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Feb. 6, 2019 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin

01:01:13

Growing Up with Ronald Reagan | Michael Reagan | POLITICS | Rubin Report

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dave rubin

07:26

michael reagan

52:44

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Speaker	Time	Text
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Joining me today is an author, a speaker, and the president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, Michael Reagan.
		Welcome to The Rubin Report.
		Hey, good to be with you.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Thanks for having me.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I am glad to have you here.
		You come from a famous family.
		Is that fair to say?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		They tell me.
		You know what I tell people?
		A lot of people, they say famous family, but they don't understand how absolutely famous it is.
		There's only two people ever born and or raised in a family that the mother would go on to become an Academy Award
		winning actress and the father would go on to become President of the
		United States.
		And that's my sister Maureen, passed away in 2001, and myself. No one else has lived that life.
		And so that makes it more understandable to me why people always say, "So tell me
		about your family." Yeah. You know, no matter what I've done in
unidentified		life, "Wood, tell me about your family."
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I don't even know if bizarre is the word, but it seemingly is a bizarre level of fame because there's a political element and a Hollywood element and you combine those two things, and especially the way these days where politics and Hollywood have become the same thing, It's a unique place.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		It is a unique place.
		I like to tell people about my mom, Jane Wyman.
		You know, I say, you know, but my mother has two stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
		My dad only has one.
		And my mother also has her handprints and footprints in Grauman's Chinese.
		Dad does not.
unidentified		Wow.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		So in Hollywood, she won the game.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Politics, he didn't.
unidentified		Yeah.
unidentified		All right.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So let's, let's do a little, we're going to spend the first half doing a little bongo and talking about your dad and your mom and the family and all that.
		So just tell me a little bit about just growing up.
		You growing up.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Well, you know, growing up, essentially, because people think, hey, you're so lucky.
		I used to get that at school.
		You're so lucky your parents are rich or famous.
		And you go, yeah, but I'm boarding at school at six years old.
		And that's what a lot of people don't understand.
		That era of Hollywood children, that's why we all grew up mad at our parents.
		Because we're boarding at school, six years old.
		I'm at Chadwick School, Rancho Palos Verdes.
		My sister's four years older than me.
		She's there also.
		And people are saying, how lucky you are as you're crying yourself to sleep every night.
		And so we did.
		We grew up angry because we were very jealous of the parents or the children who got dropped off by their moms and dads every single day at school and then got picked up.
		And we didn't get picked up.
		And so we grew up a little angst, if you will.
		Some of us wrote books about those days and that era.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		What were your folks doing at that time?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Well, my mom was an actress.
		She just won an Academy Award in 1948, Best Actress.
		Back in 1948, my dad was, you know, doing Hollywood.
		He was president of Screen Actors Guild, dealing with all those issues.
		They got divorced in 1948, so I was living with my mom at that time in Beverly Hills.
		I'd say to my mom, Mom, I want to be in your business.
		And she would say, no, no, you don't want to be in this business.
		It's really tough.
		It's a tough grind.
		You never know if you're going to make it.
		And I'm thinking to myself, I'm living in a mansion in Beverly Hills.
		We've got a maid.
		We've got a cook.
		We've got a Cadillac.
		Two stories.
		I said, I kind of like this industry.
		Maybe you just don't want the competition from a child.
		And so that's how I grew up.
		But you know something?
		It was really a great life at so many levels because my parents never forgot where they were from.
		My mom was from St.
		Joe, Missouri.
		My dad from Tampa, Illinois.
		And they brought those values with them when they came to California.
		So Maureen and I, even though not liking boarding at school and being angry at times and missing our parents terribly, really got grounded well with both my mom and my dad, because my dad, even divorced from my mother, never forgot he had another family, even after he married Nancy.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So, when did your dad get involved in politics?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		When was that shift?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Well, he was involved when he became president of Screen Actors Guild.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Very involved with that.
		What year is that?
		That's around, what, 1950s?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		1950s, late 40s, the 50s, and what have you.
		what have you. Well a lot of people don't know he got involved more and more in
		politics because the things kept on happening to him. You know he was the
		king of the B's, my mom was the king of the A's if you will at the time, so his
		career wasn't going really well, it wasn't magic if you will. He had to go to
		Las Vegas and do a stand-up act at a hotel in Vegas to make money to have
		the family be able to eat. There's no video of that.
		Oh, there probably is video somewhere on that.
		But again, back then parents didn't share with their children the tough times.
		Now parents tell everything to their children, which is crazy.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		That's a whole other show.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		It really is.
		But, you know, we never knew until later on the tough things Dad was going through.
		Ended up getting a show, General Electric Theater, if you will, out of that.
		He's doing GE Theater and going around the country and speaking to General Electric plants.
		Bobby Kennedy picks up the phone, calls the president of General Electric, and says, we have a problem.
		The president of GE is, why is the attorney general calling me?
		And the problem is, this Ronald Reagan's going around the country speaking not well of his brother, John Kennedy, at these plants about government.
		And Bobby Kennedy says to him, basically, you know, your government contracts are coming up for renewal.
		And if you can find a way to get rid of that guy, you could probably get your government contracts renewed.
		Within 72 hours, my father, a Democrat at the time, Yeah.
		General Electric Theater is canceled.
		Ronald Reagan doesn't have a job.
		So what does he do?
		Changes to a Republican.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So that was the moment.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		That was the moment.
		Changes to a Republican.
		And then he has time to sit down because he's not giving the speeches anymore.
		And he combines all the speeches he's been giving and he ends up with a brand new speech.
