Ronald Reagan in The Role of a Lifetime
On Free Trade:
Proposed concept behind NAFTA in 1979
Reagan himself was a dreamer, capable of imagining a world without trade barriers. In announcing his presidential candidacy in Nov. 1979, he had proposed a “North American accord” in which commerce & people would move freely across the borders of Canada
& Mexico. This idea, largely overlooked or dismissed as a campaign gimmick in the US, rankled nationalist sensibilities in the neighboring nations. But Reagan was serious in his proposal. Though he traveled only once outside the North American continent
during his first 57 years, he was neither insular nor isolationist. California has windows to the world in Asia, and Reagan thought of the US as a Pacific power as well as an Atlantic one. He also had a Californian’s consciousness of Mexico and an
actor’s appreciation of Canadians, who are well-represented in the film community. The dream of a North American accord would drive the successful pursuit of a US-Canadian free trade agreement and a future-oriented “framework” trade agreement with Mexico
Source: [X-ref immigration] The Role of a Lifetime, p. 461
Jul 2, 1991
On Welfare & Poverty:
Championed “workfare” as California Governor
Governor Reagan opposed Nixon’s proposal for reforming welfare. Reagan resisted efforts to pressure California into increasing cost-of-living payments to welfare recipients. In 1971, Reagan worked out a compromise. He brought California into compliance
with federal regulations, and Nixon promised not to stand in the way of a pilot program requiring able-bodied welfare recipients to work as a condition of receiving aid. The program had mixed success but established Reagan as the champion of “workfare.”
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 74-75
Jul 2, 1991
On Crime:
Approved three new prisons and 6% growth in law enforcement
[In 1982, David Stockman presented] three budget levels for law enforcement called, at one extreme, for an increase of 14% in “real program growth” and the construction of seven new prisons. This was the increase requested by Attorney General William
French Smith and designated level one on Stockman’s chart. At the other extreme, program growth was reduced by 5% and all new prisons eliminated. Reagan chose level two, which provided for program growth of nearly 6% and construction of three prisons.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 153
Jul 2, 1991
On Social Security:
Wanted to privatize retirement, but never had opportunity
Social Security was always more tar baby than Teflon for Reagan. He told me when he was governor of California that Barry Goldwater’s campaign had demonstrated that Republicans could not safely discuss the issue, but Reagan could not stop talking about
it. I have no doubt that he shared the view that Social Security was a Ponzi scheme. He was intrigued with the idea of a voluntary plan that would have allowed workers to make their own investments. This idea would have undermined the system by depriving
Social Security of the contributions of millions of the nation’s highest-paid workers. In 1976 he said that Social Security “could have made a provision for those who could do better on their own” and suggested that such recipients be allowed to
leave the program upon showing that “they had made provisions for their non-earning years.” This declaration sent shudders through the ranks of Reagan’s political advisers, who knew his true feelings about Social Security.“
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 243
Jul 2, 1991
On Foreign Policy:
Ignored ICJ ruling against mining Nicaraguan harbors
In Jan. 1984, mines were laid in Sandino harbor in Nicaragua, accompanied by other mine-layings, sabotage of Sandanista communications, and destruction of an arms depot. In April, it was disclosed that the CIA had conducted the action, and a Senate
resolution condemned the mining 84-12. The mines were designed primarily to damage and scare off ships rather than destroy them, but they were a clear violation of international law. The Sandanistas took their case to the International Court of
Justice in the Hague (popularly known as the World Court) and won, though the administration refused in advance to recognize the court’s jurisdiction. The mining of the harbors was an example of “force against another state,” the court said; US support
of the contras “amounts to an intervention of one state in he internal affairs of the other.”
By 1984 the contras had become an end in themselves. Loyalty to the contras had become the litmus test for loyalty to “Reagan’s policy” among conservatives.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 380
Jul 2, 1991
On Immigration:
Allow free movement of people from Mexico & Canada
Reagan himself was a dreamer, capable of imagining a world without trade barriers. In announcing his presidential candidacy in Nov. 1979, he had proposed a “North American accord” in which commerce & people would move freely across the borders of Canada
& Mexico. This idea, largely overlooked or dismissed as a campaign gimmick in the US, rankled nationalist sensibilities in the neighboring nations. But Reagan was serious in his proposal. Though he traveled only once outside the North American continent
during his first 57 years, he was neither insular nor isolationist. California has windows to the world in Asia, and Reagan thought of the US as a Pacific power as well as an Atlantic one. He also had a Californian’s consciousness of Mexico and an
actor’s appreciation of Canadians, who are well-represented in the film community. The dream of a North American accord would drive the successful pursuit of a US-Canadian free trade agreement and a future-oriented “framework” trade agreement with Mexico
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 461
Jul 2, 1991
On Foreign Policy:
Open door to PRC, but maintain alliance with Taiwan
Reagan had long been Taiwan’s leading political champion. When he was elected, Reagan still believed that the government that fled to Taiwan in 1949 was the legitimate government of China. Reagan needed a process of rationalization before he became
comfortable with the idea of visiting China. “And we have made it plain that in continuing and trying to build this friendship with the People’s Republic of China on the mainland, we in no way retreat from our alliance with the Chinese on Taiwan.”
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 479-80
Jul 2, 1991
On Crime:
Oversaw one execution as CA Gov., supported death penalty
On April 11, 1967, opponents of capital punishment held an all-night vigil outside Governor Reagan’s house to protest his refusal to grant clemency to Aaron Mitchell, sentenced to death for the murder of a Sacramento policeman.
Reagan later said it the worst decision he had to make. Mitchell was executed at 10 AM the following day in San Quentin’s gas chamber. This was the only execution carried out in California during Reagan’s 8 years as governor.
Reagan granted clemency in the one other capital case that came to him, on the basis of evidence that the condemned man had a history of brain damage.
Reagan had been bitterly disappointed when the judge he had named to head the California Supreme Court wrote the decision striking down the state’s capital punishment statute after Reagan had left the Governor’s office.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 504 & 803
Jul 2, 1991
On Welfare & Poverty:
Cut back AFDC & other targeted poverty programs
But there were millions of Americans for whom it was not “morning again in America.” Reagan recognized this, though he rarely made the concession. He was an apostle of the marketplace whose premise had always been that the U.S. economic pie should be
enlarged, not that everyone should receive an equal slice. Despite the sea of happy children’s faces that graced the “feel-good” commercials, poverty exploded in the inner cities of America during the Reagan years, claiming children as its principal
victims. The reason for this suffering was that programs targeted to low-income families, such as AFDC, were cut back far more than programs such as Social Security. As a result of cuts in such targeted programs-including school lunches and subsidized
housing-federal benefit programs for households with incomes of less than $10,000 a year declined nearly 8% during the Reagan first term while federal aid for households with more than $40,000 income was almost unchanged.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 516-17
Jul 2, 1991
On Civil Rights:
Opposed Voting Rights Act of 1965 as “humiliating to South”
Reagan never supported the use of federal power to provide blacks with civil rights. He opposed the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Reagan said in 1980 that the Voting Rights Act had been “humiliating to the South.” While he made political
points with white southerners on this issue, he was sensitive to any suggestion that his stands on civil rights issues were politically or racially motivated, and he typically reacted to such criticisms as attacks on his personal integrity.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 520
Jul 2, 1991
On Environment:
Western enviro ethic: pro-development, common-sense
Reagan did not share fears that he would be damaged by environmental issues. He believed he brought a common sense view to environmental issues that was widely shared by Americans.
He always considered himself an “environmentalist,” a word he defined so loosely that he applied the term to James Watt as well. Left to his own devices, Reagan rarely thought about the environment in political terms.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 526-29
Jul 2, 1991
On Environment:
Dismissed acid rain proposals as burdensome to industry
[Reagan’s EPA director] was dismayed by Reagan’s cavalier dismissal of the importance of acid rain, which had destroyed fish and plant life in thousands of American and Canadian lakes and streams. During the 1970s it had become an issue in Canada,
which objected to the pollution originating in US smokestacks in the Midwest and deposited in Canadian forests and lakes. Reagan had promised Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau during a 1981 visit that he would honor the [agreement which Trudeau had
negotiated with Pres. Carter, which required] vigorous enforcement of anti-pollution standards. After three years of much talk and little action, the EPA wanted Reagan to make a major budget commitment to reducing the causes of acid rain. The
EPA’s proposal was assailed as wasteful government spending by Reagan’s OMB and was rejected by Reagan, who questioned the scientific evidence on the causes of acid rain and was reluctant to impose additional restrictions on industry.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 533-34
Jul 2, 1991
On Health Care:
Despite accusations, didn’t much cut Medicare
[In the 1984 presidential debates, Walter Mondale reminded Reagan that] “when President Carter said tat you were going to cut Medicare, you said, ‘Oh no, there you go again, Mr. President.’ And what did you do right after the election?
You went out and tried to cut $20 billion out of Medicare. So when you say, ‘There you go again,’ people remember this.” This was perhaps the least factual passage in the entire Mondale presentation.
Reagan had barely touched Medicare in the 1981 budget cuts. He had four years later proposed Medicare restraints on hospitals and doctors that were, as an otherwise pro-Mondale editorial
in the Washington Post noted, “not all that different from the Carter administration’s.” But Reagan had been thrown on the defensive and he looked it.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 541-42
Jul 2, 1991
On Tax Reform:
Serious on tax simplification; mocked as “secret tax plan”
In one State of the Union address, the president announced that he was “asking for a plan of action to simplify the entire tax code so that all taxpayers, big and small, are treated more fairly.” This order was diminished by the qualifier that Reagan
would not deliver “specific recommendations” until December. Democrats erupted in cynical laughter. Since he was totally serious about tax reform, Reagan had not realized that the wording of the announcement would make his commitment seem like a ploy.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 553-54
Jul 2, 1991
On Homeland Security:
SDI averts biblical prophecy of Armageddon
Reagan was awed by the biblical prophecy of Armageddon, which he translated into a vision of nuclear hell on earth. He proposed to avert it in two ways: development of an antimissile defense through the Strategic Defense Initiative and reduction
of nuclear arsenals through negotiations with the Soviets. “A nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.” It seemed logical to Reagan that all such weapons must be eliminated. As he put it in his memoirs:
My dream became a world free of nuclear weapons. Some of my advisors did not share this dream. They said a nuclear-free world was unattainable. Since I knew it would be a long and difficult task to rid the world of nuclear weapons,
I had this second dream: the creation of a defense against nuclear missiles, so we could change from a policy of assured destruction to one of assured survival.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 741
Jul 2, 1991
On Civil Rights:
Promised to appoint a female Justice; O’Connor was the first
Reagan changed the Supreme Court. He appointed the first woman to the high court, Sandra Day O’Connor, fulfilling a pledge he had made during a low point of his 1980 presidential campaign.
Reagan’s strategists came up with the idea of putting a woman on the Supreme Court.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 804
Jul 2, 1991
On Abortion:
Allowed abortion as CA Gov.; didn’t push pro-life as Pres.
Reagan was not as obsessive about anti-abortion legislation as he often seemed. Early in his California governorship he had signed a permissive abortion bill that has resulted in more than a million abortions. Afterward, he inaccurately blamed this
outcome on doctors, saying that they had deliberately misinterpreted the law. When Reagan ran for president, he won backing from pro-life forces by advocating a constitutional amendment that would have prohibited all abortions except when necessary to
save the life of the mother. Reagan’s stand was partly a product of political calculation, as was his tactic after he was elected of addressing the annual pro-life rally held in Washington by telephone so that he would not be seen with the leaders
of the movement on the evening news. While I do not doubt Reagan’s sincerity in advocating an anti-abortion amendment, he invested few political resources toward obtaining this goal.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 812
Jul 2, 1991
On Drugs:
Fought drugs beyond “Just Say No”
Reagan was serious about reducing the scourge of drugs, and the efforts of his administration went well beyond Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” campaign. The Justice Department involved the FBI in the fight against drugs, added five hundred Drug Enforcement
Administration agents, established thirteen regional anti-drug task forces and chalked up record numbers of drug seizures and convictions. But the magnitude of the drug problem was at least as great when Reagan left office as when he entered it.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 813
Jul 2, 1991
On Education:
Supported school prayer but didn’t push it
Reagan did not devote much energy to other aspects of his so-called “social agenda.”
