Read Online Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America by Craig Shirley - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Craig Shirley
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to become a vice-presidential and presidential speechwriter for Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. 31
Longtime conservative leader Grover Norquist, who was a youthful Reagan aide in Massachusetts in 1980, explained why Reagan held such appeal for young Americans: “What Reagan sells is liberty and freedom and optimism. And if you're seventy-five, what good is that? A limitless future in front of America makes more sense to a thirty-year-old than a sixty-year-old.” 32
Newt Gingrich went even further. Reagan, he said, “was actually something quite different for the young.” Young people admire revolutionaries, and in 1980 Reagan brought a revolution, with a replacement not merely of the “people who were in power” but also of “the principles by which power is exercised.” Reagan, Gingrich said, always challenged the status quo; the president “almost never got trapped in the destructive choices of the modern elite, but would simply keep reframing the question.” Gingrich was in his thirties in 1980, in just his first termin Congress, when he heard Reagan speak before the NAACP. The Gipper's clear and insightful remarks changed the young politician's life. 33
William F. Buckley Jr., interviewed before he passed away in 2008, said he saw Reagan's appeal with the young as evidence that they viewed him as “antiestablishment.” 34 Ron Robinson, president of Young America's Foundation, observed that some of Reagan's important speeches challenging the status quo were given before college audiences—for example, at Notre Dame in 1981, when he said, “The West won't contain Communism; it will transcend Communism;” and at Moscow State University in 1988, when he told Soviet students of his hope that freedom “will blossom forth at least in the rich fertile soil of your people and culture.” 35 In each case, Reagan issued a challenge to his young listeners, but he also provided hope for a future of freedom and opportunity.
Reagan retained his appeal to young Americans to the end. Karen Spencer, daughter of longtime Reagan aide Stu Spencer, once watched as Reagan's helicopter landed on a softball field in Mission Viejo, California, before he was to give a speech. The field adjoined a grade school. Reagan had been out of office for years, but “the kids were just standing by the windows. And they burst out the door, about 200, 250 of them, and they just mobbed him, mobbed President Reagan. The Secret Service went nuts. He just smiled. He loved it. That was the last time I ever saw him.” 36
A S OF F EBRUARY 2009 , 11,800 books have been written about Reagan, second only to Christ, according to Newsmax , and well ahead of JFK and Lincoln. 37
Within the GOP, and indeed across the political spectrum, Reagan is now revered, even beloved. But it wasn't always so. Within the party establishment, Reagan was never much loved, even after his election. After the 1982 elections, in which the GOP suffered reversals, a Republican National Committee functionary taped a piece of paper to her door announcing the signup for the 1984 Bush for President campaign. Today, most party apparatchiks who were around in the late 1970s and early 1980s will plead how much they always loved Reagan. But Ed Blakely, who ran the media division for the National Republican Congressional Committee all those years and at the time was no fan of Reagan's himself, had a simple response when asked about such claims: “Bullshit.” Reagan was not liked and was barely tolerated in the various national GOP committees, according to Blakely. 38 As Dick Cheney recalled in an interview, however, “By the end … we were all Reaganites.” 39
If Republicans entertained doubts about Reagan, the feelings were far more intense among liberals. A Washington Post critic aptly observed that for many onthe left in the 1980s, “hating Ronald Reagan was as elemental as hating August without air conditioning.” 40
The notion that Reagan was
Longtime conservative leader Grover Norquist, who was a youthful Reagan aide in Massachusetts in 1980, explained why Reagan held such appeal for young Americans: “What Reagan sells is liberty and freedom and optimism. And if you're seventy-five, what good is that? A limitless future in front of America makes more sense to a thirty-year-old than a sixty-year-old.” 32
Newt Gingrich went even further. Reagan, he said, “was actually something quite different for the young.” Young people admire revolutionaries, and in 1980 Reagan brought a revolution, with a replacement not merely of the “people who were in power” but also of “the principles by which power is exercised.” Reagan, Gingrich said, always challenged the status quo; the president “almost never got trapped in the destructive choices of the modern elite, but would simply keep reframing the question.” Gingrich was in his thirties in 1980, in just his first termin Congress, when he heard Reagan speak before the NAACP. The Gipper's clear and insightful remarks changed the young politician's life. 33
William F. Buckley Jr., interviewed before he passed away in 2008, said he saw Reagan's appeal with the young as evidence that they viewed him as “antiestablishment.” 34 Ron Robinson, president of Young America's Foundation, observed that some of Reagan's important speeches challenging the status quo were given before college audiences—for example, at Notre Dame in 1981, when he said, “The West won't contain Communism; it will transcend Communism;” and at Moscow State University in 1988, when he told Soviet students of his hope that freedom “will blossom forth at least in the rich fertile soil of your people and culture.” 35 In each case, Reagan issued a challenge to his young listeners, but he also provided hope for a future of freedom and opportunity.
Reagan retained his appeal to young Americans to the end. Karen Spencer, daughter of longtime Reagan aide Stu Spencer, once watched as Reagan's helicopter landed on a softball field in Mission Viejo, California, before he was to give a speech. The field adjoined a grade school. Reagan had been out of office for years, but “the kids were just standing by the windows. And they burst out the door, about 200, 250 of them, and they just mobbed him, mobbed President Reagan. The Secret Service went nuts. He just smiled. He loved it. That was the last time I ever saw him.” 36
A S OF F EBRUARY 2009 , 11,800 books have been written about Reagan, second only to Christ, according to Newsmax , and well ahead of JFK and Lincoln. 37
Within the GOP, and indeed across the political spectrum, Reagan is now revered, even beloved. But it wasn't always so. Within the party establishment, Reagan was never much loved, even after his election. After the 1982 elections, in which the GOP suffered reversals, a Republican National Committee functionary taped a piece of paper to her door announcing the signup for the 1984 Bush for President campaign. Today, most party apparatchiks who were around in the late 1970s and early 1980s will plead how much they always loved Reagan. But Ed Blakely, who ran the media division for the National Republican Congressional Committee all those years and at the time was no fan of Reagan's himself, had a simple response when asked about such claims: “Bullshit.” Reagan was not liked and was barely tolerated in the various national GOP committees, according to Blakely. 38 As Dick Cheney recalled in an interview, however, “By the end … we were all Reaganites.” 39
If Republicans entertained doubts about Reagan, the feelings were far more intense among liberals. A Washington Post critic aptly observed that for many onthe left in the 1980s, “hating Ronald Reagan was as elemental as hating August without air conditioning.” 40
The notion that Reagan was
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