Lloyd Marcus: Our 40th president’s birthday earlier this month caused me to reflect upon how Ronald Reagan impacted my life.
In 1981, I was a young singer/songwriter, clueless about politics, when Ronald Reagan won the presidency. An event planner asked me to perform at an inaugural ball.
Reporters asked, “Why are you here and why do you like Reagan?” I could not help noticing the baffled looks on their faces upon hearing my reply. “I like Reagan because every time I hear this man speak, I feel good about my country and myself.”
I later learned as a black person I was supposed to hate Ronald Reagan. Democrats said Reagan’s talk about welfare reform was “code” for his racism and hatred of blacks. As I said, I was young and clueless regarding politics,
codes, and such. And yet, in my gut, I knew that Reagan was a good man.
I find it quite ironic that Ronald Reagan, is the Great Conservative. I say this because on the list of 100 great conservative politicians, Mr. Reagan is #77, while Barry Goldwater was ranked #50. Furthermore I leave you with this quote, ” The root of the conservative movement is Libertarianism.” Ronald Reagan 1975, …. Ironic don’t you think?
Here’s the rest of the quote: “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.”
You can go here for the complete July 1, 1975 “Reason” interview with Governor Ronald Reagan. http://reason.com/archives/1975/07/01/inside-ronald-reagan