The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness

MICHAEL REAGAN is the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan. He serves on the board for the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation and has authored many successful books, including his bestselling autobiography, On the Outside Looking In. He lives with his wife and two children in California. From 1992 until just recently, he was heard daily by over five million listeners via his nationally syndicated talk radio program, The Michael Reagan Show.

JIM DENNEY has written over eighty books and collaborated with many authors, including Michael Reagan on The City on a Hill and The Common Sense of an Uncommon Man: The Wit, Wisdom and Eternal Optimism of Ronald Reagan.

One
 
The Right Man at the Wrong Time
 
Whether they have the freedoms that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here.
In 1976, my father, Ronald Reagan, took on a seemingly impossible challenge: He attempted to unseat the incumbent president of his own party, Gerald Ford.
After a number of early primary losses, Ronald Reagan battled back with a string of victories in major states. By the end of the primary race, he had garnered more popular votes than Ford, though fewer committed delegates. It finally came down to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, August 16 to 19. My father had made such a strong showing that if he could convince a small number of delegates to switch, he could wrest the nomination from President Ford.
I had never been to a political convention before, and it was the thrill of a lifetime to sit in the Reagan family skybox at the Kemper Arena. I also got to visit many state delegations, along with my sister Maureen, to say a few words and shake hands.
Maureen campaigned tirelessly for Dad in the 1976 primaries. She looked forward to the convention and expected to be a Reagan delegate from California. As the candidate and former California governor, Dad could appoint people to the California delegation. Of course, there are always more people clamoring for delegate passes than there are slots available. When we arrived at the convention, Dad had one delegate appointment left in his pocket—and Maureen wanted it.
She went to Dad and begged, “Please appoint me as a delegate! I’ve just got to be on the convention floor!” She wanted to be the one to announce, “The great State of California proudly casts all its votes for its favorite son, Ronald Wilson Reagan!”
But Dad turned her down. “I’m giving the last delegate seat to Moon,” he said, referring to his older brother, John Neil “Moon” Reagan.
Maureen was livid! She was so angry, I thought she would leave the convention. “That’s not fair!” she said. “I campaigned hard for you, Dad! I’ve earned the right to be on the delegation!”
It was all true—but Dad’s mind was made up. “Merm,” he said (using the nickname she’d had since childhood), “you’ll be around a long time. But look how old Moon is! He might not be here in four years.”
To hear Dad say it, Neil had one foot in the grave and the other on a roller skate—though, at sixty-eight, Neil was only three years older than Dad. (As it turned out, Neil had a lot more years left in him.) Dad appointed Neil to the California delegation in 1976—and Maureen got over her disappointment in time to lead the delegation in 1980.
There’s nothing like the electricity of a political convention. Even when nothing is happening onstage, the delegates find ways to keep things stirred up. The Texas delegation and the California delegation were on opposite sides of the convention hall, and both were firmly in the Reagan camp. From one end of the hall, the Californians shouted, “ˇViva!” From the other, the Texans shouted back, “ˇOlé!” Back and forth they chanted, louder and louder, until the rafters shook and you could feel the roar of the crowd in your stomach.
Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican, had declined to be President Ford’s running mate in the upcoming election. “Rocky” headed the New York delegation and controlled the convention behind the scenes. It was a huge headache for him, because he got hundreds of phone calls from politicians wanting to make deals. At one point, he ripped out the phone and threw it across the convention floor, shouting, “Quit calling me!”
I never cease to be amazed at the games people play. During the nomination proceedings on Wednesday night, I was scheduled to escort Nancy to our seats. It was to be her grand entrance, and she would receive a huge ovation from the delegates. But First Lady Betty Ford was apparently planning to wait for the moment Nancy made her entrance—then Mrs. Ford would make her own entrance and upstage Nancy.
Well, I was oblivious to all this scheming—guys don’t think that way. But Maureen somehow knew what Mrs. Ford was about to do. So, as I was about to escort Nancy down the aisle, Maureen stood and waved to the California delegation. When she did that, the California delegates shouted “ˇViva!” So, of course, the Texas delegates shouted back, “ˇOlé!”
