capitalist coffee

Today marks the 45th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s magnificent address at the 1964 Republican National Convention.

These are words that would not win him a Nobel Peace Prize – they did not then and they would not now. Reagan’s revolution was a revolt against the policies of appeasement that had us in a state of perpetual stalemate in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. It was a stalemate in which the Soviets had gradually and consistently gained ground through subversion and deception, and used our own agreements and treaties against us.

In his Presidency, he reversed our course, from belief in a peaceful coexistence between superpowers, from “getting over our inordinate fear of Communism” as Jimmy Carter whimpered, to recognizing the Soviet Union for what it was – an ‘Evil Empire,’ a cancerous regime that could only devour more liberty as it rotted away from its own corruption. The strategy became not to contain, but to work actively to accelerate the collapse of Soviet Communism.

His ideal of ‘Freedom wins, tyranny loses’ was ridiculed for its lack of nuance. He was despised by Academia, the media, and Hollywood. Pundits spun neverending tales of the woe his “Cowboy” stance would bring upon us. And then he won.