THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IV, Special 'Super Tuesday' Issue

One Man's Journey, A Lesson

Time for a pop quiz: Who was the only U.S. President who was also a union president? If you guessed Ronald Reagan, President of the Screen Actors Guild, a labor union for movie actors and part of the AFL, you would be correct. Up until the 1950s Reagan was an avid liberal Democrat. He supported the New Deal and was even mentioned as a possible president for the AFL!

His Father, Jack Reagan, was a working class Irish Catholic and held a minor position in the WPA during the New Deal. Young Ronald attended Eureka College, where he became known as a "jack of all trades," excelling in athletics, campus politics and theatre. He was elected student body president and led a student revolt against the college president. Yes, you heard me right. The then liberal Reagan was a campus protester! He earned a degree in Economics in 1932.

After college, Reagan was a sports announcer, then an actor.He remained a Democrat well into the 1950's. As president of the Screen Actors Guild though, he fought against Communist infiltration and testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Peggy Noonan says of him: "Even in his zeal to purge the Communist influence from Hollywood, he fought those who engaged in witch hunts and defended those who had been falsely accused of involvement."

Actively supporting Richard Nixon's Presidential aspirations in 1960, Reagan parted ways with the party that he said had "left him." In 1962 he officially became a Republican, having rejected what he called the "tax-and-spend liberalism" of the modern Democrat Party. In 1964 Reagan might have created the first "Money Bomb" when he raised eight million dollars for Presidential Hopeful Barry Goldwater. Though Goldwater lost, Reagan's "Time for Choosing" speech won him a place in the rising Conservative movement. His thoughtful statement of policy won over many an old-time liberal and served him well as California's Governor and President of the United States.

Why Reagan Loves Romney

Although Romney once did not support Reagan, history supports the notion that Reagan would truely identify with Mitt's pilgrimage. In fact, one who has participated in the large-state model may be most uniquely qualified to speak to its weaknesses. Reagan Understood well the policies he criticized as well as the policies he crafted. Might the depth of his understanding be the quality that is at the heart of his being the "Great Communicator?"

THYME Magazine

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume III, Issue VA

An American Original
Ronald Reagan's Vision Shaped America's Future

This past week's TIME cover left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths... that is if it didn't outright make them sick. The 'Obama Loves Reagan' theme was pretty lame. But here is the instructional moment:

When Obama was elected (or immaculated, as Rush says), TIME was quick to roll out the Photoshopped FDR cover. Here's the 'New New Deal,' they wrote.

Now, faced with a solid repudiation of his policies in the midterm elections, TIME wants to compare the 'Golfer' to the 'Gipper.' It is a stretch by anyone's imagination. Still, the point must be made that Obama almost always needs some comparison to make a statement about his place in history.

Ronald Reagan needed no such comparison. In the end, Reagan MADE history. He restored American exceptionalism and American confidence. He was always himself. When his advisors told him not to challenge the Soviets at the Berlin Wall, Reagan ignored them. He said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" as his aides writhed. The Soviets saw a new fire in the American spirit. The wall is gone.

Reagan began Ameriica's journey back down the hard road to greatness, but he never waivered from his core beliefs. He handed his successors a revived economy and a nation respected. Few men can rightfully claim such achievements.

"Tear Down this Wall"
Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987


"We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe,if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" -- President Ronald Reagan

“The wall that had imprisoned half a city, half a country, half a continent, half a world for nearly a third of a century was swept away by the greatest force of all: the unbreakable spirit of men and women who dared to dream” -- Gordon Brown

"I, in my own mind, have always thought of America as a place in the divine scheme of things that was set aside as a promised land. It was set here and the price of admission was very simple: the means of selection was very simple as to how this land should be populated. Any place in the world and any person from those places; any person with the courage, with the desire to tear up their roots, to strive for freedom, to attempt and dare to live in a strange and foreign place, to travel halfway across the world was welcome here." -- Ronald Reagan, June 1952

"If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation." -- Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

"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 first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done." -- Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

"The poet called Miss Liberty's torch 'the lamp beside the golden door.' Well, that was the entrance to America, and it still is. And now you really know why we're here tonight. The glistening hope of that lamp is still ours. Every promise, every opportunity, is still golden in this land. And through that golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one can be denied the promise that is America. Her heart is full; her torch is still golden, her future bright. She has arms big enough to comfort and strong enough to support, for the strength in her arms is the strength of her people. She will carry on in the '80s unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed. In this springtime of hope, some lights seem eternal; America's is." -- Ronald Reagan, August 23, 1984

"Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom. What brought America back? The American people brought us back -- with quiet courage and common sense; with undying faith that in this nation under God the future will be ours, for the future belongs to the free." -- Ronald Reagan, February 4, 1986

"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." -- Ronald Reagan, September 25, 1987

"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life…. And how stands the city on this winter night? … After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true to the granite ridge, and her glow has held no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home." -- Ronald Reagan, January 11, 1989 [1.]

New Perspective on the State of the Union

What We Need to Do to Reboot Today's Economy


A sign on a heavy equipment dealership in Fishersville, Virginia says it clearly: Pray for recovery.

Nicole Gelinas writes on The Four Pillars of Reaganomics [click to read] in City Journal. Here is a model our President and our lawmakers would do well to embrace... including the hard parts, like reducing spending.

Economic Solutions Alone are Not Enough

We have often relied so much on our own self-reliance that we face the problems before us with great anxiety. The actions of a handful of men in Washington and in corporate offices have had consequences that have been beyond our ability to overcome.

Nehemiah faced great problems and opposition when he set out to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, yet he began wth prayer. He won the monitary support of a hostle king, overcame opposition close to home and led each family in rebuilding the section of wall by their house.

If that sounds like what we face today, join in prayer.

Creative Construction Capitalism

Creating a Free Market that Empowers Individuals


A dogwood blossom displays balance in design.

Two economic ideologies vie for the right to control the affairs of men. The idea of individual liberty and free markets stands against the ideas of Socialism, Statism and central planning. That the Statist's greatest success story is the old Soviet Union, which replaced a top-heavy aristocracy and serfdom, should give us pause. Clearly free markets are better but the problem of the disenfranchised dogs Capitalism constantly. 'Creative Destruction' which results in more and more disenfranchised citizens can be the vehicle by which Statists rise to stifle the marketplace.

Suzanne Fields writes in Towards a New Capitalism [click to read] that "If market capitalism is to survive the assaults of statists and populists, the former far more dangerous than the latter, we need what might be called a neo-orthodoxy — the development of new adaptations of the basic truth taught by great economists from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes. From these adaptations might emerge a new capitalism, the latest form of this most resilient of economic systems" -- Irwin Stelzer

Ms. Fields points out that: "Both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher accepted aspects of a socialistic past they didn't construct and didn't like because they recognized futile fights in dismantling the past and fertile soil in which to plant their own new ideas."

"Ronald Reagan, for example, accepted advice from Irving Kristol, who told him that conservatives should accept much of the New Deal even though it ran counter to their philosophy because it was now part of the economic architecture of America, "complete and irreversible." Reagan went on to change attitudes and spread a revolution of the values of individual obligation and responsibility."

"Swallowing hard, Margaret Thatcher left socialized medicine in Britain intact, but successfully privatized many of the enterprises Labor governments had stifled under state control. Tony Blair, who succeeded her, made the changes permanent, putting limits on the uncontrolled trade unionism that crippled British initiative and innovation."

Philip Blond may have some insight into how the modern free market may need to provide for people who have traditionally been thought of as the dependent class. Here is a Synopsis of Blonnd's Ideas [click to read]. "Blond told us how it began to go wrong when Disraeli failed to offer an economic stake to the poor. You cannot be a capitalist without capital, you cannot be part of a capitalist society without having access to capital, and in our society a significant proportion of the population will never have this access. During the 1960s and 70s the liberal left tried to pursue social justice through the state. In the 1980s and 90s the liberal right tried to encourage the creation of wealth by getting the state to back the financial market. New Labour tried to find the middle ground between the two but failed to foster a true ‘stakeholder society’. This failure was inevitable as Tony Blair et al were addicted to the liberal political settlement of post-war Britain. Politicians always confuse and conflate the term freedom with liberalism. For Blond, freedom cannot exist unless you have continued access to capital. The ‘free market’ is anything but free. It rigidly serves those who have capital to spare."

Blond offers such solutions as reformatting public assistance so that people and communities have more say in how the monies are spent. Indeed, if one looks at the modern welfare state honestly, it has destroyed community. Even the Soviet-style Le Corbusier blocks of human filing cabinets known as public housing tell this story.[1.] Better results come when people have a stake in their community and resources to invest.

Knowledge is Power

The DC Opportunity Scholarships [click to read], I would suggest, are an example of how Conservatives already own this type of empowerment. They involve using vouchers to enable students access to schools that will give them the tools they need to participate in the marketpace. It is very telling that our Socialist President is against them and most of us Conservatives are for them. Beyond programs like this, might we see new programs in apprenticeship undertaken by industry to bring people into the new market economy.

George Müller's Model [click to read] took orphans and gave them basic necessities, but the vision included apprenticing the boys to local tradesmen at fourteen. The young ladies remained in the homes until they were seventeen and received training as nurses, teachers and domestics. Could we accomplish great things by breaking the monopoly of the academy and providing similar career paths for young people today?

At the very least we should see more programs like the co-op program at Virginia Tech where students in the Engineering department spend a substantial amount of time actually working in private employment. At best, we would see industry create programs within the private sector to meet the challenges of providing an intelligent articulate workforce for the 21st Century.

