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At the Reagan Ranch: The Life & Legacy of One of America's Greatest Presidents - Scott Walker, President of Young America's Foundation
The clearest way to understand Ronald Reagan’s leadership may not be from a podium, but from a saddle, a woodpile, and a quiet table where he worked through the ideas that shaped an era.
In this on-location episode of The TechEd Podcast, host Matt Kirchner sits down with former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker inside the Reagan Ranch Center, recorded at the same table and microphones Reagan used for his radio addresses. The conversation moves beyond “Reagan the icon” and into Reagan at Rancho del Cielo, the place Ed Meese famously pointed to as the best window into Reagan the man.
You’ll hear how the ranch functioned as Reagan’s “open air cathedral,” where he worked the land, cleared brush, and rode horses to clear his mind before returning to the weight of world events. You’ll also hear the personal stories that make Reagan feel three-dimensional again, including the extraordinary bond he formed on horseback with Secret Service agent John Barletta, and the deeply human way Nancy Reagan talked about letting the ranch go.
Matt and the Governor also discuss timeless values that define Reagan's legacy. Walker frames Reagan’s optimism as more than tone, because it was paired with firm beliefs, disciplined preparation, and a sustained message about freedom as something fragile that must be defended and passed on.
Listen to learn:
- How Reagan’s time at Rancho del Cielo shaped the way he thought, reset, and led
- Why Reagan’s optimistic “happy warrior” tone worked because it was anchored in uncompromising conviction
- How Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) reframed the Cold War, and how we're seeing that technology in play today
- The short list of speeches that best capture Reagan’s worldview, from “A Time for Choosing” to Brandenburg Gate to Pointe du Hoc
3 Big Takeaways from this Episode:
1. Reagan’s optimism was anchored in conviction. Walker points to Reagan as a “happy warrior” who appealed to people’s better nature while staying strong in his positions. These timeless values are why he had such strong support, even in a divided government.
2. Reagan treated freedom as a generational responsibility, not a permanent condition. Walker highlights Reagan’s repeated warning that freedom is “never more than one generation away from extinction,” and that it must be defended and passed on. He ties that message to Reagan’s Cold War moral clarity, including the belief that if freedom is lost here, “there’s nowhere else in the world left,” and the urgency behind “tear down this wall.”
3. Reagan’s legacy is a case study in the long-term impacts of a great leader. Great American Presidents like Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy are remembered more for their character than their politics. This podcast is an exploration into the character of Ronald Reagan, another great leader who is remembered for his optimism, conviction and humility.
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This is the TechEd podcast, where we feature leaders who are shaping, innovating and disrupting technical education and the workforce. These are the stories of organizations leading the charge to change education, to rethink the workforce and to embrace emerging technology. You'll find us here every Tuesday on our mission to secure the American Dream for the next generation of STEM and workforce talent. And now here's your host, Matt Kirchner,
Matt Kirchner:welcome into the TechEd podcast on what has been a really, really special day for your host. Matt Kirkner, we are on location right now in Santa, Barbara, California, but we spent the day. We spent the day at Rancho del cielo, which is better known to many as the Reagan Ranch, an absolutely amazing time that has been a lifelong dream of mine. We're going to talk all about that today, talk about the legacy of Ronald Reagan. It's going to be a great episode. What makes it even better? In fact, way better, as a matter of fact, is the gentleman with whom we are going to have that discussion. He's been on our podcast before. In fact, we'll talk about that a little later. Helped get this podcast started now, some almost five years ago. Hard to believe, but such an honor to be joined today by the former governor of my home state of Wisconsin, now president of young America's foundation. Scott Walker, Governor. What an honor and a pleasure to have you back on the podcast.
Scott Walker:We're thrilled to have you here and to have you here right in the middle of the Reagan ranch center where we're at the table and at the mics and everything that Ronald Reagan used for his radio address. Absolutely what were radio addresses back then would be podcasts today. So how perfect?
Matt Kirchner:Yeah, it's absolutely perfect. And it's just, you know, I grew up, I know you did as well in the 80s. I was reflecting on this a day or so ago when Ronald Reagan became president of the United States. I was 12 years old, and at the end of his second term, I was 20. So think about that from, you know, starting in what was middle school back then, right? I was like sixth grade, and then I was a sophomore in college, give or take, at the end of his second term. I mean, those are, like, the most formative years of your life. And he was the president for those entire eight years and and so I just have all these amazing memories of him as a leader, very different time back then and a different time at the beginning of his presidency than than it was at the end of his presidency between 81 and 89 I guess it was with the elections in 80 and 88 I mean, I'm asking a loaded question, but you have the same kind of feelings and that just that same, same warm sense that you get when you think about the legacy of Ronald Reagan, exactly, right? We're in the same generation all those Gen Xers out there, right? We can appreciate it, but yeah, a lot of times when we have students up at the Reagan Ranch, it's important to remind them of what was happening in the late 70s. When we were really young. We had a malaise going on. We had not just inflation, but stagnation. So both high prices because of high inflation and really low employment levels. So high unemployment, all the horrible things, plus the hostages in Iran for 440 days, we thought we were going to be bombed. A nuclear war is going to happen from the old Soviet Union and the Eastern Black countries. And then Ronald Reagan came in and like I remember as a kid, one of the lines in that 80 campaign, it was he said, it's a risk. It's a recession. If your neighbor is out of a job, it's a depression. If you're at a job, it's recovery. When Jimmy Carter and he brought in and turned the nation around. And for you and I and others in our generation, I think for a lot of us, certainly, I became a conservative and Republican in part because of him, but more importantly, an optimist, right? He was just somebody who believed in the American people, certainly part of what we saw and talked about at the Reagan Ranch, absolutely, and it's just such a pleasure to be involved in the organization so tightly connected to President Reagan. And we're going to touch on that tight connection between yaf and the Reagan ranch and his presidency and so on in just a moment, just to reflect for a second on what you just said, thinking back to late 70s, you've got Jimmy Carter. Was the President at that time. You used the word malaise, that was his word, right? And I think a lot of people probably starting with our generation and older, remember the days of you know, you just have to put on an extra sweater during the energy crisis. There's not much we can do about this and and I think your word optimism exactly right is that Ronald Reagan ran for president believing that we could have a better America proved over the course of those eight years that that there was a better America to be had certainly left the left the country in a much better position than than when he started. So that legacy carries on today. And like I said, just, I need to thank you right at the outset here for an incredible day. I mean, I just, I have all these memories. We'll talk about that in a bit of watching Ronald Reagan at the ranch on the nightly news and so on, and then to be there physically today was just a really, really special experience. I want to give you an opportunity governor to talk a little bit about young America's foundation. Now you were with us, and I should mention this when we started this podcast. Now, some almost five years ago, I think this will be episode 247, give or take. So we've been at this for a while. The first like two or three. Months, I wanted to get some really well known people on the podcast. And the whole idea was, if I could get folks like Scott Walker to agree to be on then when we go out and ask other guests that maybe we don't know quite as well because I've known you a long time, then those folks are like, oh, good enough for Scott Walker, it's good enough for me. I'll do this, and that's exactly what happened. But need to thank you right out of the box for being an early guest and being willing to take a chance on us now, the number one podcast in STEM and technical education, one of the top technology podcasts on the globe, believe it or not, certainly what couldn't say any of that five years ago or four and a half years ago when we did this. But thank you for that. When you were on you talked about young America's Foundation, amazing work you're doing for young people, for the kind of values that you and I both hold dear, but talk a little bit about the organization itself so that our listeners get re familiarized with what you're doing.
