The Reagans (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Part 3 - The Great Undoing - full transcript
The triumph of both Reagans is explored as Ronald sets about undoing the New Deal and Great Society, setting off a political chain reaction that reverberates to this day. Nancy struggles with her image, as does Ronald.
[horse blustering]
[indistinct chatter]
[chatter continues]
[man] What time is it?
Depends.
[man] Okay. Bring him on.
Dramatic music plays
[Ronald] Good morning.
[man] Typical California
weather.
Yes, since this is the first day
of this kind of weather of fog
since we've been here,
I shall refrain from saying
that you're all responsible.
[laughter]
Western dramatic music plays
[Ronald]
That is the tax program.
They are signed,
and now all we have to do
is implement them.
This is the budget deal,
and this is the tax program,
but I think they represent
and mark an end to
the excessive growth
in government bureaucracy
and government spending,
government taxing.
[dog panting]
And we're getting...
No, no, the bill's passed.
You can't do anything about it.
[dog whines]
[panting]
Victory.
[woman] Will you still be able
to balance the budget in '84?
[Ronald] Well,
this has always been our goal.
Millie won't hurt you.
[laughter]
[Ronald] Lassie.
Oh, Lassie... Millie.
[laughter]
[Lear] When Ronald Reagan
was running for the presidency,
I hired Robert Scheer to travel
with him, side-by-side.
Suspenseful music plays
Robert Scheer was
the toughest journalist I knew
in terms
of an investigative journalist.
Reagan was answering everything
with a kind of simplicity.
You came to a place
where his likeability
was more important
than his lack of an answer.
If you reduce
the extravagant size
and cost
to the federal government,
you're going to have the money
to do the things,
to build the defense
that we need
because you're going to have
a far more prosperous nation.
[Scheer]
He was pretty comfortable
with his understanding
of politics at that point.
He knew what he believed,
and Reagan was, uh,
a consummate salesman.
The biggest obstacle
to efficient service
to the poor and the needy
is Washington.
[Scheer] Everybody else
wants to talk about the polls.
They wanna talk about
who's winning, who's losing.
Nobody wants to talk about
whether it's good
for the country, what they do,
what the issues are,
and, uh, why do these people
like Ronald Reagan?
I mean, personally I think
he's okay, but why do they want
Ronald Reagan
to be their president?
I think it's a fascinating
thing to look into, you know?
Today, I wanna talk
about the decline
in the American standard
of living.
[Will] In 1980,
the country was depressed,
was in a bad mood,
it had had a long bad patch.
[Reporter]
Today, for the first time,
President Carter admitted
we are in a recession,
and he said it's going to cause
pain and disruption
for a lot of Americans
before it's over.
I would like Mr. Carter
to explain to me,
why the inflation is as high
as it is,
why unemployment is what it is.
[Stahl] So many people
were out of work,
we had just had gas lines.
The economy
was really suffering,
It was a very dark time.
[Alter] Reagan saw that
as an opportunity to run
as an upbeat, sunny candidate,
he was able to fuse optimism
and patriotism.
[crowd cheering]
At the period of time
that he was running,
his message, his belief system
was resonating.
No problem that we face today
can compare with a need
to restore the health
of the American economy
and the strength
of the American dollar.
[Baker] The principles
and values he embraced
were conservative
Republican principles...
Lower taxes, stronger defense,
freedom of the individual,
small government.
[Norquist] To call yourself
a Reagan Republican
is to say,
"We're gonna rein in spending
and limit the size and scope
of government."
"So you wanna abolish
government?"
No, I don't wanna abolish
government.
I wanna make it so small,
you could drag it
in the bathroom
and drown it in the bathtub,
that small,
small as a bathtub, okay?
Very small.
[Ronald] And the leadership
that I envision
would be to take the lead
in getting government off
the backs of the people
of the United States
and turning you loose to do
what you can do so well.
Small government message
was always code
for more money in your pocket.
That was a strong message.
[Shearer] It seemed like
a painless economic policy...
Cut government
and get out of the way,
and everybody will get
wealthy together
but it was a cover for privilege
and corporate power.
[crowd chanting]
militaristic music plays
[Cronkite] Good morning.
Ronald Reagan is just about
to become the 40th President
of these United States.
[sirens wailing]
[man] The motorcade
is beginning to roll
toward Capitol Hill, Walter.
[man] I think what struck
both of us...
The contrast and the crowd.
[man] Just four years ago,
Jimmy Carter tried to run
a populist,
a people's inauguration,
today, the emphasis was upon
a different approach.
They made no excuse
of the fact that the rich folks
were here and the...
And the wealthy Republicans.
They were having a good time.
This was their day in the...
In the sun.
You could look out
across that crowd
and see
very, very few minorities.
[trumpets playing
triumphant music]
[Lopez] For Ronald Reagan,
the point of power
was to convince Americans
to turn against government,
to build popular support
for policies
that ultimately helped
corporations and the very rich.
[band playing Hail to the Chief]
[cannon firing]
[Lopez] One way to do that
was to describe government
as a threat to all of us.
In this present crisis,
government is not the solution
to our problem.
Government is the problem.
[Shearer] That was
an incredibly influential
bit of political propaganda.
Government is the problem.
Because on the face of it,
it's absolutely not true.
It's a myth,
but it's a convenient myth
for the powerful.
[Wiley] This rhetoric
about small government
represented a concerted
strategic effort
by the wealthy to expand
their wealth and their power
and their privilege
and convince the American public
that it was good for them.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
the President
of the United States
and Mrs. Reagan.
[Kelley]
They had in Ronald Reagan
the perfect vehicle
to take their gospel forward.
But he wasn't just
a Manchurian Candidate.
He believed it.
[cheers and applause]
[Alter] Reagan's presidency
marked a turning point
in American politics.
It represented a massive shift
of economic power
in the country.
A toast.
[applause]
serious music plays
[Brinkley] Have you thought
about the fact
that the last president
who tried really seriously
to change the course
of the American economy
in a substantial way
was Franklin Roosevelt in 1933?
No one has tried since then?
Well, without saying anything
about those who followed,
it is true, and isn't it
somewhat comparative today
that he came in at a kind
of watershed time
when the people said
"We cannot continue
on this path.
We have to try something"?
And he was willing, uh, to try.
[birds chirping]
calm orchestral music plays
[man]
The atmosphere has changed.
Sure, there's still a good deal
of unemployment around,
but now many who are working
have the five-day week,
and more important,
the feeling
of imminent disaster,
the fear of economic collapse
is gone.
[FDR] I pledge myself
to a New Deal
for the American people.
[crowd cheering]
[Alter] To help the country
in the Great Depression,
President Roosevelt proposed
a new social contract...
A New Deal between the people
and the government.
[Lopez] FDR understood
that the economy is outside
of the control
of any one individual,
so we need government
to actively intervene
in the marketplace
to help all of us.
[Wiley] It was investments
in things like
unemployment insurance,
Social Security,
mortgage lending backed
by the federal government,
the creation of labor unions...
Those are the things
that created the middle class.
[Johnson]
Prior to The Great Depression,
most Americans were poor.
The only middle class
in America were people
who had businesses,
who owned shops.
It was literally the New Deal
that gave America
the opportunity
to build a middle class.
[Shearer] Ronald Reagan's family
was supported
and helped by New Deal programs,
as were millions of Americans.
[man] I have the sense
that not everything
that has happened
since the New Deal is bad,
and I can't believe
that you think everything is...
You can't believe
that unemployment...
- No.
- ...Insurance and...
No. But what I have to say is
that some of those things
would be done better
at the private sector.
Some could be done better
at the local sector.
But what's good
that they've done?
Come on.
[Scheer] The whole point
of that interview
is he's denying
his own family's experience,
that government intervention
certainly was essential,
and he became a hypocrite.
We spread across
this land building farms
and towns and cities
and we did it
without any federal land
planning program
or urban renewal.
[Lopez]
One of the foundational myths
of the United States
is always the frontier...
[horse blusters]
the rugged individual
who took care of himself,
and what it said was real men
don't need government.
They'll stand on their own
two feet,
and if they fail...
they'll have the virtue
to die quietly
without complaining.
But the frontier
was never that way.
The frontier
was a collective enterprise.
[motor sputters]
[buzzing]
[Cannon] What is missing
from the picture
is what the government did,
particularly the building
of the railroad,
which is what opens the West,
but also telegraph lines,
and all sorts of infrastructure
that no individuals,
no matter how brave or rugged,
could've constructed
on their own.
Both of these, look,
both of them
dead up there where...
Where it counts.
[Alter] All the things
that government did
were just sort of kissed off
by Reagan.
[man] What gives this
administration its cache
are Ronald Reagan's beliefs,
which grew and matured
in America
which no longer exists
or exists only in his mind,
that hard work
and self-reliance, for instance,
will inevitably produce
personal success,
satisfaction, and wealth.
Reagan was committed
to promoting the message
that we're all on our own,
whether you succeed
or whether you fail.
[Wiley]
That was so incredibly cruel,
and it drives
Reagan's narrative of
"We pulled ourselves up
by our bootstraps.
Wow come
you don't have any boots?"
[man] United States.
[camera shutters clicking]
How do you do?
[Stahl] The first time
I actually saw him in person
was right in front
of the press corps
and we all kind of melted.
We were all little puddles
on the floor.
He also had
more wrinkles up close
than the camera picked up.
The camera loved this man.
And a little bit
of frailty to him.
He wasn't as hardy and healthy
as he seemed on television,
but when he went on television,
he was the actor,
and he was playing
a vigorous president.
