Ronald Reagan - Reagan at CPAC: The Words that Continue to Inspire a Revolution

Copyright 2019 by the American Conservative Union

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ISBN 978-1-62157-954-0

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This book is dedicated to the thousands of CPAC activists and volunteers, speakers and staff, and the millions of attendees and viewers whose work and service have preserved our country over the years.

Vice President Mike Pence

R onald Reagan inspired millions of Americans to leave what he called the pale pastels of liberalism and to embrace the bold-colored banner of conservatism. Reagan had blazed that trail in his own life, and his words inspired me, along with so many others, to follow in his path. What drew us to his cause wasnt so much the crisp clarity of his words as the strength of his vision.

Reagan earned his title as the Great Communicator because he communicated great ideasnamely, the timeless principles that make America exceptional. No speech since the Gettysburg Address has more vividly illuminated those principles than his national address on October 27, 1964: A Time for Choosing.

Reagan gave the speech in the final days of Barry Goldwaters ill-fated 1964 presidential campaign. Just one week later, the Democratic incumbent, President Lyndon Johnson, would win a forty-four-state landslide. But while it was Johnsons victory that marked the high-water point of Americas postwar liberalism, it was Reagans A Time for Choosing speech that marked the birth of modern conservatism.

The Speech, as it came to be known, began a stirring in the hearts and homes of blue-collar, working-class familiespeople like Reagan himself, who had voted Democrat all their lives but who now were drawn to a different, clearer, and more uplifting vision.

And they began to organize. Just two months after the broadcast, the American Conservative Union was founded, and throughout the 1970s, the conservative movement gained strength as the failures of big-government liberalism became more evident by the day: double-digit inflation, high unemployment, a growing disrespect for American institutions and values, and an increasingly aggressive Soviet Union.

And in 1980, the movement made history when, defying all the predictions of the Washington establishment, Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory for president.

Today, we face our own time for choosing, and Reagans words are just as relevant now as they were when Reagan gave this speech fifty-four years ago.

Honesty is the axis on which effective leadership turns, and Reagan had the strength and confidence to know what he was prepared to fight forand to fight against. He didnt mince words when he declared communism the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. And he was clear as day when he said there was no left or right, only up or downup to mans age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

But along with the clarity and toughness, there was something else: a boundless faith in the American people.

Reagan didnt gloss over the details of his arguments; he equipped his audience with facts and figures. He truly believed if the American people could see the whole picture, theyd make the right decision.

As he said, it was a betrayal of the American Revolution to think that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. Its why Reagan later said that if he had to sum up the speechs message, it would be the first three words of the Constitution: We the People.

Reagan roused the American people to believe again in their capacity for self-governmenthe took a passive us and turned it into an active we.

And he was such a beloved figure to the movement that he spoke thirteen times at the American Conservative Unions flagship eventCPAC. Each of these speeches is reprinted here, and each of them contains pearls of truth that shine brightly in our own day.

For my part, I poured over Reagans remarks time and again when I drafted my own speeches for CPAC and when I was on the campaign trail in 2016. Ive spoken at CPAC over a dozen times, but I could only hope to echo the wit and wisdom of the man who first brought me into the conservative movement nearly forty years ago.

Reagans speeches and his story call to mind another strong, plain-speaking leader who followed an unlikely path to the White House, a man Ive had the great privilege to serve alongside, the forty-fifth President of the United States Donald Trump.

The similarities between the two are striking. As I said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in September of 2016, The smart set in Washington, D.C. mocked and dismissed [Reagan] in many ways. He was referred to as a simpleton by some. They said he was little more than a celebrity and an entertainer who entered politics late in life. Sound familiar?

But the American people were tired of being toldof being dismissed by their betters. And so folks who had never voted in a presidential election began to lean in and listen to the eloquence and common sense of these uncommonly talented men. In their voices, the American people heard the rare and unmistakable sound of men unbound by Washington niceties and pretense of power.

In short, both men stood out for the same reason: they spoke the truth to the American people.

We are fortunate that they didbecause the fact is, every day in America is a time for choosing. Like Ronald Reagan in his time, President Donald Trump and this generation are choosing in their time to defend and advance the great principles on which this nation was founded. And I hope everyone who has the chance to read old Dutchs words today will be inspired to join our cause and do their part, in this time, to make America great again.

Mike Pence is the vice president of the United States and has spoken at CPAC over a dozen times.

Dan Schneider

T he following pages present a suite of speeches drawn from two-and-a-half-decades worth of appearances by Ronald Reagan at the Conservative Action Political Conference (CPAC). Taken together, they form a fascinating portrait of the fortieth president and the century he helped shape.

A Time for Choosing ; We Will Be as a City Upon a Hill ; The New Republican Party ; Our Time is Now ; Americas Purpose in the World ; its all captured here. From describing the correct vision of conservatism to the decision to stay inand transformthe Republican Party, to the first and brilliant articulation of his foreign policy, readers can enjoy Reagans wisdom in its brilliant totality.