula at the grocery store for a newborn. Paying $5 per gallon of gas might do it, too.

Quote of the Day: Freedom

 

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.” – Ronald Reagan Jan 5, 1967

Reagan was right about one thing: Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We are in a battle for the soul of our country; especially the principle that it was founded on individual liberty and freedom. That battle has to be won (or lost) at the grassroots. When a critical mass supports freedom, it grows like wildfire. When it does not, freedom dies.

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Two of the best presidents of the last four decades made their careers as actors. What is it about actors that make them great presidents? Perhaps they understand that the head of state is really playing a role as leader of the nation. Perhaps not knowing how their films will be received gives them a […]

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Click here to listen to the podcast! In this episode of the Resistance Library Podcast, Sam and Dave talk about the 40th president of the United States. Ronald Reagan was arguably the last truly great and transformative American President. His story starts in a small town in Illinois and ends with the fall of Communism. […]

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Vladimir Putin is a Russian leader, in the long line of the czars and their nominally communist successors. Calling him a KGB thug or using “tzar” as an epithet obscures the reality. Czar or tzar, a Russian ruler is a ruler in the context of Russian history and culture. Any czar worth his salt would […]

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This is the last installment of New Year’s Resolutions for others. Find the first chapters here and here.  I’m happy to offer a final few resolutions for our beloved social media giants, especially Facebook (now Meta), Twitter, Google (Alphabet), Amazon, and the growing legion of alternatives. Stay for a few more resolutions for all American […]

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“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance, it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.” – Ronald Reagan, sworn in as 33rd Governor of California, January 2, 1967 (delivered First […]

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Start Paying Attention to Social Security, Whatever Your Age

 

After the late Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS) passed away earlier this month, I visited YouTube to watch his Senate farewell address. He resigned from the Senate as Majority Leader and as the Senior Senator from Kansas on June 11, 1996. I had a front-row seat for his speech as Secretary of the Senate.

During that speech, Dole considered helping extend the solvency of Social Security, which teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in 1983, as his single most significant legislative achievement, among many. It was a bipartisan agreement that included reforms insisted by Republicans (phasing in the age to receive full retirement benefits, including mine) and tax hikes demanded by Democrats. It was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, flanked by a happy bipartisan delegation from Congress, along with Treasury Secretary Don Regan.

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Ronald Reagan was arguably the last truly great and transformative American President. His story starts in a small town in Illinois and ends with the fall of Communism. At the time, he was the oldest man to be President, showing Americans that advanced age didn’t mean diminished energy – he united a nation like few have before […]

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US Is Now Closer to a Dictatorship Than a Democratic Republic

 

Former President Ronald Reagan once famously said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Notwithstanding the Cold War, Reagan’s words may have been considered somewhat hyperbolic at the time. Today, they are appropriate.

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The United States is in my mind the greatest country on earth. Our decency, our values, the principles we stand on I can say to you with zero hesitation or reservation I am proud to be an American. Unfortunately, many Americans do not feel the same anymore. We view patriotism far too often through the […]

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Reagan’s Legacy of Ashes: Education

 

Reagan EducationWhat does it take for a Republican president to effect real, lasting change? Was President Ronald Reagan a failure beyond the Cold War and the economy? Reagan had two overwhelming Electoral College victories. He did so by assembling a coalition of three different kinds of “conservatives:” religious (social), economic, and security. In the end, Reagan’s eight years in office were marked by big substantive policy benefits to the economic and national security wings, with minimal substantive benefits to religious/social conservatives.

Consider the policy area of education. Ronald Reagan ran in 1980 on reversing the brand new elevation of a Department of Education to cabinet level. He failed in this and failed in effecting any substantive reform of education, so failed to even slow the left’s mark through the institutions and seizure of mind share. President Reagan left us a legacy of ashes in education policy.

Memorandum of Discussion at the 473d Meeting of the National Security Council

The US Capitol, Fort Pelosi is Closed for July 4th

 

Why are some Democrats working so hard to tamper down Independence Day celebrations?

Independence Day celebrations are a long staple of hamlets across America, but especially in Washington, DC. Before the pandemic, thousands of people would flock to The Mall and camp out most of the day; others would arrive late in the afternoon, at the risk of occasional summer thunderstorms, mostly to get a good look at the fireworks launched from near the Washington Monument that evening.