The Truth About Ronald Reagan

By |2024-02-05T18:33:55-06:00February 5th, 2024|Categories: Bradley J. Birzer, History, Ronald Reagan, Timeless Essays|

Nearly three decades after the Reagan administration ended, several views of the fortieth president—all conflicting—have taken hold in the American popular mind. One is that Reagan was an “amiable dunce,” who was “sleepwalking through history.” Luck and circumstances made him a successful president, but he should be remembered today only as an oaf, simply being in [...]

When Mother Teresa Came to Washington

By |2023-09-04T19:41:25-05:00September 4th, 2023|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Catholicism, Featured, Politics, Ronald Reagan, Sainthood, Timeless Essays, Virtue|

As I looked around that room in Washington, filled with so many powerful people, I realized that one day in Mother Teresa’s life brought more good to the face of the earth than all our efforts combined for a lifetime. It was utterly ludicrous, stepping out of a chauffeured White House limousine to go hear [...]

Remembering Ronald Reagan’s Compassion

By |2023-02-05T19:54:32-06:00February 5th, 2023|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Charity, Politics, Ronald Reagan, Timeless Essays|

Ronald Reagan had a deep and abiding faith in the prudence and wisdom of people at the grass roots level to manage their own lives well, if left free from government intrusion. Is the government an appropriate venue for compassion and charity? Reagan’s answer was no. He believed the private sector does a better job. [...]

Ronald Reagan, the Berlin Wall, & the American Promise

By |2022-11-08T13:12:31-06:00November 8th, 2022|Categories: Communism, Conservatism, Ronald Reagan, Timeless Essays|

When it’s written, the history of our time won’t dwell long on the hardships of the recent past. But history will ask: Did a nation borne of hope lose hope? Did a people forged by courage find courage wanting? Did a generation steeled by hard war and a harsh peace forsake honor at the moment [...]

When Mother Teresa Came to Washington

By |2022-06-17T22:30:40-05:00June 17th, 2022|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Catholicism, Culture, Politics, Ronald Reagan, Sainthood, Senior Contributors, Virtue|

As I looked around that room in Washington, filled with so many powerful people, I realized that one day in Mother Teresa’s life brought more good to the face of the earth than all our efforts combined for a lifetime. It was utterly ludicrous, stepping out of a chauffeured White House limousine to go hear [...]

Matthew Continetti on the Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism

By |2022-06-17T07:52:07-05:00June 14th, 2022|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Donald Trump, Politics, Republicans, Ronald Reagan|

Matthew Continetti may want a “viable” conservatism, but does he desire a winning conservatism. He seems more determined that the Republican Party and the conservative movement begin the difficult, but necessary, task of “untangling” themselves from Donald Trump rather than build a winning coalition. The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, by Matthew Continetti [...]

Ronald Reagan: Confronting an Evil Empire

By |2022-03-11T11:41:52-06:00March 7th, 2022|Categories: Barbara J. Elliott, Communism, Leadership, Ronald Reagan, Timeless Essays|

When Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet regime as the “evil empire,” he was echoing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who said the USSR was “the concentration of world evil.” From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitols of the ancient states [...]

Trump Was No Reagan?

By |2021-01-29T11:07:57-06:00January 28th, 2021|Categories: Donald Trump, Politics, Presidency, Ronald Reagan|

According to Frank Lavin in “National Review,” Donald Trump was no Ronald Reagan. But if Reagan had been forced to deal with frequent attacks and calls for assaults from adversaries like Trump’s, wouldn’t his approval rating and his temper have taken a hit too? National Review has found yet another reason to hate Trump, whom [...]

Trumpism vs. Reaganism: A Dialogue

By |2020-10-06T16:54:47-05:00October 6th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, Conservatism, Donald Trump, Modernity, Politics, Presidency, Ronald Reagan, Senior Contributors|

There are some conservatives who believe that Donald Trump is taking conservatism in the wrong direction. They would like to get back to the model of conservatism for which Ronald Reagan stood. Is conservatism shaped differently by the realities of 2020, or should we as conservatives be embracing something similar to Reagan’s 1980 platform? Adam [...]

Father’s Day Proclamation

By |2022-06-18T12:28:14-05:00June 20th, 2020|Categories: Family, Ronald Reagan|

Each year the third Sunday in June is designated as Father’s Day, a day on which we honor our Nation’s fathers for everything they do for their families and for America. Today fatherhood is sometimes drily described as a craft or an occupation, something which competes with career or outside pursuits for time and attention. [...]

“These Are the Boys of Pointe Du Hoc”: D-Day Speech

By |2023-06-05T20:12:18-05:00June 5th, 2020|Categories: American Republic, Politics, Ronald Reagan, War, World War II|

On June 6, 1984—the 40th anniversary of D-Day—President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to an audience of D-Day veterans and world leaders commemorating the lost and living heroes. He stood at the site of the U.S. Ranger Monument at Pointe du Hoc on the northern coast of France where Allied soldiers had courageously charged ashore. [...]

Amity Shlaes on the Failure of The Great Society

By |2020-08-26T16:29:52-05:00February 27th, 2020|Categories: Books, Conservatism, Economics, Government, History, Politics, Ronald Reagan|

During LBJ’s presidency, a war was waged, as Amity Shlaes demonstrates in “Great Society,” by the federal government against the rest of the nation. This tragic story of government growth sowed seeds of division in America which suggests that, as long as federal power dominates civil society, Americans will live in a “tribalized” nation.  Great [...]

The Divine Plan: How John Paul II & Ronald Reagan Promoted Peace

By |2020-05-18T08:24:23-05:00September 10th, 2019|Categories: Christianity, Compassion, Culture, Ronald Reagan, St. John Paul II|

Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II defeated their enemies at every turn. But they also sat down and talked, prayed for them and prayed with them. They studied them thoroughly, reaching out lovingly to win them over. They acted in the example of Jesus Christ, defeating mass murderers without bullets. In doing so, they [...]

Ronald Reagan’s Road to Conservatism

By |2021-01-02T09:51:41-06:00November 6th, 2018|Categories: Conservatism, History, Liberalism, Politics, Ronald Reagan|

Ronald Reagan did not read his way to conservatism, as some people do. He experienced his way. The concerns and travails of middle Americans taught him that unaccountable government could be a grave obstacle to the pursuit of happiness, and the experience of dealing with Communists and bureaucrats strengthened his lifelong distrust of overbearing elites. [...]

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