Ronald Reagan’s Legacy, Learning From The Generations Before Us

Ronald Reagan’s Legacy, Learning From The Generations Before Us:Â Passing the torch to the next generation is vital in seeing the kind of change that our future and our children”s futures need. On today”s show, Michael Reagan will be sharing with us some key secrets and words of advice from his father, Ronald Reagan. Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date:Â 02/06/2018

Guest:Â Michael Reagan

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

WallBuilders | American historical events, founding fathers, historical documents, books, videos, CDs, tapes, David Barton’s speaking schedule.
Lessons My Father Taught Me by Michael Reagan
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Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. Â This is WallBuilders Live!

Visit our websites at WallBuilders.com and WallBuildersLive.com. We’re looking at things from a Biblical, historical, and Constitutional perspective. All the hot topics in policy – what’s going on in the culture right now, what’s going on in our political world, what’s going on in your backyard, in your community as well. You can find out more about WallBuilders at those websites.

Our host today, David Barton, he’s America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also Pastor Tim Barton, national speaker and author. My name is Rick Green, I’m a former state rep from Texas and also a national speaker and author.

We’re looking forward to today’s program, guys. David, Tim, I tell you, it seems like part of the reason a generations seems lost is whenever the previous generation didn’t really focus and purposely pass the torch to them and teach them the values of their particular generation. It seems like that’s kind of where we are now where this new generation is trying to figure out, what do we believe? What– is there truth? Is there anything worth standing for?

Passing the Torch

David:

That’s a great point of passing it from one generation to the next, Rick. Because that’s one of the things you will find an old history. We’ve mentioned before, at WallBuilders, we have this great collection of a hundred thousand documents from before 1812 – all these originals, copies of originals, etc.. And one of the things you’ll find is that founding fathers and other leaders really worked hard to pass on their wisdom to the next generation.

So, whether it be the will of Richard Stockton who’s a signer of the Declaration, we have his will on our website, and he spends extensive time passing on values and beliefs to the next generation. Because he was a prisoner of war and the British essentially killed him, or abused him so much that when they released him he ended up dying, so he passed this own those kids. William Penn wrote a book for his kids on instruction, things that they needed to know. John Witherspoon wrote a book for children on what they need to know. So, they really were deliberate about passing this stuff on.

And I’ve thought about these guys, and they took time with their kids to pass on and instill values. Think about what this means when you’re Carter Braxton. And by the way, Carter Braxton is a signer of the Declaration. It”s unfortunate that out of the 56 signers, most people can’t name more than three or four. Carter Braxton’s a name you don’t know.

Carter Braxton had 18 kids. Now think about what it takes to pass on something to 18 kids. You”ve got to be deliberate about that. William Ellery, another signer of the Declaration, great guy, I believe he was a physician, he had 16 kids. Thing about passing that on.

William Livingston, signer of the Constitution, thirteen kids. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration and the Constitution, Fifteen kids.

Founding Fathers to Their Children

David:

Listen to what the newspaper said about Roger Sherman. It said, “The volume which he consulted more than any other was the Bible. It was his custom at the commencement of every session of Congress to purchase a copy of the scriptures, to peruse it daily, and to present it to one of his children on his return.” There you”ve got a guy with the Bible, making notes in it as he”s in that session of Congress, and he goes home and gives the Bible to one of the kids. He’s instilling– deliberately, specifically, instilling Biblical values in these guys.

John Quincy Adams, he had four kids. He wrote the letters to his son on the use of the Bible. So these guys were very deliberate in instilling values in their kids.

Tim:

Well, and that’s one of the things, even going back to the Bible, God taught that you should be very intentional in handing things down to your kids. You remember back in Deuteronomy as Moses is laying out for the Israelites what they need to do as they’re going to enter into Canaan. And in Deuteronomy chapter 6, he’s reminding them that you’re supposed to teach diligently to your children everything that you’ve been commanded.

He goes on and talks about the intentionality of it. That you need to do it when you are sitting in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. And he goes through this list of all the times you should be teaching your children these statutes, these commands from God. And ultimately, it was no matter what you were doing you should be teaching them and training them what God has called us to do. But what it really reveals is that you have to be intentional when you do this.

Rick:

Yeah.

