Before he was elected President, and as if to show his faith in his country, his countrymen, and their humanity, Reagan said at a 1974 First Conservative Political Action Conference:
“Somehow America has bred a kindliness into our people unmatched anywhere… We are not a sick society. A sick society could not produce the men that set foot on the moon, or who are now circling the earth above us in the Skylab. A sick society bereft of morality and courage did not produce the men who went through those years of torture and captivity in Vietnam. Where did we find such men? They are typical of this land, as the Founding Fathers were typical. We found them in our streets, in the offices, the shops and the working places of our country and on the farms.”
Throughout his eight years in the White House, Reagan was a practicing philanthropist, putting his beliefs into action in a quiet and modest manner. He would read about someone in need or suffering from adversity, or he would receive letters from people down on their luck, and he would send them a small donation. The President often composed a handwritten letter to accompany a personal check, placing them both in an envelope he addressed to be mailed personally by Kathy Osborne, his secretary.
In his book In the President’s Secret Service, Ron Kessler quotes Frank J. Kelly, who drafted the President’s messages: “Reagan was famous for firing up Air Force jets on behalf of children who needed transport for kidney operations… These are things you never knew about. He never bragged about it. I hand-carried checks for four thousand or five thousand dollars to people who had written him. He would say, ‘Don’t tell people. I was poor myself.’” (Emphasis added.)
In 1983 the New York Times told the story of one man who had hung up on Reagan six times before being convinced it was in fact the President on the phone, who was calling to offer him help. “[It was] like talking to your favorite uncle,” said Arlis Sheffield of Wakefield, Rhode Island. “He was very humble. You would never know he was president of the United States.” Reagan was not in a financial position to make large donations, but he kept up a steady stream of smaller contributions where he could while promoting and acknowledging the power of giving to the American people.
Reagan found it difficult to make friends in early boyhood because of frequent household moves the family made from one rented apartment or house to another. This may also have affected his ability to forge deep, bonding friendships throughout his life. Yet despite this influence, he genuinely liked people. Reagan did not hold grudges against people. He just didn’t have that in him. Revenge, for example, would not even have registered on Reagan’s radar screen as something he would engage in, although politics is very often sadly practiced that way.
During the Christmas season at the White House, the Reagans hosted an endless stream of parties for various groups, and I was on duty for most of them. Then, and throughout the year, I observed the President close at hand while he would stand for hours in many receiving lines. I saw time after time how he would express delight over some small gesture expressed by a guest. Everyone was important to him. Even after exhausting duty in one of these lines, the President never expressed any fatigue or irritation—even with people who were irritating, like the unforgettable woman who showed up dressed from head to toe (including a turban) in a special polyester fabric woven with the name Reagan all over it in red, white, and blue, and a bolt of the stuff under her arm to try and sell to the President! She was sure he would want to buy it and she was equally as sure people would want to wear it!
After working these receiving lines Reagan would often tell me a story or joke that someone had told him in the line, and he typically had a twinkle in his eye when retelling it. He liked the American people, and he took delight in them—their humanity, their spirit, what they accomplished, and what they stood for. In a way he identified with them. He also admired them. Reagan was always telling his fellow citizens how good they were. As if to summarize his feelings about his fellow Americans on the eve of the 1984 election, Reagan said:
“The greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington; it begins with each of you—in the mighty spirit of free people under God, in the bedrock values you live by each day in your families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Each of you is an individual worthy of respect, unique and important to the success of America. And only by trusting you, giving you opportunities to climb high and reach for the stars, can we preserve the golden dream of America as the champion of peace and freedom among the nations of the world.”
I remember one evening where extraordinary humanity and American philanthropy blended in a potent force on the White House South Lawn, when the President hosted a heroic group of young Special Olympians with disabilities. To witness their overcoming of enormous physical handicaps to compete athletically was awe inspiring. They were assembled on the South Lawn of the White House to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of this remarkable Kennedy family charity at a picnic in their honor. To the assembled group of athletes Reagan spoke these words:
“I understand that in Special Olympics, your torch is called the Flame of Hope. And that’s exactly what your athletes represent today. By training and competing in these events, you’re realizing your hopes for a fuller, more productive life. And you’re kindling in the rest of us the hope that through individual effort we can make this a more caring world.”
