One who mastered fiction in film used truth as the best weapon

“When Character Was King”
By Peggy Noonan
Penguin Books, 2001


Understandably, most people of this country struggle over one question: Who should be the next President of this not-so-strong Republic? The choices, until recently, were among the incumbent President who is rating low, a former Senator and Education Secretary who is concededly intelligent and seasoned on the political stage, and a Senator whose reputation, however, is stuck with his tour duty as a controversial chief of the national police.

All three have great issues attached to their aspirations: experience for the incumbent, education for the former Secretary, and peace and order for the top policeman. Is that all?

One doesn’t think so. An aspirant to the vice presidency, Senator Loren Legarda, after noting that aspirants can casually and conveniently address issues that endear themselves to the electorate, reduced the choice to one fundamental: the candidate’s character. The ultimate test is the character of the individual – his or her integrity, courage and demonstrated capability to do what is right, not what is expedient or popular.

What about competence, educational attainment, and preparedness for the job? These points have assumed larger significance with the entry of one of the most popular action stars joining the political fray – and some people were advancing arguments that were used to elect a former President who ended up in jail; the same argument that tries to establish affinity with the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger and, in the early eighties, the assumption to the U.S. Presidency of Ronald Reagan.

Our view of Ronald Reagan was too simplistic compared to the many-sided personality of this Great Communicator. The book, “When Character Was King,” a story of Reagan by one of his finest speech writers, reveals a lot about this highly successful and much-loved President the Americans ever had.

He controlled inflation, perked up the American economy, raised individual incomes, reduced taxes, and made the U.S. the pre-eminent player in the geo-political war where the antagonist, Soviet Russia, turned out to be a non-power at all.

What began the making of Reagan the communicative leader? Noonan is insightful: “As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan learned how to negotiate, play tough and get tough, how to feint, stall and vamp for time, how to wait them out, how to smoke out the real reason for an impasse. He learned that it was not personal, it’s business. It’s politics.”

Reagan was generally a nice guy. One time, he lost his temper because his reserved room was given to someone else. He berated the man, was rude and impatient – and he left. Asked if the counter person saw Reagan again: “Oh sure, the next morning when he came to apologize.”

Soon enough, Reagan has perfected his way with words, and dished out his version of reality masterfully. On switching parties – from Democrat to Republican, Reagan said: “We didn’t change… they changed.”

From actor, Reagan increasingly was involved in talking about governance, about issues that citizens wanted to hear – from his denunciations of big government to criticisms of a heavy tax burden. As related by Noonan, the turning point of Reagan’s life was when he spoke for half an hour on NBC. That was the moment. Noonan says: “He stepped into national politics, became a presence in the nation’s political life. He stepped into history.”

He was fifty four when he ran for governor. The opponent, Pat Brown, dismissed Reagan as an actor, and implied “he was a phony, mouthing words as an actor does from a script he hasn’t written.” But Reagan was a good writer, had ear for music and employed cadence in his written and spoken words – in plays and his stories. As history would have it, Reagan won by a landslide over Brown.

After the governorship, the Presidency was not far behind. After the primaries, the Republican bet had to face the Democratic incumbent: Jimmy Carter. The high point of his campaign was at the “Reagan-Carter Debate” in 1980 when Reagan took command of television, and left these words ringing: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

In a book that is full of insights about the man in private and the President in public, author Noonan observes: “Nothing internal, within him, changed. His character seemed to be an unbroken line that didn’t waver or soar too high or low. He was not given to conceit, didn’t play with people when he had the chance, didn’t show up places late because he’s the most important and interesting man invited, so the fun will have to start when he gets there.”

Reagan’s dealing with issues at home and abroad has been characterized by candor and devotion to truth, according to the author. Noonan says: “He loved the truth… He thought the truth is the only foundation on which can be built something strong and good and lasting – because only truth endures. Lies die. He wanted to crowd out the false with the true.”

When politicians in the past sidestepped the issue of attacking the Soviet Union, Reagan called it the “The Evil Empire.” In one speech, he told Soviet Union Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev, “Tear down this wall!” referring to the Berlin Wall.

The author adds an insight: “He didn’t know how very soon the wall would fall, and literally a six-ton piece of it would be shipped to America to be installed at the Reagan Library.”

To many of us engrossed in comparisons and in our search for parallels, Reagan’s portrait can be used and misused by candidates. Surely, many of these aspirants pale in comparison with this President who happens to have been a university graduate, has ample gray matter between his ears, has the skills of a master negotiator, the courage to do what is right – and one who has found the truth as the best weapon to craft great policies, take resolute action, and gain victory.