Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s famous “Time for Choosing” speech, his rallying cry for Americans to vote for Barry Goldwater over Lyndon Johnson.

Goldwater was swamped, but Reagan’s speech so electrified the public that it instantly jump-started his political career.

Historian Steve Hayward notes the speech served as “a template – an understanding of government as ruinously ambitious and out of control, projecting weakness and uncertainty to our enemies abroad – that still defines conservatism today.”

Reagan made great efforts to portray his views as common sense:

You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right. Well, I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There’s only an up or down: man’s old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

The specific issues may have changed since Reagan’s seminal speech, but the themes he addressed are timeless. We hope some of the Big Government conservatives (NatCons) are paying attention.