The Redhunter

I was wondering what Reagan meant by "a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital." LBJ was in the White House, and I didn't think of him as intellectual, but more of a cowboy. So, I looked up the speech, and I found a video (27 minutes long) at http://www.popmodule.com/video/576/Ronald-Reagan-A-Time-For-Choosing

I must have seen that speech back then, and now I recall how riveting a speaker he was. At the time of the speech, Oct. 27, 1964, given on the TV program, "Rendevous with Destiny" I had only known him as a TV host of some of our favorite shows on TV and president of the Screen Actors Guild. The speech was given in support of Barry Goldwater who was campaigning for the office of POTUS. Reagan hadn't even been elected Governor of California yet.

Barry Goldwater lost the election big, and since then we have had LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, before Reagan himself became President. It seems the problems of his time are still with us or have gotten worse, despite the five Republican presidents we have had since.

I am still wondering who Reagan meant by "a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital". What did I miss there? It has been so long ago (45 years), and my memory fades.

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA

Tom,

Where did you come up w/ this? Obviously, this is your blog and you may post whatever you wish. I suggest clips of John Stewart from The Daily Show. He is much funnier.

Me, I prefer your opinion to some slick piece of film editing.

TLGK

Tom, you said, "Reagan's words ring as true today as they did then", but we have had NINE presidents since Reagan's stirring 1964 speech including Reagan himself, and none have acted on his advice. There is just paranoid partisanship and old poops on both sides of the aisle too long in Congress beholden to the capitalists' lobbyists and unions and organized crime and people even in the Tea Party depending on Social Security and Medicare. Now the younger folks are having to dip into their 401s.

We need to have jobs brought back to our country instead of being shipped overseas. I spent five hours the other day talking to computer techs in India, Canada, and the Phillipines and they could hardly speak English! They never did solve my computer problem, but they took almost $200 out of my VISA. I found an American website of consumers who helped me. Just about everything I buy is made in China. Argh, Argh, argh!

What we need is term limits for Congress. The president can only serve two terms, why in the world do Senator's and Congressmen get a lifetime job even when their performance would get them fired anywhere else? We need people that can be above money and power and really work across the aisle for all Americans.

Sorry about the rant!

Emilie
Port Orchard, WA