A reader has listened to a recording of the 1981 inaugural address and says that it included the lines: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” The qualifier seems to me to be almost never mentioned, which oversimplifies Reagan and detaches him from the great tradition of conservative political thought that insists on the importance of circumstance.
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About the Author
Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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