A Time for Choosing
Reagan's October 27, 1964 nationally televised speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign — the launch of his political career
Tradition: American conservatism / Cold War political rhetoric
"The Speech" — Reagan's 1964 nationally televised address on behalf of Goldwater, the founding document of modern American conservatism's movement politics
A Time for Choosing — universally known among Reagan supporters as "The Speech" — is the October 27, 1964 nationally televised address Reagan delivered on behalf of Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. Reagan, then a former Democratic actor turned conservative spokesman, articulated the central themes that would define his subsequent political career and modern American conservatism: limited government, free-market economics, anti-communism, the contrast between freedom and totalitarianism. The speech failed to save Goldwater's campaign (LBJ won in a landslide) but raised more campaign money than any political speech before it, and launched Reagan's own political career — California gubernatorial run (1966), presidential campaigns (1968, 1976, 1980), and presidency (1981-89). The speech's reception established Reagan as the principal political articulator of post-war American conservatism.
Author
Editions cited
- A Time for Choosing: The Speeches of Ronald Reagan, 1961-1982 (Alfred A. Balitzer ed., Regnery, 1983)
- Reagan, in His Own Hand (Kiron K. Skinner et al. eds., Free Press, 2001)
School Embodiments
Reagan's political method is pragmatic-realist — testing political-economic doctrine against actual consequences for ordinary Americans.
"Political doctrine tested against actual consequences." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A working political realism: real Cold War threat, real consequences of government expansion, real choice before the American people.
"Real Cold War political-economic choices." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: Reagan's civic-religious framework draws on American liberal-Protestant tradition adapted for conservative politics.
"American civic-religious framework." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
The speech's religious-cultural framework engages American evangelical-Protestant tradition increasingly aligned with Republican politics.
"American evangelical-Protestant cultural framework." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: the economic-political framework is broadly naturalist about social-political phenomena.
"Naturalist political-economic framework." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: the systematic argument from first principles (freedom, limited government) has rationalist structure.
"Systematic argument from first principles." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: subsequent fusionist American conservatism (William F. Buckley and others) integrated Catholic-natural-law sources Reagan's framework draws on.
"Fusionist American conservatism with Catholic sources." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated negative relation: the speech's anti-communism positions Reagan against the broader liberation-political tradition that emerged in the 1960s-70s.
"Anti-communist position against liberation-political tradition." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: Reagan's rhetorical-political optimism has substantial overlap with American Stoic-influenced civic tradition.
"American Stoic-influenced civic optimism." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: American civic-religious individualism has transcendentalist roots that the speech draws on.
"American transcendentalist civic individualism." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated retrospective relation: the speech's analysis of political historical process has process-philosophical structure.
"Political historical process." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
A complicated relation: subsequent constructivist political analysis has engaged American conservatism's self-narrative.
"Constructivist engagement with American conservatism." (Time for Choosing, paraphrasing)
Internal Tensions
"A Time for Choosing" launched Reagan's political career but its specific policy positions have been continuously contested. The relation between Reagan's rhetorical-political framework and the actual policy record of his presidency has been a continuing historical-political question. Subsequent American conservatism has variously claimed or moved beyond Reagan's framework.
I. Time
The Cold War historical-political time as the framing temporal structure.
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II. Space
The American political space; the broader Cold War global space.
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III. Matter
Embodied American citizens whose lives are shaped by the political choices in question.
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IV. Observer
The American citizen as the political observer-decider; Reagan as the public-political voice.
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V. Energy
The political-rhetorical energies of the speech; the broader political energies of post-war American conservatism.
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VI. Information
The political tradition of American limited-government conservatism preserved through Reagan's articulation.
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Personas that cite this work
Personas with the nearest attribute fingerprint
Historical figures whose own classification on the same six-dimensional grid lands closest to this work's. Computed by attribute-agreement on coordinates both address.
Computed school proximity
The work's attribute fingerprint scored against all schools using the same quiz scorer. Useful as a sanity check on the hand-curated embodiments above.
How A Time for Choosing resolves each dilemma
51 resolved positions across 4 dimensions, including 3 distinctive where the majority of schools go the other way · 6 unaligned.
Each dimension is sorted so minority positions come first. Mainstream positions are folded into an expandable list.
Time · 9 dilemmas · 3 distinctive
Persistence, the future, and the direction of becoming.