December 2nd: Last Day of Class

Le Guin, Ursula K. “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (1983)
Ronald W. Reagan’s “Farewell Address to the Nation” (1989)

Announcements

• Final Exam on Canvas DUE, 12/09
  • I wil try to open it on December 6-7!
  • I assure you there is no presentation
• AMDM 1575 Teaching Evaluations–Due by 12/03
  • Only 35% as of last night (12/01)

Plan for the Day

• Finish up Ursula K. Le Guin’s “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (1983)
  • November 20th’s class
  • Le Guin and Reagan are diametrically opposed politically
• Ronald W. Reagan’s “Farewell Address to the Nation” (11 Jan 1989)
• Then, we go back to the first day of class and review until time is up!
  • Maybe we can draft some questions together…
• Democracy/Liberty/Freedom/ETC. quotation:
• “Perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle to properly be appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
  —Ronald W. Reagan’s “Inagural Address as Governor of California,” 5 Jan. 1967, para. 4. [Ronald Reagan Presidential Library]

Reagan also used the phrase “remembering that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” on another occasion: Remarks at the Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in Atlanta, Georgia, 1 Aug. 1983.

Ronald Wilson Reagan

I guess it’s fitting that we end the class on a “farewell” address. Reagan is the first president I remember, and he dominated the 1980s. I don’t want to overstate the Hollywood connection to his presidency because he entered left Hollywood to enter politics…sure, it was as Governor of California, but he was an expert politician, which, I guess makes him an actor. Anyway, here are some highlights:

• Was supportive of President Roosevelt’s New Deal (registered Democrat)
• Captain in the US Army Air Force
• President of the Screen Actors Guild (1947-1952)
• Supported Dwight D. Eisenhower and moved right politically
• Governor of California (1967-1975)
• Ran for President in 1976 but lost to Gerald Ford in the Republican Primary
• 40th President of the United States (1981-1989)
  • Under General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Leader), the Soviet Union began to negotiate with the United States and end the Cold War
  • Reagan is credited with being instrumental in the fall of Soviet Communism.
  • Reagan’s “Farewell Address” references these events, but he doesn’t overplay them
  • In November 1989, the Berlin Wall would begin to come down

Time permitting, we’ll listen to Reagan’s famous “A Time for Choosing” speech (27 Oct. 1964) [up until 6 min 5 sec] that was in support of Barry Goldwater’s campaign for president, but it put attention on Reagan for his own future political run.

Reagan’s “Farewell Address”

One day you’ll understand the sting of having lived through history: Reagan’s televised farewell. Because this is our last document, consider how it relates to our other readings and the themes of this course. Notice that the address is quite hopeful and touts the successes of Reagan’s time in office. Of course, consider how freedom, democracy, etc. are used in the speech.

The Ethos of Reagan’s Opening

• para. 1: Notice the attention he gives to time
  • “34th” Oval Office address
  • “We’ve been together 8 years now…”
• para: 2: “It’s been the honor of my life to be your President.”
  • “Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve.”
• para. 3: Sets up an extended metaphor about cars and driving that will come back

Compared to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, this address does the opposite: Lincoln starts off exaggerating the time from the Nation’s founding–four score and seven years ago–whereas, Reagan mentions what he’s done in 8 years. Then, in para. 9, he references “our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.” My take is he’s showing himself (and his supporters) to be part of a long tradition, and his time is but a small part. Overall, Reagan’s speech has a story-like nature to it, which makes the tone very different from Eisenhower’s Farewell Address (17 Jan. 1961).

Connecting to Lincoln

• para. 5: “The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial.”
  • “Someone said that’s the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run.”
  • Republicans like to invoke Abraham Lincoln, and this is Reagan’s way of connecting his presidency to Lincoln’s.
• para. 13: A more subtle connection to Lincoln is when Reagan references that he was known as “The Great Communicator.”
  • Lincoln has been referred to as “The Great Emancipator”
  • Notice the chiasmus he uses:
    “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation

Invoking America and Freedom

• para. 6: Vietnamese refugees in the Indochina Sea
  • “Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.”
  • “…that’s what it was to be an American in the 1980’s. We stood, again, for freedom.”
• para. 17: “Countries across the globe are turning to free markets and free speech and turning away from the ideologies of the past.”
• para. 19: “‘We the People’ tell the government what to do; it doesn’t tell us. “‘We the People’ are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast.
  • “Our Constitution is a document in which ‘We the People’ tell the government what it is allowed to do. ‘We the People’ are free.”
• para. 20: “But back in the 1960’s…through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom.

