When I first started working for President Ronald Reagan at his office in Century City, there was a rotation of staff who, along with the Secret Service, would escort the former chief executive to and from the office to ward off commercial autograph seekers.
I remember one of my colleagues returning from this task and plopping down in the seat in front of my desk, frustrated. I asked him what was wrong. He explained to me that there were some autograph seekers in the lobby who got the president to stop and sign some photos despite the staffer’s protective counsel.
After signing, the president was a bit frustrated himself and turned to the staffer and asked, “Why did you try and stop me from signing those photos?”
The staffer replied, “Because they’re just going to turn around and sell them Mr. President.” To which Reagan replied, “Well I hope they get damn good money for them.”
Typical Ronald Reagan; he never considered the negative, but focused on the positive.
On February 6, Ronald Reagan would have been 99-years-old. More than 20 years since his presidency, Reagan’s legacy continues to loom over the GOP, as well as the Democrats.
For Republicans, Reagan is who they want to be; for Democrats it’s Reagan’s legacy that keeps them up at night trying to figure out how to best it. And even with all the imitations that have popped up over the years, no one has been able to fill those shoes.
Reagan’s words were a contagion, expressing ideals he truly believed. When he said, “It’s always morning in America,” he believed that. And because he believed, so did everyone else.
Reagan could only see the glass half full because he saw that sentiment reflected in his own life. He grew-up during the Great Depression having seen a nation on her knees only to rise taller and prouder. He saw a pioneering country put the first man on the moon. And in 1981 he stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, the son of a shoes salesman and a seamstress, as the same country looked on while he took the oath of the President of the United States. Reagan’s America was a land of no limits.
But today that same idealism that brought optimism back to our country is under siege. Politicians and media pundits are quick to knock the principles that have anchored and sustained us as a nation. Instead, voters are besieged with endless policy that gets tossed about like a tumbleweed in a political vacuum while Americans are left in a cloud of dust.
It’s time for a positive agenda that will produce positive results. Reagan urged Republicans that, “ . . .we must not be so much against big government and high taxes as we are in favor of higher take-home pay and more freedom.”
While those principles have gotten lost in the Potomac shuffle, it’s time for Republicans to remember we are a party of more than policy; we’re a party of principles. And if we can do this, we will have paid Reagan the greatest tribute possible.
Karen Hart worked for President Ronald Reagan during his post-White House years and is a freelance speechwriter in Washington, D.C
