Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey argues that it is “getting kind of late for new entrants into the field.” And considering how campaign finance laws have made it difficult to quickly raise enough money to launch a national campaign, he maybe right. But it is also instructive to note that it was not that long ago that presidential candidates waited till well into the fall before announcing their campaigns. President Bill Clinton didn’t announce his candidacy until October 3rd, 1991. Reagan waited even longer, until November 11th, 1979.
Much has changed in presidential primary politics since the 1980 election. But looking back at Reagan’s announcement speech, many of the issues are still the same. Some choice lines:
- “There are those in our land today, however, who would have us believe that the United States, like other great civilizations of the past, has reached the zenith of its power … I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either.”
- “The people have not created this disaster in our economy; the federal government has. It has overspent, overestimated, and over regulated.”
- “The federal government has cynically told us that high taxes on business will in some way “solve” the problem and allow the average taxpayer to pay less. … Only people pay taxes and it’s political demagoguery or economic illiteracy try and tell us otherwise.”
- “We have long since committed ourselves, as a people, to help those among us who cannot take care of themselves. But the federal government has proven to be the costliest and most inefficient provider of such help we could possibly have.”
- “We must put an end to the arrogance of a federal establishment which accepts no blame for our condition, cannot be relied upon to give us a fair estimate of our situation and utterly refuses to live within its means.”
- “The federal government has taken on functions it was never intended to perform and which it does not perform well. There should be a planned, orderly transfer of such functions to states and communities and a transfer with them of the sources of taxation to pay for them.”
- It is no program simply to say “use less energy.” … The answer, obvious to anyone except those in the administration, is more domestic production of oil and gas.
- “Government cannot be clergyman, teacher and parent. It is our servant, beholden to us.”
