Lessons reagan would have taught us today. This program took place in santa barbara, california. The good news is before we start talking, we have another one of those videos. This one is about the private sector and how reagan speech is still applicable today. You can share these videos on campus with your friends and put them on facebook. Roll it. If you have a business, you did not build that. You did not get there on your own. The full power of centralized government, this was the very thing the Founding Fathers thought to minimize. A government cannot control the economy without controlling people. They know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. Took this land by eminent domain. We will give you the price. But we will not make an offer. Tenures later, the land is a pile of rubble. It bears repeating, if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. Are we looking at the first billiondollar website in history . They also knew, the Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well as the private sector of the economy. They have not managed that industry the way they should have. We were told by the president we must accept greater government activity. You and i have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve the last best hope of man on earth. [applause] i am chris bedford. I had the privilege of being the editor in chief of the new guardian magazine. The new guard magazine. Part of my job was i get to go to movies in d. C. I went to a premier of the american war generals. It traces from vietnam forward the history of the u. S. Army. I went with the entertainment editor. She said to me that she did not know what happened at 9 11. They got sent him from school and was not until she was walking home that she heard. That sounds pretty stupid. How did you not know . She was in fourth grade. Which totally freaked me out. I ended up doing the math. It is hard for journalist to do. In five years time, people graduating from high school will not have been born when that happened. When 9 11 happened. Its a scary thought because it is a defining moment for a lot of americans. A lot of the folks in this room are not even 20 years old yet. Five decades ago on monday, Ronald Reagan gave his famous speech. One decade ago, he left us. Its been a long time. Years later, even barack obama tries to compare himself to Ronald Reagan. Moderate republicans and conservatives of all stripes say they represent Ronald Reagan. I was at his speech in february of 2013 when rand paul introduced his Foreign Policy. The speech was titled containment and radical islam. In the speech, he mentioned containment 17 times. Ronald reagan 13 times. And Ronald Reagan rejected containment. He pushed rollback. Containment and it would have administration. A lot of good people will look up to rand paul. That point was missed. If you did not catch the 2011 rnc chairman debate. This is what made it a hard question. They asked them to name their favorite book. You cannot use the bible and you cannot use a book about Ronald Reagan. Should have not been too hard. Anyone was watching could tell that herman cain, mitt romney, and Newt Gingrich were different. You could tell that none of them were Ronald Reagan. When you come here, spend an hour at one of these conferences, it is apparent who the truest keepers of Ronald Reagans legacy are. They have been the most faithful guardians. That is incredibly important because orwell was correct when he said who controls the past controls the future. Here, five decades after he gave that speech, we need to make sure that we actually learn the serious ideas that he put forward and remember them. Five decades after he made his political debut, is he still relevant . I think it is time we ask ourselves if we had the freedoms by our Founding Fathers. He said there is no peace on the world when one americans dying for us. , he said. We talked about the senator criticizing the constitution, he could have been talking about any of the mouth breathers on msnbc. Reagans ideas still reach us today because they were not just current. There is a of statistics in his speech. He talks about numbers on the farm bills and welfare. He reached deep into the past. When he said, you and i have a rendezvous with destiny. He was paying homage to his hero, fdr. In someat who said generations much as given and of other generations, much expected and this generation is a rendezvous with history. When reagan said, we will preserve for our children he was championing another one of his heroes, abraham lincoln. Who nine months into the civil war told congress we shall nobly save or meaningfully lose the last best hope of earth. The reason he had heroes from both parties and the reason he spoke to libertarians, conservatives, it was always ideas that motivated him. We need those ideas as much as we ever have. That is why todays celebration is so important. Everyone here, a lot of us, did not have the opportunity or experience to meet Ronald Reagan. A lot of the people in the back, donors, supporters, they have a lot they can teach you. Before we break for happy hour, i will hand it over to frank. What would reagan have taught us today . You can applaud. [applause] that was not so hard. I know david and i are all that stands between you and happy hour. However, we will make one final attempt to give you some information based on their contacts and interactions with our great president reagan. Let me say a couple of things. I would like to put tribute to the young people here. I know you have many things you can be doing right now. Its a beautiful fall day. The fact that you are here demonstrates a commitment to our country and to your own future. The issues we are talking about today concern you a lot more than they do people that have lived for a longer time. I am thinking back to my very first campaign. My candidate was going around shaking hands and he came across a voter, somewhat disinterested. My candidate said, i think the two biggest issues we have today are ignorance and apathy. The voter said, i dont know and i dont care. [laughter] that does not described the young people here. To pick up on the remarks that were just made, it is true Ronald Reagan is an historical figure. He is not a contemporary political figure. He is somebody now that is looked upon by a wide variety of people that have very different views on issues. For confirmation as to their beliefs being correct. That is somewhat flattering for those of us lucky enough to have worked with him. It is also an indication that it is a tricky thing to say reagan wouldve done this or reagan wouldve done that. I have no idea what he would be doing. I have worked with him. What i can do is to tell you about how we might approach some of the issues. You can all make up your mind at how he would come down on issues of the day. What is most important, if we believe the path to making decisions by him is the correct way to go about it. That gives us a roadmap so that we can all be successful in the future. I want to say we have tried to style this weekend as lessons learned. We look forward, we do not look backward. It is great to relive those great days. After all, we are in this because we want a better future, not because we want to celebrate the past. When we talk to you in this session, we are talking about lessons that we can apply to the future. Lessons are only that it is how you take that and devise a successful strategy. To that end, we look to you young people to do that. We can do our best to give you some guidance. I wrote an article for foxnews. My remarks are on the website. If you are so inspired and want to read it for yourself, it is on the website. In the article, i lay out for things i throw out for your consideration as to what Ronald Reagan can teach us today that is still applicable to the challenges our country faces. I think reagan would have treated the voters as adults and with respect. I think you would have talked about the issues that were a concern to the American People and he would have talked honestly about solutions and the challenges our country faces. We have more political advertising than we have ever had in our lives. Honestly, so much of it is nonsense. Does any of this relate to the real challenges that you as young people will be facing for the next 30 years . Not much. I think that is a mistake. What reagan always believed, you talk to people honestly and you treat them honestly and you run a Campaign Based on how you are going to govern. And when you try faithfully to carry out those promises. He felt connecting the campaign with the government in trying to implement the promises you made as a candidate would decrease public cynicism, and create the kind of consensus that would help the country make a decision and then move on. So many politicians never talk about what they will do in office. When they get in office, they do something totally different. They jam it through obamacare. They wonder why there is no consensus on the issue. We never had a fair chance to talk about the issue at all. Reagan believed the role of statesmen is to settle certain questions so that we can settle them and move forward as a country. That is the first lesson. I hope a lot of you are running for Public Office someday. Talk to the public honestly about what you would do if you were privileged to represent them. The second thing the reagan can still teach us today and this really is the hallmark of his public life. He believed that individuals were far more capable than the states and government officials about determining what is the most important in your life. And how you can best solve the problems of your life. When he is elected in january of 1981, the theme of his first inaugural address, he simply says, government is not the solution. Government is the problem. He firmly believed it outside of the Core Functions of government, when the government tried to do too many things, it winds up doing nothing very well. Not much doubt about the fact that it has been proven to be the case over the last six years. The more the government tries to do, the less competent it is to do anything. Our National Defense is suffering. Military force continues to fall to dangerously low levels. We have a Health Crisis that we apparently do not know how to handle. I could go on and on and on. What agency of government is working well today . I am not one that blames everything on government workers. They are very hard and competent people. When you have inadequate direction from the top, when you are asked to do everything, you do not do anything very well. If you have the chance to look at the entire message in the time for choosing, it is a long speech, that is basically the theme of the speech. It goes through in great detail programs 50 years ago, when he talks about millions, it is now billions. When he talks about billions, it is now trillions. The problems have only gotten worse. When you look at program after program after program that had intent and winds up having a bad effect, you have to ask yourself, wouldnt the progressives take a step back and say, maybe the government really cannot do everything in a country of 310 Million People . Is it wise to make everyone go through one website in order to determine the best kind of policy for your family . Sadly, they mostly answer, the problem is, there is not enough authority and government. It is always more. We dont have enough money, we dont have enough authority. We need more and more and more. If we talk about a system that trusts individuals, allows individuals to make their own decisions, that is a much better model than what we have right now. The third lesson that reagan teaches us is that we are successful as a movement when we expand our ranks, not when we divide against each other. This is a big country now of 320 Million People, and in order to elect somebody nationally from