I would date the beginning of my own real political awareness to Reagan's campaign and election in 1980. Nearly all of my high school teachers went out of their way to denigrate him and offer dire prophesies of the manifold ills that would befall us if he was elected. "Ronnie Ray-gun", they called him; "a dangerous cowboy" who "confuses his movies with reality". Some seemed sincerly and utterly convinced that he'd instantly provoke the nuclear armageddon which hed been hanging over our heads for all of our young lives. Full of the rebelliousness of youth, I wondered about the shock-value of professing to admire Reagan, how "bad" one might seem to ones right-thinking" (actually left-thinking!) elders!
But before long I discovered that there were some opinions contra the groupthink I'd encountered. Many of them were offered grudgingly, in a backhanded manner: "he's actually a pretty smart guy for an actor", "too bad he's not younger, he did a decent job as Governor of California", "anyone's got to be better than Carter", and "at least he'll have Nixon on speed-dial when he has to deal with the Russkies!".
My opinion of the man was alrerady beginning to change when I saw a clip on the news one night in 1980. "Controversy", the newscaster informed us, "at the Republican candidates' debate in New Hampshire". On-screen I watched the now-famous footage of a bespectacled moderator asking the sound man to turn Reagan's microphone off and a controlled but visibly angry Reagan's icy response: "Mr Green, I am PAYING for this microphone!" as the crowd erupted in cheers. Believe me, it made an impression on me, as it apparently did on many others. I think that brief incident did more to demolish the negative stereotypes held by many of the public who really knew nothing about Reagan other than what they'd seen in the movies and heard from the left-leaning media.
Many years later, I learned of another interesting incident which has only recently become slightly known (thanks to the Internet). In 1967, Governor Reagan and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were guests on a CBS program called "Town Meeting of the World" which featured a panel of students representing various nations who were given an opportunity to question Reagan and Kennedy on the hottest issue of the day, the Vietnam War. At the time Kennedy was regarded as a front-runner for the 1968 Democrat presidential nomination, the heir-apparent to the "Camelot Dynasty", while Reagan was something of a curiosity to many people, the actor-turned-politician who was a fledgling governor ("only in California") and presumed to be wholly ignorant of foreign policy.
A funny thing happened. Ronald Reagan made "Bobby" Kennedy look like a rank amateur. The "actor" parried every thrust from the hostile students, challenging their erroneous statements and presenting an alternative viewpoint to their generally anti-American rhetoric. With cool confidence he reeled-off facts and figures, and delivered cogent answers which demonstrated real mastery of the subject. By contrast Kennedy came off as weak and uncertain, seemingly trying to claim both sides of the issues, and spoke mainly in generalities.
Kennedy's assassination less than thirteen months later has enshrouded his memory in a mixture of legend and myth, and it is extremely difficult to locate any publicly-available footage of the show. A brief segment is available on Youtube which gives some of the flavor of the exchanges:
Robert Kennedy excoriated the aide who agreed to the joint appearance with Reagan and vowed (in rather salty language) never to appear with him again.
There were plenty of defining moments during Reagan's presidency - four in particular that I hope to comment upon in a future post - but since the current post has gotten awfully long I'll conclude with one of my favrorite parodies of Reagan, from the days when Saturday Night Live was funny:
