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Thirty Years Ago This Day…
On this date in 1984, President Reagan spoke in Endicott, New York, just across the Susquehanna from Vestal, where I grew up. Even though I wrote the speech, when I reviewed the remarks—to mark the anniversary, Bob Joseph of WNBF radio had me on this morning—I found myself astonished in a couple of ways.
In the first place, the crowd loved the Gipper—and Endicott was a heavily blue-collar town, dominated by the descendants of the Italians, Poles, and Ukrainians who had moved there to work in the Endicott-Johnson show factories. They were natural Democrats—but they cheered and cheered for Ronald Reagan.
And in the second place, the economy was doing well—very well. In this long semi-recession of the Obama years, I’d almost forgotten what a real recovery looked like—and I wrote the darned speech. Get a load of this
:
The President. [Laughing] I’d like to ask you some questions about a certain country. Now, I don’t want to give away the answer by naming the country. I’ll give you just a little hint. It has three initials, and it’s first two are U.S.
Now, of all the great industrialized nations in the world, which has shown by far the strongest, most widespread, and most sustained economic growth?
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. All right. All right.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. All right, I’ve got more questions. What country had a record 600,000 new business incorporations last year alone?
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. U.S.A.!
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. What nation is showing the fastest rate of business investment in four decades?
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. And what country can say that its productivity is up, its consumer spending is up, and its take-home pay is up?
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. And during the past 20 months, what country created 6 million new jobs?
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. And what nation created, on the average, more new jobs each month during the last 12 months than all the countries of Western Europe put together created over the past 10 years?
Audience. U.S.A.!
The President. You scored 100. That’s right, U.S.A.! And, my friends, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
We now think of New York as an unassailably Democratic state—neither Mitt Romney nor John McCain nor George W. Bush put in much more than token campaign appearances there. But in 1980 Ronald Reagan carried New York by three points—and in 1984 he carried the state by six.
Brother Rob is always telling me that I romanticize the Gipper, and maybe I do. But look at that day in upstate New York three decades ago—just look at it.
Published in General
If one romanticizes the romantic, I guess it ain’t so bad.
The first thing I noticed was Reagans focus on what the country had done, not what he had done. Listen to an Obama speech about the economy or really any subject. It is all what “I” have done. I created “x” number of jobs, “I’ reformed healthcare, “I” saved the auto industry, “I” killed Bin Laden. This Reagan speech really brings home what a narcissist Obama is.
The Gipper was definitely a man of his time in that he understood the root of the problem and the American electorate understood that he understood!
Fast-forward to 2012: The GOP had a candidate who understood the root of the problem, but alas the voters did not.
“They were natural Democrats” reminds me of the Groucho Marx line, “All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.”
It’s beautiful, that’s what it is.
And as ET says, to have voters who understand makes all the difference.
Conservatives win when they can convince middle and working class folks that their lot will be improved by lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government. All the other stuff dear to the hearts of social conservatives, libertarians, and neocons is interesting to the sort of people who join Ricochet, but it does not translate into electoral victory. Reagan knew that. He argued, and then demonstrated, that downsized taxes, regulation and government were good for everyone and *most especially* for ordinary families and working people. Mrs Thatcher was exactly the same. Like Reagan, Thatcher also palpably liked and admired her ordinary countrymen.
The message is really simple (as RR and MT both knew), but we seem unable to deliver it with conviction any more.
I’m a 1981 graduate of Union-Endicott High School and I was there that day in 1984 to see Reagan.
It was a campaign stop on the way to Reagan’s November re-election. I remember part of the program was the College Republicans putting on a parody of Ghostbusters called “Fritzbusters” (referring to Walter “Fritz” Mondale). I still have somewhere the Fritzbusters t-shirt I bought that day.
It is much easier to be well liked being a liberal than a conservative. I imagine because promising goodies and championing class warfare is always a simple task, while encouraging people to improve while relinquishing them from a heavy tax burden that sustains the goodies your adversary promised will always cast you the role of mean and evil. The thing is it was hard not to like Reagan. They tried to label him as cold hearted, heaven knows they did, but in front of the audience he would always correct the script.