Two days before the speech, the city of Detroit had suffered through the hottest day of the year. It wasn’t normally 94 degrees in July. The Republican National Convention was in town. Convened there not for the summer weather but because Detroit was a perfect backdrop to show the failure of the Carter years. Shuttered factories, out-of-work adults, bombed-out neighborhoods segmented by cement sidewalks punctuated with shoots of weeds shadowed by enormous American sedans abandoned and left to rust, missing doors and hubcaps, likely stinking of bum piss; these images told a story perfect for the evening news.

The tv coverage of the convention had reinforced the candidate’s indictments of the sitting president’s energy policies and economic plans. The candidate called the president weak and obviously ineffective. Borrowing from his show business training, the candidate framed it for the audience watching the convention so that everyone could see the failure dragging down Detroit, and by extension all of America. Better than advertising, the candidate promised a new time in America.

The campaign had been a bruising affair for the duration of the winter and spring months. But now it was summer. When he finally took the stage at the 1980 Republican National convention, the candidate felt confident, jubilant, buoyed by the fact he’d won 29 of the 33 primaries when he’d faced his closest competitor and future running mate. Now on that sweltering summer night in July, the candidate knew it was time to put differences behind them and come together as one grand old party.

Ignoring advice of many advisors close to him, the candidate, who started life as the son of an Iowa salesman, decided for his own reasons to reach out to the man who beat him in those 4 primaries, and he asked that son of a senator to be his running mate. Together, he and George H.W. Bush would lead a post-Nixon Republican renaissance.

When Ronald Reagan stood at the podium and accepted the nomination of his party, as he laid out his dream for the American future, it’s important to remember the Reagan Revolution began in Detroit. Keep that in mind as you consider this section of his acceptance speech:

“Work and family are at the center of our lives; the foundation of our dignity as a free people. When we deprive people of what they have earned, or take away their jobs, we destroy their dignity and undermine their families. We cannot support our families unless there are jobs; and we cannot have jobs unless people have both money to invest and the faith to invest it.

These are concepts that stem from an economic system that for more than 200 years has helped us master a continent, create a previously undreamed of prosperity for our people and has fed millions of others around the globe. That system will continue to serve us in the future if our government will stop ignoring the basic values on which it was built and stop betraying the trust and good will of the American workers who keep it going.”

It’s all there. He uttered the ultimate Republican equations of society: the dignity of work and family, how jobs support families, how jobs come from job creators, how there’s a necessary faith in progress that encourages investment in a stable and growing market, and all of it is bound by the good will of the American workers.

Reagan’s views of economy, faith and family, capital and continent, are now sanctified Republican dogma. And they’ve lasted as guiding ideals. The Reagan Revolution was a political Reformation. It was a clear and decisive break from the Nixon years (and those few strange years when the country asked Gerald Ford to take the wheel).

If I could’ve voted at the time, I would not have voted for Reagan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have respect for the man; especially, his ability to express the shared values of America (as he saw them). He knew a great secret — how to give folks a proud narrative for the hard times they faced. But let’s not get misty-eyed recalling his speeches and obscure the fact Reagan was ultimately a cagey politician. Being the governor of California taught him a few tricks. By the time he reached the presidency he was practiced at pawing at a political problem from many angles.

But what would Reagan have done about our troubles in Detroit?

President Reagan held different values and priorities than his modern Republican followers and spiritual adherents. He wasn’t limited by dogma like so many of our contemporary political players. Because of his lack of orthodoxy (and his Irish charm), at his best, Reagan could galvanize political will with the same ease as his first political hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If alive today, he’d factor all the political calculus, gauge the story of the nation and arrive at the obvious answer for our moment in history:

America needs to save Detroit

Some might say, wait … Ronald Reagan? Do you have any idea who the hell you’re talking about? Ronnie Ray-gun?

Yeah, I know who he is.

You do realize one campaign speech doesn’t make him some generous and decent guy?

Yes, I don’t overlook he’s the president who schooled Big Business on how to deal with a union. I don’t forget that when the federal union for air traffic controllers went out on strike, President Reagan demanded they report back to work in two days. Ready to bargain, the union refused and continued their strike. After the two days passed, Reagan fired all 11,345 of them. He fired the whole federal union. And then he ordered military air traffic controllers to fill in until new air traffic controllers could be trained and hired.