[indistinct chatter]
dramatic music plays
[Parvin] Mrs. Reagan
was not as comfortable
as President Reagan,
and she didn't convey
the same personality
that he did.
So she had some things
in that regard
that she needed to overcome.
I wait,
and I think I have to wait.
[Stahl] I once took a trip
with the President
and on the plane coming home,
Nancy Reagan...
She was telling jokes
and being a little sarcastic.
And she was hilarious.
Hilarious.
So I said, "I have to have
an interview with her,
and the public has to see this."
And they gave me an interview,
eventually.
And no, what she gave me
was the public presentation.
She seemed stiff.
She seemed as if she didn't
have a real personality.
She was an actor, too, but not...
She couldn't reach down
the way the President could.
[man] That's great.
[man] Just looking right
at me like that.
Oh, sure.
[camera shutter clicks]
serious music playing
[man] I'm gonna stick
with just a drink.
- Bran and flakes?
- Not all bran.
Bran and flakes,
if you got it on the bananas.
Suspenseful music plays
[Baker] Priority one
for the Reagan administration
after the inauguration in 1981
was the economic situation,
and we decided we were gonna be
very tough about that.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
Good morning, all.
Everyone looks
very bright and happy.
Okay.
The agenda is mainly concerned
with the economic program,
though try not to smile
too much.
[laughter]
I have to say that I am not one
to shrink from a tough task,
but I must also say
that the goals that you gave us
are extraordinarily difficult
to reconcile,
but I'm pleased to report today
that we're almost there.
When President Reagan
was elected,
his centerpiece economic promise
was a large tax cut.
[Lopez]
Reagan had a story to tell.
He said, "We have to cut taxes
for the very rich
and wealthy corporations.
Trust me, that money
is gonna trickle down
to all the rest of you,"
the idea being
that the very rich
from all that they would save
would invest more,
would spend more,
and then everybody
would be better off.
This was an idea that had been
debunked for decades.
He's promising
to cut taxes by 30%
and balance the budget
and increase defense spending
and stop inflation
all at the same time.
[Shearer] When George Bush
ran for president in 1980,
he referred to Reaganomics
as black magic.
What I call
a voodoo economic policy...
But of course,
he couldn't say that
once he became Vice President.
[woman] The President has been
lobbying Congress by telephone.
- Hello?
- But with each day,
his opponents are gaining time
to effect the outcome.
I don't see a compromise
out there.
But are we still working
for a compromise? Yes.
[woman] Mr. President!
President Reagan!
- Mr. Reagan! [gunshot]
ominous music playing
[man] Lyn Nofziger told
reporters at the hospital
the president was not wounded.
He was wounded. Oh, God!
- He was... the President was hit?
- [man] He's stable.
He is in stable condition,
all this information...
[man] How do you feel?
How do you feel?
Great.
[man] Reagan
was unquestionably helped
in his drive for his fundamental
domestic policy of tax cuts
by the fact that he got shot.
[man] It was in the early months
of his first term.
[Khachigian] Just about a month
after his assassination attempt,
he gave his speech
before the joint session
of the Congress.
The intention was in this speech
was to take advantage
of the situation
and write the speech
in such a way as to,
sort of, manipulate the Congress
to get them
to do our bidding.
- I have a letter with me.
[papers rustle]
Letter came from Peter Sweeney.
He's in the second grade,
and he said,
"I hope you'll get well quick,
or you might have to make
a speech in your pajamas."
[laughter]
[applause]
[Ron Jr.] How do you thwart
somebody who has just reacted
so courageously to being shot
and nearly killed,
you know, become this, sort of
figure in the public's eye?
You know, if he wants a tax cut,
we'll do the tax cut, okay.
White House officials
can see their growing worry
that the President's
economic package
is being perceived
as too rough on the poor.
[Shearer]
The 1981 Reagan tax cut
was the most significant
redistribution of income
since the 1930s
in the Depression.
[Johnson] Almost immediately
after the tax cuts,
the government
was running out of money,
and even
his own economic advisors
understood that
that tax cut had gone too far.
[man] Federal Reserve Chairman
Volcker warned
the Reagan administration
and Congress that efforts
to revive the economy
would falter
unless the budget deficit
is reduced.
[Stahl] People around him...
They said you have to start
raising taxes again,
but because he had set
this goal,
he really balked at it.
Eventually, he did.
He raised taxes many times.
But if you tell a Republican
that he raised taxes today,
'cause this has happened to me,
they'll say, "You're a liar."
He somehow made us forget that.
It was proof
that he was a great actor,
that he could make us
forget that.
[applause]
[band playing Hail to the Chief]
[Stahl] There was a great deal
of opulence around the Reagans.
In terms of their values,
they seemed
to be quite different
from the average Americans.
They'd come from not just
Hollywood but Beverly Hills.
There was a display of wealth.
It wasn't just
that they had money.
They had to display it.
And Nancy Reagan projected that.
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks.
[Kelley]
She came to the White House,
and it was like
Sacramento again.
"This is a dump.
I can't live here.
The dishes are terrible.
[ laughs ] Everything is awful."
dramatic music plays
[Tumulty] She sets about
to redecorate the White House...
Something that Jackie Kennedy
had done in the Camelot era
and had been acclaimed for,
but this isn't Camelot.
Mrs. Kennedy
went after historical aspects
and made the White House
a museum.
[man]
Can you make these changes,
uh, according to your own
personal tastes and desires?
Well, no, I, uh,
have a committee,
which has museum experts
and government people
and private citizens on it.
And then everything we do
is subject to approval
by the Fine Arts Committee.
[Kelley] With Nancy,
most of the money went
into the second and third floors
in the White House,
which are not public rooms.
This was interpreted
as making the White House
better for herself.
[woman] The country is headed
into the worst recession
since The Great Depression,
and as the Reagan administration
is cutting social programs,
as people are really struggling
in their own lives,
they see the First Lady
redecorating,
renovating the White House.
It was really tone-deaf.
Some people say
if the poor family
on food stamps
has to tighten its belt,
wouldn't it be a good example
for the Reagans
to tighten their belt?
We've tightened our belts
in many ways.
How?
Well, we're not making
any money here. [laughs]
[jet engine whirring]
[man] 5 Golf, Yankee,
standby 120.
Course runway 22 out at Foxtrot,
right in ground point on.
[Wiley] Reagan understood
that part
of supporting corporate power
was going
after the labor movement.
[chanting] The workers united
will never be defeated.
[man] Air traffic controllers
defied court orders
grounding half the nation's
commercial airline flights.
[Wiley] If it weren't
for the union movement,
we wouldn't have
the 40-hour work week.
We wouldn't have benefits
on the job like healthcare.
[Alter] When he was running
for President,
Reagan could make it seem
like he shared
the interest
and especially the values
of union members
and blue collar workers.
And so he was able to say,
"I'm one of you."
I happen to be
the only president
of a union
ever to be a candidate
for President
of the United States.
[cheers and applause]
[Lopez] Reagan turns
against the idea of unions
as he shifts his alliance
to corporations,
to capital, to big employers,
to big money.
The union representing
those who man America's
air traffic control facilities
called a strike.
They are in violation
of the law,
and if they do not report
for work within 48 hours,
they have forfeited their jobs
and will be terminated.
End of statement.
[Baker] He fired 'em.
It's what they deserved,
and it was a wonderful thing
that he did
politically and substantively.
After that, he looked powerful.
[Stahl] In terms of his image,
he looked very strong,
but it was unbelievable
because they were...
They were the people
who kept the planes in the air.
And it just devastated
the union movement.
That is when the union started
to go into decline.
[Shearer] It was a clear signal
that Reagan
was not gonna support
any pro-labor legislation.
He was gonna change
the equation.
He was gonna support
the rise of corporate power.
[Stahl] Once the workers
lost power,
they lost power to hold on
to real economic gains
for themselves.
I can't believe the government
is doing this to us,
I don't think we're getting
a fair deal out of it,
but, uh, we're gonna stick
with it till the end.
If they won't make
his working conditions better,
maybe it's for the best.
Dramatic music plays
[camera shutters clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Ronald] Hi.
Everybody on and ready here?
Yeah? Hmm...
Well, we've been a long time.
We've been decades coming
to the point where we are.
And you're not going
to cure this overnight.
And of course,
the budget cuts in government,
uh, are going to be felt
as they begin
to take place
in the 1982 budget year
that begins October 1st.
[Stahl] When the budget
was seen by everybody,
people realized,
he was cutting social programs.
He was cutting programs
for poor people.
We were in recession,
and it seemed out of sync
with what was going on
in the country.
It was shocking.
[Bill] The President
and Congress have chosen
not to offend the rich,
the powerful,
and the organized.
It is easier
to take on the weak.
Social programs were cut
almost $30 billion this year.
The burden falls most heavily
on the poor,
and some of the truly needy
are truly hurting.
These programs
are a life support system.
For many,
we are pulling the plug.
[woman] I'd like to, um,
apply for food stamps.
[man] President Reagan
cut Medicaid,
cut aid to families
with dependent children,
student lunches,
the food stamp program,
and other New Deal programs
that the most vulnerable
were benefitting from.
[Wiley] He cut things like
the ability for a single mom
to amass savings
over a thousand dollars.
So you actually saw women
spending savings
because they had no choice
but to try to preserve
their welfare checks.
It had the exact opposite effect
that it was supposed to have.
And it was deeply cruel to them
because it kept them on welfare.
[woman] And this is supposed
to be the land of opportunity.
It's not anymore. It's not
the land of opportunity.
It's the land for the rich,
and the poor can go to hell.
