Read Online Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America by Craig Shirley - Free Book Online
Authors: Craig Shirley
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and thus their influence could not be underestimated. Both Will and Tyrrell had Reagan into their homes for dinner parties. Tyrrell, who enjoyed suits from London's Savile Row, expensive wine, and good cigars, was known for the sumptuous dinners he hosted.
History has recorded, too, how Reagan restored American morale, its “cando” spirit, patriotism, and the notion of American exceptionalism. Reagan also revived the American economy after the devastating Carter Recession through revolutionary tax cuts and tight monetary policies, which drastically lowered the terrible inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. The economic growth that began in 1982 continued unbroken for a remarkable ninety-two months, duringwhich time nearly thirty-five million new jobs were created. 16 And in fact, the soaring growth carried on almost unabated until the last months of the George W. Bush administration in 2008—an unprecedented twenty-six-year run of growth, which was due to some of Reagan's economic policies being carried forward, especially by Gingrich and Bill Clinton.
As long as these things are recorded, the word “morale” will always be associated with Reagan while the word “malaise” will always be associated with Jimmy Carter. Yet Reagan did more, much more, than accomplish these three big goals. He changed American politics for a lifetime.
“Once he was the most underestimated man in American politics—a washed-up movie star, it was said, who was too old, too simple and too far right to be President,” wrote Peter Goldman of Newsweek several days after the election of 1980. 17 How did Reagan manage to overcome all those perceptions not only to win the GOP nomination but also to defeat an incumbent president and a third-party candidate? Dick Wirthlin, Reagan's one and only pollster from 1966 until 1984, had understood early on what Reagan needed to do to win: he needed to achieve realignment. Wirthlin's detailed campaign plan presented at the end of June 1980 laid out how to do just that. It wasn't enough to get the Republican vote, Wirthlin wrote, because, as his surveys revealed, the country was 51 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican, and 19 percent independent. 18 Reagan needed to scramble the old New Deal coalition and create a new ideological and cultural coalition. He needed “Reagan Democrats” to win (though the term would not be coined until after the election). 19
Sure enough, that's what Reagan pulled off. George Church of Time summed up the remarkable realignment that occurred on November 4, 1980: “Landslide. Yes, landslide—stunning, startling, astounding, beyond the wildest dreams and nightmares of the contending camps, beyond the furthest ken of the armies of pollsters, pundits and political professionals. After all the thousands of miles, the millions of words and dollars, the campaign that in newspapers across the land on the very morning of Election Day was still headlined TOO CLOSE TO CALL turned out to be a landslide. The American voter had struck again. Reagan's triumph dismembered the old Democratic coalition. Jews, labor-union members, ethnic whites, big-city voters—all gave Reagan far more votes than they usually cast for a Republican. The disaster left the Democratic Party, which has held the presidency for 32 of the 48 years since 1932, badly in need of a new vision and a new agenda.” 20
Reagan became, in the opinion of renowned historian John Patrick Diggins, one of America's greatest presidents, alongside Washington, Lincoln, and FranklinRoosevelt. Similarly, the great historian James MacGregor Burns in 1999 said that he would rank Reagan in the “great” or “near-great” category, alongside FDR. 21 A good case can be made that Reagan was actually a better president than FDR. Both were confronted with “guns and butter” issues, yet FDR never solved his economic calamity in eight years; only when America went to war did the Great Depression end. Reagan solved
History has recorded, too, how Reagan restored American morale, its “cando” spirit, patriotism, and the notion of American exceptionalism. Reagan also revived the American economy after the devastating Carter Recession through revolutionary tax cuts and tight monetary policies, which drastically lowered the terrible inflation, interest rates, and unemployment. The economic growth that began in 1982 continued unbroken for a remarkable ninety-two months, duringwhich time nearly thirty-five million new jobs were created. 16 And in fact, the soaring growth carried on almost unabated until the last months of the George W. Bush administration in 2008—an unprecedented twenty-six-year run of growth, which was due to some of Reagan's economic policies being carried forward, especially by Gingrich and Bill Clinton.
As long as these things are recorded, the word “morale” will always be associated with Reagan while the word “malaise” will always be associated with Jimmy Carter. Yet Reagan did more, much more, than accomplish these three big goals. He changed American politics for a lifetime.
“Once he was the most underestimated man in American politics—a washed-up movie star, it was said, who was too old, too simple and too far right to be President,” wrote Peter Goldman of Newsweek several days after the election of 1980. 17 How did Reagan manage to overcome all those perceptions not only to win the GOP nomination but also to defeat an incumbent president and a third-party candidate? Dick Wirthlin, Reagan's one and only pollster from 1966 until 1984, had understood early on what Reagan needed to do to win: he needed to achieve realignment. Wirthlin's detailed campaign plan presented at the end of June 1980 laid out how to do just that. It wasn't enough to get the Republican vote, Wirthlin wrote, because, as his surveys revealed, the country was 51 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican, and 19 percent independent. 18 Reagan needed to scramble the old New Deal coalition and create a new ideological and cultural coalition. He needed “Reagan Democrats” to win (though the term would not be coined until after the election). 19
Sure enough, that's what Reagan pulled off. George Church of Time summed up the remarkable realignment that occurred on November 4, 1980: “Landslide. Yes, landslide—stunning, startling, astounding, beyond the wildest dreams and nightmares of the contending camps, beyond the furthest ken of the armies of pollsters, pundits and political professionals. After all the thousands of miles, the millions of words and dollars, the campaign that in newspapers across the land on the very morning of Election Day was still headlined TOO CLOSE TO CALL turned out to be a landslide. The American voter had struck again. Reagan's triumph dismembered the old Democratic coalition. Jews, labor-union members, ethnic whites, big-city voters—all gave Reagan far more votes than they usually cast for a Republican. The disaster left the Democratic Party, which has held the presidency for 32 of the 48 years since 1932, badly in need of a new vision and a new agenda.” 20
Reagan became, in the opinion of renowned historian John Patrick Diggins, one of America's greatest presidents, alongside Washington, Lincoln, and FranklinRoosevelt. Similarly, the great historian James MacGregor Burns in 1999 said that he would rank Reagan in the “great” or “near-great” category, alongside FDR. 21 A good case can be made that Reagan was actually a better president than FDR. Both were confronted with “guns and butter” issues, yet FDR never solved his economic calamity in eight years; only when America went to war did the Great Depression end. Reagan solved
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