Some thoughts concerning the documentary The Reagans from Showtime.

The first episode is about the transition of Ronald Reagan from a struggling actor to the leader of the conservative wing of a Republican Party continuously sliding to the right. The episode is dominated by the tension between Reagan, the quintessential middle-american and Reagan, “nobody can be president without being a good actor”.

It seems possible that his transition from the leader of a labour union with money problem to “living advertisement of corporate America”, was what really made him attractive to so many people. Someone continuously thinking about how to feed a family has few opportunity to wonder about equality, morals or ethics. The film states it clearly: the moment Democrats become concerned about poor people and less about poor white people, they loose the rural white population.

I also found interesting the idea that the “small government” ideology is just the opposite of “government for the people, by the people”. It is true that there seem to be few conservative voices in this documentary, but one cannot but agree with the genius of camouflaging “no regulations for big corporations” with “small gouvernment” in order to better sell it to the voters.