A time for choosing

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By Jerry Jones - Central Intelligence Agency, Ret., Native of Sparta

In 1964, before he became the governor of California and 17 years before he was inaugurated as the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, a well-known Hollywood actor, gave a political speech in support of Barry Goldwater, a friend who was running for president of the United States against Lyndon Johnson.  That speech was so compelling that it thrust Mr. Reagan into the political limelight.  That, in turn, eventually led him to the White House.  In a recent re-reading of that speech, I found that, 66 years later, much of what he had to say that day remains applicable today.

In the confinement of this article, it is impossible to do justice to the full impact and brilliance of this historically pertinent document.  Therefore, I will limit my comments to a few of the more notable points/issues that seem to be ever present in our political arena.  You will find that much of the commentary is Mr. Reagan’s, not mine.  I am struck by the similarities of the issues then and now.

In the opening remarks of his speech, Mr. Reagan stated, “I have spent most of my life as a Democrat.  I recently have seen fit to follow another course (because) I believe that the issues confronting us cross(es) party lines.”

He made no further reference to the transfer of his political allegiance from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party.  However, it was well known that he had become disgusted with the self-centeredness of the Democrat Party, its agenda of increased taxation, bigger/more government control, the fallacy of President Johnson’s pie-in-the-sky ‘Great Society’ and the Democrat Party’s unwillingness to work with their Republican counterparts (as is the case in today’s world).   Note:  Today’s Socialist Democrat Party’s (SDP) pie-in-the-sky scheme is ‘The Green New Deal,’ which is both unrealistic and beyond the funding capabilities of the federal government, even with a 100 percent taxation.

During his 1964 speech, Mr. Reagan referred to the following derogatory and unbelievably anti-America comments made by U.S. senators J. William Fulbright, a Democrat from Arkansas, and Joseph S. Clark, a ‘Unitarian  Universalist’ from Pennsylvania.

Quote: “Senator Fulbright has said at Stanford University that the (U.S.) Constitution is outmoded.  He referred to the (U.S.) president ... and said he (the president) is “hobbled” by the restrictions of power imposed on him by this antiquated document (the U.S. Constitution).  He must be freed, so he can do for us what he knows is best.”

Quote: “Senator Clark, another articulate spokesman, defines liberalism as meeting the material needs of the masses through the full power of centralized government.”

Mr. Reagan took issue with the citizens - the free men and women of this country -  being referred to as “the masses” and with the communist-like phrase “the full power of the centralized government”.  He noted  that “the full power of centralized government” was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize.

Mr. Reagan noted that earlier in the year (1964), at the University of Montana, Norman Thomas, a six-time candidate for president of the United States on the Socialist Party ticket, said, “If Barry Goldwater became president, he (Goldwater) would stop the advance of Socialism in the United States.”

Mr. Reagan then said, “As a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas isn’t the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism with the present administration because, back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith ... came before the American people and charged that  the leadership of his (Democrat) Party was taking the (Democrat) Party of Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Grover Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin (all Communist).  And, he walked away from his (Democrat) Party, and he never returned til the day he died - because to this day, the leadership of the (Democrat) Party has been taking that Party, that honorable Party. down the road in the image of the Labor Socialist Party in England.”

Mr. Reagan then proclaimed, “Somewhere a perversion has taken place.  Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of  the government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.”

Similarly, but even more tenuously, in 2017 we, as a country, were at that same tipping point when Donald Trump rescued us from the dark days of Obama and the Socialist  Democrat Party (SDP).

That was fortunate.  I say that because, given the testimonial words in Mr. Reagan’s 1964 speech, one can see that there has been a long-term relationship between the Socialists and the Democrat Party.  The Socialists finally wrested majority control of the party, in 2016.  Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election, this country would now be well underway to becoming the next failed Socialist country.

If having a seriously memory-challenged, easily confused, and embellishing liar, whose overall health is in decline as the SDP’s presidential candidate isn’t bad enough, consider the party’s lack of a viable campaign platform.   And, after four years of failed vindictive SDP plots against President Trump, he has emerged as highly successful and popular Republican president, leaving the SDP in dire straits.

In fact, based on the current ongoing release of subpoenaed documents that implicate past and present SDP royalty and an extensive ring of co-conspirators in an extensive plot to overthrow the presidency of Donald Trump, the SDP’s problems may become exponentially  worse.  I fully expect a series of forthcoming indictments and criminal charges.

Given both the testimonial words of Mr. Reagan, in 1964, which exposes a long-term relationship between the Socialists and the Democrat Party and the presently unfolding of serious wrongdoing on the part of the SDP, I suggest that if you a non-Socialist Democrat, now is ‘A Time For Choosing.’  I propose that you follow Ronald Reagan’s example and give serious consideration to switching your political affiliation.  The future of the SDP, if there is one, is very bleak.

God bless America!

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