		You might have heard of it.
		A Time for Choosing.
		And gives it for Barry Goldwater in 1964.
		And the rest is history.
		Bobby Kennedy does not make that phone call.
		My dad's not doing anything.
		For Goldwater because he's too busy hosting one of the top ten television shows on Sunday night on TV.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		It's such an incredible story because in an odd way he was almost forced into the real part of his political career.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
		He never thought he was going to run for governor or president of the United States or whatever.
		He needed a job.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And he was forced out of the job he had and was made very angry.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		By Bobby Kennedy, and it forced him to go to the other side, if you will, and really, as I said, the rest is history.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Did your folks talk politics at all before that?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Oh, no.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I called my mom one time after my dad gave one of those great speeches he gave.
		I said, Mom, did you hear Dad's speech last night?
		She says, no, I heard it in 1938, didn't like it then, don't think much of it now.
		But interestingly enough, I found after she passed, going through her things, She'd written letters to my dad.
		She'd sent money to his campaigns for governor, for president of the United States.
		Returned letters from my father to my mom.
		Never knew, because she never really talked politics at all during her years in television.
		She stayed completely away from it, and she never said anything about my dad when he was president until the day we buried him, and then she said some very nice kind things.
		What year did your folks get divorced?
		1948, they were married in 1940, divorced in 1948, met on a set of a movie.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So, alright, so let's flash forward a little bit to now your dad, now it's, you know, late 70s, and now he's sort of the it guy.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		What was that like?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Different.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know, we had, my dad got elected.
unidentified		If I skipped anything in that 20 year period.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Oh yeah, well, you're never ready for a man or anybody in your home to become President of the United States of America.
		Because Secret Service comes into your house.
		I went all over the country in 19, well 76 and 80.
		I think the last month of 1980, 66 airplane rides, 19 states.
		My sister Maureen was doing this very same thing.
		And he gets elected, and three days later, I've got Secret Service in my life.
		And our son gets Secret Service.
		At that time, he's like two.
		They end up going to school with him.
		It really changes your life completely.
		Anonymity you don't have.
		You can't really go anywhere.
		You've got to tell somebody you're going there and have the Secret Service follow you wherever
		you go.
		It's not the easiest life in the world.
		If you can imagine a three-year-old going to preschool with Secret Service protection.
		Or my wife Colleen, when she gave birth to our daughter Ashley.
		We found out her code name, which was, you know, Raindrop, before we knew she was a girl.
		I mean, the first thing my wife heard as Ash, who was being born, was, we have an arrival?
		Raindrop has arrived.
		We have an arrival.
		Raindrop has arrived.
		And my wife looked at me, she said, is there anything private about my life anymore?
		I said, no, not really.
		Boy, that's where children stop with two, because that's never going to happen again.
		But we found out her code name before we found out she was a girl.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		How did that wear on you guys, once that level of fame and that level of intrusiveness?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		If you can keep a marriage together for eight years with Secret Service protection, your marriage will last forever.
		And we just had our 43rd wedding anniversary.
		We celebrated our 45th year of our first date last December 7th.
		It's very, very tough because Secret Service is given to blood relatives downward, not given to spouses.
		So Colleen didn't have Secret Service.
		We did.
		And it's very different.
		You know, Colleen had these visions of driving on the freeway, family, accident, all thrown from the car.
		Secret Service pick up Cameron, Ashley, and me, put us in an ambulance, take us to the hospital, throw Colleen a cell phone, and say, call someone.
		I mean, that's the vision you had.
		Because she doesn't have that protection.
		So it's not easy at all being married in that situation.
		But we muddled through.
		I got a great wife from Nebraska, very strong.
		She looks at me as a stalk of corn.
		She planted me and she just keeps on taking care of me all these years.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		What was your relationship with your dad like as he was first running for president?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I wrote a book called Lessons My Father Taught Me about all those years going out to the ranch when I was a child.
		Learned about America.
		Heard every song of every military operation known to mankind.
		He was a true patriot.
		And that's where I learned about the tax laws in America.
		That's where I learned about America and the greatness of America.
		And riding out to the ranch with him, and riding horses, and shooting ground squirrels, and going swimming, and cutting firewood.
		I bought him his first chainsaw.
		When you become president, that all goes away.
		Because now he's got John Barletta from Secret Service, who just passed away a few months ago,
		you know, riding with my dad.
		And it just completely changes.
		You don't have those close moments that, in fact, you had previous.
		So my greatest years with my dad was prior to the election.
		And the great years after he came out of office, we got to spend time together.
		And when he had, you know, that terrible, terrible disease that he had, so many people had Alzheimer's, we probably built the best relationship of our lives.
		Because in 1992, I made a decision.
		And the decision was, the next time I see my dad, I'm going to hug him and tell him I love him.
		And I did that in 1992.
		And he hugged me back and said, I love you too.
		From that point on, every time we would see each other, we would hug each other and say, I love you.
		When he got Alzheimer's, and he got to a point he could no longer say my name, He remembered I was the young man who hugged him alone, hugged him goodbye.
		And so when he saw me, he would open up his arms, not able to say my name.
		And I'd fall into his arms, and he'd give me that little hug, and I'd hug him.
		And one day, we're up visiting Nancy at the house, because you no longer visit with Dad, and We'd be there, and I got up to leave and got to the car, and Colleen says to me, you forgot something.
		I said, what did I forget?
		Look at the door.
