A Time for Choosing

Ronald Reagan’s career as a national politician began 50 years ago this week (Oct. 27), in 1964. Somewhat ironically, the event that catapulted him to national fame was a speech he gave on behalf of the Republican candidate for president in 1964, Barry Goldwater, whose career as a national politician ended with that race. Goldwater was trounced in the general election by Lyndon Johnson and never ran for national office again.

But Goldwater’s defeat was not blamed on Reagan, whose speech, titled “A Time for Choosing,” made him the darling of the Republican Party. In it, he skillfully outlined all of the political themes and ideas that he had formulated over the years — ideas and themes that would later put him in the job Goldwater failed to procure.

“This is the issue of this election,” Reagan said in his speech, which was nationally televised. “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 capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves.”

Reagan then went on to articulate his belief in limited government, tax reform, private enterprise and an end to bureaucratic social engineering. “We have come to a time for choosing,” Reagan said. The choice was between more government or more individual freedom and self-reliance.

In many ways, the ideas and themes Reagan was articulating were similar to what Goldwater was proposing. Goldwater’s campaign slogan was “A Choice not an Echo,” as a way to starkly differentiate his conservative platform with the ultra-liberal one Johnson was proposing.

Reagan’s platform was just as conservative, but how Reagan presented it and how Goldwater did was also starkly different. Goldwater was brash and brutally honest, but he came off as extreme and even scary. In contrast, Reagan could articulate conservative positions in a non-threatening, even avuncular manner that made people listen and agree. Reagan understood that a political platform is a product, and like all products the quality is one thing. How well the product is sold is another. Indeed, Reagan had actually perfected “The Speech” — as “A Time for Choosing” became known — while hosting a television show, “GE Theater,” which was sponsored by General Electric, and Reagan became GE’s pitchman, going around the country giving a version of this speech to different audiences. So Reagan learned how to sell a product, but what also made him a great salesman was his undying belief in the product—the constitutional republic that the Founding Fathers created.

That firm belief, and Reagan’s skill at selling it to the voters, soon made him governor of California, and then our 40^th president.