Failure is Always an Option

The modern attempt to eliminate risk and provide equal but mediocre results needs to be replaced by a true safety net that does not create an entitlement mentality. Compassion will not allow your neighbor to starve but I would argue that compassion also will not allow your neighbor to be warehoused in public housing when he might be building up his community.

In fact, wouldn't charity require that we somehow bring our neighbors into the true spirit that built America, neighbor helping neighbor, working together, bringing in each other's harvests? Now that's an American Dream all of us can relate to.


Split rail fence at Humpback Rocks.

Phillip Blond Speaks [click to watch]. ht/Steve K

Citizen Statesmen (and Women) Arise!

Reagan Was an Actor, Palin is a Mother of Five


American Power featured this beautiful photo of Governor Palin. ht/Mike.

They Stepped Forward and Made History

There is a new kind of person taking an interest in the affairs of state and that is a good thing. Love her or hate her, Governor Palin has put citizens back in the game. She understands a lot of basic things about this country and her people that the overlawyered legislatures and acedemia have all but forgotten.

She cleaned up the corruption in Juneau and got a pipeline project started. She took a Republican campaign that was faltering and kept it alive to the finish line. She writes great op-ed pieces too and now is a regular on Fox.

She's a quick learner too. If the main complaint about her is 'experience' or lack therof, just sit tight for a bit and see how she does. She has always shown a great command of the issues she's worked on. She's well grounded in the core principles of our nation and builds well upon them.

One should never forget that Palin and Reagan did not begin their careers as professional politicians or lawyers. I don't think Reagan ever played one on TV.

On the local level, Alex Davis just assumed chairmanship of the Staunton Republican Party. He's a familiar face to patrons of Berry's Natural Way and he too represents the finest in citizen statesmanship. Young people are being energized to take part in the process and that is a very good thing. Lynn Has More [click to read] about Mr. Davis' selection.

The Real Engine of Blue America

District by District Voting Patterns Show Two Americas
Blue Cities Surrounded by Red Suburbs and Countryside

Steven Malanga in City Journal [click to read] shows how a closer analysis of 'Blue America' finds it very much an urban phenomenom, fueled in part by public sector unions [read SEIU here].

"Is it really true that America is politically divided between conservative “Red” states in the southern and middle sections of the country and liberal “Blue” states on both coasts? Not exactly: a close look at the district-by-district voting patterns of the coastal states in the 2004 elections brings into crystal-clear focus the real nature of our political divisions. There’s really no such thing as a Blue state—only Blue metropolitan regions. Indeed, the electoral maps of some states that went for John Kerry in 2004 consist mostly of Red suburban and rural counties surrounding deep Blue cities."

Virginia's 2006 and 2008 voting patterns, which are supposed to 'prove' that Virginia is 'purple' only reflect the continuing urbanization of Northern Virginia. Virginia is still very much a place that values well articulated Conservative values. A collected survey of the campaign rhetoric of both Democrats and Republicans shows that it is important to present yourself as a champion of fiscal responsibility and an affirmer of Conservative values. Jim Webb did not run as a progressive... he ran as a Reagan Conservative who "was better at it than George Allen." His voting record, especially on the monster healthcare bill, does not square with that claim.

Mark Warner, speaking to some of the urban elite during his Senate run said: "One of the things you are going to see is a coalition that is just about completely taken over the Republican Party in this state and if they have their way it’s going to take over state government. It is made up of the Christian Coalition, but not just them. It is made up of the right-to-lifers, but not just them. It’s made up of the NRA, but not just them. It is made up of the home-schoolers, but not just them. It’s made up of a whole coalition of people that have all sorts of differing views that I think most of us in this room would find threatening to what it means to be an American." [1.]

Clearly there is a need for the progressive candidate to pitch the blue urbanites in intimate settings while presenting himelf in public as the champion of the very gun-totin' Bible thumpin' people his true supporters find 'threatening.' It's hard to have to maintain two messages but the media seems all to eager to oblidge. [2.] When a friend of mine tried to explain Warner's comment in a letter to the editor, the newspaper declined to print it.

Dennis Prager [click to read] points out that the Left and Right's visions for America are not reconcilable. An informed electorate, asking some hard questions, will be able to point that out.


Chicago's Wrigley Building.

"What makes these cities so Blue is a multifaceted liberal coalition that ranges from old-style industrial unionists and culturally liberal intellectuals, journalists, and entertainers to tort lawyers, feminists, and even politically correct financiers. But within this coalition, one group stands out as increasingly powerful and not quite in step with the old politics of the Left: those who benefit from an expanding government, including public-sector employees, workers at organizations that survive off government money, and those who receive government benefits." -- Steven Malanga

The Era of Reagan... Continues!

Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts Weigh In

New Jersey's Chris Christie [click to read] is discussed by Steven Malanga in City Journal.

Massachusetts' Scott Brown [click to read] now makes the message pretty clear. Add this to the clear victory in Virginia of Bob McDonnell and the reports of the death of the era of Reagan are 'greatly exaggerated' to say the least. Brown and McDonnell both presented a clear alternative to bigger government and runaway taxation and deficits. Both stayed on message even when their opponents tried to muddy the discussion. They educated when others obfuscated. Then they repeated the message again. They took nothing for granted and used every opportunity to bring the voters into the discussion. On election day their tireless efforts were rewarded.

The people have entered the game and are talking intelligent policy. Will the academy recognize the strength of free markets and the weakness of government solutions. This Article in City Journal [click to read] points out how many of Europe's best free market thinkers have found a place in American Universities. Could it be that fuure leaders will be better schooled in the failure of Marxism and Keynes and embrace a more pro-market philosophy?

Sitting here in the 'Commonwealth of Opportunity' listening to results from the very blue state of Massachusetts, things in our future seem brighter than we hoped for!

"Republicans Have Failed" Says Chairman

Michael Steele at Regent University:
No B+ In His Tough Self-grading of Party


Michael Steele grades his party with candor.

Here the Chairman of the Republican Party Shares His Thoughts [click to read] about how the party lost its way [and much of its message] in the era following that of Ronald Reagan.

His new book: Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda, has a very clear and welcome message. The party needs to see where "...we most glaringly compromised our principles."

"We must support Republican officials who assert these principles. When elected Republicans vote against Republican principles, the voters must withhold their support - withhold it vigorously and consistently."

"Tear Down this Wall"

Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987


"We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe,if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" -- President Ronald Reagan

“The wall that had imprisoned half a city, half a country, half a continent, half a world for nearly a third of a century was swept away by the greatest force of all: the unbreakable spirit of men and women who dared to dream” -- Gordon Brown

Thoughts for July 4th II

Wise Words from Our 40th President

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." -- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

ht/SWAC Girl

Take the Point!

Talk is Cheap, Who'll Lead?


"The False Debate being promoted by MSM: Who Speaks for the GOP? Limbaugh or Powell? Cheney or Ridge?

I Wanna Know: Who Represents the Democrats? John Edwards or Keith Olbermann? Blagojevich or William Ayers?" -- Sara James

Two news magazines arrived at the house today. World's cover featured Tiananmen Square and Time, the "Meaning of Michelle Obama." For me the question is who's speaking to INFORM us anymore? The era of Reagan is only over if we let it be. It's time to become conversant with the true scope of the issues and speak to them.

What is more important to understand? The Chinese democracy movement that was crushed in the square or Mrs. Obama's 'meaning?' We recently watched the Olympics from China with little mention of the life outside the 'Bird Cage' and 'Bubble Cube.' Living with eyes open is hard sometimes.

Who will ask the hard questions of a Supreme Court nominee who desires to make policy from the bench? Who will read the founding documents so as to be alarmed by that statement? The nomination of activist Sonia Sotomayor shouldn't surprise us. The lack of serious questions from those who should be asking them should be cause for concern.

'Hope and Change'

Sending Eric Cantor to Room 101

My April Fools post is becoming decidedly not funny. Unfortunately the present administration seems to have learned how to deal with opposition from Orwell's novel.

The WSJ Reports on the Administration's Attempt to Destroy Eric Cantor [click to read]. (ht/SWAC Girl). Cantor, you remember, made some honest criticisms of the stimulous package only to be told to sit down because "I (Obama) won." The problem is Mr. Cantor won too. In 2002 Cantor defeated Ben Jones, the actor who played 'Cooter' on 'Dukes of Hazzard' quite handily. In a representative republic I consider him MY representative. He was properly executing his responsibility by speaking out.

I know Mr. Obama wishes he could have Ben Jones in congress, fixing the economy just like old 'Cooter' fixed the 'General Lee' after it was wrecked in just about every episode, but both scenarios are, to put it bluntly, fiction. The show's producers actually had about twenty Dodge Chargers when the series started. They 'recycled' some of the crash scenes too. Ben Jones owned some of the cars that survived and you could see one at his store in Sperryville.

Unfortunately there is only one United States economy. You can't wreck it every week to get ratings and see it completely restored in the next episode.

At the G20 Summit, Mr. Obama Dissed the Declaration of Independence [click to read]. He seems intent to override our national sovreignty. Right now we need a Jefferson, ready to take on the Barbary Pirates, not someone intent on giving away the store.

Eric Cantor is not alone. Look at the Attacks on Bob McDonnell [click to read]! So, where are the lofty new ideas we were promised? Looks like politics as usual to me.

I'll leave you a quote from a time when we knew what 'Hope and Change' were supposed to look like:

"Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.” -- Ronald Reagan