60 Years Since "The Speech"

It was 1964. America was recovering from the horrors of the JFK assassination. Tensions in Vietnam were increasing. A crucial election abounds.

Lyndon B. Johnson was running for an official term against Barry Goldwater. Campaigning for Goldwater was a former actor who stepped into the political sphere. His name is Ronald Reagan. Reagan delivered his speech just a week before the election. It was known as “A Time for Choosing. Often, it can be referred to as “The Speech”. It propelled Reagan to who will be a career in politics.

David Broder called his speech, "The most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic Convention with his 'Cross of Gold' speech."

Points Made in The Speech

Reagan made the central point of the need for self-government. However, early in his speech, he reminded us of what we would have to choose when going to the polls on Election Day or participating in early voting.

He said, “You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.”  Reagan knew we were a generation away from our freedoms becoming extinct. We need to know what they are and defend them.

Another point is the direction of the Democratic Party that he saw and we are seeing their true colors now.

He points out, “Back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his party was taking the part of Jefferson, Jackson, and Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. He walked away from his party, and he never returned to the day he died because, to this day, the leadership of that party has been taking that party, that honorable party, down the road in the image of the labor socialist party of England.” Reagan is pointing out how Democrats would embrace communism and soon socialism. We see their true colors with high taxes, endless wars, infringing on the freedoms of America, and no platform for their campaigns for public office.

Reagan summarizes the points of history as to why we have made it this far.

“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well, it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, There is a price we will not pay."

Reagan’s point is that we must stand up to our adversary by not surrendering but rather fighting for what is worth dying for, and that is freedom.

Reagan ended the speech with this famous line, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.” Reagan put a strong emphasis on preserving freedom or we will not have it for the next generation to cherish.

Watch his speech in its entirety here.