Yeah, I know who we’re talking about. I may not agree with him but the man made bold moves. And I know that, despite all his talk about small government, President Reagan raised taxes 11 times. The man was a political pragmatist. He wasn’t ruled by the hard-and-fast dogma that’s been attached to his name.

If you still think my Reagan talk is naive, consider his Job Training Partnership Act of 1982. When he had control of both houses of congress and could do what he wanted legislatively, he wrote into law a national program to distribute money for jobs programs, etc. It’s considered the first major public-private partnership at the federal level. And that was on Reagan’s watch. Cynics would point out that the JTPA was a failure, cautioning us not to imitate such wasteful federal spending, citing the widespread abuse and mismanagement of funds. But as Americans we needn’t look far back in history to find such abuse and mismanagement.

In Baghdad, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Coalition Provisional Authority needed money to run things before a stable government was re-established. After three years reporting progress to President George W Bush, the CPA had lost nearly 9 billion dollars.

Once the money arrived in Baghdad it was the responsibility of David Oliver, the first head of finance for the CPA. Later, when asked where the money went, Oliver reportedly said, “I have no idea, I can’t tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn’t — nor do I actually think it is important.”

From 2003-2006 America spent 36$bn on the Iraqi reconstruction. A quarter of that money, roughly 8.8 billion, was lost without a trace.

Don’t let accusations of governmental mismanagement stop us from doing the right thing. To save Detroit will require the assistance of the Federal government. But we’ve done this before. Such an outsized loan program has precedent.

In 1975, once again, under a Republican president, the taxpayers of America loaned New York City millions to keep the city solvent. Did I say millions, I meant billions — with a B.

“The continuing difficulties of the city to borrow led the federal government to agree to assist the city in November of 1975. Federal legislation extending up to $2.3 billion of short-term loans to the city was passed. The House of Representatives passed the aid package by a 10 vote margin.”

New York City’s checkbook was scrutinized, debt payments were rescheduled, creditors’ fears were assuaged, and over years the city’s debts were repaid, and by 1978, New York City was able to pay its own bills again and gain access to credit markets. The city was back on its feet and ready to party its way through the ‘80s.

When an American city falls on hard times we don’t treat ‘em like the town drunk, a pathetic figure, stumbling in the street. It’s kinda the whole point of the federated part of our government. We’re an imperfect union of fifty states, all in it together. This time it’s Detroit. Maybe next time it’s Kansas City. Helping each other is part of our national character.

The good news for Detroit is President Reagan already showed us how to save the city. Through aggressive private-public partnerships the Feds could help Detroit re-brand itself as an exemplar of the American future. Ever a product of Hollywood, Reagan would understood how we treat Detroit advertises America’s values and its priorities, the same way air pollution and choking dust storms advertise Beijing’s values and priorities.

All over our nation we have assets that go underutilized. Imagine if we offered young male and female veterans transitioning back to civilian life, the opportunity to join a civilian corps that had many of the familiar perks and habits of military life; only now they’d be back in America, and in this case, helping to rebuild Detroit, living in a system of halfway houses with guaranteed labor on a government-backed, private contractor construction team. Seems like a positive fit for a sensitive time for returning veterans and out-of-work veterans.

That’s one small idea, one example of the sort of new thinking Detroit requires. The city needs to find ways to get lots of talented and trained people to spend valuable months and years of their lives helping guide Detroit into that brighter future.

Right now, Detroit is broken, both literally and figuratively. The city was officially declared bankrupt on December 13, 2013. The city was labeled broken by journalists and comedians and late night talk show hosts decades ago. Anyone familiar with the city would likely say Detroit is the last major American city they’d choose to move to. And that’s one of the best questions to focus on. Why should anyone want to live there?

Detroit is not a laboratory. Nor is it, a charity case. Neither is Detroit a pile of neglected value just needing the market to capitalize. Detroit is a city. It is an idea. For many it’s a memory, it is an answer for forms and questionnaires, it’s a birthplace, a last known address; mainly, Detroit is where people live. It’s where they do business, have jobs, study, get healed, and get married. Any discussion of how we (especially when the “we” is comprised of “non-Detroiters” such as myself) can save the city requires us to keep at the forefront of our thinking, that by “city” we mean the place where people live not the buildings, per se.

