Sunday, July 15, 2018

Reagan's Final Speech: "Your Best Hopes, Not Your Worst Fears"

His elegant farewell note lay a couple years in the future, when he would write with gratitude for those who would be seeing him through to the end of dementia; but he didn't make another public speech after his endorsement of George H. W. Bush at the Republican National Convention in 1992.  What he said in conclusion struck me more forcefully than anything else in the speech, and I've been surprised not to hear it quoted more often:

And 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.

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