45 years ago this week, then actor and aspiring political activist  Ronald Reagan delivered a ringing endorsement for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. While this speech was uttered 18 years before my birth, I know it well and would greatly appreciate you setting aside the time to watch it. Now I'm going to commit a structural faux pas by not presenting you with the speech right away. It's my belief conservatism and common sense are truly timeless concepts. To prove my point I've taken quotes from this speech completely out of context in order to show how Regean's views and logic were truly timeless and can easy be applied to the problems and issues of today.

“I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines.”
~Ronald Reagan

This could be no better illustrated today than the current approval ratings in government. Obama's approval numbers have been on the way down dramatically since his inauguration day. Having already lost all of the McCain supports that rallied behind him hoping to “give him a chance”, his current numbers seem to indicate a steady erosion of support from his democratic b ase as well as the much coveted “independents”. Now with the news that the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections are swinging in favor of the Republican candidates and recent polls that find that the largest group of self identified voters are conservatives, we may very well see moderate Democrats running full speed away from the far left policies of Obama, Pelosi and Reid.

“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.”
~Ronald Reagan

 No person of any intellectual honesty can look at this quote and not think of radical Islam.  Just in the past week there have been two massive suicide bombings, one in Iraq which  killed 155 people (24 children) and one in Pakistan killing 74 civilians. In Europe and  Canada state sponsored Sharia Law courts are gaining popularity. Now 23% of the  worlds population (1.57 billion) people are practicing Muslims and I would never paint  such a large group with a broad brush, but even if one hundredth of one percent of that  group supported Jihad and radical Islam we'd be looking at a group 157,000 terrorist  worldwide. To put that in perspective that's the numerical equivalent of the standing armies  of Greece, Israel or Spain. This is also roughly equivalent to the total number of US forces  in both Iraq and Afghanistan combined. What's important to remember is this threat is not  a uniformed army, but a multinational, multicultural group of terrorists that target our  civilians in truly cowardly audacious attacks.

“Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”
~Ronald Reagan

For 20 years preceding the September 11th attacks the United States allowed on the average 90,000 refugees per year to enter our country. We allow those escaping religious and ethnic prosecution to seek amnesty within our borders. Over 1 million people legally became naturalized citizens last year while an estimated 11 million crossed our borders illegally. We truly are the shining city on the hill, as long as we stay true to our founding principles.

“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.”
~Ronald Reagan

This point is no better illustrated then the health care debates of August this year. I witnessed first hand crowds cheering “you work for us!”. It seems sad to say, but today's Senators and Congressmen have seemed to have forgotten that they are our elected representatives in Washington. Not our rulers or moral elite.

“Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government."
~Ronald Reagan

President Obama seems to be a big believer in this theory. In 2001 during a radio interview with WBEZ radio Chicago Obama said,

“...generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf"
~Barack Obama

If this isn't a ringing endorsement of the notion that somehow an all knowing centralized federal government can somehow provide for all of us.

“the full power of centralized government"—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don'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. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.”
~Ronald Reagan

Jay Severin, a local talk radio host here in Boston, I believe puts this quote in great perspective with the notion that,

“Aside from the occasional prosecution of wars, and the infrequent delivery of mail, what does the federal government do right?”
~Jay Severin

Still this doesn't keep this present administration from gobbling portions of the private sector, from domestic auto manufacturing to student loans and now potentially the entire healthcare system.

“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 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?”
~Ronald Reagan

I can't think of someone who personifies the notion that government knows best other then Massachusetts' own, Barney Frank:

“Now do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 million poor families, we'd be able to give each family 4,600 dollars a year. And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.”
~Ronald Reagan

I can't think of a better example of this currently then the “jobs created” by the stimulus bill. We spent roughly $16 billion dollars to create 30,383 jobs this year. That beaks down to roughly $533,000 per job created. The Council of Economic Advisers anticipated that each job created would cost government $92,136 a difference of about $440,000. It seems today we still have the problem of overhead in government.

“Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we're always "against" things—we're never "for" anything.”
~Ronald Reagan

Again I'm reminded of the healthcare debates of this past summer. I participated in demonstrations against a government take over of the healthcare system. I don't work for an insurance company, I have no vested interest in the debate above my rights and freedoms I perceive to be in danger. While I chose to exercise my constitutionally protected freedom to protest what I believe is a step in the wrong direction by our government. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi viewed me differently:

“But we're against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments to those people who depend on them for a livelihood. They've called it "insurance" to us in a hundred million pieces of literature. But then they appeared before the Supreme Court and they testified it was a welfare program. They only use the term "insurance" to sell it to the people. And they said Social Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government, and the government has used that tax. There is no fund, because Robert Byers, the actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and admitted that Social Security as of this moment is 298 billion dollars in the hole. But he said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to bail them out of trouble. And they're doing just that.”
~Ronald Reagan

Well it's been 45 years, Social Security is going to be insolvent is 28 years and Medicare will be insolvent in 4 years.

“In addition, was Barry Goldwater so irresponsible when he suggested that our government give up its program of deliberate, planned inflation, so that when you do get your Social Security pension, a dollar will buy a dollar's worth, and not 45 cents worth?”
~Ronald Reagan

The dollar of 2009 is only worth a nickle compared to the dollar of 1913, and worth 14 cents compared to the dollar of 1964, the year this line was uttered.“I think we're for an international organization, where the nations of the world can seek peace. But I think we're against subordinating American interests to an organization that has become so structurally unsound that today you can muster a two-thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly among nations that represent less than 10 percent of the world's population.”
~Ronald Reagan

No one puts the of blatant internationalism America faces better then Lord Christopher Monkton:

“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.”
~Ronald Reagan

This is something I strongly believe, and will continue to fight against a government take over of the healthcare system. Some things once done, cannot be undone.“But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn't the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. And he walked away from his Party, and he never returned til the day he died—because to this day, the leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor Socialist Party of England.”
~Ronald Reagan

One needs to look no further then Bernard Sanders, Junior Senator from Vermont, the Senate's first self described Socialist. Of course who could forget this line from then presidential candidate Barack Obama:

“Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the—or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists.”
~Ronald Reagan

As a former General Motors stock holder this quote hits a little too close to home. Oh, and I say former stock holder because my GM stock became Motors Liquidation Company (MTLQQ.PK) after the government takeover.

“Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy "accommodation." And they say if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer—not an easy answer—but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right.”
~Ronald Reagan

How many times have we been told by the “progressives” if we simply stop supporting Israel the Islamic radicals will have no further reason to attack us. While I heed George Washington's call to be wary of foreign entanglements, I'm a firm believer that if the Muslims laid down their guns there would be no fighting in in Israel, but if the Israelis laid down their guns, there would be no more Israel.

“Alexander Hamilton said, "A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and deserves one." Now let's set the record straight. There's no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender.”
~Ronald Reagan

With both George Bush and Barack Obama failing to put the Taliban on the Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list, I fear that both presidents intentionally leave the door open to a truce with the Taliban in or to pull out of Afghanistan and safe face. This notion trivializing our sacrifice of blood and treasure for the sake of political expediency is disgraceful at best.

“Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum.”
~Ronald Reagan

Now with Obama seemingly kicking the can down the road with Iran's blatant nuclear proliferation I fear in his relative inexperience as an executive he will be attempting to placate what is essentially an apocalyptic regime.“You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, There is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond which they must not advance.”
~Ronald Reagan

We do, but I fear our administration currently does not. This is also my favorite line of the speech. If you're still with me at this point I thank you for listening to what Ronald Reagan and myself have had to say. I started this article out with the premise that conservatism and common sense are timeless, hopefully you agree. Now without further adieu, “A time for Choosing”, from October 27th 1964: