Gov. Wilson Lauds Reagan Principles

In a speech peppered with humor, admonishments and advice, Gov. Pete Wilson spoke Thursday on the importance of Ronald Reagan’s legacy and how the nation needs to remember the lessons he taught.

“He had the courage to decide and act, not because of what the polls said, but what his principles told him,” Wilson told a crowd of more than 300 people at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. “So clear was his vision, so clear was his resolve that soon the entire nation made his cause theirs and called it ‘Reaganism.’ ”

Wilson spoke as part of the library’s third annual Ronald Reagan Lecture, which showcases the former president’s so-called Four Pillars of Freedom: preserving individual liberty, promoting economic opportunity, advancing world democracy and taking pride in the nation’s heritage.

Reagan, now 87 and suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, did not attend the evening event.

The lecture ended with Wilson and Nancy Reagan unveiling a 7-foot-6 bronze sculpture of her husband called “After the Ride.”

The statue, which depicts Reagan dressed in casual denim with cowboy hat in hand and riding gloves in his back pocket, will be displayed outside the library’s main entrance.

Wilson’s speech, taking place on the 135th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, ran the gamut from personal anecdotes about Reagan to his achievements as governor to the reasons why Republicans fared poorly in the November elections.

Both Wilson and Reagan began their political careers in 1967. Reagan had just been elected California governor and Wilson a state legislator.

Wilson remembered how shortly after they took their oaths of office that Reagan joked how he’d won the race riding on Wilson’s coattails.

“He had that self-deprecating wit and charm that made him immensely likable,” Wilson said. “That’s something that stayed with him his entire life and helped make him what he is.”

Taking his cue from the anniversary of Lincoln’s address, Wilson called Lincoln and Reagan the bravest leaders of their respective centuries whose visions for the country pointed it in a direction of justness, prosperity and peace.

“Lincoln freed the slaves and won a war of secession; Ronald Reagan freed millions from communism and won the Cold War,” he said. “Ronald Reagan is more than just the Great Communicator, he is the great emancipator of the 20th century.”

In the wake of the Republican Party’s poor showing in the midterm elections two weeks ago, Wilson said the conservative leadership of the GOP needs to again look to Reagan for guidance on how to heal its political wounds.

Republicans, he said, have forgotten that they need to give the people a reason to side with them, not just a reason to vote against the opposition.

“We win by offering them a reason to vote for us,” Wilson said. “That’s what Ronald Reagan did. . . . He reached out and touched people’s lives.”

Past lecturers at the annual event have included New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and U. S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee.