In these tumultuous times that we find ourselves, it is sometimes refreshing to look back at Presidents who had some real idea about what America is. President Reagan’s speech from almost 40 years ago is apropos for our current situation.
“We live today in a time of climactic struggle for the human spirit, a time that will tell whether the great civilized ideas of individual liberty, representative government, and the rule of law under God will perish or endure. We must reach out and appeal to the patriotic and fundamental ideals of average Americans
…I’m talking about “Main Street” Americans in their millions. They come in all sizes, shapes and colors – blue-collar workers, blacks, Hispanics, shopkeepers, scholars, service people, housewives, and professional men and women. They are the backbone of America, and we can’t move America without moving their hearts and minds as well.
Fellow Americans, our duty is before us tonight. Let us go forward, determined to serve selflessly a vision of man with God, government for people, and humanity at peace. For it is now our task to tend and preserve, through the darkest and coldest nights, that “sacred fire of liberty” that President Washington spoke of two centuries ago…”
These words are as true today as when President Reagan spoke them decades ago. We The People are the answer to the insanity infecting our political culture.