I keep remembering
what Milton Friedman once said,
"If you start paying
people to be poor,
there is going to be
a lot of poor people."
[Lopez] It's a story
that says to folks,
"You should hate government
because it's government
that is theoretically
reaching into your pockets
to take
your hard-earned dollars,
and giving it away
to these underserving people
of color.
So all of those social programs,
defund them,
because government's on the side
of these underserving people.
[woman]
Showing his sense of humor,
the president brought a knife
to this important
budget cutting session.
[Wiley] I'll never forget,
he did
this masterful performance.
He opens up the newspaper,
and he starts reading want ads.
I made it a point to count
the pages of help wanted ads.
In this time
of great unemployment,
there were 24 full pages
of classified ads of employers
looking for employees.
And it was a great manipulation
that told the American public,
if they are not working,
they just don't wanna work.
[applause]
At the same time,
Reagan is choking
and gutting programs
that were trying
to expand opportunity.
The Reagan administration
this afternoon
unveiled its controversial
new china policy,
4,372 pieces of new china
arrived in time
for tonight's formal dinner
for President Mubarak.
[Mubarak] Let me first
congratulate Mrs. Reagan
for the new china,
which is very elegant
and very beautiful.
[Tumulty]
Nancy Reagan decides to buy
a $1,000 a place setting china.
This is announced
on the very same day
that the Reagan administration
announces that for the purposes
of the School Lunch Program,
they are going to classify
ketchup as a vegetable.
Somebody got overambitious
in the bureaucracy
with their ketchup
for a vegetable,
and we had to pull back
on some regulations
that were suggested.
The timing couldn't
have been worse.
[reporter] $1 billion dollars
may be cut nationwide
from School Lunch Programs
in 1982.
I accepted the donation
because the White House
needed china very, very badly.
[Tumulty] The china purchase
becomes a real metaphor
for a lot of things
that bother people
about the Reagan administration
and its policies.
[reporter] There are more
and more homeless people
in America... perhaps two million
and growing.
[Wiley] Advocates had called
for better forms
of housing and services,
and support for people
who are poorest
among us in this country,
including and especially
for people who are mentally ill.
[Scheer] Reagan disparaged
mental health facilities.
He thought, you know, well,
these people will find work,
or they'll take pills.
He was against helping them.
[Alter] The homeless crisis
we see today
accelerated on Reagan's watch.
The people who are sleeping
on the grates,
the homeless who are homeless,
you might say, by choice.
[Johnson] Reagan would tell
the American public
that many of the ways
that people in America
were suffering was because
they chose to suffer
and the problem
was a moral failure,
not a structural one.
[Wiley]
Reagan was deeply invested
in being the good guy.
That was an image
he actively cultivated.
So he wanted to disconnect
the very real human pain
that was now visible on streets
with the policies
that were central
to his presidency.
We believe that there was
a mandate last fall.
And that mandate was
for cutting spending,
not raising taxes.
I think you've been brilliant,
but I also think
you've been cruel,
and I think
you've been inhumane,
and I think you are causing
a perversion of justice
for the poor
and middle class Americans.
[Stahl] It kind of hit
the country with a jolt,
and he would make these cuts,
and they seemed callous,
and yet there he was,
sunny, smiling.
And so
it just didn't compute that
that man could make these cuts.
[sirens wailing]
[woman] This was one
presidential trip
that had not been announced.
The Reagans had
a dinner engagement
with the President's second
grade pen pal, Rudy Hines.
[Ron Jr.] My father had
a hard time feeling empathy
for groups of people.
You could think
about welfare recipients,
for instance, as just
this sort of amorphous mass
of lazy people
who don't wanna work.
And therefore, he could be,
you know, tough on them.
But when it came
to an individual,
he was actually
rather big-hearted.
[Alter] He was personally
compassionate,
but he didn't understand
that personal compassion
isn't meaningful
without public compassion
if you're president.
[Stahl] I had the impression
he was not educating himself
on what was really happening
to people around the country.
Among those filing claims
recently was this man.
[Ron Jr.] Laid off until
October 25th.
As far as I know, everybody's
collecting unemployment.
I am, too.
I used to get into arguments
sometimes with my father,
and you would think, well,
I'm gonna now introduce him
to a new set of facts.
He would listen,
somewhat reluctantly,
to what I would think are,
you know,
incontrovertible facts.
And then,
you would get to that point
where he would
throw up his hands and say,
"Well, all I know is..."
and he'd sort of push away
like this with his hands,
which was really,
keep that reality away from me.
I do not want that near me now.
It's... It's upsetting
my whole picture of America,
myself, whatever it might be.
And you'd say,
"Well, that's the point.
All you know is this,
but this turns out
to be incomplete, at best.
So what about
all this other stuff?"
"Well, all I know is..."
[man] Mrs. Reagan,
are you looking forward
to the wedding?
- Yes, I certainly am.
[narrator]
The wedding guests assembled,
not just the famous
like Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
and Mrs. Nancy Reagan,
wife of the American President,
but personal
and family friends as well.
[Stahl] We were going
through those difficult times,
and there was Nancy
showing off diamonds.
She was wearing clothes
that designers were lending
and then ended up giving her.
[Kelley] We're talking
millions of dollars as gifts.
Nancy got to wear the clothes
and look good,
and they got exposure
and publicity.
It was a wonderful relationship,
except for one little thing.
It was against the law.
She never reported these things
as a gift.
[man] Mrs. Reagan's
Press Secretary today admitted
the First Lady does borrow
designer fashions
without reporting them.
[Tumulty]
Taking free designer clothes
is something that doesn't
raise eyebrows in Hollywood.
She discovers this can get you
in a lot of trouble
in Washington.
[Laughter]
[man] Within months,
she had grown sensitive
about even mentioning
her clothes.
Are we still on?
[Tumulty] The White House
Counsel would send somebody,
at least once a year,
to the family quarters,
just to be on the lookout
for gifts
that they don't know about.
The White House
quietly announces
that she will no longer be
taking these free clothes.
Ultimately, it is revealed that
that's a promise she broke.
Dramatic music plays
[Kelley] Nancy Reagan
had a sense of entitlement,
and she was criticized
as this imperious queen.
[Nancy] There is now a picture
postcard of me as a queen.
Now, that's silly
because I'd never wear a crown.
It messes up your hair.
[laughter]
[Tumulty]
At the end of that first year,
she finds herself
the most unpopular
First Lady in the polls
in modern history.
I guess what you
really want for Christmas
is for the press
to take a fresh look at you.
That would be nice. [chuckles]
[indistinct conversations]
[applause]
[Ronald] And I'm delighted
to be here with Heritage.
I remember the days when
a conservative intellectual
was considered
a contradiction in terms.
[laughter]
[Alter] The Kitchen Cabinet
and the other business leaders
who loved Reagan...
They didn't love him
because they liked his movies.
They loved him
because he was the front man
for their ideas.
[Lopez] Government is
a threat to the very wealthy.
It taxes them.
It regulates them.
It creates alternative sources
of power.
So they're trying
to support politicians
who promote a set
of economic policies
that actually
hands government over
to the control of corporations.
I'd like to get rid
of several thousand
of what I think
are unnecessary regulations
that have caused your problems.
[applause]
[Scheer] What he was told
at every business meeting
he'd ever gone to
when he was with GE
or anywhere else,
is the government... they require
all these regulations.
It costs us so much money,
and we can't do our work.
We'd hear this all the time,
and he would soak it up.
You know,
aren't you really talking
about coddling big business?
No. Not coddling at all.
As a matter of fact,
our government has
a hostile adversary relationship
with business.
[Alter]
Reagan ended up appointing
a lot of third-rate people
to important positions
who often didn't believe
in the mission
of their department.
[man]
Interior Secretary James Watt
has already tried
to clear the way
for more mining and development
of federal land,
has proposed cutbacks
in national parks,
and is ordered a speed up
in the controversial program
to encourage offshore oil
and gas drilling.
[Alter] It wasn't just foxes
guarding the chicken coop.
It was that they would dismantle
the chicken coop.
[man] Here are just a few
of the regulations
under review...
Rules on contents of pesticide,
rules on handling
chemical waste.
[man] A rule to install airbags
was killed by President Reagan.
A rule that would have
required special elevators
and subway stations
to help handicap people
get on and off trains
was rescinded.
[Johnson]
Deregulation at its core
is about allowing
the rich and powerful
to expand their power.
It also means
that there is no one monitoring
the behavior
of these economic actors.
We're going to turn
the bull loose.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
[bell dinging]
[cheers and applause]
[Nancy] Did all of you
start first on pot?
[man] How many started on pot?
Hands up.
[Nancy]
I'm very much interested in,
and concerned about,
the whole drug problem
in the country now.
[Tumulty] There was always
this belief with Nancy Reagan
that things
could always be rewritten,
could be spun.
[crowd chanting]
[man]
Those close to the First Lady
hope she can leave
unfavorable press accounts
of her high style
of life behind,
as she continues
to become involved.
[man] Do you think
you're more self-confident?
Yes, because I think maybe
more people like me.
[chuckles]
If someone offers you drugs,
what will you do?
[crowd] Just say no!
She believed that you could
knock your drug problem.
"Just say no."
Just chew your food 43 times,
and you'll never weigh
more than 90 pounds.
The discipline,
the control of this woman.
[Wiley] Just like Ronald Reagan
wrapping himself
in the fatherly mantle,
she was wrapping herself
in the mother-y gauze
of loving advice.
Let's practice saying,
"Just say no."
[Wiley]
Just stay off those drugs.
We will ignore all the things
that are creating a problem
and make it clear
that if you are still doing it,
it's 'cause you chose to.
