If Republicans were like Ronald Reagan,
and Democrats were like John F. Kennedy,
this country would be going places.
Televised Campaign Address for Goldwater Presidential Campaign – 10/27/64. Watch a special “Remembering A Time For Choosing” video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulQ7k… For more information on the ongoing works of President Reagan’s Foundation, visit us at http://www.reaganfoundation.org
" A TIME FOR CHOOSING "
“… its a 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
well i think it’s time we ask ourselves
if we still know the freedoms that were
intended for us by the founding fathers
not too long ago two friends of mine
were talking to a cuban refugee
a businessman who would escape 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 some place 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
and this idea that government is
beholden to the people that it has no
other source of power except the
sovereign people
is still the newest and the most unique
idea in all the long history of man’s
relation to man
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 capital can plan our
lives for us better than we can plan
them ourselves
you and i are told increasingly we have
to choose between a left or right
well i’d like to suggest there is no
such thing as a left or right
there’s only an up or down
man’s own old age dream
the ultimate in individual freedom
consistent with law and order
or down to the ant heap of
totalitarianism
and regardless of their sincerity their
humanitarian motives
those who would trade our freedom for
security have embarked on this downward
course .. “
[FULL TRANSCRIPT]
00:14
the following pre-recorded political
00:16
program is sponsored by tv for goldwater
00:18
miller on behalf of barry goldwater
00:21
republican candidate for president of
00:23
the united states
00:24
ladies and gentlemen we take pride in
00:26
presenting a thoughtful address
00:28
by ronald reagan mr reagan
00:33
thank you thank you very much
00:41
thank you and good evening the sponsor
00:43
has been identified
00:45
but unlike most television programs the
00:47
performer hasn’t been provided with a
00:49
script
00:50
as a matter of fact i have been
00:51
permitted to choose my own words
00:53
and discuss my own ideas regarding the
00:56
choice that we face in the next few
00:58
weeks
00:59
i have spent most of my life as a
01:01
democrat i recently have seen fit to
01:03
follow another course
01:05
i believe that the issues confronting us
01:07
cross-party lines
01:09
now one side in this campaign has been
01:12
telling us that the issues of this
01:13
election
01:14
are the maintenance of peace and
01:16
prosperity the line has been used we’ve
01:17
never had it so good
01:19
but i have an uncomfortable feeling that
01:21
this prosperity isn’t something on which
01:23
we can base our hopes for the future
01:25
no nation in history has ever survived a
01:27
tax burden that reached a third of its
01:29
national income today 37 cents out of
01:33
every dollar earned in this country is
01:34
the tax collector’s share
01:36
and yet our government continues to
01:37
spend 17 million dollars a day
01:40
more than the government takes in we
01:42
haven’t balanced our budget twenty eight
01:44
out of the last thirty four years
01:46
we’ve raised our debt limit three times
01:48
in the last twelve months
01:50
and now our national debt is one and a
01:52
half times bigger than all
01:54
the combined deaths of all the nations
01:56
of the world
01:57
we have fifteen billion dollars in gold
01:59
in our treasury
02:01
we don’t own an ounce foreign dollar
02:03
claims are twenty seven point three
02:05
billion dollars
02:06
and we’ve just had announced that the
02:08
dollar of 1939 will now purchase
02:10
45 cents in its total value
02:14
as for the peace that we would preserve
02:17
i wonder who among us would like to
02:19
approach the wife or mother
02:21
whose husband or son has died in south
02:23
vietnam and asked them if they think
02:25
this is a peace
02:26
that should be maintained indefinitely
02:28
do they mean peace
02:30
or do they mean we just want to be left
02:32
in peace there can be no real peace
02:35
while one american is dying someplace in
02:37
the world for the rest of us
02:39
we’re at war with the most dangerous
02:41
enemy that has ever faced mankind in his
02:43
long climb from the swamp to the stars
02:46
and it’s been said if we lose that war
02:48
and in so doing lose this way of freedom
02:50
of ours
02:51
history will record with the greatest
02:52
astonishment that those who had the most
02:54
to lose
02:55
did the least to prevent its happening
02:57
well i think it’s time we ask ourselves
02:59
