The Cult of Reagan
Recently it was announced (in a tweetstorm no less) that Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former President Ronald Reagan, had rescinded his endorsement of the current GOP presidential candidate, Donald Trump. This has spread across various levels of media with a certain amount of glee, one more chink in the armor of inevitability that is Trump’s principle asset — confidence.
But is this indicative of anything more than the so called establishment closing ranks and defending itself? What did it mean for Michael Reagan to endorse Trump early on and then rescind it? Why now? Do endorsements actually change people’s minds?
Prompted by this revelation, I wondered to myself how Reagan’s other living children felt about the GOP nominee. Ronald Reagan, Jr., to the delight of liberals everywhere, is an avowed leftist.
I suppose this isn’t surprising, considering he has lived almost the entirety of his life in or near Hollywood. But why wasn’t the power of his father’s persona enough to encourage him that this wasn’t his only option. Did this start out for him as a seed of youthful rebellion that never quite sprouted into a tree of mature and resolute conservatism?
His remaining living daughter, Patti Davis, famous for her antics while her father was president (she posed for an issue of Playboy magazine during the 80s) is profoundly liberal. Her sister Maureen, who passed away from cancer in 2001, was also leftward leaning. What does this mean? Does this invalidate Reagan’s conservatism? Or is it more indicative of the late conversion experience Reagan underwent before becoming a keynote speaker for Goldwater in 1964?
Psychologists speak of those first few years as formative. Were these years of nascent liberalism in the home enough to spoil the batch forever?
I am reminded of King David in Biblical times and his difficulties with his son Absalom, who attempted to wrest control of the Kingdom of Israel from his father before his death. The violence that ensued over the impending succession nearly split the kingdom in two (eventually it did, but there was unity for another generation under Solomon). Perhaps David’s earlier infidelities and unresolved sins were to blame for Absalom’s rebellion? Perhaps Reagan’s earlier investment in liberalism ‘tainted’ his children?
One thing is certain, it seems resolvedly difficult for great men to be great fathers. Witness nearly every Shakespearean play. Or watch Game of Thrones. Goodness and greatness seem miles apart.
I’m not prepared to divest myself of the notion that President Reagan was a great president, perhaps the greatest since Lincoln, but did he turn out to be a good father? His children survived into adulthood, capable of making mature decisions that sometimes contradicted his own. Is that enough of an indication that he did his fatherly best to raise them well?
Proverbs opines, “raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” I am reminded of Francis Schaeffer, Jr., son of the Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer (obviously, that’s how that Jr. thing works) and his path away from Christianity.
Apparently, it’s really, really hard to raise children.
