MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004) was a Hollywood actor and an American politician who served as the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. His political stance is characterised by the devotion to the ideals of modern conservatism in its neo-liberal form, in particular, a strong favour for capitalist economics. The economic policies promoted by Reagan in the 1980s went down in history as 'Reaganomics'. Rendezvous with Destiny is the key passage of the famous A Time for Choosing speech that was presented by Reagan during the 1964 U.S. presidential election campaign on behalf of Republican party candidate Barry Goldwater. Speaking in support of the Republican programme, he harshly criticises welfare state socialist policies and the growing bureaucratic apparatus. Reagan encourages the people of the USA to meet their destiny – to make a choice “not between right and left”, but between “up and down” – “the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism”. The speech earned him prominence as a leading conservative spokesman.