if we still know the freedoms that were
03:01
intended for us by the founding fathers
03:04
not too long ago two friends of mine
03:05
were talking to a cuban refugee
03:07
a businessman who would escape from
03:09
castro and in the midst of his story one
03:11
of my friends turned to the other and
03:12
said we don’t know how lucky we
03:14
are and the cuban stopped and said how
03:16
lucky you
03:17
are i had some place to escape to
03:21
and in that sentence he told us the
03:22
entire story if we lose freedom here
03:25
there’s no place to escape to this is
03:26
the last stand on earth
03:28
and this idea that government is
03:30
beholden to the people that it has no
03:32
other source of power except the
03:33
sovereign people
03:35
is still the newest and the most unique
03:37
idea in all the long history of man’s
03:39
relation to man
03:40
this is the issue of this election
03:43
whether we believe in our capacity for
03:44
self-government or whether we abandon
03:46
the american revolution and confess that
03:48
a little intellectual elite
03:50
in a far distant capital can plan our
03:52
lives for us better than we can plan
03:54
them ourselves
03:55
you and i are told increasingly we have
03:57
to choose between a left or right
03:59
well i’d like to suggest there is no
04:01
such thing as a left or right
04:03
there’s only an up or down
04:06
man’s own old age dream
04:09
the ultimate in individual freedom
04:11
consistent with law and order
04:13
or down to the ant heap of
04:15
totalitarianism
04:17
and regardless of their sincerity their
04:18
humanitarian motives
04:20
those who would trade our freedom for
04:22
security have embarked on this downward
04:24
course
04:26
in this boat harvesting time they use
04:28
terms like the great society
04:30
or as we were told a few days ago by the
04:32
president we must accept a greater
04:34
government activity
04:35
in the affairs of the people but they’ve
04:37
been a little more explicit in the past
04:39
and among themselves and all of the
04:41
things i now will quote have appeared in
04:43
print
04:43
these are not republican accusations for
04:46
example they have voices that say
04:48
the cold war will end through our
04:50
acceptance of a not undemocratic
04:52
socialism
04:54
another voice says the profit motive has
04:55
become outmoded it must be replaced by
04:57
the incentives of the welfare state
05:00
or our traditional system of individual
05:03
freedom is incapable of solving the
05:05
complex problems of the 20th century
05:08
senator fulbright has said at stanford
05:10
university that the constitution is
05:12
outmoded
05:13
he referred to the president as our
05:15
moral teacher and our leader
05:17
and he says he is hobbled in his task by
05:19
the restrictions of power imposed on him
05:22
by this antiquated document he must be
05:25
freed
05:26
so that he can do for us what he knows
05:28
is best
05:30
and senator clark of pennsylvania
05:32
another articulate spokesman defines
05:34
liberalism
05:34
as meeting the material needs of the
05:36
masses through the full power of
05:39
centralized government
05:41
well i for one resent it when a
05:42
representative of the people refers to
05:44
you and me the free men and women of
05:45
this country
05:46
as the masses this is a term we haven’t
05:49
applied to ourselves in america
05:51
but beyond that the full power of
05:53
centralized government
05:55
this was the very thing the founding
05:57
fathers sought to minimize
05:59
they knew that governments don’t control
06:01
things a government can’t control the
06:03
economy without controlling people
06:06
and they know when a government sets out
06:07
to do that it must use
06:09
force and coercion to achieve its
06:10
purpose they also knew those founding
06:13
fathers that
06:14
outside of its legitimate functions
06:16
government does nothing
06:18
as well or as economically as the
06:20
private sector of the economy
06:22
now we have no better example of this
06:24
than government’s involvement in the
06:25
farm economy over the last thirty years
06:28
since nineteen fifty five the cost of
06:30
this program has nearly doubled
06:32
one-fourth of farming in america is
06:34
responsible for 85 percent of the farm
06:36
surplus
06:38
three-fourths of farming is out on the
06:40
free market
06:41
and has known a 21 percent increase in
06:43
the per capita consumption of all its
06:45
produce
06:46
you see that one-fourth of farming
06:48
that’s regulated and controlled by the
06:50
federal government
06:51
in the last three years we’ve spent 43
06:53
dollars in the feed grain program for
06:55
every dollar bushel of corn we don’t
06:57
grow
06:58
senator humphrey last week charged that
07:00
barry goldwater as president would seek