The President was equally generous in his praise and gratitude to the Kennedy family for forming and funding this life-changing example of American philanthropy at its best. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the President of the family foundation, personally told me years later that that day profoundly affected her perception of Ronald Reagan, his character, kindness, humanity, and leadership qualities.
One of these unique and courageous athletes came up to and grabbed Reagan and held him in one long body hug. The President relished it. I was standing right next to him when this occurred, and I watched as the Secret Service allowed this to happen even though these body hugs were forceful, powerful grabs by muscled runners and wrestlers. Reagan was just as exuberant as the athletes and enjoyed this personal encounter with them. Seeing what the Kennedy family had done for these inspiring athletes and the connection Reagan made with them was genuinely moving and emotional for everyone there.
President Reagan’s own American-style humanity and warmth were also on display when he traveled abroad, and they helped him boost a better understanding of and appreciation for American culture. His remarkable geniality was known by ordinary folks like the bartenders at the O’Farrell Pub in Ballyporeen, Ireland, where we dropped in one afternoon—every detail choreographed by the masterful Rick Ahearn of the White House advance office—during a two-day official visit to the country of Reagan’s ancestry. Even with the elaborate staging and hundreds in the press pool observing, Reagan was able to sidle up to the middle of the well-worn, long wooden bar, while I watched him from the other end—well out of the photo. He was able to gain immediate rapport with the local pub-going community. Of course there was a lot of clamor and a fairly big crowd, but Reagan started asking everyone about life in the quaint village, where it is thought many O’Regans, the President’s ancestors, are buried—all while he was served up a pint and downed it with his new friends. He honestly felt right at home and the pub goers could relate to Reagan because he was genuine and had a friendly disposition.
Reagan was generous and kind with people he met and showed them respect—and these locals were no exception. He was interested in their everyday life and history. I think he could have stayed on all afternoon with that crowd; however, as with all traveling heads of state, we had to move on—too quickly for Reagan’s taste, I am sure. Today the authentic interior of that pub can be seen at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, as a tribute to his historic visit to Ballyporeen, thanks to the generosity of Fred Ryan, the Library Chairman.
Reagan had no special vanity or pretention, and once people met him they felt that. He had no need to compete for attention. His age also might have contributed to a feeling of safety people felt with him—like your dad or grandfather was here and that everything would be all right after all. Then, too, he was comfortable in his own skin, and that drew people in. In 1983, Reagan dropped in at another pub—this one called the Eire in heavily Democratic Dorchester, Massachusetts—not exactly Reagan territory like Ballyporeen, Ireland, might have been. It was social hour, and Reagan dove right in with a few good stories and left with a posse of admirers—if not political converts. Among them, Mike Corbett, a construction worker, told reporters that while he didn’t share Reagan’s politics, he was nevertheless impressed with the fortieth President and summed up his thoughts by saying of Reagan that “he made an effort to reach out to people.” Rich Bishkin, another Eire Pub regular, recalling Reagan’s visit said, “He won over so many.”
After Reagan’s passing, journalist Brian Williams commented on a 2004 MSNBC television special that “there is general agreement about one thing: Ronald Wilson Reagan had a remarkable ability to connect with people—millions of Americans across the country.” Listening to this pronouncement, I found myself remembering so many times I stood by and watched Reagan with people. Reagan’s basic love for people, and his ability to see them as good and see the good in them, was the invisible radiation that made people think they were liked by Reagan—and they usually returned the favor, especially if they had an opportunity to meet him in person.
In June 2009, I delivered a speech in New York City. As I was leaving the stage, I was approached by a woman with tears streaming down her face. She caught up with me, and cautiously but emotionally, she began to tell me her dramatic story. She was a Russian immigrant who came to the United States under a 1983 accord brokered by Reagan for the release of a limited number of Jews from the Soviet Union. During my remarks I had spoken of the President and my honor at being able to work for him. “It was Reagan’s words and the way he convincingly and emotionally spoke them that gave me hope—the only hope I had in the world—and ultimately led me to America,” she said movingly. I learned from her later that she had earned a PhD in mathematics from Moscow University and had achieved almost overnight success as an investment banker upon reaching the United States.
