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Choosing Reagan · Saberian History Lectures

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So Ronald Reagan, I have often said, is one of
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the most transformative presidents of modern
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times. In many ways, Reagan has become a defining
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feature of American politics and is almost revered
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as a god in conservative circles. I do not think
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that is overstating it. I mean, when you still
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have... Young Americans for Freedom running around
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in Reagan shirts here 30 years later, it really
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does speak to a type of deification. But Reagan's
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assent to the White House was a curious one.
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So, let's kind of go back. Reagan himself was...
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Alright, so let me tell you the broad stroke
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of the journey. How do you have a man who was
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born a registered Democrat, who was president
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of the Actors Guild in the heart of Hollywood
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leftism, who had to testify in front of the House
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Un -American Activities Committee on the receiving
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end of some of the accusations of Republicans,
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who now is one of the major figures of the conservative
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movement, who now is revered and deified. Well,
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it's a very interesting route. So I kind of want
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to start with 1964. 1964. Barry Goldwater runs
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against Lyndon Baines Johnson and loses. So it
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was LBJ versus Goldwater. Reagan, who at that
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time was a spokesman for GE, gives a speech in
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support, gives the time for choosing speech.
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This is a 30 minute campaign spot for Goldwater
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Miller. Goldwater was the presidential candidate
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of the Republican Party. Miller was his running
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mate. Reagan is appropriating the libertarian
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freedom, liberty of the West as embodied by California
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at that time and also as embodied by Arizona.
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Yes? Okay, what's the difference between like
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you just said appropriating and like cultural
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appropriation? Appropriation to take over something.
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So If you think about it, when they talk about
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cultural appropriation, this feature of this
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culture, I take it over even though it is not
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originally my own. If I use a foreign loan word,
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I am appropriating it. I am taking over and it
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is add to proprietor to take ownership of in
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a way. Good question. So time for choosing speech,
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1964. By the way, who won the election of 64?
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LBJ. But what's interesting is this speech catapults
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Reagan into a new level of recognition. Reagan,
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yes, he was an actor, but he was not, he was
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no John Wayne. He was not a big -name actor.
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B -list, maybe C -list. You get what I'm saying?
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So next go around, 1968, Nixon versus Humphrey.
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Now, a couple of things you need to keep in mind
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in terms of what I call the politics and in terms
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of the geography. Goldwater is from Arizona.
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Reagan is from California. Where's Nixon from?
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Say it again? California. Nixon is from California.
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What Nixon is able to do is to unite the progressive
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wing of the Republican Party or the establishment
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wing of the Republican Party with the Libertarian
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West. He understands the Libertarian West having
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come from the West, but he's also been an inside
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man of the Republican Party having served under
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Nixon, having served under Eisenhower, having
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been in Congress and whatnot. So Reagan in the
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late 60s, early 70s is the governor of California.
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So Reagan, California governor. Into the 70s,
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1972, Nixon re -elected. 1976. Reagan runs for
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the Republican nomination, but loses to whom?
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Who was the president in 76? Carter. Well, yeah,
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well, actually Carter is elected in 76, is president
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in 77, but in 19 - Who's president after Nixon?
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Ford. Ford, remember, was the vice president,
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became president, ran for what would have been
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his first elected term in 76. Reagan challenges
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Ford for the leadership of the Republican Party.
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It is a contested primary, and it goes to convention.
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And so Reagan challenges Ford. And so one of
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the things, and some of you saw this when we
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were watching the election of 2016, in my Lifetime
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you usually know who the nominee is before you
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get to the convention. Okay in 1976 the Republicans
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had to have multiple ballots what that means
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is and the way the primary works is it's not
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a simple majority you have to have a preponderance
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of the delegates to be the nominee and so there's
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some horse trading that goes on if you don't
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have enough on the first ballot and so if you're
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watching the news cycle When the Republicans
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had their convention in 2016, there was a question
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whether Trump would have gotten enough delegates
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on the first ballot to clench the nomination.
