Reagan’s “Time for Choosing” – Again

In October 1964, future President Ronald Reagan, a friend of William F. Buckley, was a 53-year-old conservative firebrand. He was a voice for anti-Soviet, free-market, small government thinking, a former “B-movie” actor, once head of the Screen Actors’ Guild. Beyond that, hardly known.

Then came his famous “Time for Choosing” speech, a succinct, urgent plea that Americans wake up, recognize the creep of centralized government, rally to defeat the nation’s frightening drift left, specifically toward the vortex or black hole of Soviet totalitarianism, communism.

The speech is long, dated by mention of then-current leaders, but worth rereading and rewatching. The central tenets of the speech have aged well and suddenly seem relevant again.

The kernel of young Reagan’s warning was that the welfare state – centralized government, rapid growth of bureaucracy, unaccountable decision-making, redistribution of wealth, and pull of workless dependence – was dangerous to the nation, along with weak national defense.

Reagan anchored his warning in our Founders’ principles, specifically the need to keep government limited to necessary acts, allowing spending and taxes to stay low. He pointed out that whenever government power grows, individuals lose power. In short, centralized power depletes liberty.

Three quotes seem most important in Reagan’s epic warning – the speech that propelled him into the national limelight, proved prophetic in his time, and remains sobering, even urgent in our time.

The first quote – arguably his most powerful – was Reagan’s appeal to all Americans to understand their place on the arc of history. Just as our Founders – and those who followed – made possible our freedom, prosperity, and security, the choices we make now will affect those who follow us.

He was personal in his appeal. At a time when the government was growing rapidly, spending, taxes, and inflation all rising, and the Cold War with the Soviets was oddly tangible, his message struck a chord.

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”

His aim was that every American understand one core principle: Just as freedom is not free – and must be fought for in foreign wars – we can lose our freedom without a war, by letting political elites take from us God-given rights, permitting concentration of powers in government.

To this, he added a strong appeal to our proud past, to the moral fiber of our Founders. “The Founding Fathers knew government cannot control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.”

While a government naturally resorts to coercion when properly enforcing fair, democratically crafted laws, the overuse and abuse of power to control the economy – excessive interference in freely made market decisions – can be dangerous.

The Founders wanted a free market, not one unnecessarily burdened by federal or state taxes (one reason they rebelled against the British), not one slowed by excess spending, and not one facing the drag of intrusive, paternalistic, free-market-disrupting regulations.

They had, after all, slowed ratification of the Constitution to insert a clear (at least they thought) “Bill of Rights,” ten amendments. While they conceded the need for a federal government, they were strongly protective of individual and state rights, without which no ratification.

Finally, Reagan tried to recast the – even then divisive – distinction people made between the “political left” and “political right,” in effect, pro-government control versus pro-individual liberty. His goal was to shake people out of their malaise and lazy state, making them think.

He said: “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 up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream – the maximum of individual freedom consistent with law and order – or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

Years later, he would change “ant heap” to “ash heap,” when speaking – as President – to the British Parliament in June 1982 about the complete failure of Communism in Russia, noting “Freedom and democracy will leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history.”

In closing, Reagan was right about the threat to foreign communism by freedom’s timeless appeal, and about the threat to freedom *(at home) by concentrated power and communism. What is so surprising, this many years later, is how true his speech rings. We are again at a “time for choosing,” when the appeal of freedom is strong in communist and totalitarian states, while the threat to freedom (at home) from concentrated power and communism is again real.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!