		I looked back at the front door of the house, and Dad had remembered that I had forgotten to hug him goodbye.
unidentified		Wow.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And he had gotten up, and Nancy had helped him with little baby steps all the way to the front door, and he was standing at the front door like this.
		I had forgotten to hug him goodbye.
		And I said, oh my God, and ran, tear up thinking about it, and hugged him.
		And he hugged me back and he turned, took the baby steps back into the house.
		Just one of those wonderful moments I just had with my dad after he was out of the White House.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, was it tough for you, the way people would talk about your dad and Nancy,
		obviously, that she wasn't your mom?
		That that relationship was the one that everyone focused on, obviously.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And it was a relationship that was in the house.
		The relationship you saw is what Patty, Ron, and I and Maureen lived.
		It was about them.
		You couldn't get them apart with a crowbar.
		And that's just the way it was.
		I write in my book about the fact that Dad, when my mom divorced him, He will tell you, or he would have told you, it was the worst day of his life.
		He thought, I'm never gonna let this happen to me again.
		Nancy's dad walked out on her and her mother the day she was born.
		Walked out.
		Gone.
		Goodbye.
		Didn't want a kid.
		I'm out of here.
		She swore when she grew up, I'm never gonna have another man walk out on me.
		These two meet at Chasen's for dinner.
		get together, and these two people, you could not get them apart with a crowbar.
		And so even as kids, had to fight our way into the system to get our time, you know, with dad,
		especially. And that's just the way it was.
		I think it was depicted pretty well in the funeral for Nancy and Dad and so on.
		That's just the way it was with Nancy.
		She was kind of the gatekeeper, if you will, getting to our father.
		And the place you could really spend time with him is get him to the ranch.
		You could be with him at the ranch, you got a lot of great time.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Was he happiest there?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I mean, when he could get away from the political craziness?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Love the ranch.
		You know, Young Americans Foundation bought it a few years ago.
		I do a lot of things with them.
		They bring high school kids up there and college kids up there, and I speak to them.
		He really referred to it as his cathedral, and it really was his cathedral.
		This is where he could go up and really relax.
		That cutting wood, he did all that stuff.
		When you go and see the ranch, he's the one that really built the fences and did all of it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So when you see all those pictures of him, it's real, as opposed to now where everything is so staged, every time a politician shows up anywhere in a hat with this, or holding the pitchfork, or just anything that's new now, it's so staged.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Oh yeah, he was a lot of firsts.
		I mean, it's very true about him.
		He was the first president to show up on D-Day.
		At Normandy.
		He was the first president to salute getting on off Air Force One or Marine One.
		He put a lot of firsts that are out there that now have been followed by others.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Talk to me a little bit about those first couple years of the presidency.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		It was definitely not all easy.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		No, it wasn't easy.
		But you know, interestingly enough, when I was campaigning for him in 1980, I called him on the phone from Iowa.
		And he's talking to me and I said, Dad, you know, you're going to get beat by George H.W.
		Bush here in Iowa.
		I just got off the phone with the campaign staff and they said, we're doing fine.
		That's what they're lying to you.
		I said, I've been all over the state now for the last three weeks doing coffees.
		I've had 20 donuts by eight o'clock in the morning, 87 cups of coffee.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		That's commitment.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And doing all these things.
		I said, I'm telling you, you're going to get beat because you're not here.
		This is your state.
		You're the favorite son of the state.
		WHO is doing an event Saturday.
		You're not even going to be at it because your staff doesn't think you need to be there.
		They're running you as if you're better than the people in Iowa.
		And he's going to beat you.
		And he gave me a typical father son.
		Thank you, Michael.
		I appreciate the call.
		Thank you for helping out in Iowa.
		But my staff says I'm good.
		Who wins Iowa?
		H.W.
		Bush.
		A couple weeks later, in New Hampshire, I get a call at 6.30 in the morning at the House.
		He says, I have a press release for you.
		I said, why are you calling me?
		He said, I have a press release I need your approval on.
		Or disapproval.
		It's up to you.
		So why are you calling me?
		He said, let me read you the press release and you tell me whether I should give it to the media or not.
		It's your call.
		It's the press release firing Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, John Sears, and Charlie Black.
		And he calls me.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Names that are now in the news.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		That's right.
		And I said, done.
		Do it.
		He says, fine.
		You'll be hearing about it in your 7 o'clock news hour.
		I'm going to get off the phone with you and give it to the media.
		And then I thought to myself, what happens if he loses today?
		They're going to blame me?
		I said to my dad, are you going to win today?
		He says, yeah, we're going to win today.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I said, go ahead.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead and do it.
		He says, give my love to Colleen and Cameron.
		At the time, we didn't have Ashley.
		I said, goodbye, dad.
		So, these are the things he would do when he was president.
		Because he knew the dynamics.
		To allow me the opportunity to fire These guys was amazing.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So when you hear these guys' names now, Manafort and Stone and some of the others, that they're so in the news lately with all this stuff, what does that ring to you?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I've known they've been evil for years.
		I mean, it's amazed me the Republican Party keeps on going back to the same well over all these years.
		I mean, Charlie's okay, but I mean, Stone and Manafort have always been like this.
		I mean, it's just the truth.
		And I tweeted, I remember, during the campaign with Trump, I said, you know, Ronald Reagan, with Manafort and Stone, never won.
		Without them, never lost.
		And I said, I suggest, you know, to Trump, you want to see the same dynamic?
		I would get rid of both of them.
		And it really turned it around, because he was doing very badly when they got rid of them.
		He never lost again.
		What year was the assassination attempt that was aimed at you?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		March 30th, 1981.
