Fred Thompson: What Set Reagan Apart
[Fred Thompson, who represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1994 to 2003, is an actor, lawyer, and political commentator.]
...As president, Obama has to weigh the realpolitik consequences of undermining Hosni Mubarak’s regime. But he also has a duty to act as the world’s most powerful spokesman for freedom and democracy. Balancing these incongruous responsibilities is part of the job. Some presidents do it well; some do not.
Ronald Reagan did it very well. What’s more, he knew how to capitalize on opportunities to remind the world where America stands on freedom and democracy without wavering or apprehension. Often it was without regard for political convenience or political correctness.
And Reagan set the tone right at the beginning of his term, famously calling the Soviet Union the “evil empire.” Critics derided the phrase as antagonistic. But Reagan knew what his critics did not: Liberals and the media weren’t Reagan’s target audience. “Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth — a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us,” Natan Sharansky wrote of the speech when news of it reached him and his fellow dissidents locked in Soviet gulags.
Did Reagan’s calling our No. 1 foreign-policy opponent “evil” make the State Department’s job harder? Probably. But Reagan knew that Sharansky and others heard him, and that his words brought with them something Foggy Bottom couldn’t: hope....
Read entire article at National Review
...As president, Obama has to weigh the realpolitik consequences of undermining Hosni Mubarak’s regime. But he also has a duty to act as the world’s most powerful spokesman for freedom and democracy. Balancing these incongruous responsibilities is part of the job. Some presidents do it well; some do not.
Ronald Reagan did it very well. What’s more, he knew how to capitalize on opportunities to remind the world where America stands on freedom and democracy without wavering or apprehension. Often it was without regard for political convenience or political correctness.
And Reagan set the tone right at the beginning of his term, famously calling the Soviet Union the “evil empire.” Critics derided the phrase as antagonistic. But Reagan knew what his critics did not: Liberals and the media weren’t Reagan’s target audience. “Finally, the leader of the free world had spoken the truth — a truth that burned inside the heart of each and every one of us,” Natan Sharansky wrote of the speech when news of it reached him and his fellow dissidents locked in Soviet gulags.
Did Reagan’s calling our No. 1 foreign-policy opponent “evil” make the State Department’s job harder? Probably. But Reagan knew that Sharansky and others heard him, and that his words brought with them something Foggy Bottom couldn’t: hope....