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Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 06:42 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

A Tribute to President Reagan on the 100th Anniversary of his birth.

Ronald-Reagan

Many people in the media refer to President Reagan as the “Great Communicator.” He rejected that characterisation, by saying it was the message and not the messenger that was more important.

Ronald Reagan clearly had the training and experience of an actor that aided him in communicating effectively, but his quotes on important issues reveal his wisdom and deep commitment to his country. A selection of quotes that illustrate the wisdom and patriotism of Ronald Wilson Reagan follow:

On Government

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last.

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Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.

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Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

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Government does not solve problems, it subsidizes them.

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Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

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Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

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Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

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Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

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Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

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History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

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I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

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If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environment impact statement.

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If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

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Man is not free unless government is limited.

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No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, one launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!

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One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

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People do not make wars: governments do.

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Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

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The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

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The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

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The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.

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The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.

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Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

On Freedom

A people free to choose will always choose peace.

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Above all. we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.

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All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

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Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement

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Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

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Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

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Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

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Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

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Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

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Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

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My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

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No matter what time it is, wake me, even if it’s in the middle of a Cabinet meeting.

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One picture is worth 1,000 denials.

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There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

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They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.

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Thomas Jefferson once said, “We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works, “ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

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To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

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Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

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Trust, but verify.

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We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

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We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.

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Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

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While I take inspiration from the past, like most American, I live for the future.

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Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

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You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.

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It is freedom that still hangs in the balance, and freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.

Vintage Reagan

A tree is a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

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All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be store under a desk.

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Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.

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But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.

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Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

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Facts are stubborn things.

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Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

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Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.

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How can a president not be an actor?

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How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

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I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

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I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

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I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.

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I never drink coffee at lunch. I find it keeps me awake for the afternoon.

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I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a “fat cat” and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a `public- spirited philanthropist`.

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I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.

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If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

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If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

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Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

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My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

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No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.

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Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.

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Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

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Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the wall topped by barbwire; it wafts across the electrified borders.

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It doesn’t do good to open doors for someone who doesn’t have the price to get in. If he has the price, he may not need the laws. There is no law saying the Negro has to live in Harlem or Watts.

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It’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available.

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It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.

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It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance.

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Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.

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Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.

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Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

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Politics I supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

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Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

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Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.

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Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

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Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.

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Status quo, you know, is Latin for‘the mess we’re in‘.

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Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

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The greatest security for Israel is to create new Egypts.

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The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

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There are no easy answers; but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

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There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination. and wonder.

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To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.

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Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

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Violence has been Nicaragua’s most important export to the world.

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We can not play innocent abroad in a world that is not innocent.

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We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

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We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.

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We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.

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We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

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We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it, and still be home by Christmas.

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We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

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(At the end of the Carter Administration’s mismanagement of national defense) We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

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What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

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When you can’t make them see the light, make then feel the heat.

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You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we’re in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we’ve got to do something about the unemployed.

 

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