Ben Stein: Ferris Bueller Represents the Reagan Era

Since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off hit theaters 30 years ago, on June 11, 1986, it has remained an inspiration to anyone who has been tempted to play hookey (so basically, everyone). The film not only helped launch the acting career of Matthew Broderick—who stars as the eponymous high-school senior taking the best fake sick day ever—but also that of economist Ben Stein, who became the face of uninspiring teachers with his lecture about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. The monotonous way he took attendance spawned some of the film’s most memorable lines: “Bueller?….Bueller?”

The lawyer and former speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford had been introduced to the movie’s casting director, Michael Chinich, through Washington, D.C., friends, and bonded with director John Hughes over their shared conservative political views. Stein landed the part of Ferris Bueller’s teacher by ad-libbing the economics lesson, and parlayed the gig into roles of The Wonder Years and as host of the game show Win Ben Stein’s Money. In a phone conversation with TIME ahead of the 30th anniversary of Ferris Bueller, the pundit and columnist went into teacher mode again and discussed the historical context that made the movie a distinctly ’80s American document—and why Ferris Bueller would have loved Donald Trump.

TIME: How does the movie represent a certain period in American history?

Stein: America at that time was in the midst of the Reagan boom, so we were all in a pretty good mood. The end of the ’70s were really bad economic times, and after the dark times of Watergate, I think Ferris was to some extent reacting to the fact that things were better. What was his mother’s occupation? Luxury real estate broker. Those were happier days, a much more optimistic age — even though we were running large deficits. Ferris Bueller’s optimism was very representative of the era, and it was very representative of who John Hughes was. He was an ardent Republican and extreme conservative. He believed Reagan could transform all of us into Ferris Buellers. Ferris was an artifact of a free era. Ronald Reagan was all about freedom. Ferris was an unregulated high school kid in an unregulated world. It was “morning in America,” and it was morning for Ferris.

I also think there’s a similarity to the politician Huey Long’s Every Man a King, which proposed taking the wealth of the great, rich people and spreading it around the ordinary citizens of America, that’s sort of what Ferris did. Ferris was king.

What does the movie say about being an American teen?

When Ferris was a kid, life was much more innocent and sweeter. Ferris is Huckleberry Finn. Today’s kids can’t imagine riding down the Mississippi river on a raft. If they want to go on a trip, they put on their goggles and play a video game. Their world is a tiny world inside a computer chip.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

How would things be different if it were made in 2016?

I think the kids would also be smoking tons of dope, having tons of sex, [there would be] violence. It’d have to be racially diverse so one of his friends would be a black person or Hispanic person because that’s the way the world is today.

And I think Ferris would really have fun with Donald Trump because Donald Trump is such an incredible bag of hot air. I could see it now: There’s that great scene when [Ferris] goes into the fancy restaurant he pretends to be Abe Froman ‘the sausage king.’ I think there’d be a cameo of Mr. Trump at the same restaurant. I think if the movie were being filmed today, my economics lesson would talk about Mr. Trump’s extremely unusual idea that he can drastically cut taxes and also pay off the federal deficit. The deregulation part [of his economic policy] is very sensible, but other than that, it’s a joke.

There has been talk of a sequel over the years. What do you think about that?

I personally would prefer if there was no sequel. I don’t think you can mess with perfection.