If you're a casual drug user,
you're an accomplice to murder.
[Johnson] When she said,
"Say no to drugs,"
you know who
she was not pictured with?
The yuppies
who are doing lines of coke
off the back of prostitutes
throughout the 1980s.
And yet, crack cocaine,
which was
"poor people's cocaine"
and other forms of drugs,
were considered to be the enemy.
Those various centers
that you've gone to,
it's been pointed out.
Your husband
is asking that funds be cut
from those very centers.
You know,
we've gotten into a terrible...
I think into a terrible,
um, habit.
Somebody will say,
"We have a problem,"
whatever it may be,
and the immediate response is,
"Well, can't the government do
something about that?"
Instead of,
"Can't I do something
about that?"
[Johnson]
The Reagan administration
decided that the only way
that you could deal
with drug addicts
was not to address unemployment,
not to address violence,
lack of opportunity,
or better healthcare.
It was simply throwing people
in jail.
The report out tonight
shows the United States
has a larger percentage
of its citizens
in prison
than any other country.
And the Americans
most likely to be in prison?
They're Black.
The war on drugs
was really a war
on Black and brown people
in this country.
We were taking precious dollars,
and instead of creating
communities of hope,
we created communities
of criminalization.
[man] Most experts
believe we're worse off now
than when Reagan took office,
this despite $21 1/2 billion
and despite Mrs. Reagan's
highly publicized
but sadly ineffective
anti-drug campaign.
When it comes to drugs
and alcohol,
just say no.
God bless you and good night.
Reagan was cutting programs
on the social side
and increasing
the budget enormously
on the Pentagon side
of things on defense.
[marching band playing]
[Alter] Reagan had
campaigned on building
a stronger military.
So the ideology
kind of crowded out
a clear-eyed analysis
of what was actually needed
to protect the country.
[Ronald] We must immediately
start a rebuilding
of our defensive capability
to the point that no nation
on this Earth
would dare lift a hand
against us.
[cheers and applause]
[Adelman] Reagan's view was
we need to spend on defense
to protect America.
The Soviets
wanna match us on that,
that will spend them
into oblivion.
And that wasn't what
the CIA was saying.
What the CIA was saying was,
since the end of the '70s,
Soviet spending
was pretty steady line
regardless
of the United States budget.
But Reagan's view
was different from that.
I don't know if he knew
what the CIA estimates were.
He probably didn't.
[Johnson]
Our greatest military adversary
was basically broke.
The Soviet Union
was collapsing upon itself
because of
grotesque incompetence
and mismanagement
of their economy.
So our spending
was just expanding
the military industrial complex.
[man] Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger
has been rebuilding
America's military,
with a philosophy
of peace through strength,
strength through money.
[Shearer]
Peace through strength...
It was a convenient
and brilliant cover,
use government spending
for the military,
then you could starve
the rest of the government.
- Hi, Bobby. How are you?
- A pleasure.
What's someone gonna do
with landing gear
in the backyard?
- I had a friend
who sold $100 million
or roughly close to it.
[Alter] Defense contractors
and the Defense Department
all reinforced each other
to spend taxpayer money.
All of Reagan's fiscal prudence
and efficiency
went out the window.
[man] The senior official
recently said
that military contractors
could cut up
to 50% from their cost.
But this is not a system likely
to enforce such discipline.
[Wiley] Reagan kept talking
about limited government,
but then,
essentially created government
of military might and power,
not a government
of investing in people.
Let friend and foe alike
know that America has the muscle
to back up its words,
and ships like this
and men like you
are that muscle.
[loud cheers and applause]
[indistinct chatter]
Now, I imagine you have a few
things on your mind
that you would like
to talk about, Gary.
Mr. President,
the polls continue to show
that between 60
and 70% of the people
still consider you
to be a rich man's president
with no idea of what the people
who aren't wealthy
are going through out there.
How does that make you feel?
Dramatic music plays
I just... my feeling,
and it's very deep
within me, is this.
No, the rich don't need my help.
And I'm not doing things
to help the rich.
I'm doing things
that I think are fair
to all the people.
[Ron Jr.] It was one of those
things where facts and evidence
didn't seem to carry the day.
He liked the idea
that if you let people,
meaning rich people,
hang on to more of their money,
that somehow this will benefit
all of society, you know?
[scoffs] No, it doesn't.
[laughs] We know that.
But, you know,
you'd run into that,
"All I know is..."
[Ronald] What I want
to see above all is,
that this country
remains a country
where someone
can always get rich.
That's the thing that we have
and that must be preserved.
Now, I don't know
how much, uh, more I can do,
um, on this subject.
I thought I had another line
there for a minute
that I was gonna, uh, gonna use,
but maybe it's just as well
that I don't use it.
[Alter] The beginning of the end
for the American middle class
was in the 1980s.
The economic idea that
Ronald Reagan believed in
turned out to not be true.
No argument available
on the other side
because enough time has passed
that history has rendered
a verdict.
How come no one calls it
Reaganomics anymore?
[laughter and applause]
I never did call it that.
That was their name when they
thought it wouldn't work.
I just called it common sense.
[Stahl] Even from
within the White House,
people like
the budget director, Stockman,
began to say,
"This idea is faulty."
[man] David Stockman
found that the complexities
of tax policy worked
simply beyond the president.
So he ignored the facts
and wandered in circles.
[Cannon] Stockman said,
"Ronald Reagan doesn't know
what he's doing."
It was an eye-opener
into the cynicism
of the budget policies
of the Reagan administration.
There is plenty of blame
to go around,
starting with me.
And there are plenty
of serious problems
lurking in the future
that simply aren't being
addressed in the present time.
[Johnson]
The economy did improve,
but it improved for people
who already had money.
That did nothing to lift anyone
out of poverty.
And that is the part of
the Reagan revolution
economically that people
conveniently ignore
in order to maintain the myth
of the Reagan presidency.
[Lopez] We have high levels
of equal wealth distribution
running through the 1970s.
And then, under Ronald Reagan,
you see the curve of wealth
inequality begin to go skyward,
as the one percent
and the one-tenth percent
begin to take more and more
and more
of the country's wealth.
[Brown] At a time
when we need national unity,
more than ever before,
we are experiencing
a growing division
because of this transfer
of wealth
from the working poor
to the working rich
and the non-working rich.
[Lopez] Ronald Reagan
initiates the process
by which government
will take wealth
from working families,
from the middle class,
and siphon it upwards.
He does so through tax policy,
by cutting government programs
that helped the middle class
by busting unions.
And now, we have
the highest levels
of wealth inequality
we've seen in a century.
[applause]
dramatic music plays
[man] And action.
The kind of future
our young people will have
is something you never forget
when you live here.
[Khachigian]
In the re-election campaign,
I was writing commercials
more than speeches.
The message in 1984
was encapsulated
in that theme, "It's Morning
Again in America."
[engine revving, birds chirping]
The idea of being
the economy had come back,
the national defense
had come back.
[bicycle bell rings]
- [man] Good morning, Jim.
[Khachigian] And the spirit
of America had returned.
[man] Under the leadership
of President Reagan,
our country is prouder
and stronger and better.
[Will] Ronald Reagan
understood that
the things happen
when people are confident.
[Baker] He was always
extoling the virtues
of this shining city
on the hill,
the virtues of this
wonderful country we live in.
[Johnson] That
"Morning in America" campaign
is a pop culture fantasy
of a strong nation
that had recovered
after years of turmoil.
It is a nation
that got its swag back
led by an old-fashioned cowboy
and his dutiful wife.
[Shearer]
One of Reagan's geniuses
was to convince people to vote
against their own self-interest,
the notion that if you
supported Reaganomics,
you would have a better life
when it wasn't true,
but he convinced people
to do it.
[Johnson]
Reagan realized something
a lot of politicians
were always afraid to admit.
A lot of Americans
are just selfish,
and the best way
to destroy a program
is not just to tell people
that it's inefficient.
It's to tell them that they have
to share it with somebody,
especially if that means
Black and brown people
in America.
[Wiley] Reagan knew
exactly how to package
the myth of the American dream
that was painted white
and where everyone
could advance.
The wonderful part
about our country
is that you can work hard
and better yourself...
which is what Ronnie did.
[Wiley] The Reagans erased
their own experience
of the world,
their own relationships,
the power and the privilege
that they had been given.
Ultimately, Reagan was about
serving his own ideology
and not about paying attention
to the needs
of the American people.
[indistinct chatter]
[Ronald] The best view
of big government
is in a rearview mirror
as we leave it behind.
[Lopez] Today,
there is this belief
that, of course,
the United States
is committed to a vision
in which government does
as little as possible.
It's all part of the mythology
of Reagan.
[crowd] Four more years!
[Shearer] I think that's one
of the worst things,
was this cynicism
about government,
because America
was supposed to be found
on the idea
of a democratic government.
And if you get cynical
about government,
then you're gonna get cynical
about democracy.
[crowd chanting]
USA! USA! USA! USA!
[Lear] Everything Reagan was,
so affable, so likeable,
so neighborly,
was antithetical to the polarity
he'd pushed through,
which amounted
to greed is good...
[ laughs ] or greed is great,
or screw everybody
but the one percent.
[woman]
Clad in blue jeans, tennis shoes
and a raid jacket
with her name on it,
Nancy Reagan first watched
undercover police
make street buys
from inside a motor home
and followed as they busted
14 occupants of this home.
[Nancy] What a waste.
What a wasted life.
[man] Would you describe
what you saw inside?
[Nancy] I saw a lot
of people on the floor,
and, uh, floors
that were unfurnished,
small little house.
