During the past week, Young America’s Foundation launched a series of videos as a part of its larger A Time for Choosing: The Next Generation project. The videos focus on different ideas that Reagan spoke about during the speech and how they relate to today, in Reagan’s own words. These videos include: national security, limited government, entitlement reform, the importance of the private sector, and self-determination. Reagan’s message to Americans was timeless, and there is no better demonstration of this than how well it relates to the issues of today. Reagan brilliantly wove personal and anecdotal narratives throughout his speech to bring abstract principles to a general audience. This style made Reagan both more personably relatable, and helped voters more deeply understand how philosophical principles affected their everyday lives. Historian Steven F. Hayward wrote in a recent Washington Post op-ed that Reagan, “understood that narrative can be more effective than abstractions or slogans alone.” He continued, “Goldwater and conservative intellectuals back to Robert Taft tended to argue from abstract principles, with less emphasis on story and concrete examples. Reagan’s rhetoric represented a potent shift.” “The Speech,” as Reagan’s performance began to be called, drew from the presentations he had given around the country to General Electric workers on behalf of the company. Historian Jonathan Schoenwald wrote in the Oxford University Press book, A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism, “Going from factory to factory, Reagan saw what free-market capitalism could achieve, and when he looked into the faces of the workers he understood that any ideology that threatened what had produced such abundance, whether liberalism or communism, must not be allowed to spread any further.” https://youtube/watch?v=tpW5i_lftCI
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 11:51:31 +0000
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