		That is actually, I think that is my first real memory of anything.
		I was five years old at the time, not even five, about four and a half or so, and I remember my folks watching that night.
		I remember seeing on the news, you know, they had like an image, a cartoon, like a character of his body, and I vividly remember that at that age.
		What was that like for you guys?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know, I was in my office, Secret Service, I was in a business meeting in my office, and the Secret Service agent came in, said there's been an assassination attempt back in Washington, everything's okay, it was Mike Lootie.
		And he was my agent in charge of my detail that day.
		And he said, everything's okay, he closed the door, and I went.
		People looked at me like, that was cold.
		I said, yeah, that was cold.
		So I picked up the phone call at the White House, asked for Nancy.
		Nancy wasn't at the White House.
		I walked out and said, Mike, my dad's been shot.
		He said, no, he's fine.
		I said, no, Nancy's not at the White House.
		There's only one reason she wouldn't be at the White House, and the car was on the way to the White House.
		If she's not there, she's someplace else.
		And I would say that would be the hospital.
		And Mike said, no, they say he's fine.
		I said, check it.
		Five minutes later, Mike says, you're right.
		He was shot.
		So now we go home.
		And, of course, the press just surrounded our house.
		We were being held captive, basically, in the home.
		And they finally sent a plane out from Washington to pick us up.
		But we were asked to stay home.
		They didn't want us to rush to Washington for fear the markets would crash, people would think it was worse than it really was.
		But it really was worse than people thought it was, because he was very close to death.
		If Jerry Parr, who was the Asian in charge that day, if Jerry, if Dad had not coughed up oxygenated blood, they would have gone to the White House and he would have bled to death internally.
		But he did, right at the right time, and they went to the hospital.
		And I tell the story, when they get to the hospital, they cut the suit off of my dad.
		You can now see it at the library.
		And I remember the next day, when we were able to see dad, we finally got in very late at night, saw dad 10 o'clock the next morning.
		And the humor that he shared with the country, it's the same humor he always shared with the family.
		He always had a joke.
		He always had a sense of humor.
		That's what's great about dad.
		Unless you were Russian, his life was great.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		We'll get to that.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		So I walk in, 10 o'clock with my family, and my dad looks at me and says, you know, yesterday I was shot.
		I said, Dad, the world knows you were shot yesterday.
		He says, well, if you're ever going to get shot, don't be wearing a new suit.
		I said, what?
		He says, when I was shot yesterday, I had a brand new suit on.
		I just picked it up the day before.
		He says, I walked in the hospital, and they put me on this gurney, and they cut that suit off of my body.
		And the last time I saw it, I was in shreds in the corner of the hospital room.
		That's why I tell you, Michael, every day I get shot, don't be wearing a new suit.
		I said, fine, I won't wear a new suit.
		I'll tell Colleen to put something else on me.
		And he says, that young man who shot me, I said, yeah, John Hinckley.
		Yes, it was John Hinckley.
		I said, what?
		He says, I understand his parents are in the oil business.
		Yes.
		I understand they live in Denver.
		Yeah.
		Do you think they have any money?
		Now, do you understand?
		He was on the table close to death six hours before I'm in the room.
		Put that in perspective.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And I said, well, they live in Denver.
		They're in the oil business.
		Dan, I'm sure they have money.
		He says, do you think they'd ever buy me a new suit?
		That's what he says to me.
		And I just looked at him, I said, ask, I don't know.
		But that's what he says to me, six hours after off the table.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		How did that experience change him?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know, how it changed was, and people have written books, they really need to call family members.
		So many people who write books don't.
		They think they know everything.
		But you know, family members have the inside baseball stories.
		You don't want to go there.
		And so it's been upsetting.
		Some of the things have been said.
		How it changed him was that he believed he was truly saved for a reason.
		And he became closer, really, to God.
		If you will.
		And that's where he was.
		And a lot of people just misunderstood that he wasn't the same guy.
		He wasn't the same guy.
		But he did put a gym in on the second floor of the White House, put two and a half inches on his chest, and got stronger because of the bullet in the wound and what have you.
		But he just became more, he became closer to God and felt that there was a reason he was there.
		And you know something?
		He ended up being right.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So did that then galvanize a lot of the things that he ended up doing in the second term and everything that happened with Russia and Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall and everything else?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, yeah.
		Because if you look, I mean, you gotta understand, my dad, it's March 31st, three months later, who shot?
		Pope John Paul.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Oh yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And he lives.
		So what is the first thing my father does?
		I tell people this when I go out and speak.
		How many people you speak to, if you ask the question, how many can recite the Lord's Prayer, how many people would raise their hand?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		How many?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know?
		How many people, though, live the Lord's Prayer?
		Because my dad, before he went back to the White House, forgave John Hinckley for trying to kill him.
		Pope John Paul, before he went back to his papal duties, forgave the young man who tried to kill him.
		Two months later, three months later, both of them meet in Rome at the Vatican.
		What do they now have in common to really talk about?
		Both believing they've been saved for a higher purpose.
		And the higher purpose becomes what?
		Freedom to Poland and the Berlin Wall ultimately coming down.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So that, he always had that message of freedom in him.
		That idea of the individual and freedom and You know, so the line, and you touched on this earlier, but the line of, I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me, that's become very, to me, that's like, that's it, because I was a big lefty most of my life, and just in the last five years, I've sort of woken up to what they've become.
		I know that's probably funny to you, and if your dad was sitting here, he'd say, well, you're late to the party.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		My sister Marie was the first Republican in the family.
