Posted on 08/16/2011 8:11:57 PM PDT by RonDog
A Democrat might have admired Henry Clay , as a man. while rejecting his policy. James Polk certainly did, even though he was a Jackson protege and Jackson hated Clay. FDR was like both Clay and Jackson, a man who drew others to him like a magnet. He had great courage, which is the greatest of all virtues, and great charm. And cunning, of course, and ruthlessness. A lion and a fox, as his biographer MacGregor said about him. I don’t think that Reagan was quite that. What we saw was what we got. He once made a film, the Hasty heart. Never met Reagan, but maybe THAT portrayal was very close to the real man.
You’re evading. Why won’t you cite a source for your claims?
Everything I have said is common knowledge. I just find it incredible that you dont’ know Reagan’s background.
The only thing you said that is common knowledge, is that Reagan was a former Democrat. The rest you made up out of whole cloth.
I asked you three times to either cite the source of your claim that Reagan was a New Dealer, or retract that slander. You dodged the challenge every time.
That's not just weak, Robby, it's downright suspicious.
Very encouraging!!
From 1947 to 1952 Reagan served as president of the union of movie actors, the Screen Actors Guild. He fought against communist infiltration in the guild, crossing picket lines to break the sometimes violent strikes. (Such violence and chaos were abhorrent to Reagan, and, when police and students clashed in Berkeley in May 1969, Reagan, as governor of California, called out the National Guard to restore order.) Much to the disgust of union members, he testified as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee and cooperated in the blacklisting of actors, directors, and writers suspected of leftist sympathies.
Although Reagan was still a Democrat at the time (he campaigned for Harry Truman in the presidential election of 1948), his political opinions were gradually growing more conservative. After initially supporting Democratic senatorial candidate Helen Douglas in 1950, he switched his allegiance to Republican Richard Nixon midway through the campaign. He supported Republican Dwight Eisenhower in the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956, and in 1960 he delivered 200 speeches in support of Nixon's campaign for president against Democrat John F. Kennedy. He officially changed his party affiliation to Republican in 1962. Just get any biography to fill in the details. As to FDR, he appreciated FDR's qualities as a leader and especially his bonhomme. Someone once said of Roosevelt that had had a second classs intellect but a first class temperament.
So far as I know, FDR never wrote anything, nor studied anything. The irony is that Reagan was a student of public affiars--apparently all his life. Yet he was portrayed as a dunce. He was as blind as a bat without his glasses, which is what kept this very fit man from enlisting in combat arms. I have heard a story from an old Goldwater supporter who encountered Reagan in a hotel lobby, reading a newspaper with great attention. To his surprise Reagan was wearing thick, horn-rimmed glasses. As soon as he was greeted, he quickly whipped off the glasses and stuck them in his coat pocket. He was famous in Hollywood for his almost photographic memory. He had to; he could not read dialogue off a board.If he forgot a line--which was rare--he asked a prompter to read it from the script. Most of the time if he was doing a scene, and someone else forgot a line, he could supply it. He lost that facility with age, along with his hearing, which was a sign that--surprise, surprise--he suffered lasting harm from taking a near fatal bullet, but also from the fact that this is what happens to all of us as we age.
Nothing in that article lends any credence to your assertion that "Reagan was a New Deal Democrat", or that "he was a life-long admirer of FDR".
The only tenuous connection to your inventions about Reagan is this:
"Reagan's father eventually found work as an administrator in a New Deal office....a fact that Reagan continued to appreciate...
In the second half of that sentence, the author says:
"...his political opinion of Roosevelt had dramatically changed."
Even more support for the well-known narrative of Reagan's conservative values is expressed here:
"Although Reagan was still a Democrat at the time (he campaigned for Harry Truman in the presidential election of 1948), his political opinions were gradually growing more conservative.
After initially supporting Democratic senatorial candidate Helen Douglas in 1950, he switched his allegiance to Republican Richard Nixon midway through the campaign. He supported Republican Dwight Eisenhower in the presidential elections of 1952 and 1956..."
The account you posted actually disproves your earlier assertions and underscores the fact that there exists NO evidence that "Reagan was a New Deal Democrat", i.e., a big government Socialist.
You mean even the fact that he worked for Harry Truman in 1948? What it does not say is that he also worked for Roosvelt in previous elections, in 1940 in particular, when FDR was running for a contraversial third term. The clue is that he changed his political opinion. But in 1948 he obviously had the same opinions as Harry Truman, who was definitely a New Dealer. Truman even called his program the “Fair Deal.” And it was pretty liberal. It was the issue of international communism that made Reagan switch. During the ‘50s, his views became progressively more conservative, especially after he married Nancy and began traveling in the same circles as her father. His GE experiences completed his conversion.
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