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Analysis Of A Time For Choosing By Ronald Reagan

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Ronald Reagan Declaring for President in 1964

Just over two years before Ronald Reagan competed in his first statewide or national office, the former actor gave a speech in support of a doomed presidential candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater. This speech had little effect on 1964 presidential election. However, the “A Time for Choosing” speech established Ronald Reagan as the future of the conservative movement, and outlined his view of what America should be. “A Time for Choosing” fastened Reagan’s conservatism in the minds of both Republicans and Americans. This speech propelled Reagan to win the California governor’s race in 1967 and a sweeping victory in the 1980 presidential election. The “A Time for Choosing” speech declared …show more content…

But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present” (Reagan). The nearly identical economic assertions that Reagan makes in both speeches perfectly demonstrates the correlation between “A Time for Choosing” and the “First Inaugural Address” and supports the idea that Regan’s speech in 1964 was basically an explanation of his presidential platform. The president also spent a majority of both speeches talking about his view of government, specifically the relationship between the individual citizen and government and the responsibility of centralized government’s. In his “First Inaugural Address” President Reagan declared, “Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed” (Reagan). 17 years prior in “A Time for Choosing” Ronald Reagan said essentially the same thing, “And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except that sovereign people is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man’s relation to man” (Reagan). Here, Reagan is affirming and then

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