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"Reagan’s Freedom Revolution"
Dick Armey looks at the impact of Ronald Reagan on American politics.

This piece is adapted from a speech delivered on December 9, 2003 at the Reagan Presidential Library by Dick Armey, the former U.S. House Majority Leader and current Chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). It appeared as an opinion editorial in the New York Sun.

"Looking back at the Goldwater campaign in 1964, there’s one thing that truly stands out in memory: Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech. I dare say that was a speech unlike any we’ve heard before or since. What an awakening it was to so many of us! We asked, who is this guy? Who’s this actor and makes so much sense? Who is this Republican conservative who is so eloquent in the way he presents our ideas? How many of you were captivated by Ronald Reagan in 1964? I know I was…still that speech has never left my memory nor the moment, the stirring in my heart.

You see, Ronald Reagan actually revealed to us in 1964 something it took us years to understand: he knew something better than most of us. He knew the goodness of the American people and he had the decency to respect it. And we never really fully comprehended that about him until years later. In the 1960s, economic stagflation grew worse and totally baffled President Johnson. Nixon, too, was completely baffled by it and actually resorted to such things as mandatory government price controls, giving up on whom we are as Americans in order to try to fight inflation. Gerald Ford resorted to a button. Remember that? “Whip inflation now.” We used to turn it over and call it, “No instant miracles.” By the time Jimmy Carter came along it was horrible. Remember the days of malaise? Remember how desperate we were? I’ll never forget the nightmare of the American economy in the 1970’s after all those years of people either not having the understanding nor having the courage to deal with it, and the problem getting worse. It finally got so bad in the 70’s that Jimmy Carter had no explanation except to face the American people and say, “The problem is you, Ladies and Gentlemen you have a malaise.”

In the 70’s, we despaired. I remember coming home from teaching late at night listening to Jimmy Carter give that “Days of Malaise” speech, parking my car in the driveway, sitting there listening to it, and I felt like that old song, “Is that all there is?” You know we worked all our life, we dreamed, we hoped, we prayed, we tried everything we could. Is this all we have? Is it just this malaise? And then Ronald Reagan came back onto center stage for most of us.

Well, of course as you know, he was elected, in 1980. What a marvelous opportunity for America! Boy, what a day that was for me to remember! To think that a man that conservative could be elected president in America today, what a reprieve from all the years of despair that I felt in the aftermath of the Goldwater defeat. And, it was marvelous. I remember I had a bounce in my step and I was feeling good.

We watched Ronald Reagan and learned from him—freedom works. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ronald Reagan’s first two years in office was a miracle, an economic miracle. He changed President Ford’s model. Instead of “Whip inflation now,” he said, “Let’s whip inflation first.” Ronald Reagan knew the road from malaise to prosperity would be painful but he had the courage to travel it. And it was painful. Some of you all remember the elections of 1982. Still, during that time he did pass his first budget and get his first tax reductions in place in order to restore economic growth and job creation. He demonstrated the courage and the foresight that distinguishes his presidency forever. Yet it was not understood and appreciated, even by his friends at the time.

Do you remember the panic that set across the conservative and Republican field after the elections of 1982? We lost a few senators. I guess we lost the Senate. There was a panic. Yet, Ronald Reagan knew what he knew. He did not doubt. He did not wallow around in self-reservation or reconsideration. He understood what would work and he committed to it. And in all that panic in the aftermath of the 1982 elections, he was the one man who, more than at any other time in our lifetime, exemplified the idea of courage of your convictions. Ronald Reagan with one simple phrase, “Stay the course” faced the panic and steadied Congress and the nation.

What an inspiration it was to so many of us that he would dare to say, “Stay the course.” People were falling around him and people were wilting from him, people were denouncing him, and distancing from him. And he never wavered in his courage of his commitment to the ideas that he knew would work. And what did he give us? He gave us a resurrection of the American economy.

Especially in his second term, Ronald Reagan took the lessons of freedom that he had applied to the economy and which had given us prosperity and applied them to foreign policy and the Soviet Empire. Consider what Ronald Reagan did when he saw the Berlin Wall. He said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!” That assertion of liberty by Ronald Reagan may have been the strongest moment in the life of at least a generation of Eastern Europeans. This one statement gave them the strongest evidence that there was hope for liberty.

Again, Ronald Reagan had the courage. Do you know that statement was put into the speech by Ronald Reagan, taken out of the speech by his advisors, put into the speech again by Ronald Reagan, and taken out of the speech again by his advisors? They thought they had him. In the plane he put it back in the speech, himself, in his own handwriting. What was needed was the conviction to rise above the bad advice of people that didn’t have the strength to dare and the will to care. And so he did."

