My Mission

My name is Scott Martin. I am a journalism student at Arizona State University and, as we approach the 2008 presidential election, a concerned citizen. Recent changes across the political landscape have caused me to take a step back and consider where we are going as a nation. I believe my almost 3-year-old daughter will inherit a less prosperous country if we do not begin to educate our people on the excesses of government and the benefits of freedom in a real, lasting way. 

For over 230 years now, the United States has travelled the long highway to exceptionalism internationally and abundant prosperity and freedom at home.  Aside from an occasional speed bump, America has stood tall as the single most important force for progress in the world. Since 1980 American Conservatives have paved onward, expanding the lanes as we’ve gone and allowing an ever-growing number of citizens at home and previously-enslaved people throughout the world to join us on the road to an even greater future. Today, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the end of that pavement lies just ahead in plain sight. The battle wages before us as we make the choices that will decide whether we do the hard work needed to extend the highway of progress straight ahead into a more prosperous, freer future, or whether we will reverse course and make a sharp left turn onto the old, dusty road leading to regression, government repression and economic recession.  

Unfortunately, those that would move us toward that leftward path have confiscated the language of politics. We see two neo-Marxists running for the Democrat Party nomination using a repackaged version of the ideas that led to the Stalinist/Leninist former Soviet Union.  They call their ideas ”progressive” (or secular-progressive when they’re feeling slightly less dishonest). I call them “dangerous.” 

We see populists on both sides preaching the same “us versus them” doctrine that has created repressive tyrants and economic calamity every time it’s been carried to its logical end. We see free market capitalism under attack daily by those who claim to be ”forward-thinking” but whose policies would undermine the very system that has made America a beacon of hope and progress.

We see junk-scientists lying that this very progress is killing our planet, and that the only way to turn it around is to follow the same gameplan the socialists have been peddling for 50 years. We see a presidential candidate attempting to remake the Republican Party into some sort of squishy Democrat-Lite Party, audaciously trying to redefine American Conservatism to make it include himself, as its leader.    

It is time for American Conservatives to take back what rightfully belongs to us, beginning with that language.

I mentioned the fact that I am a journalism student. I am also 33-years old, and can still remember most of the important decisions that have allowed most Americans to live in prosperity, a prosperity many now take for granted. I have been surprised to learn that most of my classmates have no idea why Ronald Reagan stands alone as the most revered and beloved president in recent history. If they know little about Ronald the Great, they know even less about Jimmy Carter, and therein lies my mission. Never in American history were the differences between two successive presidents more profound, and the results of their policies more easily recognized than the time period between 1977 and 1988.

Carter’s lone term illustrated the disastrous effects of combining a liberal president with a liberal congress. He was such a disaster that even the predominately liberal media of the time couldn’t comprehend the havoc he wreaked on this country. Only the creation of the misery index allowed them to accurately report the depths of despair he led us into, and even that index didn’t take into account America’s declining world influence and the expansion of Soviet satellites and puppet governments throughout the world. 

Ronald Reagan’s policies, and yes his optimism, turned this nation (along with most of the world) completely around. Since his dramatic tax cuts took full effect, America has realized nearly uninterrupted prosperity.  Only his non-believing VP, George HW Bush (who referred to Reagan’s tax cutting plan as “voodoo economics”, failed to extend the prosperity.  The supposedly sluggish economy of today actually ranks as one of the “least miserable” years in the last half-century. We’ve rarely had it this good.

But now we stand poised to throw it all away. While the Republicans have fought hard to out-Reagan one another rhetorically, the fact is that none are anywhere near the committed conservative ideologue that Reagan was.

This blog will follow the political scene forward, attempting to encourage debate and to influence where we go from here by evaluating events through the speeches, actions and ideas of Ronald Reagan. One of the tremendous things about Reagan is that his speeches before becoming president accurately reflect the way he tried to lead the country while in office. This is rare indeed. I will apply those ideas to the world we face today.

At the same time, we will help educate the newest generation about the greatness of American Conservative ideals. The nation and the world progress every time they are implemented. I firmly believe that today’s liberalism stands no chance if the battle is waged in full view of an informed public. Conservatives win on ideas and logic every time. To that end, I encourage debate through comments from people who have believed those who would revise the history of Reagan’s presidency. I will attempt to respond to all reasonable discussion that my posts might generate.

In all my posts I will look to the words and actions of my hero, doing my best to answer one question:

“What would Reagan do?”