Word to LIve by & Reagan Forum

A Reagan Forum – Ronna McDaniel

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back one week to April 20, 2023 for our in-person event with Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel. She was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is the second woman ever elected as Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the longest-serving RNC Chair since the Civil War. Under her leadership, the RNC raised record funds, made its largest ever ground game investment, and retired Nancy Pelosi by winning back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Prior to her tenure at the RNC, Chairwoman McDaniel served as the Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. During her Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Chairwoman McDaniel addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.

Words To Live By – Walking on a Tightrope

Today, the subject is the Middle East. And after years of struggling to find peace and end terrorism in that region, Ronald Reagan characterized the challenges by saying, “it was like walking on a tightrope.” From 1982 to 1991, over thirty U.S. and other Western hostages were kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Specifically, the year 1983 brought new and complex challenges to President Reagan’s doorstep. In Beirut, Lebanon, our U.S. embassy was destroyed in a suicide car-bomb attack on April 18^th when a one-half ton pickup truck laden detonated its load of 2000 pounds of TNT. 63 died, including 17 Americans. Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission to date, and changed the way the U.S. Department of State secured its resources and executed its missions overseas. Six months later, on October 23^rd in Beirut, Shiite suicide bombers exploded a truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines. Minutes later, a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut. Then in Kuwait City on December 12, Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80. That’s just the Middle East…the subject of today’s podcast. And we’ll focus on the attack 40 years ago in Beirut.

Words To Live By – What About Social Security?

So, what do you know about Social Security? USA Today reported that President Joe Biden should learn a lesson in leadership from Emmanuel Macron, his counterpart across the pond. The French president has followed through on campaign promises to address pension shortfalls by raising the retirement age to 64 from 62. Guess what? A lot of people don’t like it, and the French have taken to the streets. Yet, Macron isn't deterred by the potential political fallout. He knows it must be done. “One cannot play with the future of the country,” Macron said recently to government ministers. Rather than talk straight with Americans about what must be done to ensure that U.S. entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare remain solvent, Biden prefers to play politics. So calling upon Ronald Reagan for wisdom, we’ll listen to two addresses in this podcast on the subject – the first from November 1977 which goes into the history and purpose of Social Security…and in the second half of the podcast, we’ll listen to his speech, six years later, in 1983 after amendments were finally made to save the system.

A Reagan Forum – Tova Friedman

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back just over one week to April 2, 2023 for our in-person event with Auschwitz Survivor Tova Friedman. This event was our first event as part of our new special exhibition, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. which runs through August 13, 2023. Information on this exhibit can be found at ReaganLibrary.com/Auschwitz. Last November, we were contacted by the amazing staff of Holocaust Museum LA. They recommended we speak with Dr. Maria Zalewska, Executive Director of the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial Foundation about a book she had put together called Honeycake and Latkes. The book is a beautiful collection of heirloom recipes and stories from Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors. She connected us with Tova Friedman whose New York Times bestselling memoir, The Daughter of Auschwitz, shares her string of near-death experiences in a Jewish Ghetto, a Nazi labor camp and Auschwitz. One of her recipes is also in Honeycake and Latkes. Tova is one of the very few Jews to have entered a gas chamber and lived to tell the tale. Tova has been quoted as saying, “I am a survivor. That comes with a survivor’s obligation to represent one and a half million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis. They cannot speak. So I must speak on their behalf.” Maria and Tova sat down in conversation to discuss Honeycake and Latkes, as well as The Daughter of Auschwitz.

Words To Live By – The Banking Crisis

In today’s podcast, we’re inspired to look back at a speech Reagan delivered in 1987 at the Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. "Why," you ask? Well due to the recent bank failures of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank , we thought our listeners would like a closer look. Everyone wants to blame Reagan. Economist Paul Krugman in 2009 claimed that “Reagan Did It.” Yes, he wrote that “the prime villains behind the mess we're in were Reagan and his circle of advisers.” This is perverse thinking by shifting blame from the obvious villains closer at hand. It is disingenuous to ignore the fact that the derivatives scams at the heart of the economic meltdown didn't exist in President Reagan's time. The huge expansion in collateralized mortgage and other debt, the bubble that burst, was the direct result of enabling deregulatory legislation pushed through during the Clinton years. Back in the 1982, 41 years ago, Ronald Reagan's signing off on legislation easing mortgage requirements pales in comparison to the damage wrought fifteen years later by a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans who enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in the economic collapse. Reagan didn't do it, but Clinton-era Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, did. They, along with then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and Republican congressional leaders James Leach and Phil Gramm, blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Ok that was one financial crisis…and as another one looms, let’s listen to the President in 1987, who talks about the basics like good management.

A Reagan Forum – Dave McCormick

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back a few weeks to March 16, 2023 for our in-person event with American businessman and politician Dave McCormick. Mr. McCormick served as President Bush’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and served as the CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, from 2020-2022. He joined us at the Reagan Library to discuss his newest book, Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America, which is Dave McCormick’s vision for how to unlock America’s full potential for greatness. He sat down in conversation with Reagan Institute Director Roger Zakheim.

Words To Live By – Easter and Passover

As you know, President Reagan was a man of deep faith, and because attending church created a massive security problem for the parishioners and clergy, he chose to stay home. Sometimes he was visited by a local clergyman and occasionally was able to take communion. So at this time of the year when both Easter and Passover are celebrated, we’ll listen to some of the President’s wise words from 1983, 40 years ago. He delivered a radio address on the subject of both Easter and Passover, reflecting on those seeking freedom from oppression across the globe – in East Germany, in Central America…which to our minds, reminds us quite a bit of the current struggle in Ukraine. We think you’ll find this interesting.

A Reagan Forum – Auschwitz Exhibition Opening

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back just one week to March 23, 2023 for our private evening program to commemorate the opening of our special exhibition, “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” which opened to the public Friday, March 24, 2023. The West Coast debut of the 12,500 sq. ft. exhibition is the first of three final North American stops. Created by Spanish company Musealia together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, and now being toured through North America by World Heritage Exhibitions, the exhibit displays the largest and most comprehensive collection of artifacts linked to the history of this German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

Words To Live By – Auschwitz Exhibition at the Reagan Library

A groundbreaking exhibit opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Museum on March 24 entitled Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. No book, or podcast, or history lesson can prepare you for the impact and power this extraordinary collection of artifacts holds. The exhibition brings together more than 700 original objects of great historic and human value; objects which were direct witnesses to the horrors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. These objects serve as the guiding thread of a rigorous and moving account on the history of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz and its dwellers, both victims and perpetrators. Why such an exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum you ask? In Ronald Reagan’s personal journey, he discovered that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds; rather it unfolds often in the most unlikely ways. His unexpected, eye-opening exposure to top-secret footage during World War II fueled his hatred of oppressive government, antisemitism, and his resolve to protect human freedom.

A Reagan Forum – Condoleezza Rice

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back two weeks to March 8, 2023 for our in-person event with Dr. Condoleezza Rice who was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. From January 2005 to January 2009, Dr. Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Dr. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position. She is currently the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and a Senior Fellow on Public Policy. During her Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Dr. Rice addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.