“Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power,” first published in 2003, is something of a “prequel” for veteran-political-journalist-turned-Reagan-biographer, Lou Cannon, who’s heralded critical assessment of the Reagan presidential administration, “President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime,” appeared on bookshelves over a decade before this volume.
“Governor Reagan” is made up of 30 chapters, each with a single adjectival word title. A sampling of a quick dozen fairly well tells the early story of Reagan as told by Cannon, and it’s a story far more flattering tale than his earlier account of Reagan’s presidential administration: Optimist, Storyteller, Actor, Politician, Visionary, Winner, Pragmatist, Conservative, Leader, Conservationist, Reformer, Salesman, Achiever.
The book is broken into unequal thirds. The first, “The Rise of Ronald Reagan,” provides a relatively quick (126 pages) summary of Reagan’s rather humble and peripatetic youth in Illinois, the trials of being raised by an alcoholic father, and his improbable success in landing a coveted job in radio sports broadcasting in Des Moines in the darkest days of the Depression. And then, perhaps even more improbably, Reagan landed a long-term acting contract in Hollywood after just one screen test in 1937 (which he had finagled after following the Chicago Cubs to Spring Training on Catalina Island for his sports announcer job – and also included a short, but treacherous LA to Catalina flight that made Reagan a life-long terrified flier).
In the first third of the book, Cannon suggests that four things dominated the psychological development of Ronald Reagan before he became a declared politician in 1966. First, during his formative youth, the Reagan family moved from town-to-town and house-to-house at an alarming velocity. Reagan had lived in over a dozen houses and many towns before his family more-or-less settled in tiny Dixon, Illinois when he had reached his high school years, depriving him, the author claims, of close childhood friends and a sense of roots. Second, Reagan is, according to Cannon, a classic “child-of-an-alcoholic” (as is Cannon, it must be noted). His Irish-Catholic father, Jack, a natural storyteller and off-and-on traveling salesman, claimed a strong hold on Reagan, and his embarrassing benders left an indelible and shattering impression on the future president, none more so than the memory of dragging his prostrated, inebriated father in off the family porch on a cold winter afternoon when Reagan was still an adolescent. But he also absorbed from his father the art of storytelling. And Reagan would ultimately become “a storyteller who made the facts fit the story, rather than building his story on the facts,” according to Cannon. Third, Reagan’s six years as a lifeguard on the treacherous Rock River were “decisive in transition from boy to man,” according to the author. Finally, when fellow actor and first wife Jane Wyman left him in 1948 after 8 years of marriage, Reagan was left shell-shocked and disconsolate, a man approaching middle age whose life had suddenly and unexpectedly been ripped asunder. The upshot, according to Cannon and many others, was that Reagan forever closed himself off emotionally. No one, not even his beloved Nancy, let alone dedicated and loyal political operatives, would ever penetrate Reagan’s psyche. Yet, these dour experiences somehow coalesced to create an implacable determination and an irrepressible “relentless optimism” that were the keys to Reagan eventually becoming president of the United States, according to the author.
The second third, and by far the longest at 264 pages, is “Governor Reagan,” and really the meat of the book. A few items are worth noting. First, Reagan was the darkest of dark horses when he took on two-term Democrat Pat Brown in 1966. In fact, the Democratic Party was so confident against Reagan that they played dirty tricks against his GOP rival, former San Francisco mayor George Christopher, to ensure the nomination of “the light-weight actor” Ronald Reagan. He was widely viewed as a “right-wing clone of Goldwater, minus the latter’s experience”…”an out-of-work actor who was trading on his celebrity status to launch a political career.”
It would be a mistake that Democrats would make again, and again, and again, according to Cannon. Indeed, “Reagan remained underestimated until the end,” he says (and “by the end,” he means the end of his second presidential term).
