Did Reagan really bust up a Toyota?

June 19, 2004 10:00 PM

OK, look. In the course of discussing the recent canonization of Reagan, a friend of mine swore there was an honest-to-god photo op of the guy, as president, smashing the windshield of a Toyota to show his derision for the Japanese car manufacturers in the face of the fall of the dollar. Does anyone know what he's thinking of? After intense questioning, he allows that Reagan may not have been physically doing the smashing himself, but at least was presiding over it.
posted by soyjoy to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

It's not canonization, it's hagiography.

google turns up nothing for me, sorry.
posted by interrobang at 10:45 PM on June 19, 2004

soyjoy, I don't remember that (and I lived as an adult through that entire presidency). Which doesn't mean it did not happen, of course. But I believe it is unlikely, as Reagan's central ideology was free trade: however imperfect his record on that point may have been, it is the one which he would publicly remain most true toward (even while taking political moves which may have undercut those objectives). Additionally, Reagan was infamously unsympathetic to organized labor, and smashing Japanese automobiles was definitely an organized labor thing (I grew up in a GM-dominated town). Even though Reagan was a populist and a lot of Joe Sixpacks (aka "Reagan Democrats") voted for him, overtly embracing their economic interests was not one of his fortes.

The primary instances of Japanese-import tariffs for which Reagan is known involve semiconductors, in 1987, when he was seeking to protect American manufacturers (primarily Motorola), and motorcycles, in 1983, when he was seeking to protect American manufacturers (primarily Harley-Davidson).

I would not be at all surprised, however, if there were photo-ops of other Presidential candidates politically friendly to organized labor participating in protests against Japanese imports, particularly in the primary season. These candidates, however, would all have been Democrats.
posted by dhartung at 12:08 AM on June 20, 2004

Could it have been a scene from this movie?

I haven't seen it, but your description of the moment sounded like dim, dim memories from commercials for it.
posted by interrobang at 12:20 AM on June 20, 2004

What I remember about 80s and Toyota and US Manufacturers was NUMMI [the joint venture between GM and Toyota]. Doesn't sound like the plant opening would feature the president smashing the windshield of a Japanese car though.
posted by birdherder at 6:02 AM on June 20, 2004

It happened in Final Fight. Maybe that was inspired by reality.
posted by inksyndicate at 9:42 AM on June 20, 2004

Response by poster: I think it's unlikely too, but I told him that if it had happened, someone at ask.metafilter would know. So this seems to confirm that my friend is completely batshit crazy. At least in regards to this. Thanks.

interrobang, points for your extra effort there, but I saw Gung Ho (this was back when my credo was that any movie with Michael Keaton had to be worth going to) and Reagan wasn't in it.
posted by soyjoy at 12:55 PM on June 20, 2004

Worth mentioning that Reagan was immensely popular in Japan for lord-knows-what-reason. I remember a little mild controversy over him receiving some large amount of money for a Japanese TV appearance circa 1989.
posted by gimonca at 2:37 PM on June 20, 2004