Rendezvous with Destiny

Rendezvous with Destiny
by James Kilbourne

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I may have been only 19 years old, but I knew something was very wrong in the world. It was the spring of 1964, and the commentator on television, in a snide all-knowing tone unique to that breed, had just finished making a thinly veiled comparison of Barry Goldwater to Adolph Hitler.

Some four years earlier, I had read Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative.” I didn’t agree with every word of it, but I was struck by its powerful overview of the political picture of America in the late 1950s. Its central themes that individuals have rights and that we must be strong in opposing the enemies of freedom seemed to me to be based on the highest of principles and to represent the most important priorities of that time. I determined at that moment to quit my job in the shipping department at a printing company in Boston and volunteer at the “Goldwater for President” headquarters on Newbury Street in that very Democratic city.

That summer, I found myself attending a small college in York County, Maine, and head of the Goldwater presidential effort in that part of the state. I was young enough to believe in miracles, and still had hope that some silent band of liberty-loving Americans would materialize just in time to elect Barry and save the world. I had rented a small storefront headquarters in Springvale, Maine, near my college, from which my fellow political soldiers and I were waging our holy war. About a week before the election, we rented a TV from a local merchant to watch a speech that the actor Ronald Reagan was giving in support of Goldwater. That old black and white TV had cost $2.00 for the night, and we had had to rig up a coat hanger to replace its rabbit ears in order to get a shadowy, flickering picture of the movie star.

The speech was entitled “Rendezvous with Destiny,” and none of us was prepared for the strength of its content or the power of its presentation. I remember turning to a friend at its conclusion and saying, “Maybe we have the wrong candidate.” I loved Barry Goldwater, and I remember that it hurt to say that. Today, as I watch the tributes rolling in for one of the greatest warriors who ever graced the battlefield for freedom and human dignity, I am proud of my 40-year history of believing in and defending the stands taken by this great man over his long career.

Ronald Reagan had the big picture. And those snide commentators, all now falling over themselves to show that they always knew how great he was when, in reality, they opposed every step he took to advance freedom and prosperity, prove with each attempted word of praise that they still don’t get what made him great.

I am going to describe what most politicians and commentators were saying about Ronald Reagan when he was first elected President. This is what I heard constantly and this is what I thought about it.

1) "He is not very bright. In fact, he is stupid."

He is very intelligent. He just disagrees with your priorities and conclusions.

2) "He is only a puppet. The real people making the decisions are a small evil group of men behind the scenes who tell him what to say."

He is, in fact, a natural leader who has strong convictions and follows through on them consistently.

3) "He has no compassion and no understanding of people less fortunate than himself."

He has true compassion and a real understanding and belief in human nature and dignity. He understands that helping people to live up to the best within themselves and learn to provide for themselves is true compassion.

4) "He is an ideologue who is dangerous and will lead us to our own destruction."

He adheres to principles and understands that compromising with evil is the surest way to give it power. His policies are the surest way to save us from destruction.

5) "He is destroying our relationships with our important allies."

He is a leader who will be recognized for being ahead of his times. Our allies will come to honor him and forget current differences.

Yes, I am talking about Ronald Reagan. And Margaret Thatcher. And Barry Goldwater. And George W. Bush. And Winston Churchill. And George Washington. And Pericles.

This leads me to two eternal truths:

1) Some principles are eternally true.
2) Some people will never see them.

Today I am proud of having understood those principles, a little sad that I didn’t do more to champion them over these last 40 years, determined to do more to advance them over the next 40, and honored to even in the smallest way have shared the battlefield with Ronald Reagan.

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