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.]
