Deroy Murdock
Syndicated Columnist, Scripps Howard News Service

I recall driving through California's San Joaquin Valley late one summer evening with Richard Miniter, a fellow libertarian who now works in Brussels at the Center for the New Europe. Somewhere in the depths of the 1991 recession, we had nothing better to do than visit a friend in San Francisco. While playing a mixed music tape around 2:00 a.m., the song to which we were listening abruptly stopped. Suddenly, Ronald Reagan's voice filled the car speakers, discussing national security, as I recall. Somehow, I accidentally taped one of Reagan's radio commentaries over some rock tune or another. Even after he had been out of office for three years, there were few sounds as comforting or reassuring on a pitch-black night as the voice of Ronald Reagan.