		She's the one that really, you know, pushed him and pushed him and pushed him.
		To do all this.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So when he said that, was he really saying, well that, was the effect of what he was saying, I get what happened with GM, was just that when they left me, meaning that they want government to solve everything, and that's just not what I want.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		And that's not the way they used to be.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		But if you go back, it'd take you back historically.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Back then, a liberal Democrat was a conservative.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Today, of course, would be a conservative.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I mean, the reality is John Kennedy today would be a conservative.
		And the fact is that today, Ronald Reagan may be a liberal.
		I mean, not where they are.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		People are going to misquote you on that one.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I realize that.
		No, I go back and say, you know, his governor, he raised taxes, signed an abortion bill and what have you, and said things later on in his life.
		But now with all the social media and all the things out there, people remember what you did at birth.
		And they're holding against you in the public opinion in that court, which is tough to do.
		So it's a tough world out there anymore.
		And I don't know if Ronald Reagan, who gave amnesty in 1986, would stand,
		there's people who wouldn't support him today.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, what do you think he would make of just generally the way politics is now
		in terms of the sides that seemingly won't talk We're in what, week six of a shutdown?
		Just the whole tenor of everything.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, it's not something that he would wrap his arms around.
		Remember when he was elected, we don't have any statesmen anymore.
		We used to have statesmen on both sides.
		Hubert Humphrey.
		Let's go through the list of people you disagreed with, maybe politically, but they were great statesmen.
		Great debate.
		At the end of the debate, we all had dinner together.
		You know, back in the day, we had the largest tax break in American history.
		But how did we get that?
		Tip O'Neill was the head of the House.
		He was Speaker of the House.
		Here's a guy who disagreed with my father on everything known to mankind.
		But what does Dad do?
		Invites him to the White House for dinner with his wife.
		He goes up there for dinner.
		A couple of days later, when he's back in his office, tells his staff, I'm going to carry the legislation on the tax cut.
		Staff looks at him and says, you're nuts.
		There's boll weevils.
		They used to be boll weevils before they became blue dog democrats.
		By the way, I'll give you some period pieces.
		Boll weevils.
		There's enough boll weevils on the House floor.
		It'll pass if you put it on the floor.
		What did the President promise you?
		What did he say he was going to give you to put it on the floor?
		Nothing.
		Nothing?
		Then what did you talk about?
		We never talked about taxes all night long.
		Then what did you talk about with the President?
		Greatness of America, the goodness of our people, and now the two of us working together to make it better for all Americans.
		Before I knew it, we're telling Irish stories, we're having a glass of wine, today I'm telling I'm going to carry the legislation.
		You can't do that today.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So do you think that was his greatest skill, beyond political maneuvering, per se?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Although, I guess that is political maneuvering at its core.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
		Well, he also said to him, as an aside, he says, and by the way, I promise not to campaign against any Democrats who support it in the next election, which helped a lot, because he had a lot going for him.
		But he used the same thing worked with Gorbachev.
		You know, same thing worked with all of them.
		He just, you know, Ronald Reagan for best friend, as Jimmy Stewart said.
		Ronald Reagan for best friend.
		He was that kind of a guy.
		Easy to get along with.
		But he knew what he wanted, and he knew the best way to go about getting it.
		And he did it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		What was it like watching the media go after your dad?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Either justly or unjustly, that could not have been fun.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Well, yeah, it's something You know, it gets maddening.
		I remember Maury and I, when he was campaigning in New Hampshire, he paid for the microphone.
		And Maury and I looked at each other and went, it's about time he got mad.
		Dad never gets mad.
		He finally got mad.
		And we thought that was a change of tune.
		Excuse me.
		In New Hampshire.
		But it's tough watching people attack anybody in your family.
		It didn't bother Dad.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Nothing.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Didn't bother him at all.
		Nancy would eat bananas at night.
		She wouldn't sleep.
		She'd toss and turn.
		She'd call everybody known to mankind to see how do we stop this?
		How do we stop it?
		But dad was just nonplussed by it.
		He didn't let it bother him.
		He wasn't thin-skinned.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, I mean some of that has to do with maybe some of the acting career and he was at a level of fame that was so absurd that he had lived through the struggle years and No, he had the tough years.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		He had the tough years.
		It wasn't an easy life.
		But he never let anything stop him from really moving the ball forward and getting things done.
		And I think that's important.
		A lot of people today, if they get stopped here, You know, they stop.
		They don't do anything else.
		You know, instead of finding out, you know, what next, what door opened up now that I can go into and maybe make a career out of it, if you will.
		And I think that's lessons that can be taught to a lot of people today that, you know, everything's a work in progress.
		I remember a UPS guy the other day was at my house delivering something and, you know, It's kind of a snide remark, nice house, as he was leaving.
		And I said, yeah, it took me 50 years to get here.
unidentified		I wasn't born here.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		It took me 50 years to get this house.
		A lot of people don't know about, you know, if you want something, you've got to work for it.
		Nobody's going to hand it to you.
		My mother taught me that, you know, back when I was 10 years old, I wanted a 10-speed bike.
		All my other friends were getting 10-speed bikes given to them by their parents for free.
		I went down to Hansort Soccer Arena, Santa Monica.
		Picked out a blue 10-speed Schwinn bike.
		Went home and said to my mom, Mom, you buy me this and I'm going to love you forever.
		No kid's ever done that with his parents.
		My mom said, well how badly do you want it?
		I said, Mom, I want more than anything.
		Good.
		Do you want it enough to get a job?
		I said, what job?
		I'm 10 years old.
		She's going to deliver papers.