You wish that...
You wish that somehow
you could have...
Somebody could have gotten
a hold of them sooner.
[indistinct chatter]
[chatter continues]
[man] What time is it?
Depends.
[man] Okay. Bring him on.
Dramatic music plays
[Ronald] Good morning.
[man] Typical California
weather.
Yes, since this is the first day
of this kind of weather of fog
since we've been here,
I shall refrain from saying
that you're all responsible.
[laughter]
Western dramatic music plays
[Ronald]
That is the tax program.
They are signed,
and now all we have to do
is implement them.
This is the budget deal,
and this is the tax program,
but I think they represent
and mark an end to
the excessive growth
in government bureaucracy
and government spending,
government taxing.
[dog panting]
And we're getting...
No, no, the bill's passed.
You can't do anything about it.
[dog whines]
[panting]
Victory.
[woman] Will you still be able
to balance the budget in '84?
[Ronald] Well,
this has always been our goal.
Millie won't hurt you.
[laughter]
[Ronald] Lassie.
Oh, Lassie... Millie.
[laughter]
[Lear] When Ronald Reagan
was running for the presidency,
I hired Robert Scheer to travel
with him, side-by-side.
Suspenseful music plays
Robert Scheer was
the toughest journalist I knew
in terms
of an investigative journalist.
Reagan was answering everything
with a kind of simplicity.
You came to a place
where his likeability
was more important
than his lack of an answer.
If you reduce
the extravagant size
and cost
to the federal government,
you're going to have the money
to do the things,
to build the defense
that we need
because you're going to have
a far more prosperous nation.
[Scheer]
He was pretty comfortable
with his understanding
of politics at that point.
He knew what he believed,
and Reagan was, uh,
a consummate salesman.
The biggest obstacle
to efficient service
to the poor and the needy
is Washington.
[Scheer] Everybody else
wants to talk about the polls.
They wanna talk about
who's winning, who's losing.
Nobody wants to talk about
whether it's good
for the country, what they do,
what the issues are,
and, uh, why do these people
like Ronald Reagan?
I mean, personally I think
he's okay, but why do they want
Ronald Reagan
to be their president?
I think it's a fascinating
thing to look into, you know?
Today, I wanna talk
about the decline
in the American standard
of living.
[Will] In 1980,
the country was depressed,
was in a bad mood,
it had had a long bad patch.
[Reporter]
Today, for the first time,
President Carter admitted
we are in a recession,
and he said it's going to cause
pain and disruption
for a lot of Americans
before it's over.
I would like Mr. Carter
to explain to me,
why the inflation is as high
as it is,
why unemployment is what it is.
[Stahl] So many people
were out of work,
we had just had gas lines.
The economy
was really suffering,
It was a very dark time.
[Alter] Reagan saw that
as an opportunity to run
as an upbeat, sunny candidate,
he was able to fuse optimism
and patriotism.
[crowd cheering]
At the period of time
that he was running,
his message, his belief system
was resonating.
No problem that we face today
can compare with a need
to restore the health
of the American economy
and the strength
of the American dollar.
[Baker] The principles
and values he embraced
were conservative
Republican principles...
Lower taxes, stronger defense,
freedom of the individual,
small government.
[Norquist] To call yourself
a Reagan Republican
is to say,
"We're gonna rein in spending
and limit the size and scope
of government."
"So you wanna abolish
government?"
No, I don't wanna abolish
government.
I wanna make it so small,
you could drag it
in the bathroom
and drown it in the bathtub,
that small,
small as a bathtub, okay?
Very small.
[Ronald] And the leadership
that I envision
would be to take the lead
in getting government off
the backs of the people
of the United States
and turning you loose to do
what you can do so well.
Small government message
was always code
for more money in your pocket.
That was a strong message.
[Shearer] It seemed like
a painless economic policy...
Cut government
and get out of the way,
and everybody will get
wealthy together
but it was a cover for privilege
and corporate power.
[crowd chanting]
militaristic music plays
[Cronkite] Good morning.
Ronald Reagan is just about
to become the 40th President
of these United States.
[sirens wailing]
[man] The motorcade
is beginning to roll
toward Capitol Hill, Walter.
[man] I think what struck
both of us...
The contrast and the crowd.
[man] Just four years ago,
Jimmy Carter tried to run
a populist,
a people's inauguration,
today, the emphasis was upon
a different approach.
They made no excuse
of the fact that the rich folks
were here and the...
And the wealthy Republicans.
They were having a good time.
This was their day in the...
In the sun.
You could look out
across that crowd
and see
very, very few minorities.
[trumpets playing
triumphant music]
[Lopez] For Ronald Reagan,
the point of power
was to convince Americans
to turn against government,
to build popular support
for policies
that ultimately helped
corporations and the very rich.
[band playing Hail to the Chief]
[cannon firing]
[Lopez] One way to do that
was to describe government
as a threat to all of us.
In this present crisis,
government is not the solution
to our problem.
Government is the problem.
[Shearer] That was
an incredibly influential
bit of political propaganda.
Government is the problem.
Because on the face of it,
it's absolutely not true.
It's a myth,
but it's a convenient myth
for the powerful.
[Wiley] This rhetoric
about small government
represented a concerted
strategic effort
by the wealthy to expand
their wealth and their power
and their privilege
and convince the American public
that it was good for them.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
the President
of the United States
and Mrs. Reagan.
[Kelley]
They had in Ronald Reagan
the perfect vehicle
to take their gospel forward.
But he wasn't just
a Manchurian Candidate.
He believed it.
[cheers and applause]
[Alter] Reagan's presidency
marked a turning point
in American politics.
It represented a massive shift
of economic power
in the country.
A toast.
[applause]
serious music plays
[Brinkley] Have you thought
about the fact
that the last president
who tried really seriously
to change the course
of the American economy
in a substantial way
was Franklin Roosevelt in 1933?
No one has tried since then?
Well, without saying anything
about those who followed,
it is true, and isn't it
somewhat comparative today
that he came in at a kind
of watershed time
when the people said
"We cannot continue
on this path.
We have to try something"?
And he was willing, uh, to try.
[birds chirping]
calm orchestral music plays
[man]
The atmosphere has changed.
Sure, there's still a good deal
of unemployment around,
but now many who are working
have the five-day week,
and more important,
the feeling
of imminent disaster,
the fear of economic collapse
is gone.
[FDR] I pledge myself
to a New Deal
for the American people.
[crowd cheering]
[Alter] To help the country
in the Great Depression,
President Roosevelt proposed
a new social contract...
A New Deal between the people
and the government.
[Lopez] FDR understood
that the economy is outside
of the control
of any one individual,
so we need government
to actively intervene
in the marketplace
to help all of us.
[Wiley] It was investments
in things like
unemployment insurance,
Social Security,
mortgage lending backed
by the federal government,
the creation of labor unions...
Those are the things
that created the middle class.
[Johnson]
Prior to The Great Depression,
most Americans were poor.
The only middle class
in America were people
who had businesses,
who owned shops.
It was literally the New Deal
that gave America
the opportunity
to build a middle class.
[Shearer] Ronald Reagan's family
was supported
and helped by New Deal programs,
as were millions of Americans.
[man] I have the sense
that not everything
that has happened
since the New Deal is bad,
and I can't believe
that you think everything is...
You can't believe
that unemployment...
- No.
- ...Insurance and...
No. But what I have to say is
that some of those things
would be done better
at the private sector.
Some could be done better
at the local sector.
But what's good
that they've done?
Come on.
[Scheer] The whole point
of that interview
is he's denying
his own family's experience,
that government intervention
certainly was essential,
and he became a hypocrite.
We spread across
this land building farms
and towns and cities
and we did it
without any federal land
planning program
or urban renewal.
[Lopez]
One of the foundational myths
of the United States
is always the frontier...
[horse blusters]
the rugged individual
who took care of himself,
and what it said was real men
don't need government.
They'll stand on their own
two feet,
and if they fail...
they'll have the virtue
to die quietly
without complaining.
But the frontier
was never that way.
The frontier
was a collective enterprise.
[motor sputters]
[buzzing]
[Cannon] What is missing
from the picture
is what the government did,
particularly the building
of the railroad,
which is what opens the West,
but also telegraph lines,
and all sorts of infrastructure
that no individuals,
no matter how brave or rugged,
could've constructed
on their own.
Both of these, look,
both of them
dead up there where...
Where it counts.
[Alter] All the things
that government did
were just sort of kissed off
by Reagan.
[man] What gives this
administration its cache
are Ronald Reagan's beliefs,
which grew and matured
in America
which no longer exists
or exists only in his mind,
that hard work
and self-reliance, for instance,
will inevitably produce
personal success,
satisfaction, and wealth.
Reagan was committed
to promoting the message
that we're all on our own,
whether you succeed
or whether you fail.
[Wiley]
That was so incredibly cruel,
and it drives
Reagan's narrative of
"We pulled ourselves up
by our bootstraps.
Wow come
you don't have any boots?"
[man] United States.
[camera shutters clicking]
How do you do?
[Stahl] The first time
I actually saw him in person
was right in front
of the press corps
and we all kind of melted.
We were all little puddles
on the floor.
He also had
more wrinkles up close
than the camera picked up.
The camera loved this man.
And a little bit
of frailty to him.
He wasn't as hardy and healthy
as he seemed on television,
but when he went on television,
he was the actor,
and he was playing
a vigorous president.
[indistinct chatter]
dramatic music plays
[Parvin] Mrs. Reagan
was not as comfortable
as President Reagan,
and she didn't convey
the same personality
that he did.