07:02
to eliminate farmers
07:03
he should do his homework a little
07:05
better because he’ll find out that we’ve
07:07
had a decline of five million in the
07:09
farm population
07:10
under these government programs he’ll
07:12
also find that the democratic
07:13
administration has sought to get from
07:15
congress
07:17
extension of the farm program to include
07:19
that three-fourths that is now free
07:21
he’ll find that they’ve also asked for
07:23
the right to imprison farmers who
07:24
wouldn’t keep books as prescribed by the
07:26
federal government
07:27
the secretary of agriculture asked for
07:29
the right
07:31
to seize farms through condemnation and
07:33
resell them to other individuals
07:35
and contained in that same program was a
07:38
provision that would have allowed the
07:39
federal government
07:40
to remove two million farmers from the
07:42
soil
07:43
at the same time there’s been an
07:45
increase in the department of
07:46
agriculture employees there’s now one
07:48
for every 30 farms in the united states
07:52
and still they can’t tell us how 66
07:54
shiploads of grain headed for austria
07:56
disappeared without a trace and billy
07:58
solist has never left shore
08:09
every responsible farmer and farm
08:11
organization has repeatedly asked the
08:12
government to free the farm economy
08:15
but how who are farmers to know what’s
08:16
best for them
08:18
the wheat farmers voted against a wheat
08:20
program the government passed it anyway
08:22
now the price of bread goes up the price
08:24
of wheat to the farmer goes down
08:26
meanwhile back in the city under urban
08:29
renewal the assault on freedom carries
08:31
on
08:33
private property rights so diluted that
08:34
public interest is almost anything a few
08:36
government planners decide it should be
08:39
in a program that takes from the needy
08:40
and gives to the greedy
08:42
we see such spectacles as in cleveland
08:44
ohio a million and a half dollar
08:46
building completed only three years ago
08:48
must be destroyed
08:49
to make way for what government
08:51
officials call a more compatible use of
08:53
the land
08:54
the president tells us he’s now going to
08:56
start building public housing units in
08:58
the thousands we’re here before we’ve
08:59
only built them in the hundreds
09:01
but fha and the veterans administration
09:03
tell us
09:04
they have a hundred and twenty thousand
09:06
housing units they’ve taken back through
09:08
mortgage foreclosure
09:10
for three decades we’ve sought to solve
09:12
the problems of unemployment
09:13
through government planning and the more
09:15
the plans fail the more the planners
09:16
plan
09:17
the latest is the area redevelopment
09:19
agency they’ve just declared rice county
09:21
kansas a depressed area
09:23
rice county kansas has 200 oil wells and
09:26
the 14 000 people there have over 30
09:28
million dollars on deposit in personal
09:30
savings in their banks
09:40
when the government tells you you’re
09:42
depressed lie down and be depressed
09:45
we have so many people who can’t see a
09:47
fat man standing beside a thin one
09:49
without coming to the conclusion the fat
09:50
man got that way by taking advantage of
09:52
the finland
09:53
so they’re going to solve all the
09:55
problems of human misery through
09:57
government and government planning
09:59
well now if government planning and
10:01
welfare had the answer and they’ve had
10:04
almost 30 years of it shouldn’t we
10:06
expect government to read the score to
10:08
us once in a while
10:09
shouldn’t they be telling us about the
10:11
decline each year in the number of
10:13
people
10:13
needing help the reduction in the need
10:15
for public housing
10:17
but the reverse is true each year the
10:19
need grows greater the program grows
10:21
greater
10:22
we were told four years ago that 17
10:25
million people went to bed hungry each
10:27
night
10:27
well that was probably true they were
10:29
all on a diet
10:31
but now we’re told that 9.3 million
10:34
families in this country are poverty
10:35
stricken on the basis of earning less
10:37
than three thousand dollars a year
10:39
welfare spending ten times greater than
10:41
it was in the dark depths of the
10:42
depression
10:44
we’re spending 45 billion dollars on
10:46
welfare
10:47
now do a little arithmetic and you’ll
10:49
find that if we divided the 45 billion
10:51
dollars up equally among those 9 million
10:53
poor families
10:54
we’d be able to give each family 4 600 a
10:57
year
10:58
and this added to their present income
11:00
should eliminate poverty
11:10
direct aid to the poor however is only
11:12
running about 600
11:14
per family it would seem that someplace
11:16