Incumbent Governor Brown tried to make light of Reagan’s acting background. His campaign commercials showed him talking to a group of elementary school students, with the governor quipping, “I’m running against an actor. And you know who shot Lincoln, right?” But, far from being apologetic about his professional roots in Hollywood, Reagan embraced them, according to Cannon. “Acting was not a phase of Reagan’s life,” he says, “but the essence of it.” And, so too, was his time as head of the Screen Actors Guild. Reagan may have once described himself as “a near-hopeless hemophiliac liberal,” but his experience negotiating with leftists unions would change that. Once in gubernatorial office, Reagan maintained an ambitious political agenda. Cannon focuses in on four topics in particular: university campus politics, environmental conservation, welfare reform, and tax reduction.
Reagan tapped into a strong populist chord when he took an uncompromising “Follow the rules or get out” attitude toward late 1960s campus unrest in California at Berkeley, San Francisco State and UC Santa Barbara. He also led the charge to introduce tuition for in-state college education (as crazy as that sounds today to this longtime California resident). Cannon claims that Reagan’s overall record on higher education is much better than generally remembered. The overall higher education budget rose 136% during Reagan’s two terms as governor, compared to 100% for other areas. Moreover, Reagan granted 90% of higher education budget requests over his two terms versus liberal Democrat Pat Brown’s 95%. Not a bad record, indeed.
As for environmental conservation, Cannon concludes that it was never a top priority for Reagan, but nevertheless his legacy as California governor is actually quite positive, thanks to Ike Livermore, his appointee for environmental affairs (who was every bit as good as future Reagan administration Secretary of the Interior James Watt was bad). Ultimately, Governor Reagan blocked both a major dam on the Eel River on Native American land in far northern California and a proposed Trans-Sierra Highway that would have cut through the famed John Muir Trail. Both of these moves were celebrated by liberal institutions, such as the Sierra Club. Indeed, even the healthily critical Cannon concedes: “Governor Reagan saved the wild rivers of the north coast, and he saved the John Muir Trail. It is a valuable legacy.”
Reagan’s crowning achievements as California Governor – a record that he would ultimately run on to gain the presidency less than a decade after leaving Sacramento – were welfare reform and tax reduction. Cannon stresses the partnership between Reagan and Robert Moretti, California’s powerful Democratic Speaker of the House and successor to former Reagan bête noir, Jesse Unruh, who was defeated by Reagan handedly in the 1970 election 53% to 45%, even though California registered voters were 56% Democrat and 40% Republican.
Reagan’s California Welfare Reform Act was a cornerstone achievement. It reduced those eligible for welfare by 35% while increasing the payout to those truly in need of government assistance. It also burnished Reagan’s credentials with those conservatives nationally, who, like the governor, believed that “the government is supposed to promote the general welfare…[not] provide it.” Senate Bill 90, meanwhile, increased property tax relief while increasing education funding by $300M, a national record at the time.
In Cannon’s far-from-gentle assessment, Reagan’s eight years as Governor of the largest state in the union was “on balance more positive than negative.” Despite his conservative “cut and trim” rhetoric, under Reagan the California state budget increased from $4.6 billion annually to $10.2 billion, a record of “achievement” that he would eventually bring to Washington.
The final third, “The Pursuit of the Presidency,” provides insight into the six-year interregnum between Reagan’s governorship and his election to the presidency, during which he was never out of the spotlight and always the darling of American conservatives. Cannon claims that, “Republican misfortunes paved the path for opportunity for Ronald Reagan throughout his political career.” First it was Nixon’s gubernatorial defeat in 1962, and then Goldwater’s landslide defeat in the 1964 presidential election, and finally Nixon’s 1974 resignation over Watergate and Ford’s subsequent unconditional pardon. All of this brought the GOP to its nadir as only 18% of Americans identified as Republican in the late 1970s. From the ashes, Reagan would rebuild the party on a fundamentally libertarian philosophy of individual freedom and limited government.
Reagan genuinely believed that he was a common man for the common man, or as he claimed “citizen-politician.” He used that expression from the start of gubernatorial run in 1966 and stuck with it throughout his presidency. Cannon argues that it was Reagan’s sincere belief in himself as a “citizen-politician” that was the ultimate “secret of his political success.
For anyone looking to understand “early Reagan,” this is a great place to start. Cannon would be the last to canonize Reagan, but he would also be the last to dismiss him as simple-minded and overrated. I recommend it without reservation.
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