Reaganland

 I just finished “Reganland,” the third and longest book in the trilogy by Rick Perlstein that began with “Nixonland,” followed by “The Invisible Bridge.” Reaganland begins with Nixon’s resignation and the short presidency of Gerald Ford, the only American president who was neither elected president nor vice president. The book takes us through the 1976 presidential nomination, which Reagan contested and nearly took from Ford, and the surprising nomination and election of Jimmy Carter. This was the first presidential election I got to vote in.

The Carter presidency was cursed with “stagflation,” and near the end with the Iranian hostage crisis. The latter was self-inflicted when Carter let the Shah into the country for cancer treatment and Iranian students invaded the US embassy. The story Perlstein tells make it seem as though the students were like the dog that catches the car: they didn’t expect to be successful in taking over the embassy and they didn’t plan to take captives. The Iranian government was nonexistent, so there was no one for the Carter administration to negotiate with. The Ayatolla was indifferent. But Reagan and his handlers were able to exploit the crisis, and the media played along.

Reagan comes off here pretty much like I perceived him at the time: an intellectual lightweight with a well-honed understanding of how to play for the camera and how to repeat endlessly the same simple messages, no matter the situation. Carter was the engineer, anxious to grasp and explain the details and to urge solutions, no matter how painful. Taming double-digit inflation resulted in huge job losses. Dealing with energy shortages meant putting up with cold houses in the winter, less air conditioning in the summer and a 55 mph highway speed limit. Played against the endless stream of bad news from the Carter administration, Reagan simple promised the tooth fairy nostrum of tax cuts and supply-side economics to pay for them (they didn’t). Reagan lied endlessly about his record of advocating privatizing Social Security and calling Medicare “communism.” When Carter tried to challenge him, Reagan just smirked “there you go again,” knowing that ‘if you’re explaining, you’re losing.’

Even so, the gaffes on both sides made the election neck and neck until near the end, where Reagan won in a landslide of votes for people who simply wanted a change. Ironically, one of the groups that came out in support of Reagan was the Air Traffic Controllers union. Another irony was Reagan’s charging Carter with wanting to trade arms for hostages in Iran. A few years later, Reagan sold arms to Iran to bypass congressional prohibition of funding the Nicaraguan Contras.

This was the most difficult of the three books for me, not because of the writing, which is excellent, but because I recall this period—I was in college and grad school—very well. Like many Democrats, I was disappointed in Carter, but saw Reagan for the huckster phony he was at the time and would prove to be throughout his two terms. That said, I did something I’ve been ashamed of ever since—I voted for Anderson instead of Carter. I believed at the time that Carter would win North Carolina anyway (which proved to be wrong) and so voted for Anderson to “send a message” for Carter’s second term. I will never vote for a 3rd party candidate again.

Rebecca got me all three books, and I enjoyed reading all three. I’m a history buff and a political junky, so thoroughly enjoyed the subject matter. And as I said, Perlstein’s writing is excellent. If you share my enthusiasms, these books will repay the effort.