11.02.07
Immersed in the Great Communicator
When I was a kid, my dad took me to Sacramento. I’d hoped to meet Governor Reagan, whose role as the monkey’s costar in Bedtime for Bonzo impressed me more than his position as the Big Kahuna of Kaleefornia. Alas, it didn’t work out, but I never forgot the excitement at the prospect.
Years later, I interned in Washington, DC. Reagan was President, and my first day on the job I was taken to one of his speeches. It was worth the wait; Reagan charmed my socks off. He was the only governor I knew as a kid, and the first president I cast a vote for. And I’ve lived long enough to see his accomplishments praised by those who savaged him when he was in office.
One of the charges frequently leveled at Reagan was that he was an amiable dunce. Saturday Night Live once parodied Reagan by showing him as the mastermind behind his own administration. (“ha ha! as if!”) Turns out they were more right than they knew.
I recently downloaded Reagan in his own Voice from Audible, which offers a selection of Reagan’s three-minute radio spots from 1975 through 1980. This is the period between his exit from the California statehouse, and the launch of his presidential campaign in 1980. In the earlier work “Reagan in his own hand,” compiler Kiron Skinner had discovered and published a number of those radio spots, which Reagan had written in longhand on yellow legal pads. These spots were almost completely the product of Reagan’s own mind and voice – no ghost writers, no editors. Just a man, a pad and pen, and a microphone, covering issues that concerned him most.
The audio version is less than six hours long, but it’s a lengthy trip through a tumultuous period in our history – post-Watergate Washington, the devastation in Vietnam and Cambodia after our withdrawal, energy crises, Iranian hostage crises, Soviet expansionism, the stagflation and malaise that were Jimmy Carter’s gifts to America….there was no lack of things to discuss, and discuss them Reagan did, in his earnest but optimistic style that came from a solid core of belief.
The selection of radio spots are interspersed with commentary from the editor and from people who knew and worked with or for Reagan in those days, adding a valuable context. Even Nancy Reagan makes an appearance. As good as the book was, I love this audiobook, which is more like a radio documentary. Even now, thirty years later, Reagan’s voice has the power to inspire, amuse, and motivate.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Ronald Reagan left the national stage, but the current crop of Republican candidates contort themselves mightily to try to fill his shadow. A few hours with Reagan in his own Voice will remind you why they’re so eager to do so.
[n.b. this is not an ad or a paid review. I just really liked it.]
I can’t help but compare and contrast Reagan to the current president, George W. Bush. This man is also a man of firm convictions who has held his ground in the face of enormous opposition, even within his own party. Where Bush has Iraq and the War on Terror, Reagan had Iran-Contra. Bush and Reagan both had a fatal space shuttle explosion on their watch. Both have taken controversial stances on illegal immigration. Both faced recession and acts of terror, and responded with mixed results. Bush is not the heir to Reagan, but he has faced similar charges – dimwitted, incurious, detached, a “manager” who is a mere figurehead for shadowy lurking powers.
Time has begun to vindicate Reagan. How will Bush hold up over time? I look forward to finding out, but I suspect that in 20 years, his reputation will be better than it is now.