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Sons of the Middle Border: Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
Diane Alden
June 20, 2000
I don't usually watch PBS, but it was showing an excellent biography on Ronald
Reagan. This one included observations by everyone from his rebellious
daughter, Patty, to his more serious daughter, Maureen, and of course Nancy and
Ron Jr. Members of his cabinet, advisers and old acquaintances gave testimony
as to what made up the man known to friends as "Dutch."
>From his days in Illinois and Hollywood to his presidency and subsequent
failing health, Ronald Wilson Reagan was a complex and almost unknowable man.
Given PBS's usual proclivity for trashing conservatives or making their life
hell, the series, narrated by historian David McCullough, was a pleasant
surprise.
The first part, titled "The Lifeguard," refers to what Reagan believed to be
among his better days. The segment dealt with his experience as a lifeguard on
the Rock River in Illinois. As a young man Ronald Reagan was responsible for
saving 77 people from drowning. According to his family and his biographers,
even with the ravages of devastating Alzheimer's disease, his time as a
lifeguard is the one he recalled most fondly.
Reagan grew up the son of a doting religious mother and a self-absorbed
alcoholic father. The family traveled from place to place as his father
attempted to find himself. When the Reagans finally settled down in Dixon,
Ill., Ronald Reagan had become a self-contained rather introverted bookish
child. His erratic upbringing affected his later life, and he always had
difficulty making close friends. With the exception of his wife, Nancy, a life
pattern had been set wherein Reagan became his own best friend. Life
experiences colored his thinking, and the lessons he learned from them
sometimes led to drastic reverses in his belief system. During his Hollywood
days the transition from liberal Democrat to a rock-solid conservative
Republican was a result of hard-won lessons he absorbed as president of the
Screen Actors Guild.
Iin the '40s and '50s Ronald Reagan had to learn to deal with the socialist and
communist ideological drift of some of Hollywood's writers, actors and
directors. Especially troublesome to him and others was the fact that the
Communist Party in Hollywood used intimidation and peer pressure and made life
difficult for those who would not comply. Reagan realized that many actors and
actresses belonged to these organizations out of naivete, but he was worried
about the message and pro-communist attitudes that were being slipped into
movies. The film colony was deeply sympathetic to the Russian version of
communism, and films and attitudes often showed that sympathy.
Additionally, actors and actresses who refused to go along were blacklisted by
the left. People such as Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis were hardly right-
wing types, but they were angry at the pressure being put on them to join the
party, so they appealed to Reagan. Unfortunately, in later years an ungrateful
Bette Davis made snide remarks about the man who had tried to address her
complaints.
For his trouble Reagan was subjected to the anarchy and violence against those
who dared to defy the party line of the Hollywood left. This side of the story
is rarely heard when the current Hollywood left gets on its high horse. The
brilliant director and left-leaning Elia Kazan gave testimony against the
communists and socialists who had pressured him to bend his work to accomodate
their propanada. He refused and terribly resented their blackmail. To this day
Elia Kazan and his work, such as the luminescent "On the Waterfront," were
nearly excluded from a lifetime achievment award. The Hollywood left still
holds a grudge. This intolerant attitude is what bothered Reagan. The Hollywood
left's blind tolerance of communist atrocities under Stalin was doubly
horrific. Reagan hated that his contemporaries could ignore and tolerate the
evil and anti-human nature of the communist belief system.Till the end of his
film career he could never understand it.
As governor of California Reagan was faced with some of the very same Communist
agitators he had to deal with in the '40s and '50s. During 1960s and the days
of student protest at Berkeley, Reagan called in the National Guard to restore
order during some of the more violent demonstrations.. He felt that those who
wanted to go to college to get an education should be allowed to do so without
ideologues and protesters stopping them. The left never forgave him for his
strong stands. For the rest of his days he was mocked and vilified in the press
and by the leftist elites.
Additionally, the left never forgave him for asking that students pay tuition
at California colleges and universities.. He had proposed no more free ride for
those who did not seem to have a clue about the value of an education. Almost
every other state in the union had long since established payment of college
tuition, but California's young rebels thought they were above paying their own
way.
The following years included tours of the country as spokesman for General
Electric. He heard the complaints of the business community. He also listened
to the workers and the ordinary men and women who worked in the factories. His
listening tour actually had some depth to it. Again this episode colored his
attitudes, and he brought out of it the desire to reform the oppressive and
onerous taxes, tax system and government regulations.
