Charles W. Dunn - The Enduring Reagan

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY

Copyright 2009 by The University Press of Kentucky

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The enduring Reagan / edited by Charles W. Dunn.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8131-2552-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Reagan, Ronald. 2. Reagan, RonaldPolitical and social views. 3. Reagan, RonaldInfluence. 4. PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. 5. ConservatismUnited StatesHistory20th century. 6. United StatesPolitics and government1981-1989. I. Dunn, Charles W.

E877.E78 2009

973.927092dc22

[B] 2009018230

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Member of the Association of American University Presses

CONTENTS

History is replete with proofs, from Cato the Elder to Kennedy the Younger, that if you scratch a statesman you will find an actor, but it is becoming harder and harder in our day, to tell government from show business.

James Thurber

Critics contended that Ronald Reagan was nothing more than a third-rate Hollywood actor who lacked sufficient intellectual depth and educational training to serve successfully as president. Coming from the small town of Dixon in the midst of flat Illinois cornfields, raised by a very religious mother, Nelle, whose training led him to become a Sunday school teacher of grade-school boys, a graduate of a tiny and little-known religious college, Eureka, Reagan hardly had the pedigree to become president of the United States in the late twentieth century. But he defied that and more to confound the critics. So how did Reagan beat the odds? That which discounted and discredited his potential laid the foundation for his prominence.

The foundation for Reagans reputation as the Great Communicator was laid during his boyhood. In midwestern Protestant churches of that era, Sunday school and church played prominent roles in child rearing. Growing up in that environment under his mothers strict tutelage, Reagan learned the discipline of weekly Sunday school and church attendance, heard the mesmerizing stories of Bible heroes, sat under countless and usually long sermons, and listened to the exciting stories of missionaries in faraway places. He attended Sunday school and church on Sunday morning, Christian Endeavor and church again on Sunday night, and prayer meeting on Wednesday night. Except in cold weather, his mother and he walked the seven blocks to church. But it didnt stop there. They also attended special church services and other religious events. And in the home, his mother featured daily Bible reading and prayer.

Oral communication, recitations, and performances in plays were part of that environment. Reagan took to this environment, memorizing and reciting various readings, performing in plays, and traveling to other churches to do the same, earning at a young age a reputation for excellence in communication. And then, at the age of fifteen, he began to teach a boys Sunday school class, which gained a reputation for no discipline problems because of Reagans captivating communication skills. Even after he left for Eureka College, 108 miles away, he returned to teach his Sunday school class. Years later, while serving as governor of California, Reagan wrote to his boyhood pastor, Ben Cleaver, One thing I do know, all the hours in the old church in Dixon and all of Nelles faith have come together in a kind of inheritance without which Id be lost and helpless.

His two favorite books from childhood were the Bible and That Printer of Udells: A Story of the Middle West (1903), which told of the son of a drunken father, whose excellent speaking ability helped him to become a successful preacher. Central to the book was the theme that God has a plan for everyone. Reagan saw himself as a person of divine destiny. In 1968, as the governor of California, he commented, Im not quite able to explain how my election happened or why Im here, apart from believing it is part of Gods plan for me.

Without his boyhood training, Reagan could hardly have earned his enduring reputation as the Great Communicator, nor would he have developed the accompanying character traits of courage, discipline, and vision. Combined, they became the launching pad for his rise to prominence.

Swimming upstream against the downstream current of popular thinking sometimes constitutes the best test of a persons character. Only a fine line may separate courage and folly when one swims upstream, but Reagans decisions usually fell on the courageous side of that fine line. He had a knack for doing the unexpectedly courageous and what many, including his closest advisers, thought to be unwise. In short, Ronald Reagan defied common wisdom. In stock-market parlance, his investments in high-risk stocks paid high dividends. And as an investor, he stayed with his investments over the long haul.

Reagans first venture on departing from Eureka College and Dixon, Illinois, but before leaving the Midwest for California, was as a sports announcer on the newly emerging medium of radio in Des Moines, Iowa. His job: to deliver play-by-play accounts of games as though he were there, based on telegraph reports. Reagans fertile imagination translated plain telegraph copy into exciting oral imagery over the radio airwaves to unseen audiences, further perfecting his communication skills. After that, his much better known acting career in Hollywood began, which propelled him to the position of president of the Screen Actors Guild. In that position he began his forays into politics as a member of the Democratic Party and as an archenemy of Communist influence in the Hollywood acting community. Gradually during the 1950s, as a popular speaker for General Electric, he refined his political beliefs as an anti-Communist and as a proponent of free-market economics and traditional social values, which set the stage for a sequence of decisions.