The Phantom Inferiority Complex: Ron Reagan

Yesterday Ron Reagan, son of the famed America president and stalwart liberal, came out and claimed that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease while he held the reins of the Oval Office, and that the condition affected his ability to make decisions as chief executive. While many sources around the late president have denied this, including his other son Michael, the vicious slurring of his father's legacy simply reaffirms a long since proposed theory about the ardent left-winger: that jealously guides his activism today.

From the start, perhaps the world of his parents was simply too much for Ron's young mind to fathom. As the son of Hollywood stars, he would only have nine years to live before his father swept into the governor's office of California, beginning a political legacy which would last for decades and see him through to a place as one of the most respected world leaders of the 20th Century--and indeed beyond that as well.

Unfortunately, this surge of success and respect was apparently too much for young Ron, and he chose to drop out if Yale University (a more prestigious school than his father's) to pursue a career as a ballet dancer. Throughout the Reagan Presidency, he raised hell for the first couple by appearing on less than flattering entertainment shows and mocking his patriarch's work for the nation and world.

Adding insult to the open wound, Ron made his next concentration be a jump into current events by helping to start Air America, a liberal talk radio channel famous for personalities like Al Franken--and for its bankruptcy in 2004.

Had the younger Reagan's focus been at least on on actual political career, he might still command some respect today, yet his insistence on taking a low road and tearing at his father's legacy only diminishes the potential of his own person.

In fact, despite his sensational disagreement with his father, Reagan Jr. loves to use the family name to benefit himself financially--and to pick up some poor excuses for attention from networks such as MSNBC. As with the latest comment, Ron loves to play as though he knows his father well, yet all reports suggest that he shunned the president and remained distant till the elder man passed away in 2004.

Children may sometimes find the successes of their familiars too much to accept, yet Ron Reagan truly has now valid justifications for his actions. His father's legacy has helped him even while he chooses to drag it through the mud, and that is something no American can be proud of.



Andrew Rimmer

National Alliance Vice President for Communications