A riveting four minutes with Ronald Reagan

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do0x-Egc6oA&feature=related]

How politically incorrect can one be!

The late, great Ronald Reagan delivered a memorable speech in 1983 in which he characterized the Soviet Union as an evil empire.

The press screamed.

Democrats screamed.

Liberals everywhere screamed.

That is not a very polite thing to say, Mr. President! After all, they are people very much like us. Maybe they’re a little misguided, but we’re not perfect either. After all, look at all the terrible things America has done.

Morality is always relative with the Left. They’re quick to point out their own nation’s flaws as quickly as they’re willing to excuse atrocities on the other side, whether they’re communists, Islamic fascists, or environmental whackos.

So to be politically incorrect, let us remember why Mr. Reagan characterized the Soviet Union as evil.

They seized nations and ruthlessly dominated them.

Elections weren’t allowed.

Freedom of the press was eradicated.

God was expunged from the public square and the home. (A woman from Poland told how the communists marched into the pharmacy her father owned and forced him to remove the crucifix from the wall.) Atheism was established as the state religion.

Innocents were killed and imprisoned in staggering proportions. In his book, The Great Terror, writer Robert Conquest presented these estimates of the carnage wrought by Joseph Stalin:

Arrests, 1937-1938 – about 7 million
Executed – about 1 million
Died in camps – about 2 million
In prison, late 1938 – about 1 million
In camps, late 1938 – about 8 million

This isn’t evil? It not, what is?

Ronald Reagan is remembered on his 100th birthday in a way that few others are … or will be. Why? Because he spoke with conviction. He didn’t care that it might make him unpopular with some folks. Ultimately, he was a leader, not a follower.

And he changed the world.

The evil empire is dead.