		What?
		So she opens up the paper, looking for ads.
		Ah!
		You can sell papers in front of Good Shepherd Church in Santa Monica, where we go to church on Sunday mornings.
		It's available.
		Sign here.
		I signed a contract with my mother when I was 10 years old.
		She loaned me the money.
		To buy that bike, and I would pay her back on Sunday afternoon after church with some of the profits I made from selling by the 25 cents for a Sunday paper that was this thick.
		But what I made, I give it back to her.
		And I asked her, I said, why are you doing this to me?
		All of my friends are getting bikes given to them.
		She says, because I build men, not boys.
		If I give you what you want, you'll be a 40-year-old child.
		But if I teach you now that you have to work for what you want in life, you'll be a 40-year-old man, and that's what I built.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So you deserve that house.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Damn right.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		All right, so let's just do a little bit more about your dad, and then I wanna spend the rest of the time talking about what you're doing now, and the foundation, and everything else.
		So, I think it's pretty fair to say that the fall of the Soviet Union was his greatest accomplishment.
		I think you'd agree with that?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Oh yeah, the fall.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I don't know, you might pull out something here that, I don't know what you're willing to drop.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Other than bringing me into the family, yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Other than me coming into the family, yeah.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Was there anything when he left the presidency that he really felt was undone, or that he had, Really made an error on or anything like that?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Did he have any regrets?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		No, he had no regrets at all.
		I think if you look at his last speech that he gave, really talked about the things that had been accomplished.
		He was a great guy for using we, not I. And he really understood it was a team effort.
		And very happy with what he was able to accomplish and being able to work with others.
		And I said to Margaret Thatcher the day after the funeral, She came to me, we were having breakfast at the hotel, and she said, oh Michael, about your dad, just think of what we could have accomplished if we'd been elected in 1976.
		I said, Lady Thatcher, if you'd been elected in 76, the Berlin Wall would still be up, the Cold War would still be in place.
		She said, why do you say that?
		I said, where were you in 76?
		Where was John Paul?
		Where was Lech Walesa?
		Where was Václav Havel?
		Where was Mikhail Gorbachev?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		They all needed each other.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		The fact of the matter is, if he'd been elected then, he would have been out of office, even if he was a two-term president, by the time Mikhail Gorbachev came in.
		The wall would still be up.
		For some reason, fate, you name it, All the right people were in the right place at the right time.
		And my dad was that leader, able to work with each and every one of you, Helmut Kohl, you name it, to bring everybody together, Pope John Paul, that ultimately brought down that Berlin Wall.
		All of you were on the same page.
		Up until that point, all of you were on other pages.
		And it's my dad's, that one card he had on his desk, telling what you accomplished and where you can go if you don't worry who gets the credit.
		Dad didn't worry about credit.
		He worried about getting the job done.
		He wanted to bring that wall down.
		If you go back historically and listen to my father's speeches, he was talking about that wall back when it was put up, back in what, 1961?
		Two o'clock in the morning?
		August 13th, I believe?
		He talked about that wall from that point forward in his life.
		And so that was, that was a seminal thing for him.
		And that wall coming down changed the world.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So he obviously was an incredible communicator and the speeches and all that.
		And obviously you had a way of reaching across the aisle.
		Were there any people either that were U.S.
		politicians or international figures that he just absolutely hated or felt that he could not work with?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Was there anyone?
		No.
		He didn't feel that way about anybody.
unidentified		He brought them all... He really... Because there were plenty of people that hated him.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I mean, he may not have, but... But, you know, look who was sitting behind us.
		If you go to his funeral, look who was sitting behind us at the church.
		Mikhail Gorbachev.
		You know, he made friends of enemies.
		He didn't make enemies of friends.
		And he diffused so many things because of his humor, being able to laugh at himself.
		Last year, the year before, on February 6th, his birthday was celebrated everywhere, but
		the Reagan Library does a big event, U.S. Marines come up and what have you.
		Guest speaker last year, Sam Donaldson.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Not going to happen at all.
		Even though they had this adversarial way, they have mutual respect.
		And ultimately, you have Sam Donaldson speaking, you know, on behalf of my father at his birthday last year at the library.
		He made friends of people who were enemies and got things accomplished, whether it's Pope John Paul, like the Lentz, the Wachelhabel, doesn't matter who it is, Mikhail Gorbachev.
		Turn him.
		And Mikhail Gorbachev, I worked with Eureka College a few years ago.
		We were able to get Mikhail Gorbachev to go to Eureka College, my dad's alma mater, and speak to the Reagan Society at Eureka College about his relationship with my dad.
		Wouldn't happen today.
		And that's what's sad.
		You see things deteriorate possibly when they're at such a great high-level relationship in all areas.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, so you obviously mentioned your dad in the later years and obviously Alzheimer's.
		There's no words to truly describe in the story he told, it was incredible.
		Do you remember the moment that you knew something was off?
		Because he must have been this otherworldly figure in a way even to you.
		Do you remember seeing him one day?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, he was losing a step, if you will.
		And they had an event celebrating his birthday at the library.
		Or not the library, what would become.
		And they had a big event.
		And Lady Thatcher was the speaker.
		And there had to be a thousand people under this tent.
		It was great.
		And my dad introduced Lady Thatcher to a great round of applause.
		And when the applause was over, he reintroduced her.
		The exact same way he had just done.
		And everybody got it, and everybody applauded again.
		And that was the moment where I think the decision was probably made that there's too many people in the room that saw it, that he had to say something.
		And that's when the letter comes out in 1994.
