Words to Live By

Baseball at the White House

During this season of primary politics and curious political antics, we are thankfully distracted by our great American pastime, baseball, where hot dogs, peanuts and Cracker Jack still prevail in stadiums across the country. While our 40th president spent more time on the track, in the pool, and on the gridiron, baseball was still a great love of his and an important part of his life. Even his father, Jack Reagan, played a little baseball around the late 1800’s in Bennett, Iowa. Starting in the early 30’s, Ronald Reagan became the play-by-play reenactment voice for the Chicago Cubs. As “Dutch Reagan” on Iowa’s WHO, he would receive game updates via telegraph and then, accompanied by sound effects, bring the action to life with a vivid description of the details. In one famous instance, the telegraph feed went down in the ninth inning of a tight ballgame, forcing the young announcer to improvise on the spot. So, with that story in mind, let’s listen to our 40th president warmly welcome some of baseball’s finest to the White House.

The Curse of the Midterm Election

It’s the season when we anticipate quite a bit of turnover brought about by the curse of the midterm election. 40 years ago, in 1982, Pew Research reported that just 36% of the public said they wanted to see Reagan run for re-election. Recall that Ronald Reagan came to the presidency in 1981 with a straightforward and well-articulated domestic agenda. He promised to cut taxes, curb government spending, and balance the federal budget or at least reduce the deficit. His well-crafted Inaugural Address identified the major themes the new President hoped would define his administration. But, by fall of 1982, the fruits of his labors had not fully bloomed. So, this Pew data preceded, by just a few months, the beginning of a great economic boom. As a result, the late summer and fall of 1982 were tough times for Ronald Reagan and many of those whom he supported. He took to the campaign trail and we thought you’d enjoy a few great excerpts from some of those 1982 stump speeches. Each one is tailored to the specific region and audience – it’s a challenge being president of 50 states with varied interests and objectives.

The Queen and the President

In today’s podcast we’ll focus on President Reagan’s special relationship with her royal highness Queen Elizabeth the second. In 1982, the Reagans visited Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor, where the Queen and Ronald Reagan carried out a specially orchestrated ride through Windsor Great Park, trailed by more than 150 photographers and a Range Rover full of Secret Service agents. (Nancy Reagan, meanwhile, joined Prince Philip in a four-in-hand carriage for a tour of the estate.) In the second half of this podcast, we’ll cover their remarks when the Reagans later hosted Elizabeth and Philip at their home of Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara in 1983, where Her Majesty had her first experience of Tex-Mex cuisine, feasting on tacos, enchiladas, and what she referred to as “used” (i.e., refried) beans.

Crime and Criminal Reform

It’s on the news every day – crime rates are escalating exponentially throughout the country. Well, when Ronald Reagan became our 40th president, our country was experiencing the same surge in crime and in 1980 he said, “We need a renewed emphasis on, and an enhanced sensitivity to, the rights of victims. These rights should be a central concern of those who participate in the criminal justice system, and it is time all of us paid greater heed to the plight of victims.” So in this podcast, we’ll listen to the president’s thoughts on Crime and criminal justice reform, beginning with a radio address delivered 40 years ago on September 11, 1982.  In the second half of the podcast, we’ll move forward five years.

America the Beautiful at Fudan University

China’s activities of late – showing off their military muscle after Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan – are top of mind and call us to review the President’s objective when he visited China in 1984, and that’s by spreading the good news about democracy, particularly to students. We thought our listeners might be interested in his truly beautiful speech delivered to college students in China at Fudan University in 1984. In the first half of the podcast, we’ll cover a few excerpts from the speech in China and in the second half, we’ll be inspired by hearing his heartfelt description about everything that’s great about America at Fudan University.

To Taiwan or Not To Taiwan? That is the Question

In August this year, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a somewhat controversial visit to Taiwan, making her the highest ranking US official to visit the island in 25 years. In the lead up to the trip, President Biden told reporters that the military “thinks its not a good idea’ to visit Taiwan due to rising tensions over the island’s status – also further complicated as the Biden administration has urged China not to back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So, what would Ronald Reagan do? We don’t know but we can tell you what he said in an interview with journalists before he left for his trip to China in the spring of 1984.

The Tonight Show 1975

In Ronald Reagan’s lifetime, he made numerous appearances on the Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson, and as you can imagine they’re not only entertaining but fascinating. As an actor, he knew how to charm and communicate – but as a politician, he knew that an opportunity to clarify his ideas on a national basis was rare, so these interviews with Carson provided a platform for doing just that – thoughtfully, carefully, and casually, explaining just what he believed in.

The Personal Side

So we thought we’d dedicate this podcast to the personal side of our 40th president who was described as an ordinary man who accomplished extraordinary things. Ronald Reagan often credited his political success to an empathy with ordinary Americans. Asked by a reporter on the eve of his election in 1980 what Americans saw in him, Reagan replied: "Would you laugh if I told you that I think, maybe, they see themselves, and that I'm one of them? I've never been able to detach myself or think that I, somehow, am apart from them." Even after two terms as president, Reagan called himself a "citizen-politician," the phrase he often used to describe himself in 1966 when he was elected governor of California in his first race for public office. Reagan said he wanted to become part of government in order to reduce its influence.

The Soviets

Ronald Reagan was a loving guy – he never hated anyone, except, maybe two things: Communism and Liars. In his mind, the two were definitely intertwined. And, as we observe Putin’s assault on Ukraine, it’s the same old Soviet tune – one that says “we’re for peace” and oh by the way, just ignore the tanks invading your country, we’re hunting for nazis. No one believes them. And Reagan didn’t drink the Soviet Kool-Aid, either. There’s one Town Hall that he conducted in 1987 in California at the Century Plaza Hotel with transmission also on the East Coast AND supposedly in the Soviet Union. The Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York had, since 1984, sponsored a week of debate between Soviet and American scholars and officials and August 1987 was no exception. To put the time frame in perspective, by August 1987, Gorbachev had been General Secretary for about 2 ½ years. Two summits – one in Geneva and one in Reykjavik - had taken place with the signing of the historic INF Treating looming in four months, in December of the same year. We love this town hall and we’ll focus on it in this podcast.

The Middle East

Forty years ago this month, President Reagan responded to the crisis in the middle east by announcing the deployment of American forces as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. This will prompt a more interesting discussion for this podcast, of the rules of engagement, which President Reagan asked to be reviewed after the bombing of the US Marine barracks October 23, 1983 which killed a significant part of our peacekeeping force, taking the lives of 241 American soldiers as they slept. The president said it was the saddest day of his presidency, perhaps the saddest day of his life.