Ronald Reagan

Welcome back to The Guardian Long Read.

[electronic music] As the 1970s came to an end, consultants employed by Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign invented their own people machine, a computerized political information system.

A reporter explained that it worked like a massive chessboard on which the Reagan campaign could try out possible scenarios.

If the unions scare half their members about Reagan's labor record, should he step up his attacks on Carter or try to rebut their specific claims? Or if John Anderson's vote begins to drop, should Reagan add a campaign stop in Connecticut, or can he afford to cancel one? In 1980, it helped carry Reagan to victory.

The language of an information society yielded to the language of an information revolution.

In 1982, Time named the computer Man Machine of the Year.

It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Reagan Q." So I, I, I suppose this was a, a Ronald Reagan speech actually.

Which-

Yeah.

I guess it was the '80s.

And, uh, I was, I was studying history, and I was kinda, um, disturbed because, uh, Ronald Reagan was president at the time.

And I thought, "You know, this is, this is terrible.

This guy is the worst whatever." [laughs]

But, um, anyway, Howard Zinn, uh, w- was, um- You know, a very, very experienced fellow.

He'd been around for many years, and I said to him, uh, he was, he was talking very optimistically about the country.

And I said, "How could you be optimistic about the country with Ronald Reagan in the White House and all the things that he's doing that are..."

Yeah.

Right.

Gosh, I'm trying to think back in 1981 or whatever it was, Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, two very opposite individuals, but they met every week and had dinner.

They had a

beer together and they were able to get things done in a divided Congress that today would just, I mean, is unfathomable.

And at the time, individual tax rates are quite high.

Reagan was president, and he had a history before he was president and before he was governor of California as a kind of B-list movie actor.

And he really didn't like facing the very high marginal tax rates in the period after World War II to where he was before he entered politics.

And so he had this kind of strong inclination to lower individual rates.

So in that season, a gold medal, national title, a third NCAA Coach of the Year award, an International Coach of the Year award, and then Mark gets invited to throw out the first pitch of World Series Game 4.

And later, the Team USA team is honored by President Reagan at the White House.

So all around a huge 1988 for Mark Marquis.

And 1988, obviously, the year we care about the most.

is it john hinkley jr i swear to fucking god i'm sure he would have interesting insights is all i'm saying

Does he want to review the fucking new Ronald Reagan Gorbachev Brokeback Mountain on an island movie? Probably.

I don't see why you'd say no.

Have you seen the ads for that?

the

Brokeback...

mountain thing is my own embellishment it just was giving me the the color palette of it was was giving me that vibe but there's a movie coming out where it's ronald reagan and gorbachev me in a cabin on like an island and negotiating shit

oh dude jk simmons is a part of this movie you're damn right i'm seeing it fucking it's gotta be

Trickle down economics has never worked ever.

Fuck you, Ronald Reagan.

So the next time somebody hands you a number with a plus sign in front of it and calls it good news for the whole community, ask who was in the room when they decided what the community gets to keep.

All right, let's get into the fucking new music, shall we? First up, we have Not Bad for New Jersey from Brian Fallon.

And whenever Sinatra needed Johnny to do something, of course Carson was going to say yes.

When Sinatra produced the Ronald Reagan inaugural in D.C., Johnny didn't want to do it.

But Sinatra asked him, and of course – Johnny said, okay, I'll do it.

He didn't want to, but Sinatra saved his life.