Tim:

That you can’t just say one time I’ve told you, “Hey, you should work hard” and therefore, I have now passed it on. No, it was very intentional. And one of the things you definitely see looking back is that, historically, there were groups of people, there were individuals, that were very intentional. And when you are intentional, you can hand something down to your kids, they can learn the lesson, but it’s not easy to do.

Why You See Neglect in Many Areas of Our Culture

Tim:

That’s why you see a neglect in many areas of our culture of the next generation learning lessons that they ought to be learning. That I guarantee you many of their parents learned from their parents parents or from their grandparents. But we’re not seeing it passed down as much in culture. And largely, I would think it’s because we’re not being intentional about helping the next generation learn lessons that need to be learned.

David:

Think about all the great leaders we’ve had that we really wish now we had heard some wisdom from them or got passed down. We look back, Calvin Coolidge is a guy I would like to know a whole lot more about and I would like to have a lot more– Because his policies were so good, and so sound, and so healthy for the nation. And it’s like I know so little about what he was thinking, or how he was thinking, or how he did it. Look at his lifestyle, and clearly he’s got the values and the Constitutional understanding of the faith. But where is that?

And you look at Reagan – how many people today even know what Ronald Reagan believed or what he thought? Well, there is at least some people who know because they were his kids. And one of his kids, Michael Reagan, has now written a book called Lessons From My Father. And it is the wisdom of Ronald Reagan on so many areas that will benefit all of us.

It”s like when John Quincy Adams did those letters to a son on the Bible. Other people found out about it and said, “We want that for our kids.” And so they started– in 1848, they started publishing that book for all of American kids and it went through edition, after edition, after edition, across those years. And it’s like Reagan’s got so much to say, but we never knew what he said. But we do now because of Michael Reagan and the new book he’s got on lessons from his father.

Rick:

Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan is the title of the book. The author will be with us – Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, with us on WallBuilders Live when we return in just a moment.

Bring A Speaker To Your Area

Tim:

Hey, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders. Â And as you’ve had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you’ve probably heard a wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, and about all the things that make America exceptional.

And you might be thinking, “As incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group.”

Whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school, or public school, or some political event, or activity, if you’re interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com and there’s a tab for scheduling. If you”ll click on that tab, you’ll notice there’s a list of information from speakers bio’s, to events that are already going on. And there’s a section where you can request an event, to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties, and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders website and Bring a speaker to your area.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Our guest today, Michael Reagan, new book out – Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan. Michael Reagan, thanks so much for joining us today.

Michael Reagan:

Hey, it”s good to be with you, too. Thank you.

Rick:

Hey, man, excited about the book and just beginning to flip through it. This is not just a lot of great behind the scenes stories people have never heard. Man, this is just great lessons for life.

Lessons From Ronald Reagan

Michael Reagan:

Yeah, and that’s why I wrote it. People know my father as a politician and there’s always speculation how he might have been as a father, and what have you. And I thought, “You know, I’m going to write a book about him, and about the lessons that he taught, and the way he was, and the time I spent with him.” Because after all, I spent 20 years with him riding out to our ranch, riding horses, shooting ground squirrels, going swimming, doing chores, painting fences – all those kinds of things – while he was telling stories to me, and singing anthems of all the different military organizations, all those things for 20 years.

Rick:

You even touch on everything from basic work ethic, to giving to charitable organizations, to how to deal with major challenges in life. I don’t know how you got it all in one book, Michael, but this is good stuff. And it’s at a time where, frankly, the culture needs it. These are the things we’re missing in the new generations.

Michael Reagan:

It’s like we’re afraid to hear what the right thing is to do.

Rick:

Yeah.

Michael Reagan:

That’s one thing – we keep on looking for heroes and our heroes keep on letting us down. And I think I wrote a book about a real hero. Someone who was the same with you as he would be with me. His sense of humor that he had that he was able to use in very opportune ways, not only with his children, but with the political side of it. How he spoke to us in parables, not soundbites.

All those kinds of things and behind the scenes stories about things that they had heard about in the news, but didn’t know the backstory to how those things in fact happened. People can learn a lot. People talk about my father’s faith and what did he do to prove out his faith. That’s in the book * a couple of stories. And we write about the assassination attempt and what he said to me on that last plane ride on Good Friday on Air Force One coming back to California for Easter Sunday.