Scott Walker:Sure, y, a f.org y, a f.org, a great way for folks listening. If you're our student and you want some help, or if you're a parent grandparent, just know young people. We work with college, high school and now middle school kids. We're a nonprofit, so we're not political, even though we're aligned with Ronald Reagan, obviously ideologically aligned. So believe in limited government, lower taxes, strong national defense, traditional kind of all American values. And we do it in a variety of ways. We have programs like we do here at the Reagan ranch. Sometimes it might be on Washington, DC. Could be at regional sites across the country, that's where we not only educate and inspire these students, and we do it by age category. So we don't mix college with high school or high school with middle school. We do them separately, unique. Part of it's education and inspiration, but really most importantly, it's equip them to go back to their schools, their campuses, their communities, online, wherever it might be, and be engaged in real dialog. Because one of our concerns is we see kind of a one sided approach, particularly in higher education, and so we try to level the playing field. Then these kids go back, these young people, these young leaders, go to their schools or communities or campuses, and they get active. They do things. They bring in speakers, where we bring in more speakers, right of center, speakers than any other group in America on campuses. And so it could be Ben Shapiro. Could be Ben Carson. Could be Dr art laffer. It's a whole array of people out there, and not just for our kids through our chapters, but even through other groups, like College Republicans and so forth. And then finally, we broadcast all this. So our YouTube channel, y a F TV has about 2 million subscribers
Matt Kirchner:more than the TechEd podcast. Well, there you go. Yeah, I'm catching up to do,
Scott Walker:but we have, last year, we went over 2 billion views on all of our social media platforms. But I think it's because young people are hungry that they've been told one point of view on so many there's issues, right? And they want to level the playing field. And it doesn't mean they believe everything that every one of our speakers says, but they at least want to. They're hungry for something more. Have a real debate. To be like Reagan was, to be respectful and honorable, but to actually have a dialog. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm
Matt Kirchner:glad you mentioned a couple things, first of all, the apolitical nature of the of the organization, not endorsing candidates and so on. You know, here at the TechEd podcast, we say we're securing the American Dream for the next generation of STEM and workforce talent. I can tell you, we talk to a lot of folks from both ends of the spectrum. As you know, I've yet to have anybody come on the podcast and say that they don't think that securing the American Dream for the next generation is a good idea, right? So, so we're the same way, right? It's all about the right values. It's about doing the right things. Glad that you mentioned our laughers name as well. I mean, you think about the Laffer curve and the, you know, the whole idea that that, that we could actually raise the income to the federal government by lowering tax rates. And, you know, it doesn't quite seem that logical, but that's exactly what happened when you, when you ignite the power of the American economy and, more importantly, the American people. It's incredible what happened so really, really cool that we can be, you know, sitting in the same space that that somebody like art laugher did. Let's, let's talk a little bit about the Reagan ranch itself. And that was, I mean, just to give our audience a sense, so we just, we just got back right? So we're, we're on this bus. It's a little harrowing. I mean, literally, you're climbing up. I don't how many 1000 feet
Scott Walker:you go from sea level we're at right now, because the ocean is just two blocks away to where the helipad was at. With Marine One is 2600 Wow.
Matt Kirchner:So you're climbing 2600 feet. I mean, it's like the size of a ski hill or ski mountain, right? And, yeah, it is. And you and hairpin turns right, and we're in a bus, and you're kind of looking out over the edge, I mean, and then then you get up there and driving through the gate, and now you know where it is. And then you see the ranch house itself, which, again, as I mentioned earlier, all these incredible memories of Ronald Reagan, you know, whether it was signing legislation, spending time, you know, on his horse and chopping wood, I mean, all these kind of things. And it's just like all these emotions come back to you as you're as you're pulling in there. And that was really, really special young America's Foundation. And then we should mention that's the connection, right? Is that your organization, the organization of which you're the president, owns the ranch, and has since 1998 talk about the why, both on the on the yaft side and on the on the Reagan family side, you know? Well, how did that, how did that transaction come together? Well, it
Scott Walker:worked out beautifully because yf originally started at one. In Buckley's home. It was called Young Americans for freedom. We still call our chapters at our campus. Two years later, Ronald Reagan got involved, even before he was elected to anything, Governor, President, you name it. He got involved in the national board, and then throughout the years, when our organization had college conferences all eight years he was president, he hosted some of them at the White House. Really, so, really a strong personal connection. So in the later 90s, when the Reagan family, specifically Mrs. Reagan, First Lady Reagan, was looking to sell, because at that point, he just physically wasn't able to ride and be at the ranch anymore, they were, they were looking around. She originally looked to list it, to do it in the private sale, and had some offers, and was on the market for a while, but just really didn't feel comfortable it. We have a video that always moves me. I've seen many times before, where she talks about this, and she gets teared up saying, you know, selling this was, in her words, selling a part of Ronnie, I said, Carson. And so because he loved community. Love. That's the reason they came to the ranch, because he loved to ride, and she grew to love it because of that as well. So in the end, it was not only that connection, but on top of that, the commitment of my predecessor and the board at the time was to keep it as is, to preserve it forever, as not just a historical site, which it is, but then use it as a means of which to share the things that Ronald Reagan cared about, the values that he had, the leadership style, some of the everla, you know, the permanent or endless, timeless, I should say, classic values he stood for. And when it was clear, we knew that, not only did she sell it to young America's Foundation. She brought everything back down to the even in the bedroom. She and some of the F staff at the time even made the bed in the bedroom, yeah, because she wanted to be just as it was before.
Matt Kirchner:So I was gonna, and, I mean, interrupt you, I was gonna, I was actually gonna ask exactly that in my, in my next question, because, I mean, there were a lot of special moments today, right? But as we were driving back and talking with the small group of folks that I was chatting with on the on the bus, on the way back down. You know, fascinating that we're literally, we're in the rig and bedroom right at the ranch, right So, and there's parts of the ranch, by the way, that we went into that you mentioned today, like up and, you know, for the whole time they owned it, only like four people had been in the living room. I mean, this is really, it's a hallowed space. It's a sacred space in a lot of ways, and we're standing there at the foot of the bed where Ronald and Nancy slept in. You tell the story about how when you kind of put all the pieces, when you put all the pieces back together, Nancy Reagan actually made that bed, and it has stayed exactly that way since that time.
Scott Walker:We haven't touched it since then, so that the bed is her, not somebody else, but her making the bed, putting all the pieces back in place, and even wild things, which for our students, are so touching. You know, the only two things The previous owners, when they bought it in 1974 left the entire house, were two metal bed frames. And because the generation that Ronald Reagan grew up in, even though he had been a movie star who was a governor, eventually a president, he still had that same Midwestern values. He zip ties the bed frames together, just like my grandfather was born the same year would have done, yep, and and it puts a mattress on. But the funny part is, you saw was on his side of the bed is he's still too tall, right? So his feet hang off the end, so there's a wood bench at the end. Exactly. People gamble. It's like, that's exactly what happened so much so that Michael Reagan, yep, give me a son who still talks to students up here, says every time he's up there, he feels like his dad's gonna just walk out the front door.
Matt Kirchner:It does feel like that the whole time, right? I mean, you just feel like he could come around the corner and glad you mentioned Michael Reagan as well. Got great, has a great radio show himself. Is he still doing that show? I think is he
Scott Walker:or No, he's off. He does a little bit of podcasting, but he was on for like, 25 years.
Matt Kirchner:Absolutely, that was a that was a great, great show. So, so, you know, on this whole topic, you mentioned, I think, today, that one of the middle, middle schoolers was kind of marveling that the leader, literally, the leader of the free world, is sleeping in a bed where he just puts a little extension, you know, like a little at the end of it to put his feet on incredibly frugal guy and and that legacy is all over the ranch, but you know, thinking about a middle school student in that space and spending time learning about Ronald Reagan. I mean, we saw it firsthand, right? But you know, my kids and you know others of that generation obviously have no connection like that to Ronald Reagan, so they have to learn about him other ways, same way I maybe learned about JFK or folks that came before. So talk about the whole what you're doing with the with the ranch. I mean, you mentioned that you've got different groups of students that go up there. Well, you know, why is that important? What do they learn? What do you you know? What do they tell you after that experience?
Scott Walker:Yeah, it's a combination of things. So it varies, obviously, by age group, but with every one of them, though, that the ranch itself is the magnet. It's the thing to be drawn in and and often it's because of other students. Tell them, believe me, you want to go see this, right? But But up at the ranch itself, one of the most amazing things is we find this with young people. The data shows overwhelmingly that Fair. Ness and authenticity are the premium, regardless of politics, right? And so they come up here, and they have this really, genuinely authentic experience where they see, this is a guy who, you know, talked about frugality, you know, talked about these things, and then lived it, right? You know, know it, and he wasn't doing it for show. Nobody was up there, like you said, up until we took it over, only four people had been there his entire time. He owned the property in the living room. He lived it. He built his own fence post. He lived in a relatively small ranch house you saw in the garage. He put his nuts and bolts and screws and washed out Peter Pan Jiffy peanut butter jars, just like my grandfather did everyone's Yeah, right. And so he lived a life that wasn't, you know, wasn't Hollywood based. It wasn't political based. He most certainly could have been. People would have not been surprised. I think the shocking part is they say this guy's the real deal. And the beauty of that is, then, when we share other things about, you know, speech he gave October 27 1964 called the time for choosing. We talked about the speech at the Brandenburg Gate when he taught called on general Gorbachev to turn on the wall, right? Those sorts of things. Suddenly, young people are interested in, yep, because they're like, he's the real deal. I had a kid actually once say to me, I can't believe there's nothing about Hollywood here. Yeah, it wasn't even just the other stuff. It was, there's no Hollywood posters, there's no Emmys, there's no, you know, he's not the trappings of a movie star, right? It's just a very normal, Midwestern, humble guy, yeah,
Matt Kirchner:which is, and that's exactly how he was wired. And I think that's a great it's a great lesson for young people, especially now. I mean, you think about some of the ideals, I guess that. You think dry drive, drive Gen Z, and you talk about fairness, and that's a huge one, right? And I think unless you recognize that, you know, someone like Ronald Reagan was all about, almost like the original equity and his, you know, equity of opportunity, or quality of opportunity, just kind of, he was kind of the real deal. And in so many ways, I think, you know, it's been fun, kind of, to watch his legacy morph over the course of time, right? So, I mean, you know, we live in a political age now. It was a political age in the 80s. There were people that loved Ronald Reagan. There were people that didn't, you know, it kind of in the same sense of what's happened. I think about, like, you know, somebody like Abraham Lincoln, you don't, you don't think about his politics. You think about him as a leader. You think about his principles and what he stood for, and then you think about somebody like JFK. And I'm actually, I, in fact, I'll tell you the second greatest speech I think I've ever heard was JFK is go to the moon speech. Oh yeah, it's just incredible speech, right? And so, and, you know, other side of the aisle I saw, you know, the politics were different than this in the 60s, of course, from Ronald Reagan, but, but an incredibly endearing legacy, a great leader and someone that we can look to as an example, it feels like. And tell me if you agree that as we you know, the deeper we get and the more distance we put between Ronald Reagan, the quote, politician, and Ronald Reagan the, you know, the person that people think about who he was as a person and less about his politics. Is that fair to say? Well, I think
Scott Walker:it's a combination of things. I think, for sure, I think it is. He's almost universally revered. I think that's a good thing, because obviously you and I were, were fans. I think a part of it is because it worked. Were effective. I mean, even look at not only Bush, but then years later, under Clinton, sure, then he would say, the peace dividend that he brought about, that we lived under the Cold War, and all the build up, even though he built up the military, we're able to ease off of some of that over time, because we won the Cold War without ever firing a shot, as Margaret Thatcher said. And so we had a balanced budget, not just because the people at that time, but really because of the work done by Ronald Reagan, the successes he had, the things worked. And then there's an exhibit just the floor above us called Reagan's critics, where some of the same people involved in politics today were criticizing him, then they praise Him. Now for sure, which is interesting, because nothing's changed other than time. Yeah, exactly right. Time changed because it worked. We saw it worked. And on top of that, I think the other key part, which I think is the essence of your question, is we also look back and saw not only his policies work, but that there was something unique about Reagan. He was so optimistic, he was upbeat, he was bold, he was he was not afraid to take on the establishment. He didn't stand for the status quo, but maybe it's the Midwest. Maybe it was how he was raised. Maybe was a little all the above. But, you know, he used humor, not to tell a joke, but to make a point. Exactly he would kind of appeal to people's higher calling, to the greater good, even while being strong in his positions. And I think that's something that's probably particularly for young people, for all of us, one of the most appealing things about being connected to him, right? And why I loved I flat out tell our students that we work with be a happy warrior. That's what Ronald Reagan was, a happy warrior.
