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60 years later, Ronald Reagan’s ‘A Time for Choosing’ speech still resonates

October 27, 2024

Talk about early voting: Ronald Reagan won the race for the White House 60 years ago. As columnist George Will quipped, “it just took 16 years to count the votes.”

With just one week before the November 1964 presidential election, Ronald Reagan took to television to make his case for Republican poresidential candidate Barry Goldwater. In Los Angeles, Reagan recorded a 30-minute campaign ad, broadcast nationwide on Oct. 27.

His address was pre-recorded but presented as if a live broadcast. The program was “A Time for Choosing,” but often referred to as simply “The Speech,” because its impact changed the trajectory of Reagan’s life. In today’s parlance, Reagan went viral.

Reagan began The Speech saying he had spent most of his life as a Democrat but now saw fit to follow another course. He made the case for smaller government, that government is beholden to the people and Americans should reject the intellectual elite in any far-distant capital. The election was about choosing between less government control and more individual freedoms.

He had disgust for the fiscal irresponsibility that eroded the purchasing power of a dollar. Reagan was aghast the debt ceiling had been raised three times in 1964 and the country spent 10 times more on welfare than it did during the Great Depression. He criticized the United Nations and foreign aid, claiming the billions sent abroad built more bureaucracy and were used to buy a yacht for Ethiopia’s emperor, dress suits for Greek undertakers and extra wives for Kenyan government officials. In total, Reagan claimed, 107 countries received aid from the United States. Today, 210 foreign countries and regions receive assistance from American taxpayers. The debt ceiling has been raised 70 times since 1964.

Reagan spent a good deal of time attacking the bloated federal government, bureaucratic overreach and property seizures. He said each day the government spent $17 million more than it collected. Today, the overspend is $4.6 billion a day. Farm subsidies were also the enemy of free enterprise and an insult to the intelligent farmer. Reagan claimed the bureaucracy is so thick the Department of Agriculture has one employee for every 30 farms. Today, there is one employee for every 19 farms.

His speech praised the benefits of individual liberties and how the country must always stand up for freedom and be willing to pay its price. Reagan despised communism and revered freedom.

“Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs?” Reagan asked, “Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ‘round the world?” He concluded saying Goldwater had faith in America, and Americans have a rendezvous with destiny, for the United States is the last best hope of man on earth.

The broadcast concluded with an appeal for campaign funds. Money was collected the old-fashioned way — flooding a P.O. box in Los Angeles. About $1 million was raised, a staggering sum, considering the combined Democratic-Republican presidential campaigns spent $20 million in the 1960 contest.

Reagan’s performance was noticed immediately. Just two days after The Speech, a rural Plumas County newspaper wrote about a woman who said Reagan had changed her mind about voting — no vote for Goldwater, she’s going to vote for Ronald Reagan! And thus it began. Predictably, Reagan said he had no desire to be a candidate; two weeks later he was studying the opportunity, and finally decided to run for governor, winning two terms.

Reagan’s Oct. 27 performance was not a hasty campaign whistle-stop; it was the result of relentless practice and discipline. For years, Reagan had been giving The Speech, in different forms and to different audiences. His eight-year contract to host the General Electric Theatre television program allowed him to visit GE factories and boost morale with his public speaking. His remarks hit on the evils of socialism and freedom’s blessings.

“A Time for Choosing” evolved from those earlier speeches, such as 1959’s “Business, Ballots and Bureaus.” Reagan warned about the growing power of bureaucrats to shape policy rather than elected lawmakers in Congress. Reagan said stifling regulations are “frozen into permanency by civil service regulations beyond the reach of any election.” This critique foreshadowed the 2024 Supreme Court overturning of the Chevron Doctrine, a legal principle that allowed federal agencies broad authority to interpret laws. In 1959 and 1960, Reagan delivered the triple-B speech in cities stretching from Chattanooga, Abilene, Spokane and even Honolulu. By 1961, a version of the speech was titled “Encroaching Control,” where he called California’s governor a tower of jelly that sways left with every breeze.

He stumped for Nixon’s run for governor in 1962 and changed his voter registration to Republican that fall. His speech titles morphed to “The Price of Freedom” and “What’s at Stake?” but the core messages of fiscal responsibility and democratic freedom remained. Reagan spoke to anyone: Republican clubs, chambers of commerce, sororities, college campuses, realtors, Elks Clubs, Rotary Clubs and Lions Clubs. And he went everywhere.

Reagan crisscrossed California from Barstow to Chico speaking under the shortened banner “Time to Choose.” Each speech could be tailored for the audience. Reagan dropped lines that did not have punch; he added and updated evidence as the data evolved. He studied pace and pause, picking the opportune moment to raise his voice or stay silent to absorb applause or laughter. When Reagan became co-chair of Goldwater’s California campaign, he added parts about candidate Goldwater piloting his own airplane to deliver medicine to flood-ravaged Mexico.

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A critical test came in July 1964, when Reagan spoke to 5,000 delegates at the Kiwanis convention in Los Angeles. That speech had no title but nearly every word was identical to “A Time for Choosing.” It was perfect practice for what was to come. The Republican convention was in San Francisco in just two weeks, and with Goldwater trailing in the polls, the campaign would need to muster everything to close the gap. Goldwater is remembered for his “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” phrase during his acceptance speech. The Johnson campaign responded with the “Daisy” nuclear countdown ad that frightened voters with Goldwater’s extremism, stretching Johnson’s polling lead.

When it came time to record “A Time for Choosing,” Goldwater’s chances were slim, but Reagan was undaunted, as this moment was years in the making. Reagan spoke with a freshness and urgency that beguiled a decade of repetition. Never with a teleprompter, he had delivered countless iterations across thousands of miles, to ally and to foe, and in places big and small. Before Reagan was the Great Communicator, he was the Great Preparer. Political fortunes change abruptly by election, scandal, assassination, or a bad debate night, but rarely by readiness. Far beyond viral luck, that night superior preparation met opportunity.

Tim Galbraith was the 1983 winner of the California-Nevada Lions Club Student Speakers Contest and volunteered for Reagan in 1984. He is a financial services executive in New York.

Orange County Register

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60 years later, Ronald Reagan’s ‘A Time for Choosing’ speech still resonates

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