Reagan's enduring message for Republicans as they do battle in the 2024 campaign
Reagan had confidence in his beliefs, what he stood for, how he communicated. And he accomplished so much despite disdain from the media, Democrats and elites… sound familiar?
My first political memory is being with my parents at an election night watch party in Show Low, Arizona, in 1976. They had been supporters of Ronald Reagan against Gerald Ford in the primary but had united with the party against Gov. Jimmy Carter. When Carter was declared the winner, my mother started to cry and said, "Now the Soviets are going win."
Eleven years later, on June 12, 1987, Ronald Reagan would stand at the Brandenburg Gate and say, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
This moment in Berlin is captured beautifully in the movie "Reagan," starring Dennis Quaid in the title role and Penelope Ann Miller as his beloved wife, Nancy. It is a must-see.
For those who grew up knowing the Reagan presidency, watching "Reagan" the movie is going to be nostalgic. If you are too young to remember that time, this will be a history lesson, because it truly follows the arc of Reagan's life.
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Reagan came from a poor family. Hard work and determination moved him to the lights of Hollywood, where he embarked on a successful acting career. He was then selected as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and he’d later say that negotiating with studio heads prepared him to go toe-to-toe with Mikhail Gorbachev. His movie-star success would only be temporary, though.
Luckily for Reagan and our country, he had more dreams than just acting.
Following a successful run as the host of "General Electric Theater" for eight years, Reagan made a leap into politics, giving a speech, "A Time for Choosing," for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964:
"Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, ‘We don't know how lucky we are.’ And the Cuban stopped and said, ‘How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.’ And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth."
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Reagan then ran for and was elected governor of California, winning in a landslide. As the state’s chief executive, Reagan balanced the budget and became the chair of the Republican Governors Association. After two successful terms, he could have retired with distinction for all he’d accomplished – but there was more to do for this remarkable leader.
Reagan unsuccessfully ran twice for president before becoming the Republican party’s nominee, and eventually president of the United States in 1980. Four years later, he won re-election in huge fashion, capturing 49 of the 50 states.
Today, Reagan’s ascension seems like it was always meant to be. Yet his story shows a number of failures before his successes. If he had given up at any point in his life, who knows where the U.S. would be. His determination is a lesson for us all.
So why is Reagan still relevant today?
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As Thomas Sowell recently wrote:
"Against this background, why is this election even close? Some Republicans may say that it is because the media are on the side of the Democrats and suppress or distort the facts accordingly. Others may say that the universities have become indoctrination centers, promoting the kind of ideologies that favor the Democrats’ agenda.
"But, even if we concede all that, the fact is that a similar situation existed back in the days when Ronald Reagan won two consecutive presidential elections by landslides. How did he do it?
"He did it by addressing the voting public as if they were adults who could understand an issue – if you explained it to them in plain English, instead of in political jargon or snappy quips.
"The time to refute what Ms. Harris says is when she says it, whatever the issue…. Nor is merely denouncing or ridiculing what she said the same as refuting it."
Remembering Reagan would give Republicans something to grasp, something tangible, solid. Reagan had confidence in his beliefs, what he stood for, how he communicated. And he accomplished so much while under such ridicule and disdain from the media, Democrats and elites… sound familiar? As Peggy Noonan wrote:
"The Democratic Party has more substantial characters of recent American history to parade around on stage. The Clintons, the Obamas, Jesse Jackson, who, whatever your view of him, was there, on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, when Martin Luther King was shot. This conveyed a party with a storied past, and if you join it you’re joining something real. The Republican Party, in its great toppling, has rejected its past. You lose something when you cast your history aside, and all you’ve got for prime time is Trump sons."
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Reagan the movie reminds us why we shouldn’t cast our history aside. It reminds us what greatness looks like, feels like. The GOP can still be the party of big ideas, big reforms, and most of all, freedom.
So maybe we learn from Reagan rather than dismiss him. Lean into freedom – actual freedom, the kind that the Founders believed in, when they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Freedom wins.
