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By E.A. Barrera
February 1, 2011 (San Diego's East) -- February 6, 2011 marks what would have been Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. That milestone is a personal one for me. Though I never knew or met President Reagan, he was the first president who I could recall from start to finish. He was the president as I entered my senior year in high school and came of age … proud liberal-Democrat from a family of the same (dating back to Al Smith running as the first Catholic candidate for president in 1928).
As a member of the generation euphemistically once called "Gen X", I was never the less fascinated by the America Reagan promised. Reagan's America was in complete contrast to that of the baby-boomer class, which dominated the airwaves and media all my life. It was the return of the generation that beat the Great Depression and won World War Two. It was John Wayne reborn … and the "Old Man" (as I would come to call Reagan - first in sarcasm, then in reverence) epitomized that return.
When John Wayne died of cancer on June 11, 1979, I cried. Despite my family’s great Democratic traditions, we were also ardent movie fans and the Duke was always a hero. The hero, as far as I was concerned. A year and a half later, on the eve of his successful challenge to Jimmy Carter, Reagan invoked the name of his "pal" that night:
"Like my friend Duke Wayne, I have always believed America's best days will always remain ahead of it," said Reagan.
The following day, Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected 40th President of the United States. Though I was too young by a year to vote in that election, I had campaigned for Edward Kennedy during the Spring and followed the race with the passion all those who get hooked by politics understand. It gets in your blood. When Teddy lost the Democratic nomination to President Carter, I was attracted more by the GOP nominee than the Democrats' choice.
Carter was a lackluster leader and he contributed to the sense of depression America was feeling about itself. The term was "malaise" and it was the result of a sustained era in our society where nothing seemed to go right. By the time of the election, the economy was in shambles, hostages were being held in Iran and Carter seemed completely unable to handle the job.
At age 16, I’d supported Ted Kennedy, volunteering in his primary race because I wanted strength in the presidency. I wanted leadership. With Carter the nominee against Reagan, I saw much more of the Kennedyesque strength in the Republican candidate than the Democrat that year. And so … though it would have made my sainted grandmother roll in her grave … if I’d been old enough to vote, I would have cast my first vote for President to a Republican - that specific Republican … Ronald Reagan.
Like Presidents Kennedy, Roosevelt, Truman and Lincoln, he inspired adoration (and not a small measure of contempt) from both sides of the political aisle. During the 2008 presidential race, when President Obama spoke admirably of the impact Reagan had on him and his generation, I understood what so many of the ridiculous ideologues could not see. (It was the same thing Reagan himself felt towards FDR - the president of his youth). Great presidents transcend their parties and their ideologies. They become the embodiment of a time in a person’s life. And if those times are led boldly and with cheer, nobody except the ideologues ever really remembers what party or attitude those leaders belonged. They just remember that an American President made them feel proud to be American.
Reagan’s landslide election victory over Carter in 1980 marked the sharpest ideological shift in administrations since Franklin Roosevelt's defeat of Herbert Hoover in 1932. In one day Reagan and his Republican party took control of the White House and the U.S. Senate, plus gained a working majority in the House of Representatives. Yet more than an ideological shift was at work on that day. The nation seemed to be making a statement about itself that had little to do with politics.
John Wayne's death sparked a wave of nostalgia for the strengths and myths he'd personified - both on the movie screen, and in his battle with cancer. His death came to symbolize the death of America's power and dominance since the end of World War II. Five months after he died, 60 American diplomats were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was as if Richard Nixon's warning about the United States becoming a "helpless, pitiful giant" had come true.
America lost faith in its basic sense of self. Who were we? What did we stand for? How was it possible that we were the same nation who'd survived the Great Depression and defeated fascism and imperialism just a few decades earlier? We were a soul-sick nation wondering where and when we'd lost the America John Wayne and his generation represented.