How can we save Detroit as a place for people to live?

Many gifted folks have already weighed in on this very question, offering opinions, ideas and experiences. Drew Philip, a contributor over at Buzzfeed, wrote a great piece about how and why, at age 23, he bought a house in Detroit for $500 dollars. He describes Detroit from the inside. And he found a Detroit he wasn’t expecting.

“But there’s another Detroit, too, of which I am but a small part. It’s been happening quietly and for some time, between transplants and natives, black and white and Latino, city and country — tiny acts of kindness repeated thousands of times over, little gardens and lots of space, long meetings and mowing grass that isn’t yours. It’s baling hay.

It’s the Detroit that’s saving itself. The Detroit that’s building something brand-new out of the cinders of consumerism and racism and escape.”

Recently, Rick Snyder, the Republican Governor of Michigan, put forth a radical idea about increasing the population of Detroit. He wants to incentivize immigration. His idea of federal assistance is to fast-track 50,000 Green Cards for immigrants willing to move to Detroit and demonstrably live there for five years. The Feds are considering his plan. Not everyone loves the governor’s idea. Mainly, people like the locals of Detroit. They’d like someone to consider ways to fast-track their future employment as well.

In case you were wondering, yes, the city of Detroit does have its own plan for its future. Like a real physical plan. It’s called Detroit Future City. You can read it here. It’s a series of steps headed toward a future cobbled together from community outreach.

For now, as we consider a new dawn for the city, let’s follow the philosophy inherent in Reagan’s words (in order to correct for any leftist bias I may or may not have).

1. “Work and family are at the center of our lives the foundation of our dignity as a free people …”

You hear it over and over again: “Make Detroit a place young people want to move to!”

Okay, hate to break it to you but cheap housing, interesting micro-communities, a thriving young art and music scene and a general sense of sexy danger are already helping do that. Young people are moving to Detroit. But the trouble with young people as the saviors of Detroit is that they tend to cluster together and gentrify one dodgy neighborhood at a time. Right now, the whole city needs to be rebuilt. To rely on hipsters to save Detroit is silly. The effort has to be multigenerational, mostly because that’s what Detroit is. The same way developers can’t be trusted to remake Detroit, neither can hipsters be trusted with the resurrection of the city. It must be community-based.

Known for some of the most livable cities in the world, despite the fact they suffer through equally severe weather of the winter months, Scandinavians create very well-designed, highly livable cities. What’s their secret?

Dominic Balmforth, the Designated Director of City Planning for Copenhagen had this to say about what makes a city livable.

There is a clear indication that people expect more from their cities than commercial activity alone. The point is not competitiveness at all costs, but rather that cities with high levels of social, cultural and professional interaction, clean air, safe streets, and short travel times provide the best conditions for people and therefore the highest quality of life.”

Numerous recent studies have concluded that meaningful experiences produce far more happiness than one gets from the thrills found in an amusement park or on a pleasure cruise. Basically, when it comes to your happiness, soup kitchens beat roller coasters every time. If you read the aforementioned Buzzfeed piece, Drew Philips’ accounts of his Detroit neighbors and how they live says it all. If you didn’t read it, imagine children skating on a homemade backyard neighborhood ice rink. You get the idea.

If Detroit is threatened with becoming hip, possibly something as terrible as a MidwesTribeca, then locals ought to capitalize on this new chic and ask visitors to think of Detroit as somewhere to take a trip and while you’re there you might help out on an urban farm. Detroit could benefit from what in the developing world is known as “voluntourism.”

The city could also benefit from an effort to foster a start-up culture that urges new businesses to give it a go. Detroit needs to capitalize on the forward-thinking young people who come to the city, people like the dudes who started skiing indoors in the abandoned buildings. Through a fast-tracked business permit process and support system, invite young entrepreneurs like the building skiers to help re-imagine Detroit’s infrastructure. Often those bored young men and women will come up with new ideas that are surprisingly valuable. They might invent a whole new sport and related equipment industry.

2. “…when we deprive people of what they have earned, we destroy their dignity and undermine their families.””

Nearly everyone has a family. A pensioner in Detroit has a family. The secretary working for one of the city’s many creditors has a family. Everyone has mouths to feed. And everyone requires the city’s debts be managed in way that’s equitable and also gives Detroit a chance to work its way out from the crushing weight of its bankruptcy.