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So, 76, Reagan challenges Ford, he loses. But,
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1976, Ford loses to Carter. 1980, Reagan defeats
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Carter for the presidency. Now, we need to get
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into some of the reasons behind that defeat And
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then I kind of want to speak to Reagan's ideas
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that he expounds upon in 1964 and takes into
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office in 1980 and continues to work through
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from 1980 until 1988. So let's talk first about
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what the world looked like in 1979. So 1979 was
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the United States well off economically? No,
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because the stagflation that had begun under
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the Nixon administration where you have high
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taxes and high interest rates had continued into
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the 70s. You had oil shortages as the conflicts
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in the Middle East had interrupted American the
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world oil markets. And you had, of course, the
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Iran hostage crisis, you had had earlier the
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fall of Saigon, and you had the Soviet invasion
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of Afghanistan, and all the US did was boycott
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the Olympics. And so here you have in 1979, Reagan
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is facing Carter when there is tumult at home
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and tumult abroad. and people voted their discontent
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at the ballot box. Yes? Do you think that Ford
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attributed to this deflation? In many ways, Ford
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economically is continuing many of the policies
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of Nixon. And so in the case of Ford in 76, you
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have a bad economy. And there were plenty of
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people who had not forgiven Ford for pardoning
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Nixon, which some of you, I believe that question
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was on your quiz, or was that in a different
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variant of the quiz? And so, yes, he paid a heavy
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price for pardoning Nixon. And so, here's the
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thing that you've got going on. If I look at
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Reaganism, which really is Goldwaterism, or if
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I look at the new conservative movement, here's
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what you have. You actually have two conservative
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movements. You have the fiscal conservative movement.
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By the way, are there fiscal conservatives to
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this day? Are there people who are concerned
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that the size of government is too big and too
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burdensome to the economy? Yes. Okay, so if I'm
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a fiscal conservative I want to cut taxes and
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I want to curtail government spending, specifically
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social spending. Now, many of these fiscal conservatives
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I would say probably with the exception of some
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of the libertarian wings of the Republican Party,
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your Rand Paul or what have you, would want to
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increase military spending. The idea is, especially
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looking at the US situation in 1979, that many
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of these foreign crises were as a result of the
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United States being in a poor position militarily,
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whether it was the fall of Saigon or whether
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it was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or
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whether it was the Iran hostage crisis. Yes?
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What do you mean social spending? Your welfare
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state. So social security, Medicare, agricultural
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adjustment. By the way, if I'm talking about
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social security, Medicare, and agricultural adjustment,
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is that Great Society or New Deal? New Deal,
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housing, assistance, housing projects, Head Start,
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PBS, that's great society. Also, Pell Grants
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and college loans. But again, these social spending,
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these what they call entitlements, far in a way
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eclipse America's discretionary spending on the
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military. Now, you also have the rise of what
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we would call social conservatism. And that rise
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While the textbook talks about it in the election
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of 1980, it really gets started in the election
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of 68. So let me sort of go back to my bifurcated
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analysis of the parties. Again, party coalitions
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on, you know the party coalition question is
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going to be a broad question on the final exam.
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I have been talking about party coalitions way
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too much. for it not to be a broad question on
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the final exam. You know that's going to happen.
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So let's try this on for size. Let's go back.
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In 1972, when it was Nixon versus McGovern, if
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I was a Republican or a Democrat, if I am a Western
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Libertarian, in other words, if I wanted government
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to get out of my life, decrease my taxes, decrease
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its spending, I am a Republican. If I am a businessman
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in the East, if I am an Eastern capitalist, again,
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I want my tax burden reduced, I want the government
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out of my life, I want people to take care of
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themselves. Those two factions are not mutually
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exclusive. Now here's where it gets interesting.
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In the Democratic coalition, traditionally who
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has been a stalwart of the Democratic Party going
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back to 1861. White conservative southerners.
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So here we have southern whites. Now if I am
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a southern white, what is my religious affiliation?
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Christians, specifically evangelical Protestantism.
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Southern white evangelicals. In the election
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of 1972, the Democrats incorporate into their
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movement, they take, for lack of a better word,
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a hard turn to the left with George McGovern.
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And what they try and bring into their coalition
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is the protest movement. Now, if I look at the
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protest movement, it kind of makes sense because
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again, baby boomers as a generation are substantial
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in number. Again, millennials have only begun
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to eclipse. baby boomers, and that's only because
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baby boomers have begun to die. Okay, now if
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I look at the protest movement for a moment,
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you have the ethno -political protest, in other
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words, your desegregation, but now think about
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this for a moment, your African -American movement
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has gone from desegregation to forced busing
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and to black power, yes? So if I am a southern
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white, I might feel for segregation, but maybe
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black power movement is frightening to me, and
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maybe forced busing, which actually hit both
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the southern whites and the western libertarians.
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Here we're, you know, ferreting children all
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over the cities. Just strikes me as odd. Now,
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you also have the incorporation of feminism into
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the Democratic Party and homosexuals in the 70s,
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okay? Now, When I talk about feminism in the
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1960s and the 1970s, am I talking about suffragettes
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trying to be better wives, better mothers, and
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better Christians by getting the right to vote?