Economic Prosperity

• para. 8: “there were two great triumphs…”
  • “One is the economic recovery, in which the people of America created—and filled—19 million new jobs.”
  • “The other is the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership.”
• para. 9: New leader at the G7 summit
• para. 10: “Two years later…I saw that everyone was just sitting there looking at me….’Tell us about the American miracle‘.”
• para. 13: “Our economic program brought about the longest peacetime expansion in our history: real family income up, the poverty rate down, entrepreneurship booming, and an explosion in research and new technology.”
  • Eisenhower was more ambivalent about this.

Relations with the Soviet Union

• para. 21: “And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited….As government expands, liberty contracts.”
• para. 22: “Nothing is less free than pure communism-and yet we have, the past few years, forged a satisfying new closeness with the Soviet Union.”
  • It’s interesting that Reagan qualifies “pure communism.”
  • Perhaps the fact that the Soviet Union is opening up and becoming less pure communist is the reason for the qualification.
• para. 24: “…while the man on the street in the Soviet Union yearns for peace, the government is Communist.”
• para. 25: Repetition of “It’s still…” to emphasize the new relationship with the Soviet Union
  • “It’s still trust but verify.”
  • “It’s still play, but cut the cards.”
  • “It’s still watch closely. And don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
  • Although subtle, this both reminds people not to let their guard down and also emphasizes that the process will be slow, measured, and pragmatic–not rushed in. (Ha! reminds me of the 1987 video game Rush’n Attack.

Call to Patriotism

• para. 26: Alliteration fun
  • “If we’re to finish the job, Reagan’s regiments will have to become the Bush brigades. Soon he’ll be the chief, and he’ll need you every bit as much as I did.
• para. 27: “…one of the things I’m proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism.”
  • It must be “grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.”
• para. 28: “An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?”
  • Back in the 1950s, “we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions.”
  • “…you could get a sense of patriotism from school….from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special.”
• para. 29: “But now, we’re about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed.”
  • In “popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style.”
  • “America is freedom—freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs production [protection].”
  • It could also need “production” as in Hollywood productions.
• para. 30: Here, he invokes the pioneering Pilgrims but then connects to WWII. Reagan already referenced WWII when he mentioned Anzio in para. 28 (“Informed patriotism”).
  • “…why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant.”
  • “…on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who’d fought on Omaha Beach.”
  • “Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, ‘we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.'”
    • And that can easily be compared to what other speech we’ve read?
    • Hint: it was a commemoration that mentioned not forgetting.
    • “[The world] can never forget what they did here.” [???]
  • “I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
• para. 31: “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
  • Any good conversations at the Thanksgiving dinner table?

Book Ends: That Window Upstairs

• para. 32: John Winthrop “a shining city upon a hill.”
  • This is also a Biblical reference to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.”
  • This is used quite a bit in American History, including at the end of (arguably) the first blockbuster film released.
  • “[John Winthrop] was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man.”
    • Links back to the beginning of the address.
• para. 33: “…God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.”
• para. 34: “More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago….After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong.”
  • “And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places…”
• para. 35: “We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands.”
  • Speaking of the 1980s and building cities…Starship’s “We Built This City” (1985)!
• para. 36: “And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”

Last Thing: Moderation and Common Sense

Reagan was consider an extremist by many establishment Republicans when he ran for office. They thought his economic policies would be too radical. He confronts this and explains he was “pragmatic” and not radical.

• para. 11: “Well, back in 1980….Some pundits said our programs would result in catastrophe. Our views on foreign affairs would cause war. Our plans for the economy would cause inflation to soar and bring about economic collapse.”
  • “The fact is, what they called ‘radical’ was really ‘right.’ What they called ‘dangerous’ was just ‘desperately needed.'”
• para. 13-15: Common Sense
  • para. 13: “They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I’ll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.”
  • para. 14: “Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people’s tax rates…”
  • para. 15: “Common sense also told us that to preserve the peace, we’d have to become strong again after years of weakness and confusion.

Final Exam

With the rest of our class time, we should go back to the first day and start reviewing. The Final Exam will be about 75 questions, and you’ll have 150 minutes to do it on Canvas.