Home > Ronald Reagan
2 Early political career
Ronald Reagan began his political life as a Democrat, supporting Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal. He gradually became a staunch social and fiscal conservative. He embarked upon the path that led him to a career in politics during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 1947 until 1952, and then again from 1959 to 1960. In this position he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on Communist influence in Hollywood. He also kept tabs on actors he considered "disloyal" and informed on them to the FBI under the code name "Agent T-10," but he would not implicate them publicly to HUAC. He supported the practice of blacklisting in Hollywood, defending it in a letter to Hugh Hefner because he claimed he would help anyone wrongly accused "avail himself of machinery to solve this problem." In that letter he claimed that the list of suspected leftists in Hollywood was not a "blacklist" but rather a list created by disgruntled moviegoers.
His employment by the General Electric company further enhanced his political image. By the 1964 election, Reagan was an outspoken supporter of conservative Republican Barry Goldwater. His nationally televised speech " A Time for Choosing" electrified conservatives and led to his being asked to run for Governor of California. To this day, this speech is considered one of the most stirring ever made on behalf of a candidate.
3 Governorship
In 1966, he was elected the 33rd Governor of California, defeating two-term incumbent Pat Brown; he was re-elected in 1970, defeating Jesse Unruh, but chose not to seek a third term. He had vowed to send "the welfare bums back to work," and "to clean up the mess at Berkeley." For the latter, he had UC President Clark Kerr fired and forced the University of California to charge tuition for the first time by cutting its budget. During the People's Park protests, he sent 2,200 National Guard troops into Berkeley. Reagan made it clear that the policies of his administration would not be influenced by the student agitators nor their actions tolerated, even "if it takes a bloodbath". When the kidnappers of Patty Hearst demanded the distribution of food to the poor, Reagan suggested it would be a good time for an outbreak of botulism.
During his first term, he froze government hiring, but also approved tax hikes to balance the budget. One of Reagan's greatest frustrations in office concerned the death penalty. He had gone on record as a strong supporter. In 1967, Aaron Mitchell , a young African-American man, was executed in California's gas chamber for the murder of a police officer. Reagan had refused to stop the execution. However, his efforts to enforce the state's death penalty codes were thwarted when the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty in 1972.
During his governorship, Reagan actively dismantled the public psychiatric hospital system, proposing that a community-based housing and treatment system replace it. According to some Reagan critics, the first objective was effectively accomplished, but the community replacement facilities were never adequately funded, either by Reagan or by his successors, contributing nationwide to current problems with homeless people, and an overfilling of jails and penitentiaries by people who would be better served with the earlier hospital system. Many of these ill people still are on the street. Also, a statewide teachers strike started in Los Angeles due to Reagan's cost cutting and poor budgeting at the same time.