Matt Kirchner:Yeah, absolutely. He was always so positive. This sense of humor is just great. And his ability to tell a joke and to make a point at the same time was absolutely, absolutely incredible. You know, I mentioned the second greatest speech in the in the his that I've ever heard. You didn't ask me what? The first one was, so you want me to talk about, yeah, absolutely nobody's ever heard the Kennedy speech at Rice University. I think it was 1962 which was, you know, basically charging the whole nation, the entire United States, with the idea that we could put a man on the moon. Great, great speech. Ronald Reagan's speech at point to Hulk on the 40th anniversary of D Day was just, I mean, there's just nothing better. I mean, I and I would say, we'll link that one up in the in the show notes, so people can check it out. Same thing with the with the John F Kennedy speech. And since, by the way, I was gonna ask the Nancy Reagan video, where she where she talks carefully, is that something that's available on YouTube,
Scott Walker:so much stuff on yaft tv, yeah,
Matt Kirchner:we'll link that up as well. But, but that that just watching Ronald Reagan sitting, or seeing, you know, standing there delivering that speech, was just, it's just incredible. George H W Bush, his vice president, who followed him as president, once asked him, How in the world did you give that speech without getting emotional and tearing up? And Ronald Reagan said, if I, if I thought about the words I was saying, he said, I would, I would literally get emotional. So I just had to deliver that speech without, you know, without even thinking about what I was saying, just just saying the words. But it's an incredibly emotional and effect, we
Scott Walker:just took a group of our top 25 campus activists in June, the first week of June for the commemoration of D Day. And as they came in, we had them listen on the shuttle to that exact speech, because it's just so powerful. And being at that point, you see where they literally with that memorial, the daggers on the way in. You know, while the enemy fire was coming down, it's amazing that any of them survived. Yeah, it is. And he was so, so. So here you think, 40 years later, now, 41 years later, and we still remember that speech is one of the greatest of all time. It was just absolutely incredible.
Matt Kirchner:So would encourage everybody to go back and check that out. I also want to encourage you, governor, to share some other Ronald Reagan stories, you know, I talked about, you know, watching him at the at the ranch, and how powerful those images were. The, you know, chopping wood. I mean, he just looked comfortable in his element. He wasn't like the kind of guy that got on a treadmill every day. That was his version of exercise, physical exercise, incredible, incredible shape, an incredible rider and and we'll talk in a minute about about the book riding with Reagan, by by John Barletta, who is, you know, of course, is a former secret service agent that spent 17 years with him, and you know that better than I do. And just some of the stories about, you know, about the two of them riding together just, and what a great writer he was. So just incredible, incredibly powerful, signing major legislation. You know, the largest tax cut in history was signed at the Reagan ranch. So I've got all these memories of the Reagan ranch. I probably stole the easy ones and left you with the hard ones. But tell me a little bit about what you remember from those those days growing up in the 80s about Ronald.
Scott Walker:Bring it one of the sayings. He said that I think embodies why he loved the ranch so much. Was he said, There's nothing better for the inside of the man, of a man than the outside of a horse, right? And the idea being that, when he would go there, and Margaret Thatcher actually asked him about this on her visit. Is there something about being here that inspires you? And there was, he just loved it. He loved working the land, like so many other ranchers and farmers do, but it cleared his mind. He often called it an open air cathedral that riding through those areas, all of which he cleared, you know, cleared the brush, right? Which is, people don't think about how hard that is. It's not just you or I clearing above our head, right? You have to clear on top of that, to go on top above your head on a horse, right? So he had those longer, extended saws and chainsaws and everything else he did. But it wasn't just about working out or feeling good for him. This is where he went to clear his mind. This is where he went to think about the big issues. He'd start most mornings with the presidential daily briefing. He'd go through all the, you know, many cases, the horrific stuff he had to deal with this president. Remember all the time he was there, typically just outside in international waters. There was a Soviet submarine, clear submarine pointed directly to his spot. JJ Quinn, now, a retired Rear Admiral, was his military aid for several years, and He now speaks to our kids all the time. And he said, Yeah, they knew how many minutes they had to get off the property if they were under attack there. And so you have all those things going on. So for him to go there, it was just the way to get away from it. All right? Think through these big ideas. I think it's one of the best things about connecting Ronald Reagan the young people is his words, the things he shared are timeless, right? Whether it was things he said at the ranch or, you know, something like the speech he gave a week before the 64 presidential election, minus a few things about Barry Goldwater, you could give that speech today, right? You could talk, as he did, about the two businessmen who knew a guy who had come from Cuba, and they said how lucky they were, and the guy from Cuba said, I'm the lucky one. I had somewhere to go to, right? And his point was that we lose freedom here. There's nowhere else in the world left exactly the speech at the Brandberg. Gate that he gave in June of 87 tear down this wall, the comments he's given time and time again, not just in big speeches, but even things like the idea that freedom, which he said many, many times, freedom, is never more than one generation away from extinction. It's something you have to fight for and defend and pass on to the next generation. The same thing that's probably, for us the most potent thing at the ranch, the other one, along with that is, he said, there's, there's a spark inside of each every us, each and every one of us, that, if just struck just at the right time, you know, can, can inspire the rest of their lives, right? And that's really what we endeared to do when we bring kids to the ranch, it's just so powerful and so motivating for these kids.
Matt Kirchner:Absolutely, speaking of sparks that kind of change, you know, change the way that you look at your life. And I want to, actually, I'll tee up this question by asking this, you know, one of the, one of the most memorable days of my life was the day that Ronald Reagan got shot, you know, not long into his presidency at all. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news? I do, yeah, tell me
Scott Walker:I was at Mrs. Brower's lived in the house just on the edge of town. She had a Cub Scout pack. And because I was about your age, I think it was 12 or 13 at the time, I was a den Chief, I was a boy scout. But yeah,
Unknown:are you an eagle Scott, I am. Always got it, but the I
Scott Walker:was a dead chief, and I remember I was helping these kids, and all of a sudden, Mrs. Brower came in, and she was crying, yeah, because people forget about it wasn't just our or but for our parents and that older generation. You know, 20 years before John F Kennedy been shot and killed, there was this whole, and I'm not superstitious, but there was this whole thing all the way back to Harrison, of this curse that every 20 years, and the math had worked, so Reagan would have been the next one in that queue. Thankfully, that didn't happen for sure. Tell you a lighter story about that, though, and and somebody down in Dixon, his old hometown, told me this. So when Reagan was shot, there's that jarring news out there. The Secret Service Agent in charge that day was a guy named Jerry Parr. Now, Jerry par when he when he was a kid, saw a movie called the code of the Secret Service. Okay, he didn't directly go into law enforcement. In fact, he ended up being a guy working on the polls for Florida Power and Light. And when he was 32 years old, the Secret Service came through town and they recruited, we're recruiting non traditional agents, right? And they recruited him. Went back to this movie, thought, Oh, well, maybe I want to do this. Yeah, train work from not just Reagan. Worked for many presidents, okay? The day that Ronald Reagan was shot, March of 1981 Yep. Jerry Parr is the agent in charge. When Ronald Reagan walks out of the Hilton right there in Washington, Washington, DC, they at first didn't think he was shot, and then realized when he would get in the car he had a pain. So he broke his ribs exactly, and the they Jerry went against protocol, which would have been to go back to the White House instead, split second decision goes to George Washington University Hospital, which we found out later, where the bullet went in. Had they not got there sooner, Ronald Reagan would have probably bled out and died because how close it was to his heart, and so that move probably saved his life. That's incredible. What's amazing is the inspiration for him ultimately deciding to go into Secret Service, was this movie, the code of the Secret Service that starred none other than Ronald Reagan. Amazing. That's a great story. So I love I tell kids that, like there are things in your life that could change not only your life, but the rest of the world for good or for bad, right? So choose wisely, yeah, exactly, good choices,