there must be some overhead
11:19
now
11:22
so now we declare war on poverty or you
11:26
too can be a bobby baker
11:29
now do they honestly expect us to
11:31
believe that if we add 1 billion dollars
11:33
to the 45 billion we’re spending
11:35
one more program to the 30 odd we have
11:38
and remember this new program
11:40
doesn’t replace any it just duplicates
11:43
existing programs
11:44
do they believe that poverty is suddenly
11:46
going to disappear by magic
11:48
well in all fairness i should explain
11:50
there is one part of the new program
11:52
that isn’t duplicated this is the youth
11:54
feature
11:55
we’re now going to solve the dropout
11:57
problem juvenile delinquency
11:59
by reinstituting something like the old
12:01
ccc camps
12:03
and we’re going to put our young people
12:04
in these camps but again we do some
12:07
arithmetic and we find that we’re going
12:08
to spend each year
12:10
just on room and board for each young
12:12
person we help
12:13
forty seven hundred dollars a year
12:16
we can send them to harvard for twenty
12:18
seven hundred
12:27
of course don’t get me wrong i’m not
12:29
suggesting harvard is the answer to
12:31
juvenile delinquency
12:38
but seriously what are we doing to those
12:39
we seek to help
12:42
not too long ago a judge called me here
12:44
in los angeles
12:45
he told me that a young woman who’d come
12:47
before him for a divorce
12:49
she had six children was pregnant with
12:51
her seventh under his questioning she
12:52
revealed her husband was a laborer
12:54
earning 250 dollars a month
12:56
she wanted the divorce to get an eighty
12:58
dollar raise she’s eligible for three
13:00
hundred and thirty dollars a month in
13:01
the aid the dependent children program
13:03
she got the idea from two women in her
13:05
neighborhood who’d already done that
13:06
very thing
13:08
yet anytime you and i question the
13:09
schemes of the do-gooders were denounced
13:11
as being against
13:13
their humanitarian goals they say we’re
13:15
always against things we’re never for
13:16
anything
13:17
well the trouble with our liberal
13:19
friends is not that they’re ignorant
13:21
it’s just that they know so much that
13:23
isn’t so now
13:32
we’re for a provision the destitution
13:34
should not follow unemployment by reason
13:36
of old age
13:37
and to that end we’ve accepted social
13:38
security as a step toward meeting the
13:40
problem
13:41
but we’re against those entrusted with
13:43
this program
13:44
when they practice deception regarding
13:46
its fiscal shortcomings
13:48
when they charge that any criticism of
13:50
the program means that we want to end
13:52
payments to those people who depend on
13:53
them for a livelihood
13:55
they’ve called it insurance to us in a
13:57
hundred million pieces of literature
13:59
but then they appeared before the
14:00
supreme court and they testified it was
14:03
a welfare program
14:04
they only used the term insurance to
14:06
sell it to the people
14:08
and they said social security dues are
14:10
attacks for the general use of the
14:12
government
14:12
and the government has used that tax
14:14
there is no fund
14:16
because robert byers the actuarial head
14:18
appeared before a congressional
14:20
committee and admitted
14:22
that social security as of this moment
14:24
is 298 billion dollars in the whole
14:28
but he said there should be no cause for
14:30
worry because as long as they had the
14:32
power to tax
14:33
they could always take away from the
14:35
people whatever they needed to bail them
14:37
out of trouble
14:38
and they’re doing just that a young man
14:41
21 years of age working at an average
14:43
salary
14:44
his social security contribution would
14:47
in the open market buy him an insurance
14:49
policy that would guarantee two hundred
14:50
and twenty dollars a month
14:52
at age sixty five the government
14:54
promises a hundred and twenty seven
14:56
he could live it up until he’s 31 and
14:58
then take out a policy that would pay
15:00
more than social security
15:02
now are we so lacking in business sense
15:04
that we can’t put this program on a
15:06
sound basis
15:07
so that people who do require those
15:09
payments will find they
15:11
can get them when they’re due that the
15:13
cupboard isn’t bare
15:15
barry goldwater thinks we can at the
15:17
same time
15:18
can’t we introduce voluntary features
15:20
that would permit a citizen who can do
15:22
better on his own
15:23
to be excused upon presentation of
15:26
evidence that he had made provision for
15:28
the non-earning years
15:29
should we not allow a widow with
15:31
children to work and not lose the
15:33
benefits supposedly paid for by her
15:35
deceased husband
15:36