She told me over and over again that she owed her life to Reagan and to his words, which she had heard broadcast through the U.S. Information Agency radio, at that time headed by the Reagans’ longtime and close California supporter and personal friend, Charlie Wick. She recounted how she would listen to Reagan’s messages of hope and freedom, and dream of a land where these ideals could become reality. Because of what Reagan said and how sincerely he said it, she actually pictured America as “some sort of heaven or paradise.” Ultimately her dream came true, and she even credited Reagan with placing this dream in her heart, giving her the resolve to apply for immigration and paving the way for her to leave the Soviet Union.
Pastor John Boyles, who served on the ministerial staff of the National Presbyterian Church while Reagan was in office, shared with me his personal encounters with Reagan. He talked about his humanity and how the President valued it in American life. Boyles was asked by the President to establish and chair a Commission on Ethics in America, which he did enthusiastically over a number of years. Although mostly now forgotten, the panel included noted theologians, philanthropists, and writers.
Reagan also sent Reverend Boyles on a special private mission to Moscow in 1982 to check on the condition of the Siberian Seven, a family of Pentecostal Christians who had sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy. For five years this family lived in a room in the basement of Spaso House, the U.S. Embassy. Boyles told me he wore a wooden belt buckle that turned into a cross, which he gave them for encouragement. Along with this gift, he carried a personal message from the President.
Reagan’s view of American humanity was not limited by race or religious distinction. When he was an undergraduate student at Eureka College traveling overnight with a football team, he saw his African-American teammates being shut out from the motel where the team was staying. He abruptly told the coach the team was leaving the hotel, and that his black colleagues would stay at his own house and have breakfast the next morning with his parents. Jack and Nelle Reagan had raised their two boys—who had both attended racially integrated public high schools—never to field a racial thought. They were forbidden from seeing the film Birth of a Nation, because it glorified the Ku Klux Klan. Reagan’s dad, during his traveling salesman days, would also not stay at motels where Jews were not welcome. In Reagan’s vision of America, everyone was entitled to equal rights, and, as with so much of his worldview, the origins of his beliefs in equality came from his understanding that all men are equal in the eyes of God. He insisted, in his 1992 convention speech:
“Whether we come from poverty or wealth; whether we are Afro-American or Irish-American; Christian or Jewish, from big cities or small towns, we are all equal in the eyes of God.” He added importantly, “But as Americans that is not enough. We must be equal in the eyes of each other. We can no longer judge each other on the basis of what we are, but must instead start finding out who we are. In America, our origins matter less than our destinations, and that is what democracy is all about.”
At the end of World War II Reagan spoke at the Santa Ana Municipal Bowl to protest hostility against returning Japanese-American veterans. He said:
“America stands unique in the world—a country not founded on race, but on a way and an ideal. Not in spite of, but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world.”
Reagan’s own family, with his father’s Irish-Catholic background, was a part of that polyglot he talked about. At a later time and in a rare public recording of Reagan anger, he was attending a conference as Governor of California, when he reacted in outrage to the suggestion that he was in any way bigoted. In fact, he left the conference in anger and had to be coaxed to return to the meeting later. I can understand why he reacted that way—because he was not bigoted. Nevertheless it is a telling story about his sense of humanity that, of all the things he was accused of, he reacted so strongly to this particular charge.
Reagan did refer to the subject of race publicly in 1983 in the same speech which has become known overwhelmingly as the “Evil Empire” speech. The passage related to race was overshadowed, however, and has been overlooked. I think it is significant that before calling out the Soviet empire as evil he pointed the finger at his own country, the United States. He said:
“Our nation, too, has a legacy of evil with which it must deal… We must never go back. There is no room for racism, anti-Semitism, or other forms of ethnic and racial hatred in this country… The commandment given us is clear and simple: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’”
This shows how he prized America’s humanity, but he was not blind to its inhumanity. To him philanthropy was an effective tactic to help discover and promulgate creative solutions from the private sector to address America’s shortcomings. He showed the value he placed on these solutions by opening up the first White House office to focus on the expansion of creative philanthropic solutions for public problems and to have it report directly, as few programs actually did, to him as President. We were able to promote philanthropic leadership in several policy areas. During Reagan’s two terms, he saw the amount of and variety of philanthropic activism increase substantially, largely through a growing economy. He signed an executive order requiring Cabinet agencies to spend 10 percent of their discretionary funding on promulgating public-private partnerships to discover and accelerate effective and creative solutions to public problems. Using this program as a precedent, Cabinet agencies still conduct programs like that today.
