(Answered)-Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you - (2025 Updated Original AI-Free Solution
Question
- How?does?the?excerpt?of?Ronald?Reagan?s?Inaugural?Address?inVoices?of?Freedomillustrate?the?shift?in?American?politics?signaled?by?the?election?of?1980?
Note: Excerpt is attached. Our responses are supposed to be contained to two paragraphs, so brevity is welcomed.?
Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this
tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition process, you have shown a
watching world that we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system
which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other, and I thank you
and your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of
our Republic.
The business of our nation goes forward. These United States are confronted with an
economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the
worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions,
penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It
threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal
indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system
which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full
productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades
we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for
the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee
tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a
limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're
not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow.
And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go
away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we
as Americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to
be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the
problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too
complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to
government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing
himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us
together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must
be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special
interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or
ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and
women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our
children, keep our homes, and heal us when we're sick?professionals, industrialists,
shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in short, "We the people,"
this breed called Americans.
Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that
provides equal opportunities for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or
discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to
work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living
costs. All must share in the productive work of this "new beginning," and all must
share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the
core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America, at
peace with itself and the world.
So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government?not the
other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our
government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and
reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the
consent of the governed.
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to
demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal
Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be
reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created
the Federal Government.
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with
government. It is rather to make it work--work with us, not over us; to stand by our
side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother
it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
If we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered
as no other people on Earth, it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy
and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before.
Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here
than in any other place on Earth. The price for this freedom at times has been high,
but we have never been unwilling to pay that price.
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate to the
intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive
growth of government. It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit
ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an
inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I
do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy
at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our
determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when
there are not heroes, they just don't know where to look. You can see heroes every day
going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to
feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they're
on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and
faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They're individuals
and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support
church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their
values sustain our national life.
Now, I have used the words "they" and "their" in speaking of these heroes. I could say
"you" and "your," because I'm addressing the heroes of whom I speak?you, the
citizens of this blessed land. Your dreams, your hopes, your goals are going to be the
dreams, the hopes, and the goals of this administration, so help me God.
We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we
love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when
they fall, heal them when they're sick, and provide opportunity to make them selfsufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?
Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer is an unequivocal and
emphatic "yes." To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I've just taken
with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our
economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance
between the various levels of government. Progress may be slow, measured in inches
and feet, not miles, but we will progress. It is time to reawaken this industrial giant, to
get government back within its means, and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And
these will be our first priorities, and on these principles there will be no compromise.
On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been one of the
greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the
Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans, "Our country is in danger, but
not to be despaired of . . . . On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide
the important questions upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet
unborn. Act worthy of yourselves."
Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready
to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children,
and our children's children. And as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will
be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the
exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.