So she had some things
in that regard
that she needed to overcome.
I wait,
and I think I have to wait.
[Stahl] I once took a trip
with the President
and on the plane coming home,
Nancy Reagan...
She was telling jokes
and being a little sarcastic.
And she was hilarious.
Hilarious.
So I said, "I have to have
an interview with her,
and the public has to see this."
And they gave me an interview,
eventually.
And no, what she gave me
was the public presentation.
She seemed stiff.
She seemed as if she didn't
have a real personality.
She was an actor, too, but not...
She couldn't reach down
the way the President could.
[man] That's great.
[man] Just looking right
at me like that.
Oh, sure.
[camera shutter clicks]
serious music playing
[man] I'm gonna stick
with just a drink.
- Bran and flakes?
- Not all bran.
Bran and flakes,
if you got it on the bananas.
Suspenseful music plays
[Baker] Priority one
for the Reagan administration
after the inauguration in 1981
was the economic situation,
and we decided we were gonna be
very tough about that.
- Morning.
- Good morning.
Good morning, all.
Everyone looks
very bright and happy.
Okay.
The agenda is mainly concerned
with the economic program,
though try not to smile
too much.
[laughter]
I have to say that I am not one
to shrink from a tough task,
but I must also say
that the goals that you gave us
are extraordinarily difficult
to reconcile,
but I'm pleased to report today
that we're almost there.
When President Reagan
was elected,
his centerpiece economic promise
was a large tax cut.
[Lopez]
Reagan had a story to tell.
He said, "We have to cut taxes
for the very rich
and wealthy corporations.
Trust me, that money
is gonna trickle down
to all the rest of you,"
the idea being
that the very rich
from all that they would save
would invest more,
would spend more,
and then everybody
would be better off.
This was an idea that had been
debunked for decades.
He's promising
to cut taxes by 30%
and balance the budget
and increase defense spending
and stop inflation
all at the same time.
[Shearer] When George Bush
ran for president in 1980,
he referred to Reaganomics
as black magic.
What I call
a voodoo economic policy...
But of course,
he couldn't say that
once he became Vice President.
[woman] The President has been
lobbying Congress by telephone.
- Hello?
- But with each day,
his opponents are gaining time
to effect the outcome.
I don't see a compromise
out there.
But are we still working
for a compromise? Yes.
[woman] Mr. President!
President Reagan!
- Mr. Reagan! [gunshot]
ominous music playing
[man] Lyn Nofziger told
reporters at the hospital
the president was not wounded.
He was wounded. Oh, God!
- He was... the President was hit?
- [man] He's stable.
He is in stable condition,
all this information...
[man] How do you feel?
How do you feel?
Great.
[man] Reagan
was unquestionably helped
in his drive for his fundamental
domestic policy of tax cuts
by the fact that he got shot.
[man] It was in the early months
of his first term.
[Khachigian] Just about a month
after his assassination attempt,
he gave his speech
before the joint session
of the Congress.
The intention was in this speech
was to take advantage
of the situation
and write the speech
in such a way as to,
sort of, manipulate the Congress
to get them
to do our bidding.
- I have a letter with me.
[papers rustle]
Letter came from Peter Sweeney.
He's in the second grade,
and he said,
"I hope you'll get well quick,
or you might have to make
a speech in your pajamas."
[laughter]
[applause]
[Ron Jr.] How do you thwart
somebody who has just reacted
so courageously to being shot
and nearly killed,
you know, become this, sort of
figure in the public's eye?
You know, if he wants a tax cut,
we'll do the tax cut, okay.
White House officials
can see their growing worry
that the President's
economic package
is being perceived
as too rough on the poor.
[Shearer]
The 1981 Reagan tax cut
was the most significant
redistribution of income
since the 1930s
in the Depression.
[Johnson] Almost immediately
after the tax cuts,
the government
was running out of money,
and even
his own economic advisors
understood that
that tax cut had gone too far.
[man] Federal Reserve Chairman
Volcker warned
the Reagan administration
and Congress that efforts
to revive the economy
would falter
unless the budget deficit
is reduced.
[Stahl] People around him...
They said you have to start
raising taxes again,
but because he had set
this goal,
he really balked at it.
Eventually, he did.
He raised taxes many times.
But if you tell a Republican
that he raised taxes today,
'cause this has happened to me,
they'll say, "You're a liar."
He somehow made us forget that.
It was proof
that he was a great actor,
that he could make us
forget that.
[applause]
[band playing Hail to the Chief]
[Stahl] There was a great deal
of opulence around the Reagans.
In terms of their values,
they seemed
to be quite different
from the average Americans.
They'd come from not just
Hollywood but Beverly Hills.
There was a display of wealth.
It wasn't just
that they had money.
They had to display it.
And Nancy Reagan projected that.
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks.
[Kelley]
She came to the White House,
and it was like
Sacramento again.
"This is a dump.
I can't live here.
The dishes are terrible.
[ laughs ] Everything is awful."
dramatic music plays
[Tumulty] She sets about
to redecorate the White House...
Something that Jackie Kennedy
had done in the Camelot era
and had been acclaimed for,
but this isn't Camelot.
Mrs. Kennedy
went after historical aspects
and made the White House
a museum.
[man]
Can you make these changes,
uh, according to your own
personal tastes and desires?
Well, no, I, uh,
have a committee,
which has museum experts
and government people
and private citizens on it.
And then everything we do
is subject to approval
by the Fine Arts Committee.
[Kelley] With Nancy,
most of the money went
into the second and third floors
in the White House,
which are not public rooms.
This was interpreted
as making the White House
better for herself.
[woman] The country is headed
into the worst recession
since The Great Depression,
and as the Reagan administration
is cutting social programs,
as people are really struggling
in their own lives,
they see the First Lady
redecorating,
renovating the White House.
It was really tone-deaf.
Some people say
if the poor family
on food stamps
has to tighten its belt,
wouldn't it be a good example
for the Reagans
to tighten their belt?
We've tightened our belts
in many ways.
How?
Well, we're not making
any money here. [laughs]
[jet engine whirring]
[man] 5 Golf, Yankee,
standby 120.
Course runway 22 out at Foxtrot,
right in ground point on.
[Wiley] Reagan understood
that part
of supporting corporate power
was going
after the labor movement.
[chanting] The workers united
will never be defeated.
[man] Air traffic controllers
defied court orders
grounding half the nation's
commercial airline flights.
[Wiley] If it weren't
for the union movement,
we wouldn't have
the 40-hour work week.
We wouldn't have benefits
on the job like healthcare.
[Alter] When he was running
for President,
Reagan could make it seem
like he shared
the interest
and especially the values
of union members
and blue collar workers.
And so he was able to say,
"I'm one of you."
I happen to be
the only president
of a union
ever to be a candidate
for President
of the United States.
[cheers and applause]
[Lopez] Reagan turns
against the idea of unions
as he shifts his alliance
to corporations,
to capital, to big employers,
to big money.
The union representing
those who man America's
air traffic control facilities
called a strike.
They are in violation
of the law,
and if they do not report
for work within 48 hours,
they have forfeited their jobs
and will be terminated.
End of statement.
[Baker] He fired 'em.
It's what they deserved,
and it was a wonderful thing
that he did
politically and substantively.
After that, he looked powerful.
[Stahl] In terms of his image,
he looked very strong,
but it was unbelievable
because they were...
They were the people
who kept the planes in the air.
And it just devastated
the union movement.
That is when the union started
to go into decline.
[Shearer] It was a clear signal
that Reagan
was not gonna support
any pro-labor legislation.
He was gonna change
the equation.
He was gonna support
the rise of corporate power.
[Stahl] Once the workers
lost power,
they lost power to hold on
to real economic gains
for themselves.
I can't believe the government
is doing this to us,
I don't think we're getting
a fair deal out of it,
but, uh, we're gonna stick
with it till the end.
If they won't make
his working conditions better,
maybe it's for the best.
Dramatic music plays
[camera shutters clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Ronald] Hi.
Everybody on and ready here?
Yeah? Hmm...
Well, we've been a long time.
We've been decades coming
to the point where we are.
And you're not going
to cure this overnight.
And of course,
the budget cuts in government,
uh, are going to be felt
as they begin
to take place
in the 1982 budget year
that begins October 1st.
[Stahl] When the budget
was seen by everybody,
people realized,
he was cutting social programs.
He was cutting programs
for poor people.
We were in recession,
and it seemed out of sync
with what was going on
in the country.
It was shocking.
[Bill] The President
and Congress have chosen
not to offend the rich,
the powerful,
and the organized.
It is easier
to take on the weak.
Social programs were cut
almost $30 billion this year.
The burden falls most heavily
on the poor,
and some of the truly needy
are truly hurting.
These programs
are a life support system.
For many,
we are pulling the plug.
[woman] I'd like to, um,
apply for food stamps.
[man] President Reagan
cut Medicaid,
cut aid to families
with dependent children,
student lunches,
the food stamp program,
and other New Deal programs
that the most vulnerable
were benefitting from.
[Wiley] He cut things like
the ability for a single mom
to amass savings
over a thousand dollars.
So you actually saw women
spending savings
because they had no choice
but to try to preserve
their welfare checks.
It had the exact opposite effect
that it was supposed to have.
And it was deeply cruel to them
because it kept them on welfare.
[woman] And this is supposed
to be the land of opportunity.
It's not anymore. It's not
the land of opportunity.
It's the land for the rich,
and the poor can go to hell.
I keep remembering
what Milton Friedman once said,
"If you start paying
people to be poor,
there is going to be
a lot of poor people."