shouldn’t you and i be allowed to
15:37
declare who our beneficiaries will be
15:39
under this program which we cannot do
15:42
i think we’re foretelling our senior
15:44
citizens
15:45
that no one in this country should be
15:47
denied medical care because of a lack of
15:48
funds
15:49
but i think we’re against forcing all
15:51
citizens regardless of need into a
15:54
compulsory government program
15:55
especially when we have such examples as
15:57
was announced last week when france
15:59
admitted that their medicare program
16:01
is now bankrupt they’ve come to the end
16:02
of the road in addition
16:05
was barry goldwater so irresponsible
16:07
when he suggested that our government
16:08
give up
16:09
its program of deliberate planned
16:11
inflation
16:12
so that when you do get your social
16:14
security pension
16:15
a dollar will buy a dollar’s worth and
16:17
not 45 cents worth
16:20
i think we’re for an international
16:22
organization where the nations of the
16:24
world can seek peace
16:26
but i think we’re against subordinating
16:28
american interest to an organization
16:29
that has become so structurally unsound
16:32
that today you can muster a two-thirds
16:35
vote
16:35
on the floor of the general assembly
16:37
among nations that represent
16:38
less than 10 percent of the world’s
16:40
population i think we’re against the
16:42
hypocrisy of assailing our allies
16:45
because here and there they cling to a
16:46
colony while we engage in a conspiracy
16:49
of silence and never open our mouths
16:51
about the millions of people enslaved in
16:53
the soviet colonies
16:54
in the satellite nations
17:06
i think we’re for aiding our allies by
17:09
sharing of our material blessings with
17:11
those nations which share in our
17:12
fundamental beliefs
17:14
but we’re against doling out money
17:16
government to government creating
17:17
bureaucracy
17:18
if not socialism all over the world we
17:20
set out to help 19 countries we’re
17:22
helping 107
17:24
we’ve spent 146 billion dollars
17:27
with that money we bought a two million
17:29
dollar yacht for haile selassie
17:31
we bought dress suits for greek
17:33
undertakers extra wives for kenya
17:35
government officials
17:37
we bought a thousand tv sets for a place
17:39
where they have no electricity
17:42
in the last six years 52 nations have
17:44
bought seven
17:45
billion dollars worth of our gold and
17:47
all fifty two are receiving foreign aid
17:49
from this country
17:51
no government ever voluntarily reduces
17:53
itself in size
17:54
so government programs once launched
17:56
never disappear
17:58
actually a government bureau is the
17:59
nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever
18:01
see on this earth
18:08
federal employees federal employees
18:11
number two and a half million
18:13
and federal state and local one out of
18:15
six of the nation’s workforce
18:17
employed by government these
18:19
proliferating bureaus with their
18:20
thousands of regulations have cost us
18:22
many of our constitutional safeguards
18:24
how many of us realize that today
18:26
federal agents can invade
18:28
a man’s property without a warrant they
18:30
can impose a fine without a formal
18:32
hearing let alone a trial by jury
18:34
and they can seize and sell his property
18:36
at auction to enforce the payment of
18:38
that fine
18:39
in chico county arkansas james weir over
18:41
planted his rice allotment the
18:42
government obtained a seventeen thousand
18:44
dollar judgment
18:45
and a u s marshal sold his 960 acre farm
18:49
at auction
18:50
the government said it was necessary as
18:52
a warning to others
18:53
to make the system work
19:02
last february 19th at the university of
19:05
minnesota norman thomas six
19:06
times candidate for president on the
19:08
socialist party ticket said
19:10
if barry goldwater became president he
19:13
would stop the advance of socialism in
19:15
the united states i think that’s exactly
19:17
what he will do
19:30
but as a former democrat i can tell you
19:32
norman thomas isn’t the only man
19:34
who has drawn this parallel to socialism
19:36
with the present administration
19:39
because back in 1936 mr democrat himself
19:42
al smith the great american came before
19:44
the american people
19:45
and charged that the leadership of his
19:47
party was taking the party of jefferson
19:49
jackson and cleveland down the road
19:51
under the banners of marx lenin and
19:53
stalin and he walked away from his party
19:55
and he never returned till the day he
19:56
died
19:57
because to this day the leadership of
19:59
that party has been taking that party
20:01
that honorable party down the road
20:04
in the image of the labor socialist
20:06
party of england
20:07