		The letter comes out November 3rd, I think, 1994, when the letter comes out.
		Because too many people in the room saw that moment, if you will.
		But everybody who would just give a standing ovation to Lady Thatcher and my dad, stood up and gave another standing ovation to Lady Thatcher
		and my dad.
		And that was the moment where we knew that it was going to blossom from there to National
		Enquirer.
		And you didn't want National Enquirer breaking the story.
		You wanted the family breaking the story and dad, of course, with the letter he wrote to
		the nation.
unidentified		After the letter, he didn't do any public appearances, did he?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I don't think he did any after that.
		I think the last one he gave was in that year, but prior to the letter.
		He might have given one, if you will, but it wasn't easy.
		He still, I mean, it was just the early onset, if you will, of what he had.
		I chaired the John Douglas French Alzheimer's Foundation for
		For years.
		I just left it this last year.
		And, you know, we just, we're doing a whole program with UCLA and SC and colleges.
		We took University of San Francisco, where we took, I think we had $10-11 million in the bank.
		And what we're doing is doing matching funds with these universities and creating chairs.
		So we turned the $11 into $22 million.
		That is used strictly for research for Alzheimer's.
		There's a new program CRISPR that looks very promising in the future.
		We're part of that.
		So, you know, people think maybe within five years something if CRISPR does what everybody thinks it might be able to do, it'd be great for that issue.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		All right, so that's a pretty good segue into what you're doing now and your dad's legacy.
		You are the president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation.
		How do you keep a legacy like this alive?
		This is not an easy thing to chew off.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know, when my sister Maureen was dying of melanoma back in 2001, I was with her in her hospital room.
		This was about three months before she passed.
		She was at St.
		John's in Santa Monica.
		Chased everybody else out.
		You stay.
		And we had that brother-sister conversation.
		And she really worried about our dad's legacy.
		And she asked, she said, Michael, if it ever gets to a point you can walk away from radio, would you?
		I said, why are you asking?
		She says, our father has a very important legacy.
		And I would hope that you in fact would help carry it for people remember who he was, who he is and who he was.
		And I promised her then I would.
		So 2009, I chose to leave, 26 years in radio.
		Walked away from radio, which is pretty tough 'cause I said, "Oh, I gotta make a living too."
		And I take no money from the foundation.
		I said, oh, that's what I need to do.
		Create a foundation, make money.
		Media won't have fun with that one.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Right, right.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		So I'm out speaking.
		Premier Speakers Bureau picked me up.
		I'm out speaking a lot.
		30, 40, 50 speeches a year.
		And what happened, we started this foundation, which originally was used to, it still does,
		to provide scholarships to men and women who serve aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, which
		now is in Tokyo, Japan, keeping an eye on North Korea.
		And so we provide scholarships to the young men and women who serve on the Reagan, but
		we do something different.
		We also provide scholarships to their family members who are left back home.
		Nobody else thinks about that.
		They're serving as much as the one on the ship, and they're trying to better their lives
		So we provide $1,000 scholarships to those on the ship, $2,000 scholarships to those left home.
		We do it every single year.
		About somewhere between $25,000 and $50,000 a year.
		Whatever we can raise.
		If we raise a million, it'll be a million.
		Whatever it might be.
		We do that.
		And then I was in Germany a few years ago, and I was at the Berlin Wall.
		I asked some young man, what do you know about the Berlin Wall?
		He said, well, the Americans put it up to keep the communists out of their sector.
		Excuse me?
		I said, boy, we've done a great job with our education system.
		But there is no mention of Ronald Reagan.
		Nothing at the Brandenburg Gate.
		Nothing.
		So I built a relationship with Frau Hildebrand, her and her husband, who created the Maurer Museum, which is the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin.
		And we funded, through the Reagan Legacy Foundation, a Ronald Reagan exhibit overlooking Checkpoint Charlie.
		They're at that museum.
		So you can learn about my father who got chainsaw there.
		All kinds of stuff.
		The speech from the Brandenburg Gate is there.
		And then I said, well we need to put something in the ground at the Brandenburg Gate.
		So I worked almost three years working with the red-red government of Berlin.
		And finally, about two years ago, three years ago, they approved us putting a plaque in the ground.
		So the Adelaide Hotel, which is back from the Brandenburg Gate,
		we have a huge program there now, a thing of my dad, commemorating the speech, a plaque of my dad,
		commemorating the speech back in 1987, June 12.
		So I did that.
		We're fun, right?
		That's great.
		Then I'm playing golf with a young man here in Los Angeles years later, 28 years old.
		I said, you know, I'm leaving tomorrow for Paris, and then I'm going out to Normandy on Saturday and Sunday.
		I've been asked to raise the American flag at the American Cemetery.
		Twenty-eight-year-old young man says to me, why is there an American Cemetery at Normandy?
		I went, oh my God, did you think D-Day is when your report card came home?
		So I did that, spent more time out there then, and realized there's no mention of Ronald Reagan there at Normandy, especially after that great speech.
		And so we now have partnered with the Airborne Museum at St.
		Mary Glees.
		St.
		Mary Glees, first town freed by America on D-Day.
		That's where all the paratroopers are going.
		Saving Private Ryan, that's where they were headed.
		That's where the bridges were.
		It is the 82nd Airborne and the 101st They're Waterloo, if you will, or they're Gettysburg.
		And we partner with them, and we have now a Ronald Reagan Center there to have conferences.
		We produced a film about that.
		You can go on my website, reaganlegacyfoundation.org, watch the film on that, and say, what else can we do?