Reagan made a steady climb from local politics to governor of California to the
presidency of the United States. What is fascinating is that he had to fight
against the establishment of his own party, plus the media, plus the left in
order to realize his dream for America. The Republican Party establishment that
nominated Ford in 1976 looked upon the Reagan revolution as an aberration of
the preferred status quo. If it had been up to the establishment, instead of
Ronald Reagan, America would never have believed in itself sufficiently to
defeat the Soviet Union.
In a speech given in 1976 Reagan relates the establishment viewpoint: "Now we
must ask if someone is giving away our own freedom. Dr. Kissinger is quoted as
saying that he thinks of the United States as Athens and the Soviet Union as
Sparta. 'The day of the U.S. is past (says Kissinger) and today is the day of
the Soviet Union.' And Kissinger added, '... My job as secretary of state is to
negotiate the most acceptable second-best position available.' Well, I believe
in the peace of which Mr. Ford spoke - as much as any man. But peace does not
come from weakness or from retreat. It comes from the restoration of American
military superiority."
The genius of Reagan was that he never listened to the naysayers and those who
did not believe in the decency of the American people. He listened to his own
heart's belief in what he had experienced in small-town America
- the one the establishment - even today - says never existed. Reagan succeeded
because he didn't listen to the sophisticated East Coast crowd who maintained
that building this "shining city on a hill" couldn't be done. He never accepted
the fact that conservatives couldn't win elections because they had the wrong
message and the media was unfair.
Well, Reagan circumvented the media. He called conferences, went whistle
stopping and spoke at any venue that had a microphone and an audience. Miracle
of miracles, he got his message out - and he succeeded despite his own party
and the media.
After his near-death experience with the assassination attempt by John
Hinckley, those closest to Reagan say he became more thoughtful and slower in
manner and speech. As might be expected, those closest to him also tended to
shield him from the public with whom he had once enjoyed "pressing the flesh."
But what struck me in the biographical sketch was Nancy Reagan, undoubtedly one
of the most devoted spouses of a president the last hundred years. The press
made her out to be cold and unfeeling, yet there probably has not been a closer
duo in the White House since Teddy and Edith Roosevelt. Nancy was more than
just a mindless "stand by your man" type of woman. She adored Reagan and he
her, and would protect him regardless of the name calling and horrific attacks
by the press.
There is a sense that some of his advisers found her difficult and
overprotective of Reagan. But there is no doubt she never used the IRS or the
FBI to go after Reagan's enemies. Perhaps it is the matter of generational and
religious differences, but it is almost impossible to picture Nancy Reagan
running around trying to protect Reagan from "bimbogates." The thought is
laughable.
Mother Theresa visited Reagan shortly after the attempt on his life. She
advised Reagan that "he would have much to suffer," whereas it was pretty
obvious that he had already suffered much. But that moment perhaps, like Simeon
in the Bible speaking to Mary and Joseph, was a warning of what was to come. He
had much anguish as he laid the groundwork for his economic and military
initiatives, which would bear fruit only much later. Even the Republican
establishment called his economics "voodoo," but that voodoo was the magic that
later brought forth our current economic expansion. His long-held desire to cut
tax rates allowed the economy to reinvest in itself. At one point in his life
Reagan had paid a 90 percent tax rate. He believed that to be immoral - most
right-thinking and fair people would believe that also.
I can't imagine the suffering Reagan would have been forced to endure if he
fully understood what has become of his "shining city on a hill." It is
fortunate that he didn't have to witness the hope and belief he placed in the
America go down hill so rapidly after he left office. He didn't have to witness
another son of the middle border, also from an alcoholic family background,
trash the office of president and the institution of the presidency and use
government like a Caesar.
The comparisons between Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are stark. Both are
flawed men, to be sure, both from difficult family backgrounds, but one used
his flaws and his experience to try to build a "shining city on a hill." The
other did everything in his power to torch that city. One used his charm and
idealism for the benefit of the country. The other used his charisma for his
own aggrandizement and selfish personal whims. Worse yet, Bill Clinton used the
office of the president to inflict damage on his perceived enemies and to
expand the executive branch beyond any intent of the founders and the system
contained in the Constitution. Like the developmentally delayed adolescent he
is, Bill Clinton's standard excuse for his behavior is that "everyone does it."
Ronald Reagan built his legacy using the tools of idealism and respect for the
institutions of goverment, but he also understood the LIMITATIONS of
government. Most important he understood the rule of law. Clinton doesn't. In a
recent CNN interview with Mark Shields and Robert Novak, Sen. Jesse Helms said
that Bill Clinton acts "like a king" and that unlike any president he has ever
known does not understand the separation of powers or the Constitution he has
sworn to uphold.
