WP: Revealing Letters From Reagan

[kskiska]

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 21 -- A new book of personal letters written by Ronald Reagan lays out the former president's views on topics from sex to communism and includes a discussion with Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner about free speech.

(snip)

Reagan advised one old friend in a 1951 letter that sex was a natural function.

"Even in marriage I had a little guilty feeling about sex, as if the whole thing was tinged with evil," he told the friend, whose husband had died.

But a "fine old gentleman" gave Reagan a moral compass by citing the behavior of primitive Polynesians, he wrote.

"These peoples who are truly children of nature and thus of God, accept physical desire as a natural, normal appetite," he said.

(snip)

A communist "is bound by party discipline to deny he is a communist so that he can by subversion and stealth impose on an unwilling people the rule of the International Communist Party which is in fact the government of Soviet Russia," wrote Reagan, who famously called the Soviet Union an "evil empire."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44308-2003Sep21.html

It's notable that there is no correspondence or even a mention of Reagan's first marriage to Jane Wyman.

[Wickerman]

1. Yawn

he must be fixin' to die. We get to look forward to years of Ronnie worship - for whatever friggin' reason.

[MuseRider]

2. Yup

I refuse to worship him, hell I don't even respect him but it will be Ronnie all over the place forever.

[Must_B_Free]

3. *sigh*

he was a doddering old fool. He was the inspiration for the puppet "Alf"

[nemo137]

8. are you serious about the alf thing?

child of the 90's speaking here, but is this true? was alf really based on regan?

[Skittles]

4. I can't imagine anything I'd want to read less

than the musings of Ronald Reagan. BARF.

[FlemingsGhost]

5. I think Dave Lowery (Camper Van Beethoven) said it best:

'Cause he's always living back in Dixon
Stuck in 1949
And we're all sitting by the fountain
... at the five and dime
'Cause he's living in some b-movie
The lines they are so clearly drawn
In black and white, life is so easy
and we're all coming along on this one.


Cause he's on a secret mission
Headquarters just radioed in
He left his baby at the dancehall while the band plays on
... some sweet song.
And on a mission over China
The lady opens up her arms
The flowers bloom where you have placed them and the lady smiles
...just like mom


Angels wings are icing over
McDonnell-Douglas olive drab
They bear the names of our sweethearts and the captain smiles
... as we crash

Cause in the mind of Ronald Reagan
Wheels they turn, gears they grind
Buildings collapse in slow motion, and trains collide
Everything is fine
Everything is fine
Everything is fine

(on edit: "Sweethearts," from the 1989 release, "Key Lime Pie.")

[zekeson]

9. Excellent cite!!!

I've used that few times, myself

:yourock:

[Jim Sagle]

6. B Movie (Gil Scott-Heron)

Well, the first thing I wanna say is, mandate, my ass!
Because it seems as though we’ve been convinced
that 26% of the registered voters, not even 26% of the American people
but 26% of the registered voters, form a mandate
or a landslide
21% voted for Skippy
and 3-4% voted for somebody else who might have been running

But oh yeah, I remember, in this year that we have declared from Shogun to Raygun
I remember what I said about Raygun
Meant it
Acted like an actor – Hollyweird
Acted like a liberal
Acted like General Franco when he acted like Governor of California
then he acted like a Republican
then he acted like somebody was gonna vote for him for President
And now we act like 25% of the registered voters is actually a mandate

We all actors in this, I suppose

What has happened is that in the last 20 years America has changed
from a producer to a consumer
And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune
the consumer has got to dance – the way it is
We used to be a producer (very inflexible at that)
and now we are consumers
and finding it very difficult to understand

Natural resources and minerals will change your world
The Arabs used to be in the Third World
They have bought the Second World and put a down payment on the First
Controlling your resources will control your world

This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now
They don’t know what they want to be, Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan
They don’t know if they want to be diplomats
or continue the same policy of nuclear nightmare diplomacy
John Foster Dulles ain’t nothin’ but the name of an airport now

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants no-stalgia
They want to go back as far as they can
even if it’s only as far as last week
not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards

And yesterday was the day of all cinema heroes
riding to the rescue at the last possible moment
the day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse
or the man who always came to save America at the last possible moment
(Someone always came to save America at the last possible moment
especially in B movies)

