On October 27, 1964, Ronald Reagan delivered one of the major speeches of his life. It is remembered as “A Time for Choosing” or simply “The Speech.” In it, Reagan laid out the differences between the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate, Lyndon Johnson, and the Republican Party and its candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater. He remarked:
[T]his idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and 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.
Senator Goldwater, Reagan’s candidate, lost that election, and lost badly. But Reagan’s ideas resonated with people, and they continued to resound over the next decade and a half.
For Republicans reeling from November’s “thumpin’” at the polls, Reagan’s consistent message and ultimate achievements can provide hope for better success next year and guidance for how to reach it.
In 1976, he ran against President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination and lost by only seventy delegate votes at the Republican convention in Kansas City. After winning victory, President Ford invited Governor Reagan to speak to the delegates from the convention podium. Speaking off-the-cuff, Governor Reagan reminded the delegates and the television viewers of why the election mattered. He lamented “the erosion of freedom that has taken place under Democratic rule in this country, the invasion of private rights, the controls and restrictions on the vitality of the great free economy that we enjoy.”
And he pointed out “that we live in a world in which the great powers have posed and aimed at each other horrible missiles of destruction that can, in a matter of minutes, arrive in each other’s country and destroy virtually the civilized world we live in.”
Governor Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated President Ford in the general election. But Ronald Reagan had become the voice of commonsense conservatism. Four years later, he was overwhelmingly elected president. In another four years, he was re-elected in an even bigger landslide.
He was known as the Great Communicator, but he rejected the title. In his farewell address nation before leaving the White House, the President said:
I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation—from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.
Throughout his two terms, President Reagan clearly communicated great things. And he pushed policies rooted in great ideas and common sense through a Democrat-controlled Congress. Because those policies were based on a coherent philosophy grounded in truth, they worked. Reagan confronted the Soviet Union, and it collapsed. He cut taxes, and the American economy soared.
Tax cuts spurred economic growth because they reduced the disincentive to prosperity-building behavior inherent in high marginal tax rates. The Evil Empire crumbled because President Reagan’s defense buildup forced them to keep up; because communism stifles prosperity, they couldn’t maintain the same pace that America could.
Reagan correctly gauged how these mechanics would play out because he grasped a great and simple truth of the human spirit: People want to soar, and they can and will do so to the degree that they are unshackled by oppression—the pervasive oppression of totalitarian communism or the here-and-there oppression of a constitutional republic that has overstepped its just limits.
Twenty years removed from the Reagan administration, too many Republicans have squandered the legacy of clearly communicated great things bequeathed to them. They have failed to communicate great things, and they have failed to do the right things. And that’s why they suffered such an enormous defeat in November’s elections.
Squandering the opportunity to promote and pass market-based Social Security reform, they increased the size and scope of the welfare state by expanding Medicare. Failing to make real progress toward stopping abortion, they split the baby by allowing limited federally funded stem cell research. And their profligate spending is enough to make choosing between the two major parties like choosing between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell. This federal expansionism was a betrayal of the conservative principle that civil government should remain small, leaving much of the responsibility for social welfare with individuals, families, churches, and community associations.
Instead of serving the American people by passing good policies based on great ideas, some Republicans even sold their support for gold, gifts, and golf trips. When one Republican engaged in an inappropriate pursuit of Capitol Hill pages, many treated the affair as a public relations problem, rather than a moral problem, and the House committee responsible for punishing such ethical atrocities took no punitive action. These scandals were a betrayal of the conservative principle articulated by Ronald Reagan “that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people.” An honorable public servant who knows what he believes can’t be bought; a politician who’s attained political office for the power and the perks can.
The party backed liberal Republicans at the expense of solid conservatives. This misplaced pragmatism was a betrayal of the conservative principle that sound policy is sound politics. It’s also politically dangerous game, because these liberal Republicans join with Democrats in approving harmful laws, and then they share the blame for the resulting damage.
These mistakes all added up to the massive Republican losses of November.
But conservative ideas triumphed on their own in nationwide trends. Ballot measures are the purest reflection of voter sentiment, because they are unadulterated by the taint of messengers. As homosexual activists agitated for “gay marriage,” seven states passed marriage amendments. After the Supreme Court trampled the right to property in the infamous Kelo decision, nine ballot measures limited the application of “eminent domain.”
And conservatism made its mark in some of the Republican defeats. Two years ago, the Democrats were narrowly defeated at the polls, and they discovered “values voters.” As Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean allowed, “One thing the Republicans have taught us is that values and character matter.” So they ran candidates who would appeal to the morally conservative majority of voters. With an unwitting assist by scandal-plagued, policy-confused Republicans, their strategy worked. Many of the victorious Democrat candidates were fairly conservative for their party. Jim Webb, a former Republican and Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration who closely defeated Virginia Senator George Allen, trumpeted Ronald Reagan’s decades-old praise for him (over Mrs. Reagan’s objections). Bob Casey, Jr., who defeated Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, is pro-life.
While Democrats were wooing conservatives, Republicans were giving them the cold shoulder. Given the opportunity to communicate conservative ideas and pass conservative policies, Republicans instead expanded the federal government and its spending spree. Entrusted with the honor of serving the American people, several Republicans sold the privilege for the porridge self-aggrandizement—allowing themselves to be lured into scandal. Faced with the opportunity to remove liberals from their ranks, Republicans circled the wagons—and sacrificed conservatives on the altar of “party unity.”
Now the party is unified in defeat, hanging together in its betrayal of correct principles, of conferred privileges, of conservative people, the way that Haman hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai.
The lesson is clear. Republicans rejected conservative ideas, Ronald Reagan’s “great things,” and they lost for it.
The question is also clear: Will they learn from their mistake in time to salvage their chances in the next election?
The answer is anything but clear.
Leslie Carbone is a writer living in Virginia.
