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CHAUTAUQUA -- After seven decades of tyranny, the Soviet Union and its empire collapsed due in no small measure to the efforts of two former actors and a grocer's daughter.
One actor--named Karol Wojtyla--grew up in Wadowice, Poland, and later moved to Krakow, where he eventually became a Roman Catholic priest, bishop, archbishop, and cardinal.
The other actor--nicknamed Dutch--was born in Tampico, Illinois, grew up in nearby Dixon, and became a sports announcer at WOC in Davenport, Iowa, and WHO in Des Moines before moving on to acting.
The two, of course, are John Paul II, who was elected pope in 1978, and Ronald Reagan, who was elected president in 1980.
The grocer's daughter was Margaret Thatcher, elected prime minister of the United Kingdom in 1979.
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Speaking to Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua, or ABC, on July 27, Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor--having written a 2017 book about the pope and the president--called their connection the most significant pope-president relationship.
John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, the first Polish pope, and the first Slavic pope, Kengor recalled.
Poland and the Slavic countries were then firmly behind the Iron Curtain.
When the pope visited his native land for nine days in 1979 and called for the independence of Poland, the Soviet Union was furious, Kengor said.
Kengor said the pope and the president, having both survived assassination attempts in 1981, met five times from 1982 to 1990.
Having written a 2004 book about the president that became the 2024 movie aptly called Reagan, Kengor recalled a fact about First Lady Nancy Reagan that may not be widely known: She felt guilty for not accompanying her husband on the day he was shot. Why? Because she always walked on his left, and if she had been on his left that day, she could have taken the bullet for him.
That's devotion.
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ABC arranged to have the movie Reagan shown at the Chautauqua Cinema on July 28.
If you haven't seen the movie, it's superbly made and worth seeing. The actor who plays President Reagan beyond his youth, and the actress who plays Mrs. Reagan, have their parts down perfectly. So much so that President and Mrs. Reagan's distinct mannerisms, especially his, come shining through.
The movie begins with the assassination attempt, and then takes up President Reagan's life from the beginning.
To some extent, the story is told through the eyes of a retired Soviet spy, who recalled that the Soviet Union had watched President Reagan from his early days as a union president--president of the Screen Actors Guild, that is--in California.
The Soviet spy recalls that the Soviets had a nickname for President Reagan: They called him the Crusader, in large measure for his effective opposition to communism.
The movie is not only a serious history movie but also a fun one. You'll hear most of President Reagan's famous lines, including from 1980 and 1984 presidential debates and from the assassination attempts. You'll also hear the famous line as he stood before the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
As the movie begins drawing to a close, you see the conversation between a secret-service agent and Mrs. Reagan, and then between the agent and the by-then-former president, after the agent had come to the realization during those post-White House years that the president shouldn't be riding horses anymore.
The president responded, "One more ride." Which they took.
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Speaking to ABC on Aug. 3, veteran Pennsylvania political reporter Salena Zito's many topics included the 2016 presidential election. Zito knew how to read election results from particular rural Pennsylvania counties. While the national press was focusing on the vote in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, she watched those rural counties and knew early on Election Night that Donald Trump would win Pennsylvania.
Asked about the 2028 presidential election, she said
● Secretary of State Marco Rubio won't seek the Republican presidential nomination if Vice President J.D. Vance does, because they're close friends,
● the ticket, in that case, could be Vance-Rubio, and
● Vance can win.
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On its website, https://www.abcatchq.com, ABC posts videos of most of its speakers.
ABC was formed in 2018. Its mission is "to achieve a balance of speakers in a mutually civil and respectful environment consistent with the historic mission of Chautauqua" Institution. ABC is its own Section 501(c)(3) organization, legally separate from the institution.
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Dr. Randy Elf's Aug. 20, 2020, ABC presentation, on "How Political Speech Law Benefits Politicians and the Rich," is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ebymA7xOo. It's cited in his U.S. Supreme Court brief filed today: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6556879.
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