Don”t Just Work Hard, But Work Smart

Rick:

And you even reveal, I’m not going to tell anybody what happened, but even his– when he ran into actor, Alec Baldwin, and what he had to say about him. So, some fun stuff in there as well. But tell me, let’s just pick one of these things out of there. You talk about how your dad said always to work, not just work hard, but work smart. What did you mean by that?

Michael Reagan:

Yeah, well, you really have to work smart. Really don’t waste time, work smart. Don’t feel sorry for yourself if things don’t work out for you. My dad, when you go through the book, you find out all the different jobs he had. He didn’t look backwards, he looked forwards.

Rick:

Yeah.

Michael Reagan:

He gained something from every place that he was, in fact, in life. And so he’s very smart about that the way he worked and what have you. When he wasn’t chopping wood, he was reading books. Readers are leaders. He was a reader.

People wonder, “Well, was he smart, did he really know this stuff?” Yeah, he really knew this stuff. He could talk about any issue on the planet. He could talk about that, and talk to you about that. Really working smart, working down the line, and moving forward, which is exactly what he did in his lifetime.

Rick:

You also touched on failure in life and how your dad actually embraced failure as a launching pad for the next success.

Failure As a Launching Pad For Success

Michael Reagan:

Yeah, he actually, when he was doing ** back in the 60s, just one of the * areas, he was fired. The show was canceled overnight. Bobby Kennedy had called the head of General Electric, told the head of GE, “You know, we don’t like that guy going around the country, going to all the GE plants, giving speeches about my brother, and about government, and the size of government. And if you want your new contracts for the next term renewed, might be good to find a way to get rid of him.”

Rick:

Wow.

Michael Reagan:

72 hours later, GE * is canceled on the air, dad”s without a job, he does get some work doing twenty mule team borax on the borax show, but he doesn’t have all those speeches going anymore, so he has a lot more time. What does he do with his time? He takes it and he writes a new speech that he gives in October of 1964 after he’s switched from being a Democrat to a Republican in “62. But he writes this speech and he gives it– you might have heard of it, it”s called, A Time for Choosing.

Rick:

Wow.

Michael Reagan:

Which he gave for Barry Goldwater. And we know about what happened with the career after that.

Rick:

So, he could have said, “Oh, woe is me.” The big guns of you know, cost me my job now and just disappear. But instead, your dad took it, and built on it, and became the speech that we all know of. I wanted to ask you about the whole GE thing. How important was that circuit in his time on the road speaking during that time, almost perfecting that ability to really communicate well and not just have a great message, but a message that people embraced?

The Ability to Communicate and Relate

Michael Reagan:

Well, he was able to take it on the road and actually talk to working people, blue collar people, middle class. That’s who he was able to talk to. And he just gathered all kinds of information on what was going on in that arena, if you will. It enabled him to be able to communicate and relate. People vote for people they like and people they relate to.

Those that he went and spoke to not only liked him, but he related to them and that’s so important. And also, my dad, and I write about this in the book, too many people today, they’ll lose their job or they’ll be offered a job and say, “Oh, that’s too easy. I”m not going to do that job because that’s really beneath what I am. Don’t you know who I am?” They’re so caught up in themselves.

My dad, when things were going well in Hollywood, when he got the GE job, he was working in Las Vegas at the El Rancho Hotel doing a show at the El Rancho Hotel on the strip in Las Vegas. That’s where he was. Now, that was a bit beneath him, but he had to take care of a wife and a family.

Rick:

Yeah.

Michael Reagan:

That’s what he had to take care of. And today, it seems that we don’t do that much. My dad told me one time, and I think I pull up this in the book, he says, “You know, Michael, if you’re an actor and you’re in *, and they’re not hiring actors in *, maybe it’s time to leave *.”

It’s like the same thing in radio. I was in radio 26 years. If they’re not hiring in Butte, Montana maybe you need to go somewhere else.

Rick:

Right. Well, man, you reveal so much in the book. Some great, great, stories, folks. You can find out even some of the stuff behind the scenes with the Sandra Day O’Connor appointment from the– all kinds of things in terms of some of the scandals, and challenges, and things that Ronald Reagan had to deal with, and how he dealt with those things in his administration.