Some of the items, such as his call for a constitutional amendment to restore prayer in schools, were never more than throwaway lines intended to comfort the Religious Right.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 813
Jul 2, 1991
On Education:
Targeted Dept. of Education to be abolished, but failed
The great social concerns of education and public health became back-burner issues for the Reagan administration.
Reagan’s anti-government vision had no room for a federal Department of Education, which he had pledged to abolish if elected president. It was one of his silliest promises, and no serious attempt was bad to keep it
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 813
Jul 2, 1991
On Health Care:
Slow to fight AIDS; focused on prevention
Reagan’s presidency coincided with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. Reagan’s response to this epidemic was halting and ineffective. In the critical years of 1984 and 1985, according to his White House physician Dr. John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS
as though “it was measles and would go away.” What changed Reagan’s view was the death in October 1985 of his friend Rock Hudson. Reagan went to Dr. Hutton and questioned him about the disease. Hutton gave a lengthy explanation. “I always thought the
world would end in a flash, but this is worse,“ Reagan said. Even with his new knowledge, Reagan was slow to join the battle against AIDS. He did not mention AIDS in public again until Feb. 1986, when he announced that a major report on AIDS would be
prepared, saying, ”We’re going to focus on prevention.“ Reagan’s surgeon general C. Everett released the report in Oct. 1986, and described his remedy: ”One, abstinence; two, monogamy; three; condoms.“
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 813-15
Jul 2, 1991
On Government Reform:
Principal mission was government deregulation
Reagan’s principal mission in the presidency, he thought, was to rein in a government he considered an obstacle to economic opportunity and human liberty. His complaint that the federal government had “over-spent, over-estimated, and over-regulated”
changed little over the years, but the audience for this message grew steadily larger during the 1970s. Regulatory reform had the status of consensus by the time Reagan took office.OMB led the deregulatory charge, seeking to accomplish through
executive action what another administration might have attempted through the legislative process. OMB [required] strict cost-benefit analyses of all federal regulations, [and was accused of] “ideological arithmetic” that ignored the cost in lives and
illnesses.
Reagan might have been able to do more if his approach to deregulation had been less overtly pro-business. Instead, he aroused the hostility of liberals with appointments that critics likened to naming a fox to guard a chicken coop.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 819-22
Jul 2, 1991
On Energy & Oil:
Decontrolled oil prices, but didn’t fill oil reserves
Reagan removed controls on oil prices. The result was lower prices and a glut. Had Reagan taken advantage of this to fill the nation’s strategic reserves with cheap oil or to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil by imposing an oil import fee,
or to encourage conservation through a tax, he would have left his successor less a prisoner of events in the Middle East. But Reagan abhorred taxes, and he did not accept the necessity of conservation. His trust was in the marketplace.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 823
Jul 2, 1991
On Principles & Values:
Cared more about policies than being “Great Communicator”
It was policies that mattered to Reagan. He was not over-impressed by his reputation as the “Great Communicator,” which he realized was often used to suggest that Americans liked the way he said things but disagreed with
what he was saying. Reagan knew better. “I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content,” Reagan said in his farewell address. “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things,
and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation-from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.
They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I’ll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscover of our values and our common sense.“
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 836
Jul 2, 1991
On Civil Rights:
Supported Bob Jones Univ.’s miscegeny policy, inadvertently
The president was so cut off from the counsel of black Americans that he sometimes did not even realize when he was offending them.
One example occurred when Reagan sided with Bob Jones University in a lawsuit to obtain federal tax exemptions that had been denied by the IRS. The IRS denied tax exemptions to segregated private schools.
Many of them were schools such as Bob Jones University, which enrolled a handful of minority students but prohibited interracial dating and marriage. It was the basis of this discrimination that the IRS denied the tax exemption.
Reagan would later say that the case had never been presented to him as a civil rights issue. More astonishingly, he did not even know that many Christian schools practiced segregation.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p.521-22
Jul 2, 1991
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