How Reagan Won By Telling the Best Story (+video)
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was born 104 years ago today. The same battles he fought and often won against Big Government are at issue once again. The Gipper always knew the best way to win these struggles in the court of public opinion was by telling the best story.
A look back at some of his most prominent addresses reveals that they were often structured as one big story. It should come as no surprise that our nation’s first and only Hollywood actor turned governor, turned President would know how to tell a compelling story.
Certainly the most memorable public speakers of all time knew telling a good story is the best way to hold your audience’s attention and convince them what you are saying is true. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln going all the way back to the most impactful communicator of them all, Jesus of Nazareth, used stories to connect powerfully and emotionally with their audiences.
The story Ronald Reagan, “the Great Communicator,” most often told as a political figure, particularly in the years leading up to his election as President, went something like this. The United States, a great nation, faces an uncertain, perilous future due to threats both at home and abroad. At home our heroes–the American people—are up against a gargantuan, menacing foe–the federal government (and those who support its further growth)—hell bent on stealing the people’s liberty and the American dream. A restoration of the nation’s status as a “City on a Hill” is possible, if liberty-loving people courageously rise up, slay the Big Government beast, and return to the constitutional government that our Founders intended.
Reagan’s first major political speech, “A Time For Choosing,” in support of Barry Goldwater for President in 1964, employed this structure. It was “The Speech” that put him on the political map. Early in his remarks, Reagan said, “This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.”
In “A Time for Choosing,” Reagan predicted if the United States followed the liberal ideology and policies being implemented by President Johnson and the Democrats (the Great Society foremost among them), it would lead to American decline. He was right. By the late 70s, the full weight of these programs and the liberals’ profligate taxing, spending and borrowing had come home to roost. Even Democrat President Jimmy Carter admitted a malaise had settled over the country as Americans’ faith in the future waned. The nation experienced stagflation: double-digit inflation coupled with slow economic growth, something economists did not think was possible.
Enter Ronald Reagan, stage right. He offered an alternative vision. In announcing his candidacy in late 1979, he followed his tried and true story structure: America is in peril; the federal government is largely to blame; a restoration is possible. He said, “They [those who support the Big Government status quo] tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where – because of our past excesses – it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself…The people have not created this disaster in our economy; the federal government has. It has overspent, overestimated, and over regulated.”
Later in the address, Reagan said, “[The American people] want someone who believes they can ‘begin the world over again.’ A leader who will unleash their great strength and remove the roadblocks government has put in their way. I want to do that more than anything I’ve ever wanted. And it’s something that I believe with God’s help I can do.”
Reagan followed this same story structure in his speech accepting the Republican nomination and in his First Inaugural Address, during which he memorably pronounced, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
What was the result of all of Reagan’s story telling? The American people listened and believed him. Reagan won his 1980 election against Carter 44 states to 6, and won his re-election 49 states to 1. They also believed what he said about how to get the country moving again. During the 1980s, the United States experienced a decade of unprecedented economic growth, a restoration of the American spirit, and a return to the position of the unrivaled leader of the free world.
In his Farewell Address, Reagan ended the story of his Presidency with a deep sense of satisfaction saying, “My friends: We did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.” Is it possible to win the public debate and end the era of big government once again? I know the Gipper would say (with a twinkle in his eye), “Sure it is. Just tell them the right story.”