Just as Reagan proved the US was a global power in West Berlin, he furthers that idea by sharing it to the students of Kansas State University on October 9th, 1987. Reagan encourages his audience to ignore the doubters and those who wrongly slander the name of America. He states, “Let’s reject the nonsense that America is doomed to decline, the world sliding toward disaster no matter what we do. Like death and taxes, the doomcriers will always be with us. And they’ll always be wrong about America.” Reagan emphasized that America had too many educated, innovative, and creative people to not be a global superpower. One example he gave was how the U.S. provided more food assistance around the world than any other nation and worked harder than anyone else to bring peace and harmony to troubled areas such as the Middle East. This also furthers Woodrow Wilson’s effort to expand globally and spread democracy which the United States did so effectively (“From Woodrow Wilson in 1902 to the Bush Doctrine in 2002”). Reagan’s speech captures the essence of American exceptionalism and how the United State’s resources, advancement, and democratic excellence sets them aside from other nations.
Let me, if I could, just jog your memories for a moment. It was just a short time ago when those doomcriers were telling us that food and fuel supplies were running out. It was only a question of time before famine and misery would engulf America and the world. Price increases in America, they predicted, would zoom up at double-digit rates for the rest of this decade. The price of crude oil would race to $100 a barrel. Interest rates would break all the old records and soar to 25 or 30 percent or even higher. Runaway inflation and interest rates would break the back of the free enterprise system, destroy the value of our currency, the savings of our people, and the ability of our country to project power, promote freedom, and defend peace. But already Americans are proving every one of those predictions wrong. So many so-called experts lack faith in the American people. They just don’t seem to understand there is no limit to what a proud, free people can achieve.
Source retrieved from: https://www.reaganfoundation.org/media/51193/pdf-090982.pdf