Commentary by Steven Hayward

"Many have drawn comparisons between Reagan and FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Lincoln, but Steven Greffenius draws our attention to what should be the most obvious comparison of all—Jefferson. Reagan paraphrased Jefferson in his First Inaugural Address and many other speeches, and moreover embodied the straightforward Jeffersonian axiom that 'that government governs best which governs least.' As Greffenius points out, Reagan followed Jefferson in understanding limited government as the platform for American greatness and individual virtue rather than as a narrow ideology of self-interest." - Steven Hayward, author of The Age of Reagan