Michael Reagan: Hollywood should stop lying about my dad

Tim Graham has a short piece at Newsbusters on Michael Reagan's (I think unquestionably correct) assertion that Hollywood, "want[s] people to remember [Ronald Reagan] the way [they] want to portray him, not the way he really was."

Concerns like this are one of the main reasons this blog was started.  As with so many other aspects of American history, those of us who remember the Reagan years must make it our business to pass down our perspective on those years to the next generation.  Granted, we may be wrong at times, but are no more susceptible to hero worship or overlooking Reagan's faults than those who write the textbooks are prone to accentuate his faults and celebrate their own chosen heroes (e.g., Wilson, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Obama).  In the end, we must trust that future generations will be able to weigh the evidence and draw their own faithful conclusions.  To do that, however, they must hear from those of us who do not walk in the halls Hollywood, academia, or political power.

News Archive: Sen. Case sees end of "way-out" conservatives

n. a. (1965, June 27). Sen. Case sees end of way-out conservatives. Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 19.

This brief news item records New Jersey Republican Clifford Case's prognostication that anyone advocating the elimination of Social Security, public housing, federal aid to education, et. al. are "the voice of the past."  Case named Ronald Reagan specifically as a candidate whose appeal was based solely on nostalgia for an America that had passed. 

Leaving aside, for a moment, the point that I don't believe Reagan ever called for the elimination of Society Security or public housing (though he may have once advocated elimination of federal aid to education), it is somewhat ironic that 48 years ago an Establishment New Jersey Republican was critiquing upstarts representing a more Libertarian wing of the party.  Not at all like today, right?

   For further reading:  Jacobs, G. (2013, August 2). Liberty: a dangerous, 'esoteric' idea? The Daily Caller.

From the American Spectator: The GOP: Rabbits or tigers?

Jeffrey Lord's piece today on the Establishment Republicans' weak-kneed abandoning of Sen. Mike Lee's proposal to defund Obamacare, includes some insightful historical commentary on President Reagan's (sadly failed) attempt to buck up his own party's congressional leadership during the 1984 battle with Democrats over the Clean Water Bill.

Though the post-as-a-whole is rather long (classic Lord), nonetheless I recommend it to readers of the RSS Ronald Reagan both for its overall message, and for its pleasant reminder of what principled, conservative leadership looks like.

Michael Douglas to portray Reagan in "Reykjavik"

Filming for the Cold War movie will begin in March aims for a 2014 release, focuses on the Reykjavik Summit in 1986 between Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev (played by Christoph Waltz) that, while unsuccessful, ended up establishing a connection between the two world leaders that would ultimately result in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty the following year... The Times of India

Who else thinks Jon Voight or Clint Eastwood would've been a MUCH better choice?