Ronald Reagan in 1964

This is the first time I've sat down and listened to this speech. I was a very little girl in 1964; I did not hear it then, nor have I since for whatever reason. Mainly I suppose life has a tendency to sweep us along with it and we rarely find a reason to look back. Politics, especially 'old news' politics, doesn't really make it to the fore of our minds very often.

link > * I want to hear what THIS MAN has to say. * < link 

It might prove to be a welcome reprieve from everything else we've been hearing. 

I was too little to have even known about this speech. My daughters are too young to have even been aware of the Presidency of Ronald Reagan. My grandlings will have no idea that such an American President ever existed.

God help us.

#

1964 was quite a long time ago, folks. We aren't likely to well remember a Presidential candidate named Goldwater who lost to the incumbent LBJ, successor to assassinated John Kennedy. Then came Nixon who was not a crook. And Gerald Ford who was our first President not to be elected as such. When Nixon resigned under the cloud of deceit surrounding Watergate, Ford as VP stepped up to President. At the end of the term he ran against Jimmy Carter and lost. (Ted Kennedy came to within two points of snagging the Democrats' nomination; Carter barely squeaked it.) And Carter lost to Republican Ronald Reagan by a substantial margin.

So that's a bit of a quick review. Truth be told I had to look it up.While I was at it I checked their political party affiliations. It runs about half and half and I am not gong to do the homework it would take to try to figure out who to blame for our current mess. No doubt both are about equal on that front, too.

#

Listening to what Ronald Reagan had to say back in 1964, fifteen years or so before his own Presidency, is a sort of eerie experience. It's about a thirty minute speech, part of the Barry Goldwater campaign, but take the time to watch/listen to it. See if you find it a little on the eerie side too. I wonder what he would have to say now.

For that matter, I wonder what the Founding Fathers would have to say now.

We'd likely be in for a tongue-lashing.

We deserve it.

It's not like they didn't warn us.

But, you know, nobody reads the Federalist Papers.

We don't even read the Constitution, which is short and sweet by comparison.

So yeah.

We as a nation, and our educational system, deserve a tongue-lashing. We're about to reap what we have allowed to be sown. Time to pay the piper I reckon. Miracles are few and far between these days.