Few people realize what great personal risks Lech Walesa took on when he challenged the evil empire three decades ago. He’s a great man who deserves a place in history alongside some of the other greats of that era who helped bring down the iron curtain— Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. We are blessed that he is still able to travel and speak!
I have always thought of Lech Walesa as a very, very wise and courageous man.
Some one or two of these Republican candidates who win election, or some other person out there needs to emerge who truly understands the ideas of liberty our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were founded upon.
Further, those persons must have the courage and tenacity to stand upon those principles in the face of Progressivism.
That has happened before.
President Reagan's real strength and authenticity lay in his deep and abiding understanding of the principles and ideas of America's Founders. This meant that somewhere along the line he had studied the writings and underlying documents by which liberty was obtained.
His easily-delivered cautions about limited government were not mere "talking points" or platform-based recitations. Those cautions came out of a mind and heart that were in sync with Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and the other geniuses who structured the limited government of the U. S. Constitution to protect liberty, and to bar tyrants from oppressing the people.
Reagan's eloquent speeches about a "shining city" were not mere high-sounding rhetoric, they were about deeply-held beliefs, founded in understanding of and devotion to ideas.
While it is admirable for current Republican leaders to quote Reagan, or to claim his philosophy as their own, second-hand embracing of the positions he took is not enough to qualify any candidate to lead America back to "peace, liberty, and safety" (Jefferson's First Inaugural cautions).
No, that candidate must demonstrate his/her own study and understanding of the principles underlying the United States Constitution, and that only can be acquired by study, reflection, and a deep commitment. The threats are so great, they are presented in such subtle ways, and the enemies of freedom are so intent on imposing their own deeply-held counterfeit ideas that a surface belief in what is referred to as "limited government," "tax cuts," "reductions in spending," and "getting government out of our lives," while they may be attention-getting and handy for speeches, will not be sufficient to hold the line in defense of liberty.
Something more is needed. Reagan had it, and any person who wishes to emulate his leadership cannot do it without submitting himself/herself to the same depth of study as Reagan.
When that person emerges who can demonstrate the discipline and dedication to ideas which Reagan did, then the counterfeit ideas of opponents will not be able to prevail in public debate, and America may once again be able to be that "shining city" or "beacon of liberty" for the world. Other nations will again look to America for leadership, not compromise and appeasement.
Has Reagan's Young Americans for Freeedom produced such a candidate somewhere? Has any conservative think tank exposed the Founders' ideas to someone who can now articulate them and demonstrate leadership?
One evening, as we were watching on TV some of the most intense moments of the Solidarity movement in Poland, my dad came in the house and said “Go get those poles out of the back of my truck.”
We cracked up. He had bought a bunch of railroad ties.
” Loss of American Leadership in the World”
that’s exactly what the current occupant of the Oval Office is trying to accomplish.
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