You Read It Here Last

Found in Ronald Reagan's personal diary, and released by the Ronald Reagan Library, which sort of preempts what would otherwise be the Foxohannity attempts to suggest it's false:

Although at the time I felt I could more effectively get my ideas of a collective philosophy accomplished as a Republican more so than a Democrat, I realize now that the Republican Party was indeed the party of purely individual rights, not the Democrats. When I worked as the president of the Screen Actors Guild I understood the need for people to stick together for the greater good to get their goals accomplished. I admired other great presidents of the past such as Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower who knew that in order for the nation to thrive, we must all thrive. I am also saddened that the Republican party of today thinks I wanted God in the White House and to rule the nation. That is not true at all, after I was nearly assassinated I wanted God more in my own personal life. I acknowledged that I was to be here for a reason and serve him and my nation together, but they always stayed separate in my mind just as in the Constitution. The Republican party today merely just uses God as a means to get votes, and I don’t believe Jesus would want to be used as a marketing tool. I regret my decision to become Republican and if I had to do it all over again I would have remained in the Democratic party and ran on their ticket. They seem to instill the core values I believe in, such as a collective philosophy. I thought for a while the Democrats left me, because we used to agree on so much, it turns out that I did indeed leave them, and I would do anything to take it all back. Now as I sit here as an old man, I can only imagine, “what if…”

Had he ever said it openly, it might have changed my measure of him, a little. But Reaganomics was and is still a crock, and his love for the Constitution seems to have ended at a line somewhere between Iran and Nicaragua.

[Update: well, I was snookered, as a reader pointed out in the comments. It's satire; had I read through the bottom of the article, I'd have seen it myself. I did actually think, as I read it, that he seemed a lot more cogent than he'd been when he left office... Embarrassing.

Another reader had pointed out the article to me in another comment thread, and I bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Guess Frank is right about Alzheimer's.... mine.]