A Little More Heat (Guest Voice)
A Little More Heat
by Michael Reagan
It seems to me that what is missing in the top two contenders for the Republican presidential nomination is passion.
While Ron Paul speaks with passion of the Federal Reserve and Rick Santorum speaks with passion about life, Newt Gingrich speaks passionately mostly about Mitt Romney; and Mitt, it seems, merely speaks in sound bites.
I don’t know about you, but I want to see them seek to build their own shining city on a hill such as that my dad envisioned, and not simply attempt to recreate that vision and make it their own..
I want them to stop speaking merely in sound bites, but rather to speak to me in parables to which I can relate. I want to feel their speeches, not just hear them. It needs to be more than “I’m not Mitt,” or “I can beat Obama.” I want them to convince me they really mean what they say, not what they think I want to hear.
If indeed Newt and Mitt can find the passion of Rick Santorum, and even that of my dad, they will go a long way towards winning not only the Republican nomination, but also the presidency itself. As many readers know, I have endorsed Newt and traveled with him on the campaign trail as a private citizen, but he can do better in this respect.
We Americans prefer to hear the real truth, not what politicians want us to hear. In the era of Barack Obama the message we hear from Washington is, “Trust me, we know what is good for you.”
That’s the message of tyrants, as many who lived under Hitler and Mussolini discovered as they were herded into concentration camps.
In those dreadful times, Germans, Italians and others under their rule were fed slogans such as those seen on signs above the entrances of concentration camps: “Arbeit Makt Frei — Work Makes Freedom.” To the Nazis and Fascists, freedom and death and work and slavery were conflated with respect to individuals; all that mattered was the state.
One of the early signs of an incoming dictatorship is a government’s attack on the Christian church. Tragically, we are beginning to see something like that now, in the Army’s attempt to censor chaplains — to tell them what they can or cannot say in their sermons.
The government in this case appears to believe that it is superior to any religion — that it is entitled to overrule the doctrines of faith by which all legitimate religious organizations live. We must, in their view, submit our articles of faith for government review and tolerance.
Accept this and bid freedom of religion farewell. Let’s find the passion to make Obama a one-term president.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2011). He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at www.reagan.com, or e-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. His column is licensed to run on TMV in full.
8 Responses to “A Little More Heat (Guest Voice)”
I’m beginning to see the right wing’s plan. They say that Obama is not a Christian but they can’t prove it. So now they are going to up the ante and accuse him of persecuting religion.
This should work as well as any of their other fantasies.
It would be interesting to chart how far Michael Reagan gets into each of his diatribes before using the phrase “my dad.” I’ll bet the mean distance would be no more than 5% of the total length of the article.
Given that he was adopted, sent away to boarding school, and that at his high school graduation Ronald Reagan didn’t recognize him when they met face-to-face, one has to wonder how he has managed to build his entire career on the accomplishments of the former president.
He’s right, though, that Romney needs to learn to fake enthusiasm and compassion as well as Pres. Reagan could. He won’t.
There is a common misconception that the Pilgrims journeyed to the New World in search of religious freedom. They actually were fleeing religious freedom. What they wanted to do was to deny freedom of religion to others, to impose their religion onto others. This is a part of what inspired the guarantee of religious freedom in our constitution, to avoid one religion imposing their beliefs on others.
And whether or not contraceptives are covered under health care insurance is not a question of religious freedom. It is a question of health care. People are free to not use contraception. If the Catholic church was a little more certain of the clarity of their moral position and was a little more persuasive in making their case for it perhaps fewer of their employees and church members would use contraception. Then the church wouldn’t need the help of the government to impose their will on them.
“In the era of Barack Obama the message we hear from Washington is, “Trust me, we know what is good for you.” That’s the message of tyrants, as many who lived under Hitler and Mussolini discovered as they were herded into concentration camps.”
I happen to believe the cultivation of hate is a form of mental illness. In that sense Ronnie’s little boy is in need of help. Instead he gets a soapbox. A sign of the times I suppose..
Quite true, but some of them later fled to Rhode Island for religious freedom and quahogs. Later Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was the first colony to declare its independence and the first to call coffee frappes “cabinets.”
Gotta love the right and their colorful imagery. Are there really voters out there who believe this creative vision and don’t realize that our system of checks and balances keeps tyranny at bay?
I guess if Obama ever does decide to appoint himself dictator he’ll have a nice choice between using concentration camps and guillotines to establish and maintain control.
I’m so glad that Michael is aware that “we Americans prefer to hear the real truth” but he should take his own advice and stop with the demagogery.
Here’s a novel idea: how about making a living by being your own man and not by riding your father’s coattails?? I was never a fan of Ronald Reagan but I never heard him say anything approaching this kind of garbage.
Mwaahahhahaa… my previous post is still waiting moderation.
So I will just say this…
it was “Arbeit MaCHt Frei”
If he is going to call Obama a nazi, he should at least get his information straight.
“he should at least get his information straight”
Don’t hold your breath.