Age of Reagan

This is an important point about President Reagan:

To begin with perhaps the most important distinction: Reagan was indeed a great champion of human freedom, just as his admirers say, and a nemesis of statism. Nevertheless, he was no simplistic, doctrinaire libertarian.

The core of Reagan’s thought lay not primarily in his love of freedom, as powerful as that was, but in something else, something captured in the epitaph on his grave, which quoted his own words:

I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.

For Reagan, human dignity—not human freedom—came first. This idea permeated his political career.

As early as 1957, in a commencement address at Eureka College, his alma mater, he defined the Cold War as “a simple struggle between those of us who believe that man has the dignity and sacred right and the ability to choose and shape his own destiny and those who do not so believe.” For Reagan, human dignity was what enabled human freedom—that is, the ability of each individual to “shape his own destiny”—not the reverse.

President Reagan captured the times, and it's no surprise that this next generation of conservative presidential candidates want to connect with him and want voters to associate. But this emphasis on "dignity" is a critical distinction. Without dignity, there can be no liberty or freedom, because you lose your free will. And right, at a time when dependency and debt and hopelessness permeates our inner cities and culture, perhaps only someone like a Paul Ryan can speak in this voice. I'm not sure any of the other candidates can articulate that as well.