The ‘Reagan’ movie—A great reminder of what a president should be

I am one of the fortunate Americans who has had the privilege of viewing the movie “Reagan.” If you have not seen it, gather your family and friends and go see this movie. It is a truly great movie and does President Reagan justice in portraying him as one of our truly great presidents.

The media and movie critics have panned the movie, but moviegoers have loved it. In fact, “Reagan” has recorded the greatest disparity between critics’ positive ranking (18%) and the public’s positive (98%) reaction.

As I left the theater I was flooded with a variety of emotions. First, I felt deep affection and admiration for Mr. Reagan, clearly a fundamentally decent man who loved his country and was very aware of how fortunate he and his fellow countrymen were to be Americans. I was 33 years old when Ronald Reagan was elected and I was frankly astounded at the positive change he wrought both internationally and domestically. Quite literally, he led America and the West to victory in the Cold War.

The second emotion I felt surging within me was nostalgia and admiration for the basic decency and genuine patriotism of the man himself.

As I watched the movie, I was reminded of a remarkable little book I read many years ago, How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life by Peter Robinson, published in 2003. Robinson is the host of Uncommon Knowledge, an interview program sponsored by Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

Robinson was hired as a chief speechwriter for Vice President George H. W. Bush and then became a speechwriter for President Reagan. Robinson’s chief claim to fame is that he wrote the speech President Reagan delivered at the Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987. That speech contained the now famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Robinson relates the story of how Secretary of State James Baker and others tried to get that line excised from the speech up to, and including, when Reagan was in the limo on the way to the speech.

Various officials explained to Robinson, “We have to protect the President from himself,” to which Robinson responded, “Let Reagan be Reagan!” As history records, President Reagan delivered the line and it electrified the world.

In Robinson’s book, he explains how working for Reagan literally changed his life. He explained that working for Reagan made him a better employee, a better husband, a better son, and a better American. The whole book is a tribute to the truly basic decency of Ronald Reagan, regardless of policies. Reagan’s example of how he treated his wife, his employees, his job responsibilities, all tremendously impressed Robinson. In summation, Robinson himself described his book as “nothing less than a love story — an account of the profound respect and affection that one young man came to feel for the President who changed his life forever.”

That basic decency springs forth from the screen in “Reagan.” And one of the President’s most sterling attributes was his deep and abiding love for his country.

Reagan was definitely not afflicted with what Roger Scruton, an important contemporary philosopher, called “oikophobia,” from the Greek words “oikos” = home and “phobia” which means fear. Oikophobia is hatred or denigration of one’s home and is used by Scruton to refer to those who denigrate America and the West.

No one could ever accuse Reagan of such feelings. This was the President who declared “it is morning in America” and that the Soviet Union was the “evil empire” headed for the “ash heap of history.”

I suspect many Americans join me in longing for a Reaganesque presidential candidate again. If America can produce one Ronald Reagan, surely she can produce another. If and when she does, will we recognize and acknowledge him? I pray so.