[Lopez] It's a story
that says to folks,
"You should hate government
because it's government
that is theoretically
reaching into your pockets
to take
your hard-earned dollars,
and giving it away
to these underserving people
of color.
So all of those social programs,
defund them,
because government's on the side
of these underserving people.
[woman]
Showing his sense of humor,
the president brought a knife
to this important
budget cutting session.
[Wiley] I'll never forget,
he did
this masterful performance.
He opens up the newspaper,
and he starts reading want ads.
I made it a point to count
the pages of help wanted ads.
In this time
of great unemployment,
there were 24 full pages
of classified ads of employers
looking for employees.
And it was a great manipulation
that told the American public,
if they are not working,
they just don't wanna work.
[applause]
At the same time,
Reagan is choking
and gutting programs
that were trying
to expand opportunity.
The Reagan administration
this afternoon
unveiled its controversial
new china policy,
4,372 pieces of new china
arrived in time
for tonight's formal dinner
for President Mubarak.
[Mubarak] Let me first
congratulate Mrs. Reagan
for the new china,
which is very elegant
and very beautiful.
[Tumulty]
Nancy Reagan decides to buy
a $1,000 a place setting china.
This is announced
on the very same day
that the Reagan administration
announces that for the purposes
of the School Lunch Program,
they are going to classify
ketchup as a vegetable.
Somebody got overambitious
in the bureaucracy
with their ketchup
for a vegetable,
and we had to pull back
on some regulations
that were suggested.
The timing couldn't
have been worse.
[reporter] $1 billion dollars
may be cut nationwide
from School Lunch Programs
in 1982.
I accepted the donation
because the White House
needed china very, very badly.
[Tumulty] The china purchase
becomes a real metaphor
for a lot of things
that bother people
about the Reagan administration
and its policies.
[reporter] There are more
and more homeless people
in America... perhaps two million
and growing.
[Wiley] Advocates had called
for better forms
of housing and services,
and support for people
who are poorest
among us in this country,
including and especially
for people who are mentally ill.
[Scheer] Reagan disparaged
mental health facilities.
He thought, you know, well,
these people will find work,
or they'll take pills.
He was against helping them.
[Alter] The homeless crisis
we see today
accelerated on Reagan's watch.
The people who are sleeping
on the grates,
the homeless who are homeless,
you might say, by choice.
[Johnson] Reagan would tell
the American public
that many of the ways
that people in America
were suffering was because
they chose to suffer
and the problem
was a moral failure,
not a structural one.
[Wiley]
Reagan was deeply invested
in being the good guy.
That was an image
he actively cultivated.
So he wanted to disconnect
the very real human pain
that was now visible on streets
with the policies
that were central
to his presidency.
We believe that there was
a mandate last fall.
And that mandate was
for cutting spending,
not raising taxes.
I think you've been brilliant,
but I also think
you've been cruel,
and I think
you've been inhumane,
and I think you are causing
a perversion of justice
for the poor
and middle class Americans.
[Stahl] It kind of hit
the country with a jolt,
and he would make these cuts,
and they seemed callous,
and yet there he was,
sunny, smiling.
And so
it just didn't compute that
that man could make these cuts.
[sirens wailing]
[woman] This was one
presidential trip
that had not been announced.
The Reagans had
a dinner engagement
with the President's second
grade pen pal, Rudy Hines.
[Ron Jr.] My father had
a hard time feeling empathy
for groups of people.
You could think
about welfare recipients,
for instance, as just
this sort of amorphous mass
of lazy people
who don't wanna work.
And therefore, he could be,
you know, tough on them.
But when it came
to an individual,
he was actually
rather big-hearted.
[Alter] He was personally
compassionate,
but he didn't understand
that personal compassion
isn't meaningful
without public compassion
if you're president.
[Stahl] I had the impression
he was not educating himself
on what was really happening
to people around the country.
Among those filing claims
recently was this man.
[Ron Jr.] Laid off until
October 25th.
As far as I know, everybody's
collecting unemployment.
I am, too.
I used to get into arguments
sometimes with my father,
and you would think, well,
I'm gonna now introduce him
to a new set of facts.
He would listen,
somewhat reluctantly,
to what I would think are,
you know,
incontrovertible facts.
And then,
you would get to that point
where he would
throw up his hands and say,
"Well, all I know is..."
and he'd sort of push away
like this with his hands,
which was really,
keep that reality away from me.
I do not want that near me now.
It's... It's upsetting
my whole picture of America,
myself, whatever it might be.
And you'd say,
"Well, that's the point.
All you know is this,
but this turns out
to be incomplete, at best.
So what about
all this other stuff?"
"Well, all I know is..."
[man] Mrs. Reagan,
are you looking forward
to the wedding?
- Yes, I certainly am.
[narrator]
The wedding guests assembled,
not just the famous
like Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
and Mrs. Nancy Reagan,
wife of the American President,
but personal
and family friends as well.
[Stahl] We were going
through those difficult times,
and there was Nancy
showing off diamonds.
She was wearing clothes
that designers were lending
and then ended up giving her.
[Kelley] We're talking
millions of dollars as gifts.
Nancy got to wear the clothes
and look good,
and they got exposure
and publicity.
It was a wonderful relationship,
except for one little thing.
It was against the law.
She never reported these things
as a gift.
[man] Mrs. Reagan's
Press Secretary today admitted
the First Lady does borrow
designer fashions
without reporting them.
[Tumulty]
Taking free designer clothes
is something that doesn't
raise eyebrows in Hollywood.
She discovers this can get you
in a lot of trouble
in Washington.
[Laughter]
[man] Within months,
she had grown sensitive
about even mentioning
her clothes.
Are we still on?
[Tumulty] The White House
Counsel would send somebody,
at least once a year,
to the family quarters,
just to be on the lookout
for gifts
that they don't know about.
The White House
quietly announces
that she will no longer be
taking these free clothes.
Ultimately, it is revealed that
that's a promise she broke.
Dramatic music plays
[Kelley] Nancy Reagan
had a sense of entitlement,
and she was criticized
as this imperious queen.
[Nancy] There is now a picture
postcard of me as a queen.
Now, that's silly
because I'd never wear a crown.
It messes up your hair.
[laughter]
[Tumulty]
At the end of that first year,
she finds herself
the most unpopular
First Lady in the polls
in modern history.
I guess what you
really want for Christmas
is for the press
to take a fresh look at you.
That would be nice. [chuckles]
[indistinct conversations]
[applause]
[Ronald] And I'm delighted
to be here with Heritage.
I remember the days when
a conservative intellectual
was considered
a contradiction in terms.
[laughter]
[Alter] The Kitchen Cabinet
and the other business leaders
who loved Reagan...
They didn't love him
because they liked his movies.
They loved him
because he was the front man
for their ideas.
[Lopez] Government is
a threat to the very wealthy.
It taxes them.
It regulates them.
It creates alternative sources
of power.
So they're trying
to support politicians
who promote a set
of economic policies
that actually
hands government over
to the control of corporations.
I'd like to get rid
of several thousand
of what I think
are unnecessary regulations
that have caused your problems.
[applause]
[Scheer] What he was told
at every business meeting
he'd ever gone to
when he was with GE
or anywhere else,
is the government... they require
all these regulations.
It costs us so much money,
and we can't do our work.
We'd hear this all the time,
and he would soak it up.
You know,
aren't you really talking
about coddling big business?
No. Not coddling at all.
As a matter of fact,
our government has
a hostile adversary relationship
with business.
[Alter]
Reagan ended up appointing
a lot of third-rate people
to important positions
who often didn't believe
in the mission
of their department.
[man]
Interior Secretary James Watt
has already tried
to clear the way
for more mining and development
of federal land,
has proposed cutbacks
in national parks,
and is ordered a speed up
in the controversial program
to encourage offshore oil
and gas drilling.
[Alter] It wasn't just foxes
guarding the chicken coop.
It was that they would dismantle
the chicken coop.
[man] Here are just a few
of the regulations
under review...
Rules on contents of pesticide,
rules on handling
chemical waste.
[man] A rule to install airbags
was killed by President Reagan.
A rule that would have
required special elevators
and subway stations
to help handicap people
get on and off trains
was rescinded.
[Johnson]
Deregulation at its core
is about allowing
the rich and powerful
to expand their power.
It also means
that there is no one monitoring
the behavior
of these economic actors.
We're going to turn
the bull loose.
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
[bell dinging]
[cheers and applause]
[Nancy] Did all of you
start first on pot?
[man] How many started on pot?
Hands up.
[Nancy]
I'm very much interested in,
and concerned about,
the whole drug problem
in the country now.
[Tumulty] There was always
this belief with Nancy Reagan
that things
could always be rewritten,
could be spun.
[crowd chanting]
[man]
Those close to the First Lady
hope she can leave
unfavorable press accounts
of her high style
of life behind,
as she continues
to become involved.
[man] Do you think
you're more self-confident?
Yes, because I think maybe
more people like me.
[chuckles]
If someone offers you drugs,
what will you do?
[crowd] Just say no!
She believed that you could
knock your drug problem.
"Just say no."
Just chew your food 43 times,
and you'll never weigh
more than 90 pounds.
The discipline,
the control of this woman.
[Wiley] Just like Ronald Reagan
wrapping himself
in the fatherly mantle,
she was wrapping herself
in the mother-y gauze
of loving advice.
Let's practice saying,
"Just say no."
[Wiley]
Just stay off those drugs.
We will ignore all the things
that are creating a problem
and make it clear
that if you are still doing it,
it's 'cause you chose to.
If you're a casual drug user,
you're an accomplice to murder.
