Bicycling, Ronald Reagan, and Politics

When President Ronald Reagan died over the weekend it got me to thinking about how The Cycling Dude could pay tribute, and not get off topic.

So I've done a Google Search to help me find some interesting items related to the man, and to bicycling.

1. "The '50s saw celebrities like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and RONALD REAGAN endorsing Schwinn bikes, but in 1963 Schwinn produced perhaps the most famous bicycle of all time: the Sting-Ray."

Schwinn Bicycles: Ya Can't Keep a Good Bike Down.

2. The Politics of Bicycling:

THE POLITICAL TOOL BY DAVID PERRY: Few articles ever used by man have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle. -United States Census Report (1900)

Socailism can only come riding a bicycle.
-Jose Antonio Viera-Gallo, Assistant Secretary of Justice, Chile

The bicycle has become a political tool, due to its social, egalitarian nature, serving all alike. Democratic, socialist, and communist cultures have all produced flourishing bicycle communities. Bicycle uses vary by country and ideology.........

The appeal for "bicycles over limousines" by ranking politicians is a popular way that bikes have been used as a political symbol. Claiming a preference for bicycles -- an economical, clean, and egalitarian mode of transport -- many a conservative or liberal, communist or democrat has declined a costly, pompous, chauffer- driven limousine.......

Several U.S. Presidents have been cyclists, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who cycled at the advice of his physician Dr. Paul Dudley White, a well-known bike advocate; and Jimmy Carter, who rode regularly at the Camp David weekend retreat. RONALD REAGAN was not a cyclist, but he appeared selling Schwinn bicycles and a bicycling paperboy is shown in one of his Morning in America TV commercials.

George Bush, the 41st President, was known to bicycle while serving as Ambassador to China From 1970-76. In a letter to John Dowlin of the Bicycle Network (June 4, 1975), Bush wrote: The more I think about the U.S. domestic transportation problems from this vantage point of halfway around the world, the more I see an increased role for the bicycle in American life. Obviuosly, some terrains make it more difficult, obviuosly some climates make it more difficult; but I am convinced after riding bikes an enormous amount here in China, that it is a sensible, economical, clean form of transportation and makes enormous good sense.

.

A long, and fascinating, article well worth reading in full HERE. ( hitting refresh button, for 2nd page, may be neccessary )

3. American Museum of the Moving Image: 1984 Election Campaign, & the Morning in America Ad ( REAGAN: Prouder, Stronger, Better ) ( Windows Media Player version of ad may not show video portion, so good luck ).