A Time for Choosing — Again

The date: Oct. 27, 1964.

The 1964 presidential race between incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Johnson and the GOP’s “Mr. Conservative — Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater — was racing to its end.

Poll after poll showed Goldwater so far behind LBJ that his task was seen as hopeless by political observers of the day.

And then.

And then something decidedly unexpected happened. 

Actor Ronald Reagan, the longtime movie star and then the television host of Death Valley Days and, previous to that, General Electric Theater, appeared on the nation’s television screens to give a speech. A speech that was seen at first as merely a pro-Goldwater speech — but turned out to be oh so much more than that.

Goldwater would go on a few days later to lose in a landslide. But to the amazement of some and the horror of others, Reagan’s speech launched him into the beginning of one of the most momentous and historic careers in American history.

The speech was quickly dubbed “A Time for Choosing.”

Among other things, Reagan touched on issues that today — a full 60 years later as America goes to vote in another presidential election, this one between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris — are decidedly still relevant.

Among the things Reagan said were these, bold print for emphasis supplied: 

Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.” And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth. 

And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except the sovereign people, is still the newest and the 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 capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.  

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down – [up] man’s old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. 

Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we’re denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we’re always “against” things – we’re never “for” anything.

Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

….You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Everything Reagan said that night in October 60 years ago applies today as Americans choose between Trump and Harris.

And note well: As Mark Levin has noted, the Democrats Rep. Jamie Raskin has:

….already said they are not going to sit still if Donald Trump wins the presidency. They are talking about using Jack Smith’s filing in front of the radical left judge in Washington, D.C., as a basis for impeachment.

…They are plotting right now how to cripple a Trump presidency right out of the box. 

These people are the revolutionaries whether it’s revolution by immigration or revolution by law and law fare. These people are trying to turn this country inside out. They are a grave danger to our way of life, our prosperity, peace and security and our family. That’s why this election, every thing is on the line.”

Exactly.

So this Election Day, it is more than worth remembering the wisdom of the man who went on to become one of America’s greatest presidents. 

And remember that yes, Nov. 5, 2024, is in fact a time for choosing. 

Here’s to hoping Americans choose well.

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