This despair for a national identity led eventually to anger at those who seemed to represent the turmoil. Americans grew sick of the protesters and the critics. We lost patience with weak leaders who kept telling us we had to accept an era of limits. For so long the nation had been derided and scorned as imperialistic and racist. Our soldiers went from being called heroes after World War II, to baby-killers in Vietnam. Our political leaders went from being revered icons such as FDR, Dwight Eisenhower and Jack Kennedy, to lesser men who lied to us and violated their basic oath of office, like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
The country wanted to feel good about itself once more. We wanted a hero. Enter Ronald Reagan - stage right.
"I hope you're all Republicans." From the moment he made that joke - kidding the surgeons who were about to dig a bullet out of his body where John Hinkley had shot him, Americans fell hard for Ronald Reagan. We may have elected him five months earlier, but we didn't take him into our collective national hearts until that day in March of 1981. By joking in the face of death and then surviving the assassination attempt, Reagan pulled-off the type of heroic moment for real, that the Duke would have done on the "big screen."
His performance under fire solidified the voters’ hopes that here was someone different. Unlike his four immediate predecessors, Reagan was lucky. Reagan was a winner. Maybe the nation would start winning again, too. It was possibly a good omen when our hostages in Iran, who'd been held captive for 444 days, were freed one hour after he became president. But it was definitely a clear sign when he survived an attempted murder with such good humor. America was headed for better times.
In President Reagan's world the message was simple: We were the good guys. We were the "Arsenal of Democracy" and our friends were the "Freedom Fighters." Our enemies - who had great bad-guy names like "The Ayatollah," "Colonel Khaddaffi," "Commandante Ortega," and of course the Soviets - were the "Evil Empire."
Domestically, those who opposed his policies were the "Tax and Spend Crowd." It wasn't always so cheerful or unifying, if you weren't with him. Roselyn Carter once asserted that "he made us feel comfortable with our prejudices, and she had a point. Reagan often used the language of division first espoused by George Wallace and Richard Nixon (and later by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck) to describe a "liberal elite" who were bent on taking away Mom and Dad's hard-earned wages to pay for "welfare queens" buying booze with food stamps. To Ronald Reagan, if only the liberals and the communists and the enemies of Christian America would get out of the way, the United States could be that "Shining City on a Hill" he often described.
It was like living in a comic book. "Don't Worry, Be Happy" was the name of Bobby McFerrin's song, and it symbolized the mood Reagan wanted us to feel during the 1980s. Too much worry and introspective criticism had driven us down a drain and into a cesspool. Americans were an inherently decent people and if we just kept our humor and ignored all the bad, we would be fine. It was populism meshed with conservatism - a trick not pulled-off since Teddy Roosevelt. And we ate it up. We swallowed every bit of this man's folksy, charming manner, because it was exactly the escape from turmoil we'd yearned for when we'd elected him.
Yet it isn't enough to simply say we liked him. In that moment after he was shot, President Reagan single-handily ended that national malaise we’d had from the day JFK died. What we saw in him we saw in old movies - and desperately wanted to see when we looked in the mirror. He handled adversity with ease and good times with grace. He actually enjoyed being president.
He understood the American character better than any president since Kennedy, and he communicated his message without hesitation: Americans want to feel proud. In so doing, they feel patriotic ... and in so doing, will always do the right thing. We were a people in those raucous 1980s that spent eight years living like an audience at the Saturday matinee. We had a ball, felt robust when we left the theatre … and for eight years told ourselves all was well with the world because the man in the White House was cheering us on.
That grandeur of optimism Reagan offered came through in his first inaugural address on January 20, 1981. Reagan recited a list of American heroes who’d fought and died for our freedoms. He spoke of the modern efforts we all had to live up to, and our duty to make things better. It was vintage Reagan.
"…It does require … our best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God’s help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. And after all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans."
So as we note the 100th birthday of the man who dominated my politics when I first understood what they meant, I offer thanks. Thanks for being the hero we needed when we needed it. Thanks from a proud, liberal Democrat who voted for President Obama, but would have voted for you as well. Happy Birthday … Old Man.
The views expressed in this editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. If you wish to submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
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