these great United States, we require probably 70 million voters, and that means its a lot of people. Sadly, that is beyond the ranks of Young Americas Foundation or even the Republican Party. We need people that are similar to us and have common interests to us, but may not share everything that we agree with. What we see with reagan in his time, in 1980, it was not that dissimilar from the situation we are going to be facing in 2016. In 1979, reagan was old. He was thought to be too rightwing. He was an actor, which in those days was per jorda prejordan hs he was thought to be over the hill. The Republican Party was the Minority Party clearly in 1979, and there were important elements of the party, important elements of the electorate that were hostile to republicans, and yet reagan faced the election with confidence. He puts together all elements of the Republican Party. Someone earlier was asking about, how do we do this . It takes leadership, and it takes statesmanship, and it takes somebody smart enough to know that you put together coalitions to win elections. He doesnt stop there. To that he asked bluecollar workers, which had been a mainstay of the democratic party. They voted for him in strong numbers in 1980. One of the things i was proud of, wisconsin was one of my states, and one of the things we did was we scheduled a rally at a place called sir paul, which is in south milwaukee, 95 democrat, and we wind up filling the house. It is that time the media started writing about reagan democrats, reagan bluecollar workers. Young people, we have her discussion of that, and reagan had tremendous appeal to young people, not normally a voting block for republicans. He also brings us this incredible new part of the coalition, religious conservatives, who before that had been a political. He puts all of these groups together, libertarians, conservatives, young people, bluecollar workers. That is how you put together a winning coalition. At no point did he say, im not sure where these guys are. Im not sure we want them. Just got to have them all if we want to be elected. The reagan era of the 1980s saw almost the closest relationship of the last century between the attitudes of Republican Voters and independent voters. There are only two ways you can win an election in america. The right cant win it by itself, the left cant when it by itself. You have to put that together with the center or independents. What you see in the 1980s, as evidenced by his 60 victory in his reelection, was almost an exact correlation between the views of republicans and independents. That is our goal. That is how you put together a winning coalition. We hope for a time where we dont go after just socalled red states and not try to win blue states, but we go after all 50 states. That is how you put together a real governing majority. The final thing that i would say that reagan can still teach us today is this idea of america leading in the world by force of its values. It is true that he confronted communism militarily, and ultimately, the soviet union broke up, but what is also true is he was able to do that because he challenged the essence of communism. He challenged it based on our values compared to their values. I think he would have been very comfortable leading the fight against radical islam and terrorists, but i think he would have done it in a much more comprehensive way and a much greater clarion call for people all around the world to embrace our virtues and our way of life, to join us, as opposed to the terrorists who teach violence and terrorism. Thus far, it has not been a clarion call. It has been a halfhearted effort. We bomb a few, tanks here or there, and that is not sufficient. If we are going to defeat this menace to western values, it is going to be because we are very clear and having those that believe in freedom on one side and those who are terrorists on the other. So be it. That is what we have to do. Reagan gives a famous speech to the British Parliament in 1983, still in the midst of the cold war, and he says this we will not defeat communism. We will transcend it. People were scratching their heads. What are you talking about . If you think about it, that is exactly what happened. What he meant was, we would talk about the virtues of the United States and the values of the west being freedom, respect for the individual, and that in itself would cause the world to rise up and embrace us and make it very difficult for the soviet union to continue to do business the way it had been. Indeed, that is what happened. If you talk to people now, old soviet officials, people once behind the iron curtain, they will you that reagans rhetoric gave them hope and the desire to resist and to fight for freedom. I think what reagan would say is, if we are going to defeat this new menace, it has to be based on values and based on the west leading not from behind. We dont lead from behind. We leave proudly based on our values lead proudly based on our values. I think those four lessons are something, as we go forward, that we can take from reagan that are still relevant today, no matter the personalities and no matter the individual situations. You can basically sum it up america must lead, freedom works, and trust the people. Thank you very much. [applause] my turn . Yes, sir. Im going to sit down. They asked us earlier. I said, im an old guy. Im going to sit down. What can i say . Frank is exactly right. We talked this morning about really one of Ronald Reagans great strengths was he trusted people. He trusted voters as adults. When we talked about his speech, his speech in 1976, he always used to say, i always thought when you did was you talked to the voters and tell them what it is you want to do, talk to them as adults, and you get their support. For him, it always worked, partly because he was a great communicator, but also because his ideas have a significant advantage of being right. That is the one thing you all