A Special Letter

Michael Reagan:

If you only buy the book to read the letter my dad sent me on the occasion of my wedding, it’s really worth it.

Rick:

No doubt.

Michael Reagan:

And you’ll understand why him and Nancy were married as they were for so many years.

Rick:

Great stuff, man. Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan. Michael, best place to get it, I guess everywhere at this point?

Michael Reagan:

It”s Barnes and Noble, everywhere.

Rick:

It’s also, I just, in fact, I”ve got to admit, I’m an audible guy. So, I got it on the whispersync with Kindle. So, I”m going to– I was hoping you were reading it. It”s somebody else reading it, but you can get it on Audible and follow along on the Kindle at the same time.

Michael Reagan:

That’s a good deal. Hey, thank you.

Rick:

Hey, what’s next for you, bro?

Michael Reagan:

Well, you know I’m doing stuff with the Reagan Legacy Foundation my wife and I started which provides scholarships to the men and women who serve on the USS Ronald Reagan. We just dedicated the Ronald Reagan center there at Sainte– MÃ¨re–Ãglise France, which is the first town freed by Americans on D-day. And so we’re involved doing that. We have a room that we decked out, if you will, with Ronald Reagan material–

Rick:

Wow.

Work of the Reagan Legacy Foundation

Michael Reagan:

–at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin. We did that on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. So, we’re busy all over the world planting my father’s seeds. Because my sister, which you find out in the book, asked me when she was dying of melanoma, if there came a time I didn’t have to do radio, that I could carry on the legacy of our father, would I? And I promised her just a few months before she died that I would and I’m carrying out that promise.

Rick:

Well, millions of people will benefit, Michael, because it’s– how we remember the past, it really has a big impact on the decisions we make. Even your father’s, the Economic Policy and the things that he did, so many tried to twist that for so long and it caused people to run away from these policies that actually work. And by speaking the truth about him, getting the facts out there about what his tax cuts and his other policies actually did, creating the greatest peacetime economic expansion in history, all those things. It allows future elected officials to still embrace those policies so–

Michael Reagan:

Oh, absolutely right. People want to go to ReaganLegacyFoundation.org.

Rick:

Yes.

Michael Reagan:

We have a program now, if have you have a loved one or know someone who served in the Second World War in the European theater, we have a brick program now. They can purchase a brick, and that brick will be put in Sainte– MÃ¨re–Ãglise in all the walkways at the museum there at Sainte– MÃ¨re–Ãglise to honor and remember those who, literally, saved the world on D-day of 1944.

Rick:

ReaganLegacyFoundation.org.. I still think the greatest speech your dad ever gave was the one atop the cliffs there on the anniversary at Pointe Du Hoc, France and with those guys still seated around him, just phenomenal.

Michael Reagan:

Amazing.

Rick:

Yeah, absolutely. Michael, thank you so much for your time. Again the title, Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan by Michael Reagan. Michael thanks for your time today, sir.

Michael Reagan:

Thank you.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We”ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

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Rick:

Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. We’re back with David and Tim Barton now. And, guys, great interview. I tell you, I’ve always kind of thought that how you remember yesterday is going to really influence how you move forward, especially with public policy.

Maligned by Our Education System

Rick:

And Ronald Reagan, obviously someone that’s been maligned quite a bit by our education system that’s dominated by liberals. And not just education system, when you think about when Clinton and Gore got in office, they were lambasting worst economy in 50 years and all these lies about Reagan’s tax cuts. I got motivated even to do a video back then called The Legacy of President Ronald Reagan just defending his economic policies. Let alone, all the other things that Michael’s teaching us here with this book.

Tim:

Well, one of the things, Rick, as you’re mentioning, having to defend Reagan. During the summer, we have interns that come in from all different states. College age students generally aged 18 to 25. Some of these young people, young adults, are out of college they’re entering into their career, or maybe they’re in grad school.

And even this summer, I was talking to them about Ronald Reagan and I heard several say, “Well, we heard Ronald Reagan was a really bad guy. He was a bad president. He had bad economic policies.” All they are hearing about him in college is negative. In fact, I very recently read a very well-known book about Ronald Reagan–

David:

Killing Reagan. Let’s be specific. It was Bill O’Reilly’s, Killing Reagan.

