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Speech · 1964

“A Time for Choosing”

In a nationally televised address on behalf of Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign, actor and former General Electric spokesman Ronald Reagan argued that the growth of federal power and spending threatened individual freedom and Americans’ capacity for self-government. He framed the election as a choice between individual liberty under law and a drift toward totalitarian control, urged firmness against Soviet communism, and closed by telling Americans they had a “rendezvous with destiny.”

PM·DOC·1964·045Primary Source
Date
October 27, 1964
Author
Ronald Reagan
Type
Speech
Held by
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Why it matters

The speech drew a surge of donations to Republican candidates and launched Reagan’s political career; two years later he was elected governor of California.

Read the full text at reaganlibrary.gov
Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

conservatismlimited governmentelectionsanti-communism

From the library

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Voting Rights Act of 1965

Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson months after state troopers attacked peaceful voting rights marchers at Selma, Alabama, the act enforced the Fifteenth Amendment by prohibiting voting practices that denied or abridged the right to vote on account of race or color. It suspended literacy tests in jurisdictions covered by its formula, authorized federal examiners to register voters there, and required those jurisdictions to obtain federal “preclearance” before changing voting rules.

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Civil Rights Act of 1964

Signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the act outlawed segregation in public accommodations such as hotels, restaurants and theaters, prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and barred discrimination in federally funded programs. It also strengthened federal authority to enforce voting rights and school desegregation and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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