Ronald Reagan

Quick facts

• Born: February 6, 1911, Tampico, Illinois
• Died: June 5, 2004, Los Angeles, California (Alzheimer’s disease; diagnosis announced November 5, 1994)
• Nickname: “The Great Communicator”
• Political arc: New Deal Democrat → General Electric corporate spokesman → conservative Republican
• Defining record: Fired 11,345 striking PATCO air-traffic controllers (August 1981) and banned them from federal employment for life; signed the largest tax cut in U.S. history to that point (ERTA, 1981); presided over an FCC that abolished the Fairness Doctrine (1987)

Key positions

Biography

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, to a working-class family, and studied economics and sociology at Eureka College, where he was student body president. After a stint as a radio sports announcer broadcasting Chicago Cubs games, he moved to Hollywood in 1937 and appeared in more than 50 films. As President of the Screen Actors Guild (1947–1952 and 1959–1960), he cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee and the FBI, providing names of suspected communists in Hollywood — his first turn from labor leader to instrument of an anti-left campaign.

The pivot that made Reagan a national political figure ran through corporate payroll. In 1954, General Electric hired him to host General Electric Theater and serve as a touring spokesman; his contract sent him across GE’s plants in some 40 states addressing employees. GE vice president Lemuel Boulware ran an explicit in-house political-education program, and Reagan was tasked with carrying its free-market, anti-union message to GE’s blue-collar workforce. Reagan, a self-described “New Dealer to the core” when he joined, called the GE years his “post-graduate education in political science”; by the time he left in 1962 he was, in his own framing, a “solid conservative.” The speeches he honed there became his 1964 “A Time for Choosing” address for Barry Goldwater, which launched his political career. He was elected Governor of California in 1966, serving 1967–1975 — where, despite anti-tax rhetoric, he approved the largest state tax increase to that date.

As the 40th president, Reagan’s first year set the template. In January 1981 the Heritage Foundation delivered Mandate for Leadership, a 1,093-page, 2,000-recommendation blueprint; Reagan gave a copy to every Cabinet member, and roughly 60% of its proposals were implemented or initiated by the end of his first year. In August 1981, after the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization — which had endorsed him in 1980 — struck, Reagan fired 11,345 controllers and banned them from federal employment for life (rescinded by President Clinton in 1993); the FLRA decertified PATCO that October, the first decertification of a federal union. Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan later called the firing “perhaps the most important” contribution to flexible labor markets. That same month he signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act, cutting the top marginal rate from 70% to 50%; the combined effect of the 1981 act and the 1986 Tax Reform Act brought the top rate to 28% by 1988.

Reagan’s administration paired deregulation with defunded enforcement. The Garn–St Germain Act (1982) deregulated savings and loans and is widely tied to the S&L crisis. His FCC — chaired first by former Reagan campaign staffer Mark Fowler, who began dismantling the rule — abolished the Fairness Doctrine in a 4-0 vote on August 4, 1987 under Fowler’s successor, Chairman Dennis Patrick, and when Congress moved to codify it into law, Reagan vetoed the bill. Media ownership concentrated sharply during his presidency. Reagan’s affable, delegating style — he was famously known to doze in meetings and to retell embellished or fabricated anecdotes, including the racialized “welfare queen” story built on a single prosecuted case — made him an effective public face while Heritage, Cabinet appointees, and corporate backers shaped policy. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1994; a later analysis of his press-conference transcripts found a measurable decline in unique words during his presidency, fueling ongoing questions about how engaged he was in his second term.

Sources

• “How Ronald Reagan’s Time at General Electric Pushed Him to Conservatism,” LitHub (accessed 2025-10-31) — GE years, Boulware program, political transformation.
• “Governorship of Ronald Reagan,” Wikipedia (accessed 2025-10-31) — California governorship 1967–1975, state tax increase.
• “1981 Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization strike,” Wikipedia (accessed 2025-10-31) — PATCO firing of 11,345, lifetime federal ban, decertification.
• “Reagan tax cuts,” Wikipedia, and “What we learned from Reagan’s tax cuts,” Brookings (both accessed 2025-10-31) — ERTA 1981, 1986 reform, top rate 70% → 28%.
• “Fairness doctrine,” Wikipedia (accessed 2025-10-31) — 1987 FCC abolition and Reagan veto of codification.
• “Did Ronald Reagan Have Alzheimer’s Disease While in Office?,” Snopes, and “Tracking Discourse Complexity Preceding Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis,” PMC (both accessed 2025-10-31) — 1994 diagnosis, second-term cognitive-decline question.