And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future
they looked for people like
John Wayne
but since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Raygun
And it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at
like a B movie

Come with us back to those inglorious days
when heroes weren’t zeroes
before fair was square
when the cavalry came straight away and all American men were like Hemingway
to the days of the wondrous
B movie

The producer, underwritten by ALL the millionaires necessary
will be Caspar “the Defensive” Weinberger
No more animated choice is available

The director will be Attila the Hague
running around frantically, declaring himself in charge
the ultimate realization of the inmates taking over the asylum

The screenplay will be from the book called “Voodoo Economics”
by George “Papa Doc” Bush

Music by the Village People, a very military, macho group
(Macho, macho man!)

A theme song for saber rattling and selling war door to door
(Remember, we’re looking for the closest thing we can find to
John Wayne)

Cliches abound like King Clues
of some spaced out Marlin Perkins, a Raygun contemporay
Cliches like “itchy trigger finger” and “tall in the saddle”
and “riding off” or “on into the sunset”
Cliches like ”Get off of our planet by sundown”
More so than cliches like “He died with his boots on”

Marine-tough, the man is
Bogart-tough, the man is
Cagney-tough, the man is
Hollywood-tough, the man is
Cheap steak-tough, and
Bozo-substantial

The ultimately synthetic selling of Madison Avenue
a masterpiece, a miracle, a cotton-candy politician
Presto Macho! (Macho, macho man!)

Put yo’ orders in, America
and quickly as come back yo’ leader is duplicated (accent on the dupes)
Because all of a sudden we have fallen prey to selective amnesia
remembering what we want to remember and forgetting what we want to forget
All of a sudden the man who called for a bloodbath on our college campuses
is supposed to be Dudley Goddamn Doright?

You go give them liberals hell, Ronnie
That was the mandate to the new captain Bligh on the new ship of fools
Fools doubtlessly based on his chameleon performance of the past
as a liberal Democrat
as the head of the Studio Actors Guild
When other cellulid were cringing in terror from McCarthy
Ron stood tall

It goes all the way back from Hollywood to hillbillydom
from liberal to libelous
from Bonzo to Birch idol
born again

Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights
it’s all wrong
Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom
Godammnit! First one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom

No-stalgia
that’s what we want
The good old days
when we gave ‘em hell
when the buck stopped somewhere and you could still buy something with it
to a time when movies was in black and white
and so was everything else

Even if we go back to the campaign trail
before Sixgun Raygun shot off his face and developed hoof in mouth disease
before the free press went down before a full court press
and were reluctant to view the menu
because they knew the only thing available was
crow

Lon Chaney, our man of a thousand faces - no match for Ron
Doug Henning does the makeup
Special effects from Grecian Formula 16 and Crazy Louie
Transportation furnished by David Rockefeller of the Remote Control Company
Their slogan is, “Why wait for 1984? You can panic now, and avoid the rush”

So much for the good news

As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation
and here’s a look at the global numbers
Business is up, human rights are down
peace is shaky, war items are hot
the house claims all ties
Jobs down, money is scarce
common sense is at an all time low
in heavy trading

Movies were looking better than ever, and now
no one is looking because we’re starring
in a B movie
and we would rather had John Wayne
We would rather had John Wayne

You don't have to be in no hurry
You ain't never really got to worry
You don't need to check on how you feel
Just keep repeating that none of this is real
And if you're sensing that something's wrong
Well just remember that it won't be too long
before the director cuts this scene, yeah

This ain't really your life, ain't really your life, ain't really ain't nothin' but a movie
This ain't really your life, ain't really your life, ain't really ain't nothin' but a movie
This ain't really your life, ain't really your life, ain't really ain't nothin' but a movie
This ain't really your life, ain't really your life, ain't really ain't nothin' but a movie

[MSchreader]

7. Anti-Communist pinhead

A communist "is bound by party discipline to deny he is a communist so that he can by subversion and stealth impose on an unwilling people the rule of the International Communist Party which is in fact the government of Soviet Russia," wrote Reagan, who famously called the Soviet Union an "evil empire."

I guess Reagan missed that little comment in the Communist Manifesto about how "Communists disdain to conceal their views".

Martin