Reagan Quote is Prophetic

In a letter to the editor in WSJ, someone rendered this Reagan quote.

Ronald Reagan warned of the strategy that Ms. Noonan describes in a speech he gave on Oct. 14, 1969, at a fundraiser for Eisenhower College.

Then-California Gov. Reagan said: "We are approaching the end of our second century. It has been pointed out that the days of democracy are numbered once the belly takes command of the head. When the less affluent feel the urge to break a commandment and begin to covet that which their more affluent neighbors possess, they are tempted to use their votes to obtain instant satisfaction. Then equal opportunity at the starting line becomes the extended guarantee of at least a tie at the finish of the race. Under the euphemism 'the greatest good for the greatest number,' we destroy a system which has accomplished just that and move toward the managed economy which strangles freedom and mortgages generations yet to come."

Back in '69 he probably wasn't senile yet (Alzheimer's), and this comment was simply prophetic.