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Sons of the Middle Border: Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
Diane Alden
June 20, 2000
I don't usually watch PBS, but it was showing an excellent biography on Ronald
Reagan. This one included observations by everyone from his rebellious
daughter, Patty, to his more serious daughter, Maureen, and of course Nancy and
Ron Jr. Members of his cabinet, advisers and old acquaintances gave testimony
as to what made up the man known to friends as "Dutch."
From his days in Illinois and Hollywood to his presidency and subsequent
failing health, Ronald Wilson Reagan was a complex and almost unknowable man.
Given PBS's usual proclivity for trashing conservatives or making their life
hell, the series, narrated by historian David McCullough, was a pleasant
surprise.
The first part, titled "The Lifeguard," refers to what Reagan believed to be
among his better days. The segment dealt with his experience as a lifeguard on
the Rock River in Illinois. As a young man Ronald Reagan was responsible for
saving 77 people from drowning. According to his family and his biographers,
even with the ravages of devastating Alzheimer's disease, his time as a
lifeguard is the one he recalled most fondly.
Reagan grew up the son of a doting religious mother and a self-absorbed
alcoholic father. The family traveled from place to place as his father
attempted to find himself. When the Reagans finally settled down in Dixon,
Ill., Ronald Reagan had become a self-contained rather introverted bookish
child. His erratic upbringing affected his later life, and he always had
difficulty making close friends. With the exception of his wife, Nancy, a life
pattern had been set wherein Reagan became his own best friend. Life
experiences colored his thinking, and the lessons he learned from them
sometimes led to drastic reverses in his belief system. During his Hollywood
days the transition from liberal Democrat to a rock-solid conservative
Republican was a result of hard-won lessons he absorbed as president of the
Screen Actors Guild.
Iin the '40s and '50s Ronald Reagan had to learn to deal with the socialist and
communist ideological drift of some of Hollywood's writers, actors and
directors. Especially troublesome to him and others was the fact that the
Communist Party in Hollywood used intimidation and peer pressure and made life
difficult for those who would not comply. Reagan realized that many actors and
actresses belonged to these organizations out of naivete, but he was worried
about the message and pro-communist attitudes that were being slipped into
movies. The film colony was deeply sympathetic to the Russian version of
communism, and films and attitudes often showed that sympathy.
Additionally, actors and actresses who refused to go along were blacklisted by
the left. People such as Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis were hardly right-
wing types, but they were angry at the pressure being put on them to join the
party, so they appealed to Reagan. Unfortunately, in later years an ungrateful
Bette Davis made snide remarks about the man who had tried to address her
complaints.
For his trouble Reagan was subjected to the anarchy and violence against those
who dared to defy the party line of the Hollywood left. This side of the story
is rarely heard when the current Hollywood left gets on its high horse. The
brilliant director and left-leaning Elia Kazan gave testimony against the
communists and socialists who had pressured him to bend his work to accomodate
their propanada. He refused and terribly resented their blackmail. To this day
Elia Kazan and his work, such as the luminescent "On the Waterfront," were
nearly excluded from a lifetime achievment award. The Hollywood left still
holds a grudge. This intolerant attitude is what bothered Reagan. The Hollywood
left's blind tolerance of communist atrocities under Stalin was doubly
horrific. Reagan hated that his contemporaries could ignore and tolerate the
evil and anti-human nature of the communist belief system.Till the end of his
film career he could never understand it.
As governor of California Reagan was faced with some of the very same Communist
agitators he had to deal with in the '40s and '50s. During 1960s and the days
of student protest at Berkeley, Reagan called in the National Guard to restore
order during some of the more violent demonstrations.. He felt that those who
wanted to go to college to get an education should be allowed to do so without
ideologues and protesters stopping them. The left never forgave him for his
strong stands. For the rest of his days he was mocked and vilified in the press
and by the leftist elites.
Additionally, the left never forgave him for asking that students pay tuition
at California colleges and universities.. He had proposed no more free ride for
those who did not seem to have a clue about the value of an education. Almost
every other state in the
