Reagan was as serious as a heart attack about what he believed, but the only reason anyone believed in his sincerity is because he was a great speaker. People claimed he was unfit for office because he was an actor, but they simply aren’t thinking about what leadership requires. Honestly, is it not grating to hear someone articulate things you hold dear as if he was just reading from a speech someone handed him?
Have you seen those early essays written by Reagan himself? They were recently published and include basically all of his major policy positions, sketched clearly. I think he wrote them for delivery over radio.
I’ve got a copy of a speech he did in 1962 to the Advertising and Executive Club of Kansas City. It’s scary just how right he was about the path the country would take. The blog entry is at http://www.odonnellweb.com/?p=447
Chris, I looked at the other things you summarize:
“Government is so complex that only the career bureaucrats really understand – what going on. We are being governed by a class of people that were never elected and answer to nobody.”
This, in my opinion, is the most deadly. And I seriously expect it is already too late. Elected officials and appointed ones are simply figureheads to take the blame when the people with real power mess up.
One of the problems with it is that the only possible solution is to put more power in the hands of an elected official….
“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy” –Anonymous