FReegards...MUD

"Reagan’s Freedom Revolution"

Dick Armey looks at the impact of Ronald Reagan on American politics.
This piece is adapted from a speech delivered on December 9, 2003 at the Reagan Presidential Library by Dick Armey, the former U.S. House Majority Leader and current Chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). It appeared as an opinion editorial in the New York Sun.

"Looking back at the Goldwater campaign in 1964, there’s one thing that truly stands out in memory: Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech. I dare say that was a speech unlike any we’ve heard before or since. What an awakening it was to so many of us! We asked, who is this guy? Who’s this actor and makes so much sense? Who is this Republican conservative who is so eloquent in the way he presents our ideas? How many of you were captivated by Ronald Reagan in 1964? I know I was…still that speech has never left my memory nor the moment, the stirring in my heart.

You see, Ronald Reagan actually revealed to us in 1964 something it took us years to understand: he knew something better than most of us. He knew the goodness of the American people and he had the decency to respect it. And we never really fully comprehended that about him until years later. In the 1960s, economic stagflation grew worse and totally baffled President Johnson. Nixon, too, was completely baffled by it and actually resorted to such things as mandatory government price controls, giving up on whom we are as Americans in order to try to fight inflation. Gerald Ford resorted to a button. Remember that? “Whip inflation now.” We used to turn it over and call it, “No instant miracles.” By the time Jimmy Carter came along it was horrible. Remember the days of malaise? Remember how desperate we were? I’ll never forget the nightmare of the American economy in the 1970’s after all those years of people either not having the understanding nor having the courage to deal with it, and the problem getting worse. It finally got so bad in the 70’s that Jimmy Carter had no explanation except to face the American people and say, “The problem is you, Ladies and Gentlemen you have a malaise.”

In the 70’s, we despaired. I remember coming home from teaching late at night listening to Jimmy Carter give that “Days of Malaise” speech, parking my car in the driveway, sitting there listening to it, and I felt like that old song, “Is that all there is?” You know we worked all our life, we dreamed, we hoped, we prayed, we tried everything we could. Is this all we have? Is it just this malaise? And then Ronald Reagan came back onto center stage for most of us.

Well, of course as you know, he was elected, in 1980. What a marvelous opportunity for America! Boy, what a day that was for me to remember! To think that a man that conservative could be elected president in America today, what a reprieve from all the years of despair that I felt in the aftermath of the Goldwater defeat. And, it was marvelous. I remember I had a bounce in my step and I was feeling good.

We watched Ronald Reagan and learned from him—freedom works. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ronald Reagan’s first two years in office was a miracle, an economic miracle. He changed President Ford’s model. Instead of “Whip inflation now,” he said, “Let’s whip inflation first.” Ronald Reagan knew the road from malaise to prosperity would be painful but he had the courage to travel it. And it was painful. Some of you all remember the elections of 1982. Still, during that time he did pass his first budget and get his first tax reductions in place in order to restore economic growth and job creation. He demonstrated the courage and the foresight that distinguishes his presidency forever. Yet it was not understood and appreciated, even by his friends at the time.

Do you remember the panic that set across the conservative and Republican field after the elections of 1982? We lost a few senators. I guess we lost the Senate. There was a panic. Yet, Ronald Reagan knew what he knew. He did not doubt. He did not wallow around in self-reservation or reconsideration. He understood what would work and he committed to it. And in all that panic in the aftermath of the 1982 elections, he was the one man who, more than at any other time in our lifetime, exemplified the idea of courage of your convictions. Ronald Reagan with one simple phrase, “Stay the course” faced the panic and steadied Congress and the nation.

What an inspiration it was to so many of us that he would dare to say, “Stay the course.” People were falling around him and people were wilting from him, people were denouncing him, and distancing from him. And he never wavered in his courage of his commitment to the ideas that he knew would work. And what did he give us? He gave us a resurrection of the American economy.

Especially in his second term, Ronald Reagan took the lessons of freedom that he had applied to the economy and which had given us prosperity and applied them to foreign policy and the Soviet Empire. Consider what Ronald Reagan did when he saw the Berlin Wall. He said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!” That assertion of liberty by Ronald Reagan may have been the strongest moment in the life of at least a generation of Eastern Europeans. This one statement gave them the strongest evidence that there was hope for liberty.

Again, Ronald Reagan had the courage. Do you know that statement was put into the speech by Ronald Reagan, taken out of the speech by his advisors, put into the speech again by Ronald Reagan, and taken out of the speech again by his advisors? They thought they had him. In the plane he put it back in the speech, himself, in his own handwriting. What was needed was the conviction to rise above the bad advice of people that didn’t have the strength to dare and the will to care. And so he did."

FReegards...MUD