I was only eleven when Reagan was elected, but I remember two jokes that I think sum up how people felt about Reagan’s backstory.
From the pro-Reagan side: Why not an actor? We’ve had a clown for the last four years.
From the anti-Reagan side (and this one appeared in “Doonesbury”): I’m sure he’ll be every bit as good a President as he was an actor! (Understood: he wasn’t known as the finest actor Hollywood had ever seen, either.)
I was 17 when he was elected, and it kind of cemented my Holden Caulfield-ish perception that people suck.
It was utterly bizarre and surreal. I still can’t quite believe it happened.
That was a year or two after Reagan became president. The average Brit had no idea who he was before that. Though I do remember another *Not the Nine O’Clock News *sketch in which an aide standing behind a Reagan-esque president during a press conference became so exasperated with the president’s stupidity that he started prompting him with his own increasingly ridiculous lines, culminating in “it’s incredible, isn’t it, … that a cretin such as this … should be elected President of the United States of America”. All of which were parroted verbatim by the president.
I was a senior in high school when Reagan was elected. It didn’t seem weird to me, given that Reagan’s predecessor Carter had been a peanut farmer and Carter’s predecessor Ford had been immortalized on SNL by Chevy Chase for falling down a lot.
I’m not an older doper, but I will add that Reagan was percieved as a complete joke in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPiN7ZfhJVc
At school he managed an A, a B and a C, but the rest of the alphabet eluded him.
This is super rich, especially since it isn’t meant sarcastically. So rich on so many levels. A level of red baiting that had not been seen since Eisenhower was too fucking cowardly to stop Joe McCarthy started coming back into style. Enormous deficits were started in the Reagan era, shifting taxes to the poorest, attacking unions and shifting jobs overseas while rewarding corporations that did it. Reagan was like W, but he could read lines and stay on script.
Similar to what others have said, I first learned of him as a politician, and was a little surprised to find out later that he’d been an actor, so not really weird. I was born in 1959, and first became interested in politics during the 1968 campaign. My parents always voted Republican, and I remember Reagan being discussed as a possible nominee.
A few years later, we were watching a western movie on late night TV named “Law and Order”. When I saw the credits, I exclaimed, “Ronald Reagan?!”, and my mom said, “Yep, that’s the same guy”.
I remember later hearing people older than I commenting that it was a little ‘weird’ to see an actor elected to political office. Singer/songwriter Tom Lehrer sang satirically about former actor George Murphy’s entering politics. Spencer Tracy once quipped, “Before they get any more actors into politics, they ought to remember who the guy was that shot Lincoln”.
I was 15 in 1980 and that too was my feeling to when he was elected in 1980. However, for people older than me like my parents and relatives, it was a strange (and, for some, a rather frightening) experience. By that time, serving two full terms as governor of California had given Reagan sufficient political experience but there was still considerable doubt about his mental acumen given his age (he was the oldest man elected president) and his seemingly superficial manner.
I was two when he was elected, and didn’t learn he was an actor until I saw Back to the Future and Doc was like, “Ronald Reagan, the actor?!?!”
I was amazed when he was even suggested as a presidential candidate. He was a crappy actor . That is not much of a legacy to build on. He was a jerk governor too.
When he gave the speech about taking the foot of regulation off the neck of business, I knew we were fucked.
I liked that Nancy Reagan asked Roslyn Carter to move out of the White House before Jimmy’s term was done. That was weird and ballsy. It was also worrisome that she was listening to an astrologer and then influencing Ronald.
Personally, I had never lost my belief in America and I never needed anyone to restore it for me.
[Moderator Note]Once again and for the last time, we are not going down this road. Stick to the subject outlined in the OP, or get cited.[/Moderator Note]
I thought I was. I was truly adding what I thought was weird being Nancy was part of the package. Since it’s to hard to figure what the mods will take a comment to be in this thread I promise to not post a single additional thing to this one. Don’t get offended by this either. I’m just explaining i thought I was on safe ground.
he wasn’t a good actor. he was a good tv host where short sincere sounding statements are very important.
I thought of him as an “acting president”. His cabinet took over quickly.
His press conferences were extremely specific. His handlers did not want him to go off script. They never knew what he would say. They were short, on point and questions had to be on subject. Occasionally he would go on a tangent terrifying his people. It was amusing when he did start talking.
I suspect the alzheimers started earlier that the Repubs want to admit.
I voted against Reagan in both of his elections. But I can’t say him winning in 1980 felt weird to me, as he was already so well established as a successful politician by that time. It did feel somewhat embarrassing though.
The other joke I recall was “I’m not a president, but I play one on TV.” (A takeoff on commercials that had an actor playing a doctor, who would make a similar disclaimer.)
It was both weird and depressing. It still is. When he won a second term, those feelings increased exponentially.
But I will say I think he acted throughout his Presidency; kinda like playing house.