A Time For Choosing

Think about this when faced with a political question:

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order - or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.'

The above quotation came from Ronald Reagan's speech, "A Time For Choosing," which he delivered in October of 1964. This words are still relevant today. Do the policies that you promote take us towards the ant heap of totalitarianism, or advance us up the ladder of liberty? Does withdrawal from Iraq increase individual freedom and order? Does a national healthcare system move us up or down? Is giving federal money for stem-cell research, fuel efficient cars, and windfarms expanding my freedom, or restricting my choices?

Answering these questions in a manner consistent to Reagan's rhetoric about liberty and freedom is the real change that we need in our country.

UPDATE: As I watch the speech, this line blew me away:

There can be no real peace while one American is dying some place in the world for the rest of us. We're at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the Founding Fathers.

Today, the soldiers of our nation are fighting a valiant and noble war to bring peace and freedom to new people, and thereby make America more free and safe. And yet, there are those among us who want us to lose that war, to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I agree- do we still know the gift that was given to us by our Founding Fathers?

UPDATE 2: You have to watch this speech. I'm rather young- I've never seen it. Link to it above. Check out this line:

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.

During this last election, it was about a little intellectual elite in Washington telling you how to live your life. Remember that exchange with Joe the Plumber and Barack Obama? In it, he said that he thinks it is best if he takes some of your money and redistributes it to others- and those who voted for him admit that he does know better than them how to run their lives. Have we indeed lost our capacity for self-government, as our tradition and schools fail to educate us? Have we abandoned the American Revolution, and the First Principles on which it was based? Reagan continued:

(Our Founding Fathers) knew that governments doesn'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.

Force and coercion- tyranny and oppression. Not to be Mr. Doom and Gloom, but that is what is going to follow this Democratic victory. Reagan understood the nature of the beast. Look at this line:

Well what of this man (Barry Goldwater) that they (the liberals) would destroy -- and in destroying, they would destroy that which he represents, the ideas that you and I hold dear?

Think about what liberals did to Sarah Palin. They attempted to personally destroy her, so that in doing so, they would destroy everything that she represented- in personally attacking her, their goal was to attack the freedoms and liberties on which our nation was based.

Here is the ending:

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny. Thank you very much.