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No. What is the central crux of what the feminists
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want in a new United States? Birth control as
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an instrument of sexual liberation. Okay? So
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birth control and abortion as an instrument of
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sexual liberation and have made the argument
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as typified in the Feminine Mystique and other
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feminist writings that the current and existing
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order of patriarchy as espoused by the religion
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was designed for their oppression. And so again,
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if I'm a southern evangelical Christian, I'm
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looking at birth control and abortion as a bacchanal
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cult. In other words, nothing but heathenism.
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And so... As the Democrats bring the protest
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movement into their party, who feels alienated?
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The Southern whites. And so what do they do?
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They vote for Nixon in 72. That begins the migration
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of Southern evangelicals into the Republican
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party. Now, if you're a Southern evangelical,
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why would you have been a Democrat prior to 1972,
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prior to 1968? If you're a Christian and you
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read the religious text, what is one of the big
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things peppering Christianity? Love your fellow
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man and remember the poor. And so if I'm a Southern
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evangelical, do I necessarily have any objections
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to the social welfare state? No. And so if you
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look at the social welfare state as it was originally
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created, it was sold under the auspices of remembering
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the poor. You get the idea. So this group which
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begins to move towards the Republicans in 1972
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continues that move further into the 1980s and
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really it's not complete until 1994. Here's how
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I'll tell you. 1994 is when Texas goes from being
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a one -party Democrat state to a one -party Republican
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state. When we have a Republican House, a Republican
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Senate, and a Republican governor. 1994. Oh,
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by the way, who was that Republican governor
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in 1994? He would become president in 2000. George
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W. Bush. George Bush the Younger, as I call him.
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So now let me, and I only got 10 minutes to do
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it, but let me give you Ronald Reagan's time
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for choosing speech. I'm going to have to advance
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the time on this. I am actually going to put
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this in Canvas. for you to watch. I do want you
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to watch in its entirety. I just don't have the
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class time to give it to you now. What was this?
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This is 1964. This is Reagan in 1964. So having
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seen Reagan in 1964 and then reading Reagan in
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the 1980s in your textbook, look at how little
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has changed. Yes, this was... We have 15 videos
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now. I have spent most of my life as a Democrat.
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I recently have seen fit to follow another course.
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I believe that the issues confronting us cross
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party lines. Now, one side in this campaign has
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been telling us that the issues of this election
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are the maintenance of peace and prosperity.
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The line has been used, we've never had it so
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good. I have an uncomfortable feeling that this
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prosperity isn't something on which we can base
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our hopes for the future. No nation in history
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has ever survived a tax burden that reached a
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third of its national income. Today, 37 cents
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out of every dollar earned in this country is
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a tax collector's share. and yet our government
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continues to spend 17 million dollars a day more
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than the government takes in. We haven't balanced
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our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. We've
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raised our debt limit three times in the last
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12 months, and now our national debt is one and
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a half times bigger than all the combined debts
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of all the nations of the world. We have 15 billion
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dollars in gold in our treasury. We don't own
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an ounce. Foreign dollar claims are 27 .3 billion
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dollars. And we just had announced that the dollar
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of 1939 will now purchase 45 cents. As for the
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peace that we would preserve, I wonder who among
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us would like to approach the wife or mother
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whose husband or son has died in South Vietnam
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and ask them if they think this is a peace that
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should be maintained indefinitely. Do they mean
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peace or do they mean we just want to be left
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in peace? There can be no real peace while one
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American is dying someplace in the world for
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the rest of us. We are at war with the most dangerous
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enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long
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climb from the swamp to the stars. And it's been
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said if we lose that war and in so doing lose
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this way of freedom of ours, history will record
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for the greatest astonishment that those who
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had the most to lose did the least to prevent
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it happening. But I think it's time we ask ourselves
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if we still know the freedoms that were intended
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for us by the founding fathers. Not too long
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ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban
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refugee, a businessman who escaped from Castro.
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And in the midst of his story, one of my friends
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turned to the other and said, we don't know how
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lucky we are. And if you had been stopped and
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said how lucky you were, I had someplace to escape
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to. In that sentence he told us the entire story.
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If we lose freedom here, there's no place to
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escape to. This is the last stand on earth. And
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this idea that government is beholden to the
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people that has no other source of power except
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the sovereign people is still the newest and
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the most unique idea in all the long history
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of man's relation to man. This is the issue of
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this election. Whether we believe in our capacity
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for self -government or whether we abandon the
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American Revolution and confess that a little
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intellectual elite in a far distant capital can
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plan our lives for us better than we can plan
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them ourselves. You and I are told increasingly
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we have to choose between a left or right. But
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I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as
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a left or right. There's only an up or down.
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Man's old hate dream, the ultimate, an individual
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freedom consistent with law and order, or down
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to the ant -equal totalitarianism. And regardless
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of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives,
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those who would trade our freedom for security
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have embarked on this downward course. In this
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boat harvesting time, they use terms like the
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great society. Or as we were told a few days
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ago by the President, we must accept a greater
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government activity in the affairs of the people.
