Presidential Words Matter: Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address

Words Matter

Riley Fessler

News, Government

4.6 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In January of 1989 after 8 years in office, President Ronald Reagan delivered his 34th and final Oval Office address. His tenure was not without controversy - and there is much about Reagan and his policies for historians and commentators to rightly criticize. But more than anything else Ronald Reagan understood the power and importance of words. For his final presidential address Reagan wanted to end on a note of what had become his trademark - optimism. All of his political life The Gipper had talked about America as a Shining City on a Hill. But he never really defined what he’d meant. As he prepared to leave office - Reagan finally communicated that vision. Pay attention to his words - in Reagan’s view America was made great by free trade and the contributions of immigrants. “If that City had to have walls, those walls had doors and those doors were open to all who had the heart and the will to get here.” It is a very different message than we hear from those who claim his legacy three decades later. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/words-matter. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Words Matter with Katie Barlow and Joe Lockhart.
0:12.0	Welcome to Words Matter, I'm Katie Barlow.
0:15.7	Our goal is to promote objective reality.
0:18.8	As a wise man once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, not their own facts.
0:25.1	Have power and words have consequences.
0:33.1	Welcome to presidential words matter.
0:36.7	There have been three meaningful and memorable presidential farewell addresses in American history.
0:41.9	The first, now forever memorialized by Song on Broadway, was written by George Washington and
0:47.9	Alexander Hamilton. As he stepped down from the presidency, the former general of the continental
0:54.1	army urged unity and counseled our young nation to put the good of the country above regional interests.
1:01.9	Washington famously warned against political factions and foreign entanglements.
1:07.7	For the next century and a half, presidential farewell addresses were ignored, forgotten,
1:12.9	or never even delivered. In 1961, however, another president who served as the general of the army
1:20.4	and led Americans into battle to save the world from tyranny bid farewell to the nation he loved and served.
1:27.4	Like Washington, Eisenhower's primary message was one of warning.
1:32.6	With the growth of computer and nuclear power, I cautioned against the dangers and influence
1:38.3	of what he termed the military industrial complex. After this brief message from Katie and Joe,
1:45.7	we'll be right back to talk about Ronald Reagan's farewell address.
1:53.2	All right, Joe. I know you're busy and don't have time to read or in some cases reread all the books
1:59.7	you'd like. And you just discovered an incredible new app and it's called Blinkist.
2:05.5	Yeah, Katie. Blinkist is quickly becoming one of the most important apps on my phone.
2:09.6	Blinkist is really unique and it works on your phone, your tablet, or your web browser.
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