Matt Kirchner:yeah, exactly, and a little bit of fortune, but yeah, just that wisdom and, and I think if I remember this, isn't there some story about one of the agents in back actually saw some blood coming out of the President's mouth, and that was what, that was, what kind of created that split second decision, right? I knew how serious it was. Yeah, exactly. So, for what it's worth, I was, and I remember exactly I was in the state of Indiana, believe it or not, when I went and heard the news that Reagan had been shot. I was driving with my parents back to Wisconsin from Disney World, and we're listening to the radio, and then my brother and I in the backseat, my mom and dad in front, and all of a sudden, you know, special alert. And of course, back then, you didn't have any kind of, you know, Twitter didn't, you know, fire any alert on your phone. You didn't get any news alert. You heard about it by, you know, some special news bulletin, and that the President had been shot. And I remember the whole idea of, you know, at first they, they thought that he, you know, that was just a near miss. And there were some other people that were hit, but not him. And then, you know, come to find out later that that, you know, he was really, really close to not making it through that for a period
Scott Walker:of time. Well, remember, and they showed this in the recent last year the Reagan movie, right? But I remember, at that time, Bernard Shaw. I remember seeing the reports about this afterwards. But he on CNN, back when CNN was just a 24 hour news program, it was no. Right? It was not left or right. It was just just the news. He was getting things in his ears, and he was actually upset, like, yeah, tell me what's really happening, right? Because it was all happening live. No one had a clue. They weren't getting any insights. Again, I think for a lot of folks, our parents age or older, right? There was a real panic. Because, again, not only because it happened every 20 years, but because, you know all the talk about Reagan and the Russians and right, and everything else is this. Did the Soviet Union do this? Is this an attack? What exactly is going Yeah, you didn't have, you didn't have any idea exactly as he went in, though classic Reagan humor, he looks up at the surgeons, and he says, I hope you're all Republicans, yeah. And the surgeon, to their credit, in charge, said today, Mr. Mr. President, we're all Republican, right, exactly.
Matt Kirchner:And that is that the perfect, perfect example of his humor, also telling his wife, Nancy, when she first sees him, I forgot to duck Right. Was the in the, really, the heat of this incredibly dangerous moment to have that, that sense of humor that really, I think, in a lot of ways that that carried him through, you know, his entire career, and was, was a sense of solace for him, I think, in a lot of ways as well. You know, we talk about the role of the Secret Service, about that split second decision. Let's talk a little bit about John Barletta, Secret Service agent who, if folks haven't read, riding with Reagan, and I've read, I mean, Dinesh d'souza's book, you know, Reagan diaries. I mean, I don't, haven't read them all, but I've read a lot of Ronald Reagan biographies and and so on. That one captures the side of him that I don't know, that I've seen in any of the other ones, just this personal relationship between the two of them, how it was created and and that bond that carried through, not just the presidency, but But literally through, you know, through the rest of Ronald Reagan's life, to the point where he he declines an invitation to sit at, I think, one seat away from Nancy Reagan at the memorial service in Washington, DC, but then ultimately came to the one here in in California. But talk about John Barletta? I mean, it's just an incredible human being. Did you ever meet him, by the way?
Scott Walker:Oh yeah, he was after we came to the Reagan ranch The first year I was governor, which was a great rest, but in her own right, my wife got recruited and joined the Reagan ranch Board of Governors, and John was a part of that, along with Admiral Quinn and some of the others who worked with the President. And John was just a wonderful guy to thick, thick Boston accent. He would train service dogs for military veterans. And so oftentimes Tonette would say under the table, sometimes she'd feel a lick in her leg. It was one of the service dogs that'd be in these meetings. But John was just a wonderful guy, and he was involved with this because he just wanted to help preserve the legacy of the man he worked for. He was and he had worked for other presidents, but he so you mentioned he was really with Reagan till the very end, and just such a decent and honorable man. It's fun we have about our secret service command post at the ranch. All these cool videos we've just added the display, and a touchscreen has beautiful and there's a bunch of them with John telling these stories, wonderful stories about Gorbachev coming up and being kind of condescending, because they thought there'd be a big mansion up there, like, like they all would have had, right? And there's not and, and so they didn't tell him when he put his hat on backwards and had the cowboy hats on, or telling the story about Queen Elizabeth coming up and being in the rain and wanting to ride, but, but John, when he first started, John had been in Boston had been with the police department, knew how to ride, and so he tells this great story about how early on, you know, Ronald Reagan learned in the military. So he said English style up in the Seattle. So when he first was president, he would have agents, and he would go riding out there, and he'd jump over trees that were down, jump over rocks, and none of them could
Matt Kirchner:keep up with Yeah, all these poor Secret Service agents that didn't know how to ride, certainly at that level, and their job is to hear the leader of the
Scott Walker:free world, yeah. Finally, one of the last straws was one guy falls off and breaks his his arm, right, and President Reagan gets off and is providing aid to him. That's when they're like, Okay, this is the opposite of what's supposed to happen, particularly, again, remember at the time, because at least some of his critics were making fun of his age, and his age was not a problem. His guy was a, you know, he was like a major league, yeah. And so the director finally said, We got to get somebody who can ride with the President, right? And they found that the John could ride English style. He rode up in the saddle, and he was good. He was competent. So the President tested him out a little bit and saw that he could do all this. And he said to the ultimate his boss, he's like, you found someone who can keep up with me on a good one? Yeah. Well, then after that, they just bonded, because every time they were riding, they'd be together, and John was on him. A good example is you even see around this place. You can tell pictures the first month or two, he would ride with him. He was an exact decoy, but he tried to be careful to look somewhat like the president. So one day, he asked one of the snipers up in the hill if he could tell who was the president, who was him. Said, sure, because John was running a dark. Horse. He said the President's on a white horse, right? From that point forward, John always rode a white horse, and so he was just that attentive to try and help the President, and ultimately, was so close to him, was like a family member, right? That when it came time to tell him he really physically couldn't ride anymore, it was John that the Mrs. Reagan asked to do it.
Matt Kirchner:Yeah, we heard that story up on at the ranch today. That story is told in the book as well. Super, super touching. You know, you can't hardly read that part of the story without tearing up. You know, on the other side of the of the emotional spectrum, the the sense of humor that one of the stories that was in that book that I just saw was hilarious, I think. And everybody gets something different out of the out of the book. You You mentioned the snipers and how, you know, the idea was that they were, you know, the ranch being 2024 2600
Scott Walker:feet at where the helipad was at 26 2600 feet.
Matt Kirchner:So, you think about the, you know, the president riding around his ranch, surrounded by mountains, right? So, so the idea would be that, you know, if anybody was to pose a threat to him, that there were sniper teams that were, you know, up on the ranch, you know, basically providing, you know, providing protection for the president. That way, that there's a story about how the press used to set up on the mountains around the ranch with their big telephoto lenses, right? And and would just try to, you know, catch whatever was going on there. And so as they're riding up on a ridge. And Ronald Reagan says to John Barletta, do you think they can see us? And, and John Barletta says, Well, yes, Mr. President, I'm sure they can see us. And, and he said, Would you be okay if I, you know, suddenly grabbed my chest and fell over like I was having a heart attack. John was like, no, Mr. President, that would not be a good idea. But, I mean, it's just that, you know, that that sense of humor that he had was, was absolutely, absolutely amazing. You know, in as much governor as we're a technology podcast, right? We're talking a lot about the legacy of Ronald Reagan, which is just, I'm having a wonderful time having this conversation. You think about the technology side of things. And one of the, one of the things, if folks didn't grow up in that era, this whole idea of the Strategic Defense Initiative SDI, which a lot of people thought was crazy, right? There were a lot of people so folks aren't familiar. I won't get it perfect, but the whole idea was that we would create a dome over the United States where we could shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles and create a defensive posture against, at that time, the Soviet Union. So if they were to to unilaterally begin a nuclear war, rather than having to necessarily retaliate in kind, we could shoot these out of the sky. People thought that was nuts, right? They called it Star Wars. They had all kinds of name for it. And and, you know, Reagan stuck with that to the point of literally not signing an arms treaty with with Russia at Reykjavik, because they had asked him to basically step down from his his position on SDI. And again, a lot of people just thought this was hocus pocus. Now here we are in the year 2025, you think about what just happened, you know, as recently as what was going on in Israel earlier this year, it's a real thing. I mean, so yeah, was he crazy? Or was he ahead of his time,
Scott Walker:way ahead of his time. Yeah. And remember at Reykjavik when he walked out over those discussions, right? He actually offered the Gorbachev the technology, yeah. He said the deal will be, we're not just gonna if it's truly a defensive right technology. He said the whole, you know, each sober superpower should have it, because then neither one has the advantage, you know, has the advantage in terms of an offensive attack. It becomes limited, exactly. So I thought about that, not just this year, but but soon after things broke out, after the attacks two years ago on Israel on the seventh of October, right, and the first wave you saw, I remember one of the pictures that we saw. I don't know if the AP or somebody put on on all sorts of newscasts. It was of this image at night, of all these missiles coming as I recall, most of my think, were from Hezbollah at the time. You had literally almost like you envisioned this dome. You had all these images of the being one after another knocked down exactly out of a movie. And I said, that's, that's the STI right there exactly that he was ahead of his time. It may not, it certainly wasn't fully operational at the time, right? But the vision, I think, was powerful. Prime example, I think, of many of the things I love about Reagan was his his ideas are his speeches, his talks, his ideas are timeless. They're not unique to the 1980s Exactly. These are things we saw were just as effective today, and if done for the right reasons. Again, his goal was not to take over the Soviet Union or to take over the Soviet Black countries, but was to, as he pointed out, for decades, the policy of the West had been to contain communists. Right? He wanted to transcend it. He did, and you do that, he felt not just the American people. He felt the people, even in those Soviet Black countries, right? Yearned for freedom, yeah. And he was just thinking, right? And exactly, that's why the wall came down so quickly. So that's just a good example of technology and with ideas, he was way out of his time, for sure.
Matt Kirchner:I remember, you know, my dad, who's now 89 years old and lived through World War Two, had two brothers that fought in Europe, and. You know, is still one of the only times I ever saw him tear up. Was telling the story of when his his brother, Dwayne, came back from came back from Europe, and my dad was nine, and like, what, how special that was when the Berlin Wall came down, kind of single, signaling the end of, at least the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. He said that was the most significant news story of his entire life at the time, like on the day that it happened. I mean, that's how, for someone that had lived through World War Two it lived through, you know, Vietnam and so on, that was the most significant event of his entire life, which so just put to put that event into perspective for folks that maybe didn't live through it or aren't as familiar it was. It was monumental,
Scott Walker:and it is amazing, because you think about what happened when Ronald Reagan comes in? Even in America, there are some people that think Soviet style communism might actually be more effective than American style capitalism. So crazy which we're coming back at, recircling back the idea of market based capitalism is true. Market based, not crony, not material, but market based entrepreneur capitalism is much better than government driven socialism, or it's it's evil cousin communism, where it's outright taking control. But if at that time there was a sense of that, Reagan comes in, and it's just transformational. And the military buildup, he won it not because he won a war he wanted, because he didn't have to go to war, not only in terms of the military, right, but the economic changes exactly that basically all but bankrupt them
Matt Kirchner:from being able to exactly what happened. Yeah, he pulled them into a war, that war that never a shot was fired, but that they couldn't win economically. And ultimately that dismantled the, you know, the Soviet regime. So I was just absolutely incredible. You talk about Reagan's principles being, you know, transcending time, transcending politics, talk about those principles. What are some of the more endearing principles that Ronald Reagan held dear?
