Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denverand now also on 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Government is not the solution; government is the problem. So warned Ronald Reagan as he took office in 1981 at a time of drift and demoralization for America. His words are on my mind as we head into another weekend radio show and look to the Gipper's birthday next Tuesday, Feb. 6.
Did Reagan mean we don't need a strong and well-respected civil authority to protect individual rights, uphold the rule of law, and defend the peace against domestic predators and foreign enemies? Of course not. We very much need that, and without it we'd not be enjoying what our Constitution calls the "blessings of liberty" in this country today.
But what I believe the late President saw back then (a quarter-century ago, can it already be that long?), and what is even more pronounced in the nation today, is the ill effect of government exceeding its limits to the point where strength sinks under bloat and respect sours into distrust. That's what he meant by "the problem."
Reagan with his revolution, heroically begun but never completed, helped turn us back to the Constitution (and underlying it, the Declaration of Independence) as sources of a true "solution" for national decline. It is now for us in a new century and facing new threats abroad, new mutations of collectivism at home, to push his revolution forward with reliance on those same timeless sources.
My Denver Post column for the great man's birthday is called "Reagan was Right: We're Overgoverned." It will be available on this website starting Saturday morning. But when it's published, I will be in the East at a national conservative conference, far from the KNUS microphone.
** Former State Treasurer Mark Hillman will host Backbone Radio for me on Sunday the 4th, ably backed by Matt Dunn and (welcome back, where ya been) Beth Skinner.
** Guests will include Republican campaign attorney Scott Gessler on such issues as the nutty ethics amendment and the 527 mess... State Sen. Shawn Mitchell with the latest on Ritter's leftward lunge down at the Capitol... and I will call in with a report from that right-wing conspiracy event we're attending.
Spin the dial, surf the net, troll through the weekdays -- you just won't find anything else like Backbone Radio. Please be part of our show this weekend by tuning in at 5pm Sunday.
Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS