Applying the Wisdom of Ronald Reagan in Today's Political Landscape

Many people today know Ronald Reagan as an actor, who then went on to become Governor of California, and then the 40th President of the United States. He was a man who knew what he believed and actually stood up for those principles. He did not sell out his principles in order to gain political favor. He led us out of a brutal recession. He brought back a faith and trust in the American way of life at the height of the Cold War. He believed in Americans and America, even when they did not necessarily believe in themselves.

In the past couple of years, I have received Ronald Reagan calendars from the Reagan Ranch. These calendars are full of pictures of Ronald Reagan, both at work and at his ranch. They contain interesting factual nuggets. But more than anything else in this calendar, they contain many quotes from his speeches and his writings.

Today, politicians need speechwriters to come up with many of the pithy things that they say. This was not true with Reagan. While he did have speechwriters, many of these quotes belong to Reagan himself.

In reading these quotes, it is easy to see that Ronald Reagan believed that the problems that Americans face today are solvable. He believed that government intervention was not the way to solve these problems. Rather, Americans can solve these problems when the government steps out of the way, when we have a faith in God to get us through our trials, when we are free to help others in time of need.

• He believed in a limited government; not an oppressive, overreaching government.
• He believed in a government of, by, and for the people; not in a government in spite of the people.
• He believed that people should have a freedom to worship as they please; not a freedom from worship and all things spiritual.
• He believed that the founding fathers put together a document that could withstand the test of time; not a document that changes over time to whatever we want it to say.

As I read through these quotes, I am amazed at the things he believed and the way he governed. I marvel at a politician who governed as he said he would, something we do not really have today. Then I wonder, if we applied his wisdom to the way we are governed today (or allow ourselves to be governed), then how much better off would we be as a country?

I wish to share a few of these quotes in this post. I will occasionally share more of them as time goes on. But please take note of the things he says and how we could apply them to government today.

1. "You can't be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy." Ronald Reagan - 1988
2. "Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will product less of it. So, we cut the people's tax rates and the people produced more than ever before." Ronald Reagan - 1989
3. "We have long since discovered that nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program." Ronald Reagan - 1992
4. "All of us should remember that the federal government is not some mysterious institution comprised of buildings, files, and paper. The people are the government. What we create we ought to be able to control." Ronald Reagan - 1981

There are so many more quotes that I could post here, but I think you get the main idea. Reagan believed that government was not here to fix everyone's problem, to provide for everyone, to be a nanny to us.

Ponder these "Reagan-isms". Read them over and over again. Try to understand that the way that the government is leading us today is 180 degrees in the opposite direction of Reagan. Then ask yourself "Why?" What is it that today's government officials (in both parties) do not understand about the ideas and principles that Reagan espoused and lived by? Why can't they see that, under Reagan, this country prospered? Why can't they see that when you get government out of the way, Americans can prosper and live in the freedom that the founding fathers envisioned?

Why do today's elected government officials feel that we cannot make our own decisions on anything? Why do they feel that we need the government to hold us by our hands every day of our life? Why do they feel that we are not smart enough to make good decisions?

Remember, we have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Why do we vote for these knuckleheads who do not believe this? Why do we vote for people who do not care about the people they represent? Mid-term elections are coming up next year. It is about time we vote for people who represent us and the freedom we cherish. We do not need to elect people who represent government bureaucracy. Let's take our country back.