Ronald Reagan In His Own Voice Essay

Reagan in His Own Voice
Known as the “Great Communicator,” Ronald Reagan is most often remembered as the 40th president of the United States of America. However, many people fail to remember that Reagan was communicating his views to the Americans people long before he ever succeeded in reaching the oval office. From 1975 to 1979 Ronald Reagan hosted his own radio talks, most of which he wrote himself, where he discussed a wide range of issues varying from environmental concerns to the need for education reform. A diverse selection of Ronald Reagan’s radio broadcasts were compiled into an audio book in 2001 entitled Reagan in His Own Voice. According to Kiron K. Skinner, an editor of Reagan in His Own Voice, Ronald Reagan excelled at reducing complex ideas into simple terms, so it came as no surprise that the messages he constantly repeated in his broadcasts were as simple as they were profound; all humans are born with but one obligation to their fellow man - love thy neighbor,

Unlike most political programs, Reagan’s broadcasts did not focus exclusively on matters of state, although he did spend a great deal of times on those topics. But for every speech Ronald Reagan delivered about tax laws, the danger of Communism, and the need for better education, there seemed to follow a second type of broadcast that focused exclusively on the kindness and decency of a person or a group of people. Reagan disliked the phrase “the common man” and instead chose the word individual and attributed the “quiet courage” of the individual to be the secret of America’s success. Far beyond mere human interest stories, his narration of the heroics of the individual demonstrates that there are still those in the world who consider the duty of loving their neighbor and fighting to secure his physical and spiritual rights to be a sacred duty that must be carried out at all