(tape fast forwarding)
("Another Version of
You" by Chris Zabriskie)
- Do you think materialism is the source
of our strength and
greatness as a country?
- Sure, because it's
the kind of materialism
that is based on individuals
wanting better things,
more comfort,
and there being people
with ideas who are free
to say, "Hey, I'll bet the
people would like this.
"I'm going to make it."
Just recently I saw an example of one.
Now, you know, if you
open a can of soft drink,
hold it in your hand,
it gets warm very fast
while you're drinking it.
There's a fella that has invented
an aluminum stein handle.
You're serving people
cold drinks in the can,
you just clamp that handle onto it,
and people hold it by the handle
and the drink doesn't warm up.
And he's going to make a million dollars.
- [Moyers] Tell me something
about your mother and father.
- [Reagan] He was a shoe salesman,
he was a Democrat, he was Irish.
It was a divided family.
My father was Catholic,
my mother was Protestant,
and while we were poor,
I don't think we were
really conscious of it
because the government didn't
come around and tell you
you were poor like they do today.
- [Moyers] This is when
you were in Illinois?
- Yes.
We lived in a small town.
It was from payday to payday with us,
and I can remember one dish
that I thought was delicious
and it was only later that
I realized why we had it.
Have you ever heard of oatmeal meat?
- [Moyers] No.
- [Reagan] Well you make oatmeal,
and you mix ground meat with it.
Then you make a gravy just out of that,
and then you serve that in
a big pancake-like thing.
Well, that was because we couldn't afford
to have that pancake made of all meat.
("Wild Ones" by Jahzzar)
- [Moyers] When you first came to Hollywood,
as I am told, you were
a fairly liberal fellow,
almost a one-world liberal.
- [Reagan] Well, I was
a New Deal Democrat.
Yes, had grown up that way.
My first vote was cast for
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
the first time he ran.
Differing from today,
in the Great Depression
there was a warmth among people,
there was a desire to help each other.
Status symbols did not exist.
I went to school and
worked my way through,
a small school in Illinois.
First job was waiting tables,
second job was one of the
better jobs I've ever had,
washing dishes in the girls' dormitory.
But...
(Moyers laughs)
Now, granted, at that time
I thought all of the efforts
by the government to resolve the problems
of the Great Depression were,
you know, the way to go.
I look back now and realize
they didn't help at all.
They didn't cure the Depression.
In many ways they set it back.
It's tragic, but the
cure of the Depression
was a very high price, World War II.
But I have often thought the party changed
much more than I did.
How many people remember that in 1932
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
ran on a program,
the Democratic platform,
of cutting federal spending by 25%,
eliminating useless bureaus and agencies,
returning to states and
local governments authorities
and autonomy that he said
had unjustly been seized
by the federal government?
Now, there's only one
party today in America
that I know that would be
happy with that platform,
and it's the party
(chuckles) I now belong to.
("Chunk of Lawn" by Jahzzar)
- [Moyers] You still think
business is the goose
that laid the golden egg?
- [Reagan] You have to believe that.
For the first time in man's history,
we unleashed the individual
genius of every man
to climb as high and as far
as his own strength and
ability will take him.
We live in the future
in America, always have.
And the better days are yet to come.
- [Moyers] Do you think those better days
mean more consumption of goods?
More consumption of things?
- [Reagan] Certainly,
and a wider distribution
of the ability to consume those things.
That's the dream of America.
The problem isn't being poor,
the problem, the answer
is to get over being poor.
And people want more and want better,
and they--
- [Moyers] How do you think
people get over being poor?
- By this, well, (chuckles)
by this same way,
of the ability and the freedom
to rise as far as you can.
- [Moyers] But what about the people--
- [Reagan] How did I get over being poor?
I got a job as a sports announcer
and it led to everything else.
- There's going to be a
stampede to the radio stations
right away, I'm sure.
(laughing)
("Another Version of
You" by Chris Zabriskie)
- [Moyers] Somebody described Reagan country
as "a land of well-kept lawns
and chambers of commerce,
"dull and square, a
nice place to raise kids
"and have a barbecue."
Do you think Reagan country,
that part of America,
can see and understand the
America of dirty streets,
crime, and poor people?
- [Reagan] Yeah, because
most of them came from there.
I have said that maybe
the difference between
some of those people and myself is,
and people like myself is
that they can have compassion
for someone who's needy.
Oh yes, let's have a government
program to help that person.
We all have compassion for
those people and the needy.
But I also have compassion
for those families out there in America
today where the husband
and wife is both working,
not because she wants to have a career,
but because if they're
gonna pay the mortgage
on the house in this
inflationary age she has to.
If they're gonna send
the kids on to school
they both have to work.
50% of the wives now working,
and all they ask of
freedom is freedom itself,
and they're getting worse
off, not better off,
and I think that there ought
to be enough compassion
for these people that are
making this system of ours work.
They're the backbone of America
and who the devil is
passing programs for them?
(tape fast forwarding)
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