Scott Walker:Well, certainly on a personal level, I think about his optimism, right? That's just, it's why the humor, it's why the upbeat is appealing to a higher nature. He talked about one of his last addresses, the shining city on the hill, but at the same time being an optimist, but that didn't mean being wishy washy. He had firm beliefs. He stayed with them. I was always amazed reading a number of those books and others, particularly the Nash book that the even within his own team, particularly for some folks who'd come into his team through the bush camp, there were folks that came in thinking they knew more than he did, lots of them, and they realized over time that Ronald Reagan knew exactly what he was doing. Right? There's a great book called in his own hand that are all these old speeches and radio addresses he worked on. It's in like print, like you expect in a book, but it actually includes the slashes and the marks and the changes to show you that oftentimes, early on, on his way up to the Reagan Ranch, the rancho del ciello, he'd have someone else drive. He obviously wasn't driving. He'd be writing ideas for speeches and radio addresses and others. This was someone who spent a major portion his public life thinking about these big, bold ideas. And so when you think about what are the big ones, it's, to me, it's overall, it's freedom, right? It's like, what does freedom mean? Economic freedom, religious freedom, political freedom. He talked about that literally in his farewell address from the Oval Office, about how it's fragile must be cared for. You know you heard on it, he talked about the need for people come back to the kitchen table and come together as families and talk about what it means to be an American and greatness and to abide by shared civic rituals. I think overall, he talked about, I mean, I thought one of the other big things that we see in the house is authenticity being who you are. Ed Meese, the former Attorney General, says, If you want to learn about the Reagan administration, you go to the library. If you want to learn about Reagan the man, you go to the ranch. Yeah, that's great. See how he lived, what he lived, which very much came out of the Midwest. You know, he comes with humble roots. He doesn't have privilege. That guy who, you know, family, never owned a house, right? Everyone was rented constantly, was because his father's out bouts with alcoholism, constantly moving to smaller places, doing odd jobs. Worked all through, you know, from the 14 on, you know, worked as a lifeguard, saved 77 lives, right? Went to Eureka, which is a local community college, you know, yeah, he was on Hollywood, but he wasn't an a he was a b star, right? It's like being a warm about but earned his way up and just kept learning and focusing and sharing and honing those values that were important all throughout the rest of his public life,
Matt Kirchner:and never compromising on them and just being so, so simple. I mean, he boiled. We always talk about boiling things down to their lowest common denominator, right? The more simple you can make it. And then, of course, his incredible ability to communicate with the American people, which I think is, is another one of the things that you felt like he was talking directly to you, right? And in in whenever he was giving a speech, whether it was, you know, I think back to when the you know, then when the space shuttle tragedy took place. And. Ability to, you know, to connect with the American people that way, but, but just in any they called him a great communicator, for a reason. He was, he was just an absolutely incredible communicator. So, you know, kind of taking a little bit and one step further. And you know, you and I have known each other a long time, crossed paths a few times at Marquette University, and certainly knew you well. When you were the Milwaukee County Executive. I had the honor of being the chair for the volunteers for all the Operation Freedom events that we did at the Milwaukee County Zoo. And I'm telling these stories for our audience's benefit. So, so, and then, then, of course, you, you become governor of the state of Wisconsin. Have two amazing terms as governor. I'm gonna, I'm gonna say one thing, and then I'll ask you a question about about, you know, how Ronald Reagan has impacted and influenced your leadership style, but you and I were on a plane together. By total coincidence. A couple weeks ago, we were both on our way to Washington, DC, had an opportunity to to catch up a little bit. And, you know, one of the things that Ronald Reagan had on his desk was a plaque that said, you know, there's no limit to what a man can accomplish, if he doesn't mind who gets the credit. And you and I were talking about a little bit about some of the development that's happening. Wisconsinites will be familiar with this. Our national audience less so, but happening in Southeast Wisconsin in so much part it was a result of your leadership, and you standing up for some principles that you thought were really important, and now we got this huge explosion in investment in, you know, with all kinds of companies, you know, ULINE and horrible. And now we've got the Microsoft is putting these data centers in there. None of that would have happened had it not been for the governorship of Scott Walker. And of course, when I, when I told you that as we were landing, and I'm like, you know, maybe not everybody gives you credit for that, and but, but I do. And you said, I don't really care if I get credit for that or not. If it's good for the people of Wisconsin, it's good for, you know, it's that's good enough for me, or something along those lines. That was Ronald Reagan, right? There was no limit to what he could accomplish if he didn't mind who got gets a credit. So, I mean, if you were going to use that one, I'm going to steal it from you. Just use it as an example. But how else is Ronald Reagan impacted your leadership style and you're the whether it's president of yaf or what your time zone, or and so on.
Scott Walker:Well, certainly one of the best things I did, particularly when about the time I was here for the first time, where it was in between some pretty massive protests at our state capitol or some major reforms we were pushing and then having to face and ultimately win the first recall election American history for a governor. History for a governor was definitely took a page out from Reagan, and that was when the protests were going on. Instead of just staying in the Capitol, where the Capitol was under siege, there's chaos, the security detail was very, very concerned. All I could think of was as Reagan was how effective he was going around the country and using the bully pulpit right, and making the case directly to the American people. And so within a week, we started going around the state. We went to manufacturing plants, we went to small businesses, we went to schools, went to, you name it, hospitals. We went to all sorts of places. And I just remember how one, it was effective for communicating our message, because we were getting out, we weren't afraid, we were sharing the message. Two, how firm it was to connect with people. We'd say, Boy, hang in there. My family's praying for you. You're doing the right thing. You're doing it for the right reasons. That was powerful because in the Capitol, whether it's in Madison, Wisconsin, where our State House is at, or in Washington, DC, it's easy to get sucked in the bubble, yeah, for sure, exactly. And so we got out, and I just kept remembering that Reagan was so good, not that he didn't work with he's tip O'Neill's a prime example. He certainly worked, for sure. You know, all all all eight years he was president, Democrats controlled the House. The last two years, the Democrats controlled the Senate, but when he had balance there, he worked with them. He got the largest tax cut in American history, which was signed at the ranch, was passed with a huge number of Democrats who voted for it.
Matt Kirchner:It's amazing to think about that today, right? I mean, that just Yeah, go on.
Scott Walker:Well, some of them were blue dog Democrats that maybe aren't around anymore, fortunately, but, but he went out to those districts and didn't attack them. He actually, I mean, this is really remarkable when you think about it. He went out and made the case in those districts, right?
Matt Kirchner:And in a day, obviously, long before you had a Twitter handle or whatever, ways we have to communicate directly with people. Now, I mean, he literally had to go out and shake hands and meet people and, of course, make his case from, you know, whatever, from the Oval Office or wherever else he was. But that was just that, that incredible, incredible ability.
Scott Walker:He's really good on discipline too. He would repeat the message over and over again, maybe in you and unique ways. It's something that a lot of folks could take note of today, because it just takes discipline. I think that goes back to his days in Hollywood and the head of the Screen Actors Guild. You know, really people don't start to really sink in on issues. And. You're talking about until you said it at least seven or eight times. And a lot of people in politics today want to say it once and move on. That's not the way to get it done
Matt Kirchner:seven times, seven different ways. We say that all the time, and so it's okay to repeat yourself, and it's okay to to send it in a bunch of different mediums, because eventually some you're going to hit somebody on whatever medium they they connect with you on, and that's how you get a message out to another great, great Ronald Reagan lesson. I feel like we could sit and tell Reagan stories here for another couple hours, Governor. I know your time is valuable. A couple more questions. The first thought that I have is just to chat a little bit about about the Reagan legacy, and from an education standpoint, what we should what we should be sharing with our children. You know, you talked about having middle school students, high school students up to the ranch. You know, if I'm a high school educator, I'm a middle school educator, and I want my students to get familiar with what the what the Ronald Reagan legacy is all about. What should I be telling them?
Scott Walker:Well, I mean, certainly goes back to that sense of optimism. I'd say optimism. I tell them read, or these days you can watch on YouTube. I'd pick out maybe half dozen to 10 different speeches and ask them to watch them. There you go. Because I think there's so many at our time, even that time for choosing was a speech really an assassin set up for Barry Goldwater in the 60s, yeah, like a week before the 64 election, right? And yet it's so classic. There's so much in it that is so relevant today. You look at the certainly the Branden brigade speech, you look at the 1980s speech he gave it, the acceptance speech he gave it at the convention that year. I just think you pick out speeches like that. Certainly the 40th anniversary speech for D Day, they're just timeless classics. Again, that's why we took that group to Normandy and had him listen to that again, right? That's because we're connected to Reagan. Because I don't think there's any better way to send a group to Normandy than listening to a speech like that? Yeah, that covered all the important things about not just the United States but our allies, what all was at stake, the bravery, the sacrifice, what was at risk, right?