[Johnson] When she said,
"Say no to drugs,"
you know who
she was not pictured with?
The yuppies
who are doing lines of coke
off the back of prostitutes
throughout the 1980s.
And yet, crack cocaine,
which was
"poor people's cocaine"
and other forms of drugs,
were considered to be the enemy.
Those various centers
that you've gone to,
it's been pointed out.
Your husband
is asking that funds be cut
from those very centers.
You know,
we've gotten into a terrible...
I think into a terrible,
um, habit.
Somebody will say,
"We have a problem,"
whatever it may be,
and the immediate response is,
"Well, can't the government do
something about that?"
Instead of,
"Can't I do something
about that?"
[Johnson]
The Reagan administration
decided that the only way
that you could deal
with drug addicts
was not to address unemployment,
not to address violence,
lack of opportunity,
or better healthcare.
It was simply throwing people
in jail.
The report out tonight
shows the United States
has a larger percentage
of its citizens
in prison
than any other country.
And the Americans
most likely to be in prison?
They're Black.
The war on drugs
was really a war
on Black and brown people
in this country.
We were taking precious dollars,
and instead of creating
communities of hope,
we created communities
of criminalization.
[man] Most experts
believe we're worse off now
than when Reagan took office,
this despite $21 1/2 billion
and despite Mrs. Reagan's
highly publicized
but sadly ineffective
anti-drug campaign.
When it comes to drugs
and alcohol,
just say no.
God bless you and good night.
Reagan was cutting programs
on the social side
and increasing
the budget enormously
on the Pentagon side
of things on defense.
[marching band playing]
[Alter] Reagan had
campaigned on building
a stronger military.
So the ideology
kind of crowded out
a clear-eyed analysis
of what was actually needed
to protect the country.
[Ronald] We must immediately
start a rebuilding
of our defensive capability
to the point that no nation
on this Earth
would dare lift a hand
against us.
[cheers and applause]
[Adelman] Reagan's view was
we need to spend on defense
to protect America.
The Soviets
wanna match us on that,
that will spend them
into oblivion.
And that wasn't what
the CIA was saying.
What the CIA was saying was,
since the end of the '70s,
Soviet spending
was pretty steady line
regardless
of the United States budget.
But Reagan's view
was different from that.
I don't know if he knew
what the CIA estimates were.
He probably didn't.
[Johnson]
Our greatest military adversary
was basically broke.
The Soviet Union
was collapsing upon itself
because of
grotesque incompetence
and mismanagement
of their economy.
So our spending
was just expanding
the military industrial complex.
[man] Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger
has been rebuilding
America's military,
with a philosophy
of peace through strength,
strength through money.
[Shearer]
Peace through strength...
It was a convenient
and brilliant cover,
use government spending
for the military,
then you could starve
the rest of the government.
- Hi, Bobby. How are you?
- A pleasure.
What's someone gonna do
with landing gear
in the backyard?
- I had a friend
who sold $100 million
or roughly close to it.
[Alter] Defense contractors
and the Defense Department
all reinforced each other
to spend taxpayer money.
All of Reagan's fiscal prudence
and efficiency
went out the window.
[man] The senior official
recently said
that military contractors
could cut up
to 50% from their cost.
But this is not a system likely
to enforce such discipline.
[Wiley] Reagan kept talking
about limited government,
but then,
essentially created government
of military might and power,
not a government
of investing in people.
Let friend and foe alike
know that America has the muscle
to back up its words,
and ships like this
and men like you
are that muscle.
[loud cheers and applause]
[indistinct chatter]
Now, I imagine you have a few
things on your mind
that you would like
to talk about, Gary.
Mr. President,
the polls continue to show
that between 60
and 70% of the people
still consider you
to be a rich man's president
with no idea of what the people
who aren't wealthy
are going through out there.
How does that make you feel?
Dramatic music plays
I just... my feeling,
and it's very deep
within me, is this.
No, the rich don't need my help.
And I'm not doing things
to help the rich.
I'm doing things
that I think are fair
to all the people.
[Ron Jr.] It was one of those
things where facts and evidence
didn't seem to carry the day.
He liked the idea
that if you let people,
meaning rich people,
hang on to more of their money,
that somehow this will benefit
all of society, you know?
[scoffs] No, it doesn't.
[laughs] We know that.
But, you know,
you'd run into that,
"All I know is..."
[Ronald] What I want
to see above all is,
that this country
remains a country
where someone
can always get rich.
That's the thing that we have
and that must be preserved.
Now, I don't know
how much, uh, more I can do,
um, on this subject.
I thought I had another line
there for a minute
that I was gonna, uh, gonna use,
but maybe it's just as well
that I don't use it.
[Alter] The beginning of the end
for the American middle class
was in the 1980s.
The economic idea that
Ronald Reagan believed in
turned out to not be true.
No argument available
on the other side
because enough time has passed
that history has rendered
a verdict.
How come no one calls it
Reaganomics anymore?
[laughter and applause]
I never did call it that.
That was their name when they
thought it wouldn't work.
I just called it common sense.
[Stahl] Even from
within the White House,
people like
the budget director, Stockman,
began to say,
"This idea is faulty."
[man] David Stockman
found that the complexities
of tax policy worked
simply beyond the president.
So he ignored the facts
and wandered in circles.
[Cannon] Stockman said,
"Ronald Reagan doesn't know
what he's doing."
It was an eye-opener
into the cynicism
of the budget policies
of the Reagan administration.
There is plenty of blame
to go around,
starting with me.
And there are plenty
of serious problems
lurking in the future
that simply aren't being
addressed in the present time.
[Johnson]
The economy did improve,
but it improved for people
who already had money.
That did nothing to lift anyone
out of poverty.
And that is the part of
the Reagan revolution
economically that people
conveniently ignore
in order to maintain the myth
of the Reagan presidency.
[Lopez] We have high levels
of equal wealth distribution
running through the 1970s.
And then, under Ronald Reagan,
you see the curve of wealth
inequality begin to go skyward,
as the one percent
and the one-tenth percent
begin to take more and more
and more
of the country's wealth.
[Brown] At a time
when we need national unity,
more than ever before,
we are experiencing
a growing division
because of this transfer
of wealth
from the working poor
to the working rich
and the non-working rich.
[Lopez] Ronald Reagan
initiates the process
by which government
will take wealth
from working families,
from the middle class,
and siphon it upwards.
He does so through tax policy,
by cutting government programs
that helped the middle class
by busting unions.
And now, we have
the highest levels
of wealth inequality
we've seen in a century.
[applause]
dramatic music plays
[man] And action.
The kind of future
our young people will have
is something you never forget
when you live here.
[Khachigian]
In the re-election campaign,
I was writing commercials
more than speeches.
The message in 1984
was encapsulated
in that theme, "It's Morning
Again in America."
[engine revving, birds chirping]
The idea of being
the economy had come back,
the national defense
had come back.
[bicycle bell rings]
- [man] Good morning, Jim.
[Khachigian] And the spirit
of America had returned.
[man] Under the leadership
of President Reagan,
our country is prouder
and stronger and better.
[Will] Ronald Reagan
understood that
the things happen
when people are confident.
[Baker] He was always
extoling the virtues
of this shining city
on the hill,
the virtues of this
wonderful country we live in.
[Johnson] That
"Morning in America" campaign
is a pop culture fantasy
of a strong nation
that had recovered
after years of turmoil.
It is a nation
that got its swag back
led by an old-fashioned cowboy
and his dutiful wife.
[Shearer]
One of Reagan's geniuses
was to convince people to vote
against their own self-interest,
the notion that if you
supported Reaganomics,
you would have a better life
when it wasn't true,
but he convinced people
to do it.
[Johnson]
Reagan realized something
a lot of politicians
were always afraid to admit.
A lot of Americans
are just selfish,
and the best way
to destroy a program
is not just to tell people
that it's inefficient.
It's to tell them that they have
to share it with somebody,
especially if that means
Black and brown people
in America.
[Wiley] Reagan knew
exactly how to package
the myth of the American dream
that was painted white
and where everyone
could advance.
The wonderful part
about our country
is that you can work hard
and better yourself...
which is what Ronnie did.
[Wiley] The Reagans erased
their own experience
of the world,
their own relationships,
the power and the privilege
that they had been given.
Ultimately, Reagan was about
serving his own ideology
and not about paying attention
to the needs
of the American people.
[indistinct chatter]
[Ronald] The best view
of big government
is in a rearview mirror
as we leave it behind.
[Lopez] Today,
there is this belief
that, of course,
the United States
is committed to a vision
in which government does
as little as possible.
It's all part of the mythology
of Reagan.
[crowd] Four more years!
[Shearer] I think that's one
of the worst things,
was this cynicism
about government,
because America
was supposed to be found
on the idea
of a democratic government.
And if you get cynical
about government,
then you're gonna get cynical
about democracy.
[crowd chanting]
USA! USA! USA! USA!
[Lear] Everything Reagan was,
so affable, so likeable,
so neighborly,
was antithetical to the polarity
he'd pushed through,
which amounted
to greed is good...
[ laughs ] or greed is great,
or screw everybody
but the one percent.
[woman]
Clad in blue jeans, tennis shoes
and a raid jacket
with her name on it,
Nancy Reagan first watched
undercover police
make street buys
from inside a motor home
and followed as they busted
14 occupants of this home.
[Nancy] What a waste.
What a wasted life.
[man] Would you describe
what you saw inside?
[Nancy] I saw a lot
of people on the floor,
and, uh, floors
that were unfurnished,
small little house.
You wish that...
You wish that somehow
you could have...
Somebody could have gotten
a hold of them sooner.