Ronald Reagan

There has been a lot of emotional ups and downs with this election season. It started out during the primaries, slowly going up with Mitt Romney gaining in poularity and the polls... Then after his defeat by John McCain, it went back down again. Then McCain chose Sarah Palin for VP and she gave her speech at the Republican National Convention and it went back up again. Then we started learning more about her, and it slowly went back down. In the few weeks just before the election, I would say it went down even more when I realized that McCain is the lesser of two evils and he isn't going to win no matter what. After all the votes have been cast, I see now that it is the best possible thing for the republican party. We need four years to re-group and get back to our conservative core values.

I have always said that Thomas Jefferson was my all time favorite president because he was all about small federal government, and promoted the exploration of America. He also promoted small business and a self sustaining mentality (wiht the yeoman farmer movement). However recently, I have really been reading more and more on Ronald Reagan, and feel like what he had to say really applies to what we are dealing with today. He was a great leader and a wonderful role model for the republican party. In honor of Ronald Reagan, here are some good quotes from him that really speak to what is going on today...

“Man is not free unless government is limited.”

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

“The Republican message is simple: Our country's best days are still to come, and with faith and courage, we can build a genuine opportunity society, a nation where all women and men have the chance to go forward just as far as their dreams and talents will take them.”

“High taxes, we are told, are somehow good for us, as if, when government spends our money it isn’t inflationary, but when we spend it, it is. Those who preside over the worst energy shortage in our history tell us to use less, so that we will run out of oil, gasoline and natural gas a little more slowly. Conservation is desirable, of course, for we must not waste energy. But conservation is not the sole answer to our energy needs.” (At the republican national convention acceptance speech in 1980)

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

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

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

“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.”

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

"Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man."

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”