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Out-of-control inflation, high energy prices, trouble in Eastern Europe, and a feckless foreign policy that results in Iran threatening Israel and our interests around the globe.
What has transpired in the last few years is eerily reminiscent of the problems the United States faced in the 1970s. Then, as now, America was looking for leadership in the face of a series of weak chief executives.
Then, out of the West rode Ronald Reagan, a two-term California governor, a conservative who was pilloried even by members of his own party as a warmonger and Neanderthal who supposedly didn’t understand the modern world.
Dennis Quaid stars as the 40th president in “Reagan.” (Getty Images)
What he did understand, however, was that big government had gotten out of hand and that government wasn’t the answer to our problems — too often it was the problem. America wasn’t weak; we had just lost the will to build and project our strength.
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Reagan taught us that peace didn’t come to our shores when we are weak; peace comes about when we are so strong that our enemies won’t even try to get adventurous. He also knew that a strong economy was a key to the strength of our nation and continued peace in the world.
I was a young CPA in the late ’70s and a Democrat like my mother. I was doing income tax returns for investors paying taxes in the 70% bracket. They were doing all sorts of investing in tax shelters to avoid this confiscatory levy. They invested very conservatively otherwise, failing to take risks when the profits from risk taking went disproportionately to the government. Keeping only 30% after taxes wasn’t enough of a reward to take a chance on a new technology or other innovation.
It was Ronald Reagan and his policies that brought me and other Democrats to the Republican Party.
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Reagan changed that calculus of high tax rates and stifling regulation. He worked with Democrats like House Speaker Tip O’Neill, an old-time Massachusetts Democrat with very different views of government’s role, to reduce tax rates to 28% in a grand bargain. Eliminate tax shelters the rich used to avoid taxes in exchange for a very low marginal tax rate that would encourage investors to take risk.
The result? The U.S. came back stronger and we powered ahead of the world in the next 40 years with all manner of new technologies and innovations. At the same time, Reagan pushed for a massive expansion of our armed forces and armaments, touching off a battle of spending with the old USSR that bankrupted them and led to freedom for millions in Eastern Europe.
We’re in danger of forgetting this story, but a movie is debuting this month, “Reagan,” that will bring these facts to a new generation that needs to re-learn the essential principles the 40th president lived by. As its star Dennis Quaid often says, it’s not a boring history lesson, (that’s not what cinema is for) but first and foremost, an entertaining story about a man who, despite many failures, overcomes long odds. Somebody who has seen it described it as Forrest Gump meets Rocky and I agree with that description.
I’ve played golf a few times with the film’s star, Dennis Quaid, and though if you blink you’ll miss it, I even have a small part in the movie, playing Chief Justice Warren Burger, a proud Minnesotan who swore Reagan in for his first term.
But what I’m especially proud of is leading an effort to bring this film to the next generation. It’s my hope to provide a free ticket to any student through my nonprofit organization, Friends of the Reagan Film (FORM). If you agree with me that the next generation needs to know about Ronald Reagan and experience this amazing story, please visit our website, reaganmoviefriends.org.
Reagan himself often warned us that the United States is only one generation away from losing its freedom. It’s up to all of us to renew our great legacy of small government and a strong national defense which supports freedom at home and around the world. My hope – and I trust yours – is that the Reagan film will rekindle in our young people that belief in America and these first principles.
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