Politics according to the pros

I am hearing, breathing, thinking, dreaming politics these days. I try to tune out the voices in my head, but without much luck.

In the wake of this huge bailout bill passed today in the House and amidst much of the liberal soundbites floating around the media, I just wanted to share a few quotes by two of, in my opinion, the greatest presidents ever: Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.

I was too young to really remember Reagan as president, but it was reading Ronald Reagan's speeches that solidified my conservative views and beliefs. And after reading Team of Rivals, a biography of Lincoln, he is now one of my most admired leaders. (I also highly recommend Reagan's biography When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan)

And I feel like they had several things in common.

• They were very clever and funny. They could make almost any tense situation comfortable and pleasant just by their manner and humor. Neither took himself too seriously.
  
• They had an unusually clear vision of what they saw as right and were able to convey that to the people they spoke to. And they were not afraid to stand by what they believed was right. Neither seemed to have much of a personal agenda for power. Instead, they were standing by the right thing, sometimes at the risk of losing their political power.
• They believed in the individual and felt that a government that thought it could take care of a person better than that person could take care of himself, was dangerous.
  
• And I personally believe that both men were prepared for the great work that each of them did. They were exactly the right person at the right place and time to work a miracle. For Lincoln, it was preserving the nation and ending the awful practice of slavery. For Reagan, it was stopping the spread and power of Communism, and literally bringing down the wall that kept so many in bondage.

So here it is according to them:

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. --Abraham Lincoln

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.--Abraham Lincoln

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man , and the to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny." -- Abraham Lincoln

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

Man is not free unless government is limited.... As government expands, liberty contracts.--Ronald Reagan

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.'--Ronald Reagan

So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer -- and they've had almost 30 years of it -- shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing? But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater.--Ronald Reagan