When Reagan and Ratzinger Teamed Up on Faith and Hope

By |2023-01-07T10:11:04-06:00September 7th, 2014|Categories: Christianity, Communio, Faith, G.K. Chesterton, Hope, Pope Benedict XVI, Ronald Reagan|

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI almost a year after the June 2004 death of Ronald Reagan. I don’t know if Ratzinger and Reagan ever met, though there’s a chance they did during one of Reagan’s visits to the Vatican to meet with Pope John Paul II, especially his first and most prominent visit, [...]

The Battle For Reagan’s Soul, 2014 Version

By |2014-08-24T22:36:11-05:00August 21st, 2014|Categories: Barack Obama, Brian Domitrovic, Conservatism, Government, Ronald Reagan|

In 1980, that terrible year of stagflation, when Ronald Reagan was gaining the Republican nomination for president, dueling editorials appeared in the Wall Street Journal about “The Battle for Reagan’s Soul.” The first, by that title, came from neo-conservative sage Irving Kristol, who alerted readers that an effort was on by the establishment to capture [...]

The “Awesome” ’80s: Remembering the Right Lessons

By |2015-01-06T14:14:05-06:00July 9th, 2014|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs|

It is hard not to laugh when my students think they are imitating or comprehending the zeitgeist of—whether to honor or mock—the 1980s. Though, in almost every way, it is impossible to fault them for this. The individual members of the incoming freshman class will have entered this world sometime in 1996 or 1997, a [...]

How Ronald Reagan Changed Bruce Springsteen’s Politics

By |2019-11-26T16:12:23-06:00June 11th, 2014|Categories: Audio/Video, Bruce Springsteen, Politics, Ronald Reagan|

Born in the U.S.A., which turns 30 this week, is Bruce Springsteen’s best-selling album to date, and that should come as no surprise. Its songs—“I’m On Fire,” “Glory Days,” “Darlington County” and others—are FM radio staples, their foursquare drum, piano, base and guitar parts perfectly at home in either a Jersey Shore bar or an [...]

What Would Reagan Do?

By |2014-04-17T10:35:58-05:00April 16th, 2014|Categories: Conservatism, Government, Pat Buchanan, Ronald Reagan, War|Tags: |

President Reagan was holding a meeting in the Cabinet Room on March 25, 1985, when Press Secretary Larry Speakes came over to me, as communications director, with a concern. The White House was about to issue a statement on the killing of Major Arthur Nicholson, a U.S. army officer serving in East Germany. Maj. Nicholson [...]

Ronald Reagan: The Case for Greatness

By |2023-01-01T19:30:25-06:00February 6th, 2014|Categories: Conservatism, Presidency, Ronald Reagan, Stephen M. Klugewicz|

Ronald Reagan was indeed a giant among men, a true Man of the West, and conservatives should rightly and proudly claim him as one of their own. “Very soon, all too soon, your government will need not just extraordinary men—but men with greatness,” Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn said during his visit to the U.S. Capitol [...]

How Annette Kirk Saved American Education

By |2014-12-29T16:54:21-06:00January 26th, 2014|Categories: Bruce Frohnen, Education, Homeschooling, Ronald Reagan|

Can public education in the United States be saved? Given the stranglehold of teachers’ unions over school districts and state legislatures, the constant meddling of an ideologically motivated federal Education Department, the sheer weight of bureaucracy, and the commitment to mediocrity? Perhaps not. But we all should keep in mind that things could be far [...]

America in the World: The Idyllic Vision of Ronald Reagan

By |2016-07-26T15:44:36-05:00September 25th, 2013|Categories: Claes Ryn, Leadership, Ronald Reagan|Tags: |

“I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the sign of democracy, By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.” —Walt Whitman [1] Ronald Reagan’s vision of America’s role in the world, especially as it was expressed in his presidential speeches, continues to resonate with many Americans. President George [...]

Obama is Making Things Easy for the Next Reaganite

By |2014-01-13T14:32:54-06:00June 14th, 2013|Categories: Brian Domitrovic, Economics, Political Economy, Ronald Reagan|

Remember when people were saying that the old Republican ideas, the venerable supply-side reforms that first made their mark in the Ronald Reagan era of the 1980s, were no longer relevant in terms of getting us out of our rut today, on account of their already having been made policy? It was only yesterday that [...]

The Evil Empire and Ronald Reagan

By |2021-03-08T00:22:07-06:00March 8th, 2013|Categories: Alexander Hamilton, Bradley J. Birzer, Communism, Ronald Reagan|

On March 8, 1983, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that shocked many, amused some, and inspired more. Attending the annual meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, Reagan decided to address the topic of sin and evil in the modern world. Drawing significantly upon C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Reagan offered a [...]

Ronald Reagan: A Better Inauguration Speech?

By |2016-03-13T14:39:05-05:00January 21st, 2013|Categories: Ronald Reagan, W. Winston Elliott III|

Ronald Reagan's 1981 speech Today many Americans heard the inauguration speech of President Obama. Perhaps it would be beneficial to compare his speech to that of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Which is more inspiring? Which speech better represents the aspirations of the citizens of the American Republic? Books on President Ronald Reagan [...]

Remembering Barry Goldwater

By |2016-10-27T19:38:58-05:00January 10th, 2013|Categories: Books, Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr.|

William F. Buckley, Jr., Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater (Basic Books, 2008). Buckley’s book, Flying High, is much more a memoir of the conservative movement in the early 1960s than it is a biography of Goldwater. Indeed, without the subtitle and the book dust jacket bearing a picture of Goldwater campaigning in 1964, this might very well have [...]

Reclaiming the Conservative Party

By |2013-12-19T21:19:12-06:00December 4th, 2012|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Politics, Republicans, Ronald Reagan|Tags: |

  I will admit, with only the slightest embarrassment, that the November elections depressed me mightily. As early as mid summer, I promised myself not to get worked up about the current state of politics. One candidate seemed frightful, and the other dreadfully dull. Neither vice presidential candidate did much for me, either, though a [...]

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