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But they've been a little more explicit in the
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past, and among themselves, and all of the things
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I now would quote have appeared in print. These
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are not Republican accusations. For example,
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they have voices that say the Cold War will end
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through our acceptance of a not undemocratic
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socialism. Another voice says the profit motive
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has become outmoded, it must be replaced by the
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incentives of the welfare state. Or our traditional
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system of Individual freedom is incapable of
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solving the complex problems of the 20th century.
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Senator Fulbright has said at Stanford University
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that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred
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to the President as our moral teacher and our
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leader, and he says he is hobbled in his past
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by the restrictions of power imposed on him by
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this antiquated document. He must be freed so
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that he can do for us what he knows is best.
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And Senator... What do you notice he's setting
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up in terms of his language? He is describing
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LBJ and his supporters as wanting him to be liberated
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from the Constitution. What does that make LBJ
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sound like? A tyrant in the motif of Stalin,
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in the motif of Hitler, and also notice, and
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he does this throughout, he links the social
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welfare state to the socialism of the communist
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world. And, yes? At this time, okay, he's in
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his 70s in the 1980s. He was like born in 1912,
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1916. He still holds the record for the oldest
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man to sit in the White House. He eclipsed Eisenhower.
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And Trump by age has actually entered the office
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younger than Reagan was. Reagan was 73 when he
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entered. Trump is 72. Hillary was 68. Trump was
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72. Here in the, actually spends about 15, 20
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minutes going through the various inefficiencies
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and tyrannies of the progressive social welfare
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state as developed first in the New Deal, then
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under the Great Society. And then, and I kind
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of want to fast forward to about 2110. Yeah,
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the time. I will give you all the link in Canvas.
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Unless we realize we're in a war that must be
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won. This is talking about the Cold War. Those
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who betrayed our nation for the soup kitchen
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of the welfare state have told us they have a
23:57
utopian solution of peace without victory. They
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call their policy accommodation. And they say
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if we'll only avoid any direct confrontation
24:03
with the enemy, he'll forget his evil ways and
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learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted
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as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers
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to complex problems. But perhaps there is a simple
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answer. Not an easy answer, but simple. If you
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and I have the courage to tell our elected officials
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that we want our national policy based on what
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we know in our hearts is morally right. We cannot
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buy our security, our freedom from the threat
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of the bomb by committing an immorality so great
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as saying to a billion human beings now enslaved
24:31
behind the Iron Curtain give up your dreams of
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freedom because to save our own skins we're willing
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to make a deal with your slave masses. Alexander
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Hamilton said a nation which can refer this race
24:39
to danger is prepared for a master and deserves
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one. Now let's set the record straight. There's
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no argument over the choice between peace and
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war. But there's only one guaranteed way you
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can have peace, and you can have it in the next
24:50
second, surrender. Admittedly, there's a risk
24:53
in any course we follow other than this. But
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every lesson of history tells us that the greater
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risk lies in appeasement. And this is the specter
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our well -meaning liberal friends refuse to face,
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that their policy of accommodation is appeasement.
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So I'm going to pause for a moment. If he's talking
25:06
about accommodation or appeasement in 1964, what's
25:09
he really talking about? No. Containment. Reagan
25:18
is under the ethos that really communism is an
25:21
evil. It imposes slavery on people and that there
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can be no peaceful coexistence between American
25:29
liberty and communism. And so one of the things
25:34
that he's arguing is for both Goldwater and then
25:38
subsequently as his own president, when he's
25:41
president, is a peace through strength, but actually
25:44
that the United States would aggressively roll
25:47
back communism and seek to liberate people in
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the world. Because the idea is, and he says it
25:53
better than I, that if we do not... Then we will
25:59
lose we will be overwhelmed and we will be destroyed
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and so you'll notice in his speech he links liberal
26:09
progressivism to socialism he links socialism
26:13
to communism and communism to an existential
26:17
threat to our way of life and so he's able to
26:21
capture the imagination of a consensus who These
26:28
libertarians, these capitalists, these southern
26:30
whites, they become a permanent fixture in the
26:32
Republican coalition, looking at the protest
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movement as instruments of socialism and communism
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in the United States. He essentially does, through
26:44
artifice and through argument, what McCarthy
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was able to do with his show trials. To make
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these political dissidents American. Now I ask
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you, are they un -American? I want you to think
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about that for a moment, because the issue of
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what is American, we hear it again, don't we?
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And so this argument between socialism and freedom
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comes back again in a different way, as the argument
27:38
between globalism nationalism. Questions, problems,
27:43
concerns?