One of the most unique, useful, and practical things about Reagan could not be claimed by any other President. He was a member of and had worked for a modern labor union for several years as well as also having worked on the management side of a multinational global corporation. He had also been a card-carrying and voting Democrat before switching political parties to become a Republican. This is a more diverse mix of political and private sector experience than found in most who work in public service. This mix also gave Reagan the credibility to talk about individual initiative and hard work—because he had done the hard work and had come from relative poverty himself. While he was growing up, Reagan’s family was even evicted from some apartments for failing to pay their rent on time. He went to college on scholarships and paid for the balance with his summer jobs. He could appreciate the millions of others who did the same and they could relate to him because of it.
For most of the years he was President, Reagan did not own a primary residence. He did have his ranch, but the ranch house was a surprisingly modest, two-bedroom adobe home that was constructed by his own physical labor together with a few ranch hands. The only expansion that went on there during the presidency was the addition of a Secret Service trailer and outpost. Modest as it was, this was where Reagan was happiest and where he wanted to travel whenever possible. This is the kind of background that gave Reagan the credibility to face the public directly and state, “The best possible social program is a job.” His opponents always placed Reagan alongside his much richer friends in terms of wealth. He was never at their level of financial means, but he did appreciate their generosity in helping him reach the presidency and advance his platform.
Two of Reagan’s signature policy goals related to the values of self-reliance and work were shrinking the size of government and tax reform. Both of these domestic programs were aimed at ultimately improving working conditions and lifting incomes for the poor and middle class by stimulating the economy to produce more jobs and limiting the ability of the government to take more money from a worker’s paycheck. These were working-class goals. When Reagan took office in 1981, interest rates were at 15 percent or more for a home mortgage—if you could even qualify for one—and top individual tax rates were 70 percent, which discouraged work and investment. This led Reagan to state that “every time the government is forced to act, we lose something in self-reliance, character, and initiative” and to quip, “Republicans think every day is the Fourth of July and Democrats think every day is April 15th.”
His accomplishments in tax reform were far greater than in shrinking the size of government and that led him to cry,
“Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.”
Reagan’s two terms also ushered in a season of welfare reform which continued and peaked during the Clinton years. He felt that
“Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate itself.”
He was a leader more focused on growth and opportunity than the constraint and conservation of his predecessor’s economic policy. His fiscal policy was designed to ignite and sustain growth that would thereby create jobs, and the expansion that resulted from these policies lasted through his three successors right up until the 2008 recession. His policies were grounded in the belief that the private sector economy was the best system known to lift people out of poverty, and he referenced his own life as a prime example. He understood people did not leave the welfare rolls on anything but self-determination, opportunity, skills, and hard work, and he encouraged these tenets everywhere he went without demanding, preaching, or imploring. These were the principles he learned more about, tested, and wrote and spoke about during his years working for General Electric. They were the values of hard work and reward in the private sector. He never lifted the economic ideal higher than stating it was the best system known to man which sustained the rights of the individual.
The results of this focus are seen in the numbers. During his Administrations the number of black-owned businesses increased by 40 percent and Hispanic-owned businesses increased 81 percent; the numbers of blacks enrolled in college rose 30 percent, and for Hispanics this figure was 45 percent. Real median income for black families rose 17 percent, with an increase of 40 percent in the same (black) households making more than $50,000 per year, while unemployment for black males decreased nearly 10 percent.
In 1981 Reagan began his work in Washington with an inaugural address, and in this speech he called on his fellow citizens to exercise their philanthropic inclinations to help each other. This was the way he felt about it and expressed it that day:
“We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our countrymen; and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they’re sick, and provide opportunities to make them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just in theory?”
Reagan spent the next eight years attempting to make this goal a reality for as many Americans as possible by creating an economic engine that lifted all incomes and opportunity, and celebrated individual initiative.