DEATH VALLEY DAYS
After 58 motion pictures over twenty-seven years, fading screen actor Ronald Reagan took his last dramatic turn for two seasons as the Old Ranger on the TV show Death Valley Days in 1964-65.
Starting his adult life as a New Deal Roosevelt Democrat in the 1930's, Reagan became more and more conservative as he became wealthy and successful first as an actor, then as an tough talking corporate spokesman for General Electric. Governmental regulation and fair taxation which fueled the world's largest economy after the Great Depression, became the bogeymen of this zealous promoter of minimal domestic government, low taxation and deregulation of business. Reagan was so slick at his new craft that he parlayed his soothing voice, movie star good looks and conservative charisma to the Presidency in 1980, just twelve years after winning his only other two elections as Governor of California.
I first observed Reagan as the befuddled professor in the 1951 movie, "Bedtime For Bonzo", which became the hallmark of his fading acting career. He then became ubiquitous on TV, first as the host of GE Theater preceding his last hurrah as the Old Ranger. Fast forward fifteen years and there was Reagan winning the Presidency and becoming one of the few transformational leaders of the 20th Century. Sadly, it was not a transformation for the better. I stared in disbelief as President Reagan proclaimed, "Government is not the solution, it is the problem". My working class folks prospered under the New Deal and I applauded as an activist Supreme Court and an aggressive executive branch and Congress provided civil rights for my darker hued American brothers and sisters. Reagan's governmental bogeyman wasn't mine.
Gee, if government was such a problem why would men like Reagan lust so mightily to control it. It didn't take long to find out. The Reagan Revolution involved loosening the sensible regulations which kept big business and old fashioned greed from undoing the social compact. The second phase involved poking holes in the safety net for the less fortunate like saboteurs at a high wire act. In short, the Reagan Revolution meant to kill the very New Deal reforms and benefits that a young, idealistic Reagan championed.
With an eight year respite during a Clinton presidency that straightened out our social priorities while building a budgetary surplus, the Reagan Revolution has dominated the last twenty-eight years. The Bush administration which limps to the finish line with abysmally low support and calamitous problems to solve, has practiced Reagan's philosophy with a vengeance.
And if the Old Ranger turned on TV today in the Hereafter, he might surmise, upon seeing the meltdown of our economy from an unfettered and utterly glutinous business class set loose by lobbyist controlled leaders, that he stumbled upon an fresh episode of "Death Valley Days".
Starting his adult life as a New Deal Roosevelt Democrat in the 1930's, Reagan became more and more conservative as he became wealthy and successful first as an actor, then as an tough talking corporate spokesman for General Electric. Governmental regulation and fair taxation which fueled the world's largest economy after the Great Depression, became the bogeymen of this zealous promoter of minimal domestic government, low taxation and deregulation of business. Reagan was so slick at his new craft that he parlayed his soothing voice, movie star good looks and conservative charisma to the Presidency in 1980, just twelve years after winning his only other two elections as Governor of California.
I first observed Reagan as the befuddled professor in the 1951 movie, "Bedtime For Bonzo", which became the hallmark of his fading acting career. He then became ubiquitous on TV, first as the host of GE Theater preceding his last hurrah as the Old Ranger. Fast forward fifteen years and there was Reagan winning the Presidency and becoming one of the few transformational leaders of the 20th Century. Sadly, it was not a transformation for the better. I stared in disbelief as President Reagan proclaimed, "Government is not the solution, it is the problem". My working class folks prospered under the New Deal and I applauded as an activist Supreme Court and an aggressive executive branch and Congress provided civil rights for my darker hued American brothers and sisters. Reagan's governmental bogeyman wasn't mine.
Gee, if government was such a problem why would men like Reagan lust so mightily to control it. It didn't take long to find out. The Reagan Revolution involved loosening the sensible regulations which kept big business and old fashioned greed from undoing the social compact. The second phase involved poking holes in the safety net for the less fortunate like saboteurs at a high wire act. In short, the Reagan Revolution meant to kill the very New Deal reforms and benefits that a young, idealistic Reagan championed.
With an eight year respite during a Clinton presidency that straightened out our social priorities while building a budgetary surplus, the Reagan Revolution has dominated the last twenty-eight years. The Bush administration which limps to the finish line with abysmally low support and calamitous problems to solve, has practiced Reagan's philosophy with a vengeance.
And if the Old Ranger turned on TV today in the Hereafter, he might surmise, upon seeing the meltdown of our economy from an unfettered and utterly glutinous business class set loose by lobbyist controlled leaders, that he stumbled upon an fresh episode of "Death Valley Days".
posted by Walt Zlotow at 8:33 AM
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