Hearing the commotion, Betty Ford must have thought Nancy was making her entrance—so, of course, she made her own entrance. The delegates cheered and applauded as Betty Ford came down the aisle and took her seat, apparently thinking she had one-upped the Reagans.
But when the applause died down, Nancy made her real entrance while Betty Ford stared openmouthed. (Merm, darlin’, that was sheer genius!)
There was a huge groundswell of support for Ronald Reagan at the convention. Though most delegates were bound by convention rules to vote for President Ford on the first ballot, some would have switched to Reagan if the rules could be changed. When the Reagan camp lost the rules fight, we knew Ford had won. As Dad later observed, “Where delegates had freedom to vote, we did well. Defeat came in those three [northeast] states where the party structure controlled the vote and I suspect ‘Rocky’ controlled the party structure.”1
In the end, Ronald Reagan fell just short of the 1,130 votes needed to nominate, collecting 47.4 percent of the votes. The final tally was 1,187 for Ford versus 1,070 for Reagan. It was the first time I had ever seen my father lose at anything.
He Said “Nyet”
Ronald Reagan came from a generation in which parents never let their kids see them in a moment of weakness. He never showed that side of himself to me or my siblings. For example, I didn’t learn until years later that in the early 1950s he spent a couple of weeks as a floor show emcee at the El Rancho hotel in Las Vegas because he couldn’t get decent movie roles.
So it was strange and surreal to see my father in a moment of defeat.
After Dad lost the rules fight, we had dinner together in the suite. Seated at the head of the table, Dad said, “We’re going to the convention tonight, but you need to know I’m not going to win the nomination. The delegates just aren’t there.” Maureen and I already knew this, but Dad wanted to forewarn the entire family.
Despite having to be the bearer of bad tidings, my father was his usual upbeat self. Nancy, however, was teary-eyed throughout the meal. The harder Dad tried to keep things light and convivial, the more melancholy Nancy became.
After dinner, Nancy gathered us around the fireplace and poured champagne. Then she raised her glass and, with a tremor in her voice, proposed a toast to Dad.
We clinked our glasses and drank. Then Nancy added haltingly, “I’m sorry I pushed you into this, Ronnie. I really thought you would win. But no matter what happens, we still have each other.”
It was as if she felt the loss was her fault. I had never seen Nancy so vulnerable before.
I know a lot of people think Nancy was the power behind the throne. It’s true, she has a strong personality. Nancy believed that her Ronnie could truly make the right kind of difference in the world. She was probably convinced she was in control of the situation.
Dad gave Nancy control of the house and all the domestic and social matters. He depended on her in so many ways. But when it came to politics, Ronald Reagan was his own man. He knew his own mind, had his own values and strong inner core—and he had his own reasons for wanting the presidency.
So when Nancy took the blame for the loss, Dad smiled, took her hand, and said, “I love you. There’s no one to blame. We gave it a good run, and that’s all there is to say.”
That was what Nancy needed to hear—what all of us needed to hear.
On the final day of the convention, the Reagan family gathered once again with Dad in his hotel suite, waiting for Gerald Ford to arrive. We hoped that President Ford would ask Dad to be his running mate. Maureen and I prayed that Dad would accept the offer because we thought he’d never get this close to the presidency again.
While we waited, I took my father aside in a corner of the room, just the two of us, and asked, “What are you thinking about, Dad?”
“Michael,” he said wistfully, “the thing I’ll miss most by losing this nomination is that I won’t get to say ‘nyet’ to Mr. Brezhnev. I really wanted to win the presidency in November because I was looking forward to arms negotiations with the Soviets. For too many years, American presidents have been sitting down with the Soviets, and the Soviets have been telling us what we will have to give up to get along with the Soviet Union. I was going to let the general secretary of the Soviet Union choose the place, the room, the shape of the table, and the chairs, because that’s how they do those things. And I was going to listen to him tell me what we would have to give up to get along with them. Then I was going to get up from the table while he was still talking, walk around to the other side, and whisper in his ear, ‘Nyet.’ It’s been a long time since they’ve heard ‘Nyet’ from an American president.”
Ten years later, in October 1986, President Ronald Reagan went to Reykjavík, Iceland, for a summit with Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. Topping the agenda was strategic arms control and the proposed Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Just as my father expected, Mr. Gorbachev demanded that the U.S. give up the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)...