The PBS series also dealt with the Iran-Contra affair. The media and the left
have always had a field day with it. But God bless those who put the PBS series
together. The genesis of Iran-Contra had to do with what Reagan perceived as a
danger to this hemisphere - the encroachment of communism and totaliitarianism.
After experiencing defeat in obtaining congressional funding for the Contras,
he told one of his advisers "we have got to help them keep body and soul
together." His decision was not a cover-up of personal debauchery, but it had
to do with helping struggling freedom fighters
topple a totalitarian regime. Lying about affairs and multiple misuse of the
power of government is not the same as trying to help good men maintain their
freedom. The Contras overturned the communist Sandinistas, and the American
left has not forgiven Reagan for that victory either.
Bill Clinton has used the power of his office to send troops into various areas
of the world 45 times. He has done this most of the time without the consent of
Congress. He has totally misused the War Powers Act to cover his scandals. The
military that Reagan and Congress had built up has been torn down, politicized
and turned into Meal on Wheels with a gun. The military morale that was so high
when Reagan left office is at an all-time low. It has been gutted and turned
into a social experiment, and Bill Clinton calls this downsizing government and
being "tolerant and inclusive.". Men and women are leaving in the thousands,
and their replacements are nowhere in sight.
The charming personalities of Reagan and Clinton shroud two different souls as
well as the two differnet faces of America.
One reflection is that of JFK and Ronald Reagan. It is the face of the American
people shining with personal responsibility, accountability and high standards.
The other face of America is self-serving, anything for a buck, and destroying
your "enemies" while you are at it. JFK and Reagan were flawed, but both
understood, as Lincoln phrased it, "the better angels of our nature." Neither
had perfect family lives nor did they always do the right thing, but at least
they had the common decency not to make corruption and decadence and
selfishness appear as noble goals. They both held up the "shining city on a
hill" as a goal to be reached, seeking what is best about America. Neither JFK
nor Reagan depended on spin to cover the face of corruption. They weren't
stupid enough or cynical enough to believe that platitudes and self-serving
justifications were the same as hope and progress towards noble goals.
Bill Clinton has given us a song and dance as he pursues a dream he doesn't
understand - a dream that may have begun in hope but that got lost to his
selfishness, adolescent ambition, corruption and lies.
Midwesterners are known for their openness and straight talk. Perhaps that
comes from life experiences in the prairie country: cold winters and small
towns and simplicity that the cynical will tell us never really existed. But
then the cynical and the corrupted want to believe that America is as corrupt
as they are. They do this to excuse their own bad and ignoble behavior.
Excuse me, but this goodness does exist and always has - even though it may
exist in only 33 1/3 percent of the American people. Ronald Reagan knew that to
the core of his being. But the sophisticated and oh so precious establishment
never understood it and they still don't. Neither the majority of Republicans
or Democrats have a clue. Neither party understands its own country and even
less the beloved documents that better men and women have fought and died and
served in government to uphold.
Men such as Ronald Reagan are above party labels. Even though for various
reasons he chose one party over another he understood what it meant to be an
American.. I am certain if Reagan had led the Republican Party after the '94
"revolution" the country would be in better condition than it is today.
Instead we are heading toward eventual balkanization and breakup or to a police
state. That is the legacy of Bill Clinton. The choice this son of the middle
border has given Americans is the choice of whether or not we will be able to
maintain ourselves as a republic; or for the next hundred years we and our
children and grandchildren will live in an unreliable, erratic and violent
corporate police state.
Because Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are the two faces of America it is up to
Americans to decide which face it wants to reflect the "better angels of our
natures." In other words, will the real America please stand up? The sons of
the middle border have framed your choices, and it is up to you.
In November we have one more chance, maybe the last chance we have to pull
ourselves away from the brink. Ronald "Dutch" Reagan, the American lifeguard,
once said: "You and I are told we must choose between a left and right, but I
suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down.
Up to man's age-old dream - the maximum of individual freedom consistent with
order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their
sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for
security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real
destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties,
donations and benefits.'"
He went on to say: "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve
for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence
them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at
least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our
brief moment here. We did all that could be done."
------------------------------
Diane Alden is a research analyst, writer, historian and political economist.
She writes a column for NewsMax.com, Etherzone, Enterstageright, American
Partisan and many other online publications. She also does occasional radio
commentaries for Georgia Radio Inc. Reach her at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or
www.inflyovercountry.com.
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