In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Liz Cheney had an absolutely superb column noting that today (the 30th) is the 52nd anniversary of one of Ronald Reagan’s great speeches — three-plus years before “The Speech” on behalf of Barry Goldwater that launched Reagan’s political career. She didn’t write about the Reagan speech; she used a quote from the speech as a launch to remind conservatives what we need to fight for and, as importantly, of the fact that we do need to fight for what we believe — lest, as Reagan warned back then, we let freedom become extinct.
Please do read the column.
It struck me, when looking at the date of the speech, that it came 20 years to the day before Reagan himself almost became prematurely extinct, a the hands of would-be assassin John Hinckley. By luck, pluck, robust health, and amazingly good medical practices, Reagan somehow survived the bullet which lodged less than an inch of his heart. Had he not survived, this nation might not have survived in the way that it did. I’m not saying the United States would have disappeared, but the USA that defeated Communism might not have defeated Communism, and it might have become a shell of its former self and of what it could and should be.
We’ll never know. But we do know this: At least in large part because Reagan survived the bullet 32 years ago today, we thrived for several more decades, fulfilling the goal of his speech 52 years ago today rather than falling prey to the alternative fate about which he warned us. As Liz Cheney wrote yesterday, “We are the inheritors of these blessings of liberty, and it is our solemn duty to fight for, protect and defend our freedom. Now is the time to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and man the barricades for freedom.”
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