The three-part strategy to a healthy financial future:

Pay off old creditors

Honor agreements with pensioners

Seek financial health of a growing tax base

Pensioners entered into a contract in good faith. A city isn’t like a shoe store; if a shoe store goes out of business, there’s no one to pay the pensions. But a city is a different creature. It’s not a profit-based business. It needs to honor its deal. Even if it has to do so over time. This is why the bond market is so critical. Detroit desperately needs to repair its credit rating so it can issue bonds to raise immediate short-term money. But the city can’t do that until it deals with the bankruptcy. But how do is it do that? Well, other than the equally-struggling state of Michigan, the only other real contender is the US Federal government. We the People could quite feasibly loan the city the 16$bn necessary to pay off its debt.

To buy Detroit’s debt for the last year would cost half the money we spent rebuilding Iraq for three years.

Without the Federal government loaning the money, Detroit has few options. Some have bandied about ridiculous ideas like selling the art from the Detroit Institute of Arts. But even if every last objet d’art in the building was sold at auction for top dollar it would likely only bring in 1.1 $bn. That’s not even worth the time of an auctioneer. More to the point, since it’s considered a black city, it smacks of bigotry when we casually insinuate the people of Detroit have little need for their art and might as well sell it to pay their cable bill … I mean, their debts.

3. “We can not support our families unless there are jobs. And we can not have jobs unless people have both money to invest and the faith to invest it.”

In the Detroit Future City report a lot of the discussion is centered around the neighborhoods of Detroit, and there’s a goodly amount of optimism over the Midtown neighborhood, nicknamed “Eds and Meds” for its high concentration of schools and members of the medical industry. Public-private partnerships are the key to expanding this sense of optimism and more importantly, employment opportunities.

In support of the goal of reintroducing industry to Detroit, a radical step would be to create a future-minded federal institute, such as one dedicated to the emergent field of science, Biomimicry. As a federally-funded research center and institute of higher learning, it would guarantee Detroit jobs at numerous tiers of employment and from the blossom of that employment would follow ancillary businesses to service and provide products to the institute. And we, the nation, would invest in our collective future and take the lead in a field of science that will surely shape the remainder of the 21st century.

This next part I’ll handle as delicately as possible. As much as one thinks it seemly, corporations should also be considered as partners. As much as can be tolerated by the people of Detroit, there could be a program of aggressive corporate investment strategies. Imagine city-wide advertising programs, multiple-company cooperative efforts, and other branding opportunities. The idea is to replicate how Citibank slapped their logos all over rental bikes in Manhattan and turned something most every European city already has, a bicycle rental system, into a top news story in America. Companies need to do more stuff like that in Detroit.

Now, by all means, one shouldn’t imagine Detroit branded like a city re-made in the image of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. No one is calling for the Detroit version of the “Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.” But certainly there are partnership opportunities. For instance, Detroit could invite Amazon to slap their name all over the city’s libraries to help offset the cost of running them for a year.

A city needs its libraries. But how do we pay for them? In the 2012 fiscal year, Detroit’s library system had a budget of $36,805,560. To put those digits in perspective, for 2012, Amazon’s ad budget was 245 million. How much goodwill and good press would they get for spending some of those ad dollars on Detroit libraries?

4. “That system will continue to serve us in the future if our government will stop ignoring the basic values on which it was built and stop betraying the trust and good will of the American workers who keep it going.”

Unlike his political/spiritual followers, the ones who invoke his name in every tv interview or stump speech, Reagan wouldn’t miss the fact Detroit offers a golden opportunity at a key moment in American history. To a smart Republican looking at the long game, in order to gin up some electoral juice for a party that’s facing an existential crisis due to shifting demographics, Detroit represents a chance to actually marry rhetoric and action, to use business to fix the problems of America. Ultimately, that’s why Reagan would save Detroit.

Beyond the pale of politics, Detroit deserves to be saved. It used to be called the “Paris of the Midwest.” Then for decades it was the punch-line of the American landscape. Now, we have the chance to make Detroit into Reagan’s symbolic “shining city on the hill,” create the perfect advertisement of the future of the American Dream (if such a thing still exists at all).