Tim:

Okay, well then we”ll get specific.

David:

And he did a good job of killing Reagan.

Tim:

One of the things that struck me is, the book really revolved around the sexual escapades of Reagan in his early life. And that was most of what’s highlighted in the book, and then he becomes president, and all it was was the drama behind the scenes. You really didn’t learn any of the positive things that Reagan did to speak of. I really thought–

That’s Like the Whole Story of David Only Being Bathsheba

David:

And let me jump in there for a second, because that’s the same thing dids get with Franklin today, how immoral Franklin was. Yeah, he was early in life, had a couple of kids outside of marriage, but man, he had a real change. Then later in life, he writes his plan of virtue, a 13 week plan you can use throughout the whole year to emphasize 13 godly virtues that will keep you straight. Yeah, he had this struggle, but then he moves on.

Same with Reagan. Look at Reagan’s latter life. Sure, those affairs early on, Hollywood, etc., but how about all the good stuff? That’s like the whole story of David only being Bathsheba. That that doesn’t make any sense at all.

But that’s what’s happening now and that’s what the kids are getting. And even O’Reilly is buying into this kind of stuff where you highlight the exploitation, or you exploit the salacious side, and you ignore all the other stuff. How about all the stuff Reagan did and policy that changed the world for good?

Rick:

Yeah.

David:

That’s what kids aren’t hearing.

Rick:

Well, David, you’ve always said, “The good, the bad, and the ugly,” right? Don’t just tell the good, don’t just tell the bad, or the– Â you”ve got to tell the whole story. It’s the way God teaches us history in the Bible. It”s the way you’ve always done at WallBuilders, is take these guys from our history and tell their whole story.

Tim:

Well, and, Rick, it is something that we are battling culturally too, it”s something that”s being taught in education. We had an intern that came in the summer before this summer. So, I guess two summers ago that came in. And this intern, we had a conversation and this intern says, “Wait a second, you’re saying so many positive things about the founding fathers.” But he was taught that you can’t say a positive thing unless you also say a negative thing to balance out the positive thing.

You Have to Study the Negative Too?

Tim:

Because you can’t just say positive things about people. You have to make sure you”re saying– Well, that’s what he’s learning in college – that you can’t just look and see something positive someone did unless you also study all the negative things they did.

David:

Now, my response to that was, “Okay, if we’ve got to balance this out with equals, I don’t want you to say anything nice about your mother unless you also insult her as well.” Because if that’s the policy, what if there is more good stuff than bad? What if there are many more things good than bad? But no, no, no, it’s not fair unless you give a one for one tit for tat.

That’s not even historically sound. And he certainly wouldn’t apply that policy to his family, “By the way, nobody can say anything good about you unless they also insult you–“ it doesn”t make sense, but that’s what they’re being taught at college.

Tim:

And this is a Christian kid from a a major, well-known, conservative, university that his professors are telling him this. And the reason I point that out is because this is the battle we’re dealing with at very conservative universities. The conservative universities say, “Well there is some good, but it has to be balanced out with the negative.” Well, the other universities are saying just the negative. And so in the midst of it all, we’re not being able to really accurately read, and analyze, and study, based on factual data.

No doubt, early in Reagan’s life, some of the things I was reading, I was going, “Oh my goodness, I had no idea. This is so bad. It is so not good on a lot of levels.” But then I thought, when he became president, there’s a lot of things I know he did as president to promote faith, to promote the Bible in America, having a year of the Bible. And they don’t mention that in the book – they only mention the drama behind the scenes and negative things, negative stories or interactions with people.

Now We Have a Great Place to Go

Tim:

Not that those things might not have happened, and I don’t mean to suggest that, but we just– all we hear the negative things. So, it’s great that we now have a place we can go and learn some of the positive attributes, the character lessons, that Ronald Reagan tried to pass down in this case to his son Michael.

Rick:

And some things that I had not heard before and I’ve read every book that’s been written on Reagan, I think, and just a real student of his presidency. As I said, I did that documentary several years back on his economic policy. But man, some of the things Michael reveals in this book, some of the life lessons, I had never heard before. It’s really, really, good stuff and excited about this information getting out there. And like you said, Tim, to tell the good news as well and not just harp on the bad.