Many of Reagan's listeners thought he was dreaming. But Reagan had faith in freedom. He knew that communism, although militarily powerful, was ideologically dead. In a few years, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Evil Empire crumbled with a suddenness that astonished supporters of freedom and rocked the world's remaining tyrants. Today, big government is facing the same internal crisis the Soviet empire faced in 1982.
Big government is institutionally strong but structurally weak.
It is backed by armies of special interests that ferociously protect their budgets and intimidate anyone who challenges their subsidies, but it has been abandoned by the American people. Conservatives sometimes forget that limiting government is not an end in itself, but a means to a better society. We must remember that our federal government has helped America achieve many great things in this century. Government built the interstate highway system that helped create our modern economy. It established Social Security and Medicare systems, which have sharply reduced poverty in old age and enabled senior citizens to live longer and in better health.