now it doesn’t require expropriation or
20:09
confiscation of private property or
20:11
business
20:12
to impose socialism on a people what
20:14
does it mean whether you hold the deed
20:17
to the or the title to your business or
20:19
property if the government holds the
20:20
power of life and death
20:22
over that business or property and such
20:24
machinery already exists
20:26
the government can find some charge to
20:27
bring against any concern it chooses to
20:29
prosecute
20:30
every businessman has his own tale of
20:33
harassment
20:34
somewhere a perversion has taken place
20:37
our
20:37
natural unalienable rights are now
20:39
considered to be a dispensation of
20:41
government
20:42
and freedom has never been so fragile so
20:45
close to slipping from our grasp as it
20:46
is at this moment
20:48
our democratic opponents seem unwilling
20:50
to debate these issues
20:52
they want to make you and i believe that
20:54
this is a contest between two men
20:56
that were to choose just between two
20:58
personalities well what of this man that
21:00
they would destroy and
21:02
in destroying they would destroy that
21:04
which he represents the ideas that you
21:06
and i hold dear
21:07
is he the brash and shallow and trigger
21:09
happy man they say he is
21:12
well i’ve been privileged to know him
21:13
when i knew him long before he ever
21:16
dreamed of trying for high office
21:18
and i can tell you personally i’ve never
21:20
known a man in my life i believed so
21:22
incapable of doing a dishonest or
21:28
dishonorable
21:37
this is a man who in his own business
21:39
before he entered politics instituted a
21:41
profit-sharing plan before unions had
21:43
ever thought of it
21:44
he put in health and medical insurance
21:46
for all his employees
21:47
he took fifty percent of the profits
21:49
before taxes and set up a retirement
21:51
program a pension plan for all his
21:53
employees
21:54
he sent monthly checks for life to an
21:56
employee who was ill and couldn’t work
21:58
he provides nursing care for the
22:00
children of mothers who work in the
22:01
stores
22:03
when mexico was ravaged by the floods in
22:05
the rio grande he climbed in his
22:07
airplane and flew mexico medicine and
22:09
supplies down there
22:10
an ex-gi told me how he met him it was
22:13
the week before christmas during the
22:15
korean war
22:16
and he was at the los angeles airport
22:18
trying to get a ride home to arizona for
22:20
christmas
22:21
and he said that a lot of servicemen
22:23
there and no seats available on the
22:25
planes
22:26
and then a voice came over the
22:27
loudspeaker and said any men in uniform
22:30
wanting a ride to arizona go to runway
22:32
such and such
22:33
and they went down there there was a
22:35
fella named barry goldwater sitting in
22:36
his plane
22:37
every day in those weeks before
22:39
christmas all day long he’d load up the
22:41
plane fly it to arizona fly them to
22:43
their homes fly back over to get another
22:45
load
22:46
during the hectic split-second timing of
22:49
a campaign this is a man who took time
22:51
out to sit beside an old friend who was
22:53
dying of cancer
22:54
his campaign managers were
22:55
understandably impatient
22:57
but he said there aren’t many left to
22:59
care what happens to her
23:01
i’d like her to know i care this is a
23:04
man who said to his nineteen-year-old
23:06
son
23:06
there is no foundation like the rock of
23:08
honesty and fairness
23:10
and when you begin to build your life on
23:12
that rock with the cement of the faith
23:14
in god that you have
23:16
then you have a real start
23:19
this is not a man who could carelessly
23:21
send other people’s sons to war
23:23
and that is the issue of this campaign
23:25
that makes all the other problems i’ve
23:27
discussed
23:28
academic unless we realize we’re in a
23:31
war that must be won
23:33
those who would trade our freedom for
23:34
the soup kitchen of the welfare state
23:36
have told us they have a utopian
23:38
solution of peace without victory they
23:39
call their policy accommodation
23:42
and they say if we’ll only avoid any
23:43
direct confrontation with the enemy
23:45
he’ll
23:46
forget his evil ways and learn to love
23:47
us all who oppose them
23:50
are indicted as war mongers they say we
23:53
offer simple answers to complex problems
23:55
but perhaps there is a simple answer not
23:58
an easy answer
23:59
but simple if you and i have the courage
24:02
to tell our elected officials
24:04
that we want our national policy based
24:06
on what we know in our hearts is morally
24:08
right
24:08
we cannot buy our security our freedom
24:11
from the threat of the bomb
24:14
by committing an immorality so great
24:17
as saying to a billion human beings now
24:19
enslaved behind the iron curtain give up
24:21
your dreams of freedom
24:22
because to save our own skins we’re
24:24
willing to make a deal with your slave
24:26
masters
24:27
alexander hamilton said a nation which
24:29
can prefer disgrace to danger
24:31
is prepared for a master and deserves
24:34
one
24:35
now let’s set the record straight
24:36
there’s no argument over the choice
24:38
between peace and war
24:40
but there’s only one guaranteed way you
24:42
can have peace and you can have it in
24:44
the next second
24:45
surrender admittedly there’s a risk in
24:48
any course we follow other than this but
24:49
every lesson of history tells us
24:52
that the greater risk lies in
24:53
appeasement and this is the specter our
24:55
well-meaning liberal friends refuse to
24:57
face
24:58
that their policy of accommodation is
25:00
appeasement
25:02
and it gives no choice between peace and
25:04
war only between fight or surrender
25:07
if we continue to accommodate continue
25:09
to back and retreat
25:11
eventually we have to face the final
25:12
demand the ultimatum
25:14
and what then when nikita khrushchev has
25:17
told his people he knows what our answer
25:19
will be
25:20
he has told them that we’re retreating
25:22
under the pressure of the cold war and
25:24
some day
25:25
when the time comes to deliver the final
25:27
ultimate of our surrender will be
25:29
voluntary because by that time
25:31
we will have been weakened from within
25:33
spiritually morally and economically
25:35
he believes this because from our side
25:37
he’s heard voices pleading for peace at
25:39
any price
25:40
or better read than dead or as one
25:43
commentator put it he’d rather live on
25:44
his knees than die in his feet
25:46
and therein lies the road to war because
25:49
those voices don’t speak for the rest of
25:51
us
25:52
you and i know and do not believe that
25:54
life is so dear and peace so sweet has
25:56
to be purchased at the price of chains
25:58
and slavery
25:59
if nothing in life is worth dying for
26:01
when did this begin
26:03
just in the face of this enemy or should
26:06
moses have told the children of israel
26:07
to live in slavery under the pharaohs
26:10
should christ have refused the cross
26:13
should the patriots at concord bridge
26:14
have thrown down their guns and refused
26:16
to fire the shot heard round the world
26:19
the martyrs of history were not fools
26:21
and our honored dead
26:22
who gave their lives to stop the advance
26:24
of the nazis didn’t die in vain
26:27
where then is the road to peace well
26:30
it’s a simple answer after all
26:32
you and i have the courage to say to our
26:35
enemies there is a price we will not pay
26:37
there is a point beyond which they must
26:39
not advance
26:53
and this this is the meaning
26:57
in the phrase of barry goldwater peace
26:59
through strength
27:00
winston churchill said the destiny of
27:02
man is not measured by material
27:04
computations when great forces around
27:07
the move in the world we learn we’re
27:08
spirits not animals
27:10
and he said there’s something going on
27:11
in time and space and beyond time and
27:13
space
27:14
which whether we like it or not spells
27:16
duty
27:17
you and i have a rendezvous with destiny
27:20
we’ll preserve
27:21
for our children this the last best hope
27:23
of man on earth
27:25
or we’ll sentence them to take the last
27:26
step into a thousand years of darkness
27:29
we will keep in mind and remember that
27:31
barry goldwater has
27:32
faith in us he has faith that you and i
27:35
have the ability
27:37
and the dignity and the right to make
27:39
our own decisions
27:41
and determine our own destiny thank you
27:44
very much
28:15
thank you ronnie for this very stirring
28:18
speech
28:19
i am john kilroy national chairman tv
28:22
for goldwater
28:23
miller i want to ask each of you
28:31
i want to ask each of you to take part
28:34
in this
28:34
important presidential campaign by
28:37
contributing
28:38
what you can to keep the goldwater
28:40
crusade on the air
28:42
send one ten fifty dollars or any amount
28:47
to tv for goldwater miller
28:51
box eighty los angeles fifty one
28:55
i repeat tv goldwater miller
28:59
box 80 los angeles 51.
29:03
preceding pre-recorded political program
29:06
was paid for by tv for goldwater miller
29:08
on behalf of barry goldwater republican
29:10
candidate for president
29:12
of the united states
29:32
you
The Reagan Assassination Attempt was a HIT, not Hinckley! George Bush ordered the hit on Reagan, and it was carried out with professional precision. It just didn’t WORK! Reagan was supposed to DIE that day, but didn’t.
Reagan Assassination Attempt Footage
