[rrpjr]

Randy: new bio on Reagan by Paul Kengor, on his lifelong anti-communism. Yet Reagan was never a fanatic. His argument during the Hollywood years was always to let communists speak, that is, he honored his own system's ability to sort out the good from the bad. The problem was, they wouldn't permit him to speak. Great moment when he stood them down at a Hollywood party, fiercely but cheerfully in his own great style, while they gnashed their teeth and attacked him. It was a decisive moment. What one most gets out of the story was just how much Reagan thought about this issue, how he envisioned victory, how determined he was to achieve it, and how he never lost his good nature during decades of withering and vicious attacks.