Did Reagan Say Dems Would ‘Restrict Your Freedoms … in the Name of Professional Victims’?

No.

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Viral social media posts claim President Ronald Reagan warned that the Democratic Party would one day “restrict your freedoms, restrict your history and restrict your safety. All in the name of professional victims that don’t understand the consequences of their ignorance.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCw-v_Ojafp

There is no evidence that Reagan ever uttered those words. A Google search for the quote does not turn up any reliable sources, with the top results being various social media and meme pages. Michael Pinckney, an archivist for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, had also never heard of the quote. Pinckney told The Dispatch Fact Check: “This quote states President Reagan said this in 1987. We have all his official speeches and I could not find this quote for that year or any other between 1981-89.”

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  1. Avatar photo
    Not Jonah Goldberg

    Reagan has too many great quotes for people to need to create fake ones.

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    Vlad M.

    i was willing to bet that it was fake as it did not sound at all as Reagan or even specific to his time. it's just another fake quote being attributed to one of the greatest American presidents. Thank you for taking your time to actually check this out.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Christian Johnson

    Another hint: "voting Democrat" doesn't sound right for the time period. A quick Google Ngram search finds that "voting Democrat" or "vote Democrat" didn't take off as phrases until the late 1990s. Even today, they're still less common that "voting Democratic/vote Democratic," but the usage seems to have become proliferated since the ascendance of talk radio (and then Fox News), both of which post-date the Reagan presidency.

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    Jake

    Pretty sure this is an Abraham Lincoln quote.

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  5. Avatar photo
    MG

    As someone who was only around for half of 1987, I’m curious if someone who remembers it well can speak to whether we even had “professional victims” back then.

    That phrase seemed far too modern.

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    1. Avatar photo
      BWG

      Punk! 1987 was my 4th year in grad school, and I believe it was the year I climbed Mt. Rainier for the first time. The only "victim" recollection I have is that of my roommate's girlfriend being involved in "victims' rights". Reagan had established a Task Force on Victims of Crime in the early 80's, and it was gaining steam at the time. I remember being surprised because victim's rights seemed a very conservative thing, and I thought she was pretty liberal. But later I learned her mother was the victim of a violent crime. I remember a lot of lefties who absolutely loathed Reagan, to the degree that those on the left loathe Trump today. Few similarities between Reagan and Trump, of course, so it's interesting that the reaction is the same.

      Thanks Alec, appreciate the research!

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      1. Avatar photo
        BWG

        Note also that there have always been professional victims, though we may not have called them that.

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    2. Avatar photo
      Angie

      I had the same thought

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  6. Young Old Man

    It doesn't even sound like a Reagan quote. Kinda smells like it was written by an author with English as a second language. How does one "restrict" history?

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  7. Avatar photo
    Emily

    It’s annoying that fact checks don’t “go viral” to the same degree as the sensational lies they check. But you do good and essential work! Thank you!

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    1. Avatar photo
      Old guy named Bill (OGNB)

      Agreed!

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