Matt Kirchner:And the incredible debt, by the way, that we owe to that generation, which I think is, you know, as time goes on, and I think about the fact that, like, I know a lot more about World War Two than I do about World War One. Why is it a little bit generational? You know, I was born within a quarter century or so of the end of World War Two. You know, you start to lose some of that stuff. And so listening to that also draws them back.
Scott Walker:I think that's totally right, and I think it's helpful. You know, ironically, Democrats have grown more appreciative of Reagan, or at least Americans, not politicians, be they, Democrat Republican, have yearned more for him, just because, one, he's successful, and two, just the mannerism, the style, the tone that he used. So I think that that's a powerful lesson as well for school. Is the happy warrior, the upbeat side. You know how he appealed to our better nature. And I think that explains it may never happen again. Why? Not just in the real act, 49 states, but in the original election, right? 40 of the 50 states raising, if you think about that, yeah, and a world where we're so polarized, but it wasn't that, wasn't that far off, and so ironically, there is a little bit fringe on the right who says, Oh, he wasn't tough enough on this or that, whatever. I think part of his lose sight of the fact, like I said, the house was an opposite party, right? So it's remarkable when he got done with a split government, and the fact that even though he was upbeat and positive, one of the things I said in my inaugural address, the first time I was in again, directly ties into Reagan. I said moderate in tone, but not in action, yeah, but I meant not speaking a moderate language, right, or language of a moderate but rather respectful and exactly decent, honorable, but still pushing big, bold ideas, right? We would fare better in our society today, right? If more people were not only engaged in dialog, right, but willing to listen 100% the people they disagree with totally and actually engage in a dialog. Doesn't mean change your mind. Doesn't mean give up in your principles, yep, but not just wait till they're done talking, but actually listen to what they're saying, right and then talk about it absolutely.
Matt Kirchner:You know, I've got friends across the political spectrum, and if they're listening, they'll know who they are. I learned more from my friends with whom I disagree than the ones that I do that I agree with. And over time, I, you know, I probably become a little bit more politically moderate, a little bit more over time, just by taking the time to listen. And I think in a lot of ways, that's what, what Reagan was all about was, all right, let's figure out the things that we agree on. And you know, to to reiterate, you know, securing the American Dream for the next generation. Nobody argues with that. Doesn't matter who they are. He was just really, really good at figuring out what those endearing principles were of being an American, of. The United States, and just, you know, pounding those home to the American people, really, really, really, really valuable. Do you remember where you were when you found out he passed away in 20 in 2004
Scott Walker:that one, I don't remember as vividly. I remember hearing it, but by then, I was count executive, and it was a little bit nothing like today with social media next, right? But we were a little bit more connected. So I believe was actually a post I heard about when I was at the county executive's office. I remember it was, you know, which platform, but, but reading a bit about that online, I don't think it was a social media post watching the Reagan movie last year. The tail end in the credits, they show excerpts the funeral and of the parade out to Simi Valley. And I got to tell you that part in particular just took me back to Sure, just the closest thing I think we'd seen to that in our lifetime was John F Kennedy, and we not in our lifetime, I should say, in modern history, right? You or I weren't born when he passed away, but, but we had seen the images totally. So the closest thing we'd seen was the images of the Kennedy funeral, right? Which, of course, is even more intense because he was the president at that time. He was assassinated. Reagan was many, many years later, and yet there was still that. Mean, all the people who streamed through the Capitol, all the people who line the freeways when they when the hearse came through in California, right? It just showed how much love there was for America for him, even though, remember, he about 10 years before he died, he sent that letter out, yep, about his Alzheimer's, yeah, independent signs, end of his life, and then left, right? So this is a guy who hadn't been on the forefront of media for 10 years. Yeah, no, he still
Matt Kirchner:had that power on the American people. I remember exactly where I was. I was actually mountain biking Colorado, and we were in an RV, and my wife, who knows that, you know Ronald Reagan, I'll tell you that story about about how he's kind of been my hero for my entire adult life, for sure, called me and just and just, and I hadn't heard the news yet, and she shared it with me, and it was just like I paused for this moment just looking out the window of this RV in the mountains, by the way, which is kind of ironic, I guess, in a way, just just an incredible, you know, all those, all those memories came, came kind of flooding back the eulogy you mentioned Margaret Thatcher before that she delivered at that funeral where she finished with, you know, Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. And, I mean, that's one of the greatest eulogies, I think I've ever seen. You think about the images of his, you know, his riding boots backward, on the on the horses as they're pulling the hearse through Washington, DC, incredibly, incredibly moving. And then Nancy Reagan at the grave site, which, but by the way, I visited three days ago. We've been, we've been here in here in Santa, Barbara, they got more rain here in the last three days than any other November in history. So so much for the, you know, enjoying the California sun. The blessing of that was, we took a day to go to the Reagan Library and to his grave site, which was really, really moving. But the images of her just not being able to leave that casket at the more and more services just, you know, just absolutely burned into my brain. So an incredible human being. I'll end with a little bit of humor. I was go on a ski trip every February with a group of friends. We've been doing this for, I don't know, probably 15 years. Give or take and and people bring up interesting conversations and so or questions and so, some we're sitting around the table, and someone's like, you know, which members of your family are on your on your home screen for your, you know, on your on your screen for your iPhone, right? And so everybody hands picks up their family a picture. One's got a picture with his wife. One his wife and his kids. One of its him and his kids. And it gets turned, gets to be my turn, and I hold my phone up, and it's, it's Ronald Reagan, which has a little bit embarrassed, and my, unfortunately, my family saw the humor in that, but, but that's that's what that man has meant to me, so much so that he's my he's my screensaver on my iPhone and and to spend the time that we did today at the ranch was just incredibly special. Can't thank you enough. Have to thank Of course, my friends Kurt Bauer and Wade good sell at Wisconsin manufacturers and commerce, where I'm proud to serve on the board, for for putting this all together, and many other members of their team that made this happen. But, but especially to you for for your incredible hospitality. Everything we've learned, and not just not just today, but everything you've done for the state of Wisconsin, for the United States of America, it's been a total honor, Governor to have you on again and really appreciate you joining us.
Scott Walker:Well, my absolute pleasure to have you here and a pleasure to be back with you.
Matt Kirchner:It's been awesome to have this conversation with former Wisconsin governor now president of young America's Foundation, Scott Walker. We had all kinds of great stuff that we talked about that we will link up in the show notes for you. I talked about some videos of Nancy Reagan. Talked about some great speeches. Those will all be there. So please, please check those out. We will put those at, let's put them at TechEd podcast.com/y A F, that's TechEd podcast.com/y, A F, when you're all done there, come check us out on social media. You will find us on YouTube. You'll find us on tick tock. You will find us on Instagram, on Facebook, wherever you go for your social media, you will find the TechEd. The podcast, when you're there, say hello, we would love to hear from you, and can't wait to see you again next week on the TechEd podcast, thanks for being with us. You.
