Looking Back to Go Forward

Ronald Reagan is considered by many, including me, as the most successful modern-day president. As our nation approaches the time when we select a new leader, I went back to read his final State of the Union address, to see what things he considered most important for the future. Below are excerpts, with my subheads, from his address before a joint session of Congress on the State of the Union, Jan. 25, 1988. 
Individuals
Reagan believed in the collective strength of America’s individual people, quoting Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu: “Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish; do not overdo it.”
He expressed that he saw America as “not only rich in opportunity for the individual but an America, too, of strong families and vibrant neighborhoods; an America whose divergent but harmonizing communities were a reflection of a deeper community of values: the value of work, of family, of religion, and of the love of freedom that God places in each of us and whose defense He has entrusted in a special way to this nation.”
“All of this was made possible by an idea I spoke of when Mr. Gorbachev was here, the belief that the most exciting revolution ever known to humankind began with three simple words: ‘We the People,’ the revolutionary notion that the people grant government its rights, and not the other way around.
There’s one lesson that has come home powerfully to me, which I would offer to you now. Just as those who created this Republic pledged to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, so, too, America’s leaders today must pledge to each other that we will keep foremost in our hearts and minds not what is best for ourselves or for our party but what is best for America.”
He reminded the nation that because we worked together ”to bring down spending, tax rates, and inflation, employment has climbed to record heights; America has created more jobs and better, higher paying jobs; family income has risen for four straight years, and America’s poor climbed out of poverty at the fastest rate in more than 10 years.”
Strength
“Seven years ago, America was weak, and freedom everywhere was under siege. Today America is strong, and democracy is everywhere on the move. From Central America to East Asia, ideas like free markets and democratic reforms and human rights are taking hold. We’ve replaced ‘Blame America’ with ‘Look up to America.'” We’ve rebuilt our defenses.”
“Tonight, then, we’re strong, prosperous, at peace, and we are free. This is the state of our Union. And if we will work together this year, I believe we can give a future President and a future Congress the chance to make that prosperity, that peace, that freedom not just the state of our Union but the state of our world.”
Principles
“We’re for limited government, because we understand, as the Founding Fathers did, that it is the best way of ensuring personal liberty and empowering the individual so that every American of every race and region shares fully in the flowering of American prosperity and freedom.”
Prosperity
“And let’s begin by discussing how to maintain economic growth by controlling and eventually eliminating the problem of federal deficits. … We can’t spend ourselves rich. “
Education
“The most important thing we can do is to reaffirm that control of our schools belongs to the states, local communities and, most of all, to the parents and teachers.”
Poverty
“My friends, some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won…. Federal welfare programs have created a massive social problem. With the best of intentions, government created a poverty trap that wreaks havoc on the very support system the poor need most to lift themselves out of poverty: the family. Dependency has become the one enduring heirloom, passed from one generation to the next, of too many fragmented families.”
“It is time—this may be the most radical thing I’ve said in seven years in this office—it’s time for Washington to show a little humility. There are a thousand sparks of genius in 50 states and a thousand communities around the nation. It is time to nurture them and see which ones can catch fire and become guiding lights. States have begun to show us the way. They’ve demonstrated that successful welfare programs can be built around more effective child support enforcement practices and innovative programs requiring welfare recipients to work or prepare for work. Let us give the States more flexibility and encourage more reforms. Let’s start making our welfare system the first rung on America’s ladder of opportunity, a boost up from dependency, not a graveyard but a birthplace of hope.”
Abortion
“I call America, a good nation, a moral people—to charitable but realistic consideration of the terrible cost of abortion on demand. To those who say this violates a woman’s right to control of her own body: Can they deny that now medical evidence confirms the unborn child is a living human being entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Let us unite as a nation and protect the unborn with legislation that would stop all federal funding for abortion and with a human life amendment making, of course, an exception where the unborn child threatens the life of the mother. Our Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes the right of taking a life in self-defense. But with that one exception, let us look to those others in our land who cry out for children to adopt. I pledge to you tonight I will work to remove barriers to adoption and extend full sharing in family life to millions of Americans so that children who need homes can be welcomed to families who want them and love them.”
Prayer
“So many of our greatest statesmen have reminded us that spiritual values alone are essential to our nation’s health and vigor. The Congress opens its proceedings each day, as does the Supreme Court, with an acknowledgment of the Supreme Being. Yet we are denied the right to set aside in our schools a moment each day for those who wish to pray. I believe Congress should pass our school prayer amendment.”
Trade
“Protectionism is destructionism. America’s jobs, America’s growth, America’s future depend on trade, trade that is free, open, and fair.”
Defense
Reagan called for “stable defense spending a top goal both this year and in the future. … America is again a vigorous leader of the free world, a nation that acts decisively and firmly in the furtherance of her principles and vital interests. No legacy would make me more proud than leaving in place a bipartisan consensus for the cause of world freedom, a consensus that prevents a paralysis of American power from ever occurring again.”
Conclusion
“The lights along the Potomac are still seen this night signaling, as they have for nearly two centuries and as we pray God they always will, that another generation of Americans has protected and passed on lovingly this place called America, this shining city on a hill, this government of, by, and for the people.” 
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From the Bible:  Happy is the land whose king is dignified. Ecclesiastes 10:17