Remembering the Great Communicator



Over the past month as we have celebrated our 250^th birthday as a nation, we have revisited some presidencies of the past. Name-calling, mud-slinging, and sometimes even flat-out lying are all, sadly, a part of the presidential process and show no signs of going away. It makes one ponder, why would anyone want to be President of the United States if this is how they have to get the job?

I set aside a few nights recently to reflect on some of our more memorable presidents of the past hundred years: Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt; Ronald Reagan; and Bill Clinton. Two Democrats, two Republicans. We have already covered the Roosevelts and the Clintons. And now, the Great Communicator .. the Gipper .. Ronald Reagan.

RONALD REAGAN: AN AMERICAN JOURNEY (History Channel; Amazon Prime)

This is not the 2024 film starring Dennis Quaid as the 40^th President. The movie played to a capacity crowd at the Mount Vernon Theatre last year; it is highly recommended if you want an enjoyable ride through Ronald Reagan’s political career.

What I am recommending here is what I consider to be the definitive feature-length biography on Ronald Reagan. It occasionally airs on the History Channel, but is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

This documentary is notable for presenting just the facts, via newsreel footage and first-person accounts via interviews with the people who were there. We also see and hear archival recordings of President Reagan in various stages of his life.

One could not have written a more Hollywood story than what it became: Reagan emerges from modest beginnings and is born to lead. He is a scholar-athlete, and by all accounts gets along with everyone. He’s an earnest striver who accomplishes great things, particularly in his role as a lifeguard. Reagan set the record for number of lives saved that still holds today (his proudest achievement).

After a career in radio broadcasting, he heads to California and becomes an actor. Over time, Reagan appears in 53 motion pictures and spends a decade hosting “General Electric Theater” on television. Alongside his acting career, he becomes president of the Screen Actors Guild and gets his first taste of politics. Representing GE while hosting the anthology series, Reagan travels the country meeting people and gives speeches that begin to emphasize more and more of his personal politics.

By 1966, Reagan’s acting career is done, and he’s elected Governor of California for two terms. What I noticed during this era is how stridently right-wing he appeared to be in news clips as he said many of the same things politicians such as George Wallace were saying at the time: get a haircut, get a job, rioters and looters will be locked up, etc.

And yet, the Reagan charm is always there and he enjoys success as a governor. He uses this success to springboard onto the national scene, running for the GOP presidential nomination in 1976 against then- President Gerald Ford. However, Republicans back Ford at the last minute after some truly bitter moments between the two men.

This brings us to the more modern times of his Presidency.

When Reagan ran for president in 1980, one in ten Americans were out of work. 53 Americans were being held hostage in Iran. Inflation and a recession combined to create “stagflation,” the worst economic conditions possible. Reagan ran on the slogan, “are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Reagan wins, but within three months of taking office he suffers an assassination attempt at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. The situation is quite serious. A story I’ve never heard is told here by Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, who saved Reagan’s life by sending the car to the hospital instead of the White House. Parr had wanted to be a Secret Service agent from an early age, having seen a movie called “The Code of the Secret Service,” starring … Ronald Reagan!

Americans are charmed by Reagan’s humor during all of this. To his doctors in the operating room: “I hope you’re all Republicans.” To Nancy: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Reagan’s address to Congress only weeks after the failed attempt on his life shows just how much everyone already loved the guy, even when they disagreed with him.

This is a major point that is made: Ronald Reagan and “Tip” O’Neill were not enemies in real life. In politics, yes. But that was an 8-to-5 job. After the fights were over, they would get together and have a drink. Reagan used this same charm offensive with world leaders to great success.

There has not been a President in my lifetime that could transcend the office, or better inhabit the office, than Ronald Reagan. Barack Obama may be the best orator, and he was certainly inspiring. Bill Clinton had a charm and a knack for success. But Reagan somehow touched people in their hearts as Americans in a way nobody else has. The man won forty-nine states in a landslide victory in 1984. That will never, ever happen again – at least not in our lifetime.

The best part of the documentary is perhaps how Reagan takes apart Communism, brick by brick. Reagan approves spending on the U.S. military to the point that no other country could keep up. He alternates between toughness and tenderness with Mikhail Gorbachev, who ends up being the final leader of the Soviet Union. Along with Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, and Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan helped to hasten the end of what he had called the “Evil Empire” that had dominated global politics since the end of World War II.

There is very little of the familial dysfunction one may read about with the Reagan children. They are on this documentary, but speak in glowing terms about their father.

In summary, I cannot imagine a better overview of the life and times of a true American icon who went from radio to movies to the White House and changed the world along the way. It couldn’t have happened anywhere else.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University.