		And so, last year, we put together a program with the Airborne Museum to start doing what we call a walkway to victory.
		where you can buy a brick, go online, walkwaytovictory.com or reaganlegacyfoundation.org
		and you can purchase a brick, $250 or 500, whatever you wanna spend.
		And we're putting the names of those who served in the European theater in the second World War.
		And if you don't know somebody, you can donate to the foundation
	and we'll find that somebody.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So you're actually building it over time.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Oh, building it over time.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		It's coming in, so it launched last June.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Last, I think, yeah, just we put the first group in I think April or May.
		We have about 300 bricks now.
		We have another order in now to put more bricks in.
		A lot of it's weather.
		You can't do it because the weather is at Normandy.
		Let's do that.
		And it's a great way to honor those who fought in the Second World War in the European theater and really change the world.
		Absolutely change it.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		And part of what you guys are teaching about, I mean, there's incredible stories that would never happen now, I mean, about actors, some like your dad, and athletes that actually put their careers on hold, you know, to fight in World War II, which now, to an athlete or an actor these days would sound, it would sound insane to say.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		My dad couldn't go there because he was legally blind, so he did over 300 films, training films, for those who did go there.
		But you have so many of these actors who signed up and went.
		There was a TV show on Netflix, I think it was, The Five Came Back, the famous directors of the time.
		Who came back, but they were sent there.
		They're the ones who took the film of all those encampments that we saw of the Jews.
		That's how we found out about these things that were going on.
		So we'll have special places put out for them, actors, sports people who were involved, who went there and gave up their careers, if you will, to go there, came back and we got the careers going, if you will.
		But it's such a great place.
		Anybody who goes to Normandy needs to stop at St.
		Mary Gleeson.
		People don't know that the gravesites that you see at the American Cemetery, all of them were in that area of St.
		Mary Gleeson through there.
		There were, gosh, 15,000 gravesites that were there.
		And the wife of the D-Day mayor of St. Mary Glees, called the "Mother of Normandy,"
		was the one who took care of those gravesites all of those years, making contact with the
		loved ones that were left home.
		And when they made the agreement, the Americans with the French, to have the American cemetery,
		they gave the availability to the family members home to have their loved ones sent back home
		or sent to the American cemetery.
		That's why there's 9,600 at the American cemetery, and there are 15,000 spread throughout
		St. Mary Glees.
		And to go there and go to the Airborne Museum and see the gliders and see how these guys
		came in and what was going on that day at St. Mary Glees.
		Mary Glees is absolutely phenomenal.
		And to be able to remember them with these bricks.
		And what happens, the 250 bucks, okay, what happens to the money?
		I'll tell you what happens to the money.
		We paid to get the brick, put it in the ground.
		The profits that are left over, which are pretty good, are split between the Airborne Museum, for their museum, the upkeep, and the Reagan Legacy Foundation, which does what?
		Provide scholarships to men and women aboard USS Ronald Reagan.
unidentified		Yeah.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So you got a real gig going.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		You're keeping this legacy alive.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And that's what we do.
		Because that was my father.
		A lot of people don't know.
		You go back and you listen to that speech, Pointe du Hoc speech, and think he was the first president.
		Think about that.
		It was 40 years anniversary.
		He was the first president that thought, you know, maybe I should show up.
		On D-Day, at St.
		Mary Glees, or at Normandy, and give a speech.
		And he did.
unidentified		Was that his idea?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, it was his idea.
		My sister and I used to laugh about Dad, that if he didn't win the presidency of the United States, we thought he was a Boy Scout.
		We thought him running for the presidency was like going for your eagle badge.
unidentified		Yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I mean, that was my dad.
		He was the Eagle Scout going for his eagle badge.
		He never forgot about those who gave their lives.
		As I said, 300 training films that he did.
		He was legally blind.
		He couldn't serve overseas.
		He wanted to be in the Army.
		He was in the Cavalry.
		But to get in the Army, he had to pass an eye exam.
		So what does he do?
		He went out and he memorized the eye charts.
		So when he went in to join the army, they put him in front of an eye chart, cover your left eye, right eye, read line three, he had it memorized.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Wow.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And so he, D, E, F, P, Q, you're in Reagan!
		And then, when they offered him the rank of major, To stay in.
		He said, no, the rank of major should be given only to someone who's able to serve overseas, not someone who has to be able, can only stay home.
		So please give that major to someone who serves overseas.
		I'll retire as a captain.
		And that's what he did.
		And then he retired as President of the United States.
		So it worked out pretty well.
		Yeah.
		But that was his heart.
		It was never about him.
unidentified		Do you feel it's, uh... And that's, let me tell you how tough that is to live up to.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I mean, when you've got iconic parents?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Well, that's exactly what I was going to ask you.
		That for you right now, it's like you have your mission, which is the next part of his mission in a way.
		And I've been up to the library in Simeon.
		It's incredible.
		I was at the first Democrat debate there two and a half years ago or so, and it's just an incredible building and just wonderful.
		What else are you guys doing to keep these ideas alive?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Because that's really what will I mean, the library does what they do, having the people come up there, the debates that they have there.
		They have guests up there on a regular basis.
		Gary Sinise is going to be up there pretty soon.
		And then I work with the Young Americans Foundation at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara
		and the Reagan Ranch, where they bring high school kids from all over the country, come in.
		They bring in speakers to speak there at the Ranch Center.
		They have lunches on Friday with speakers.
		They bring in college kids from all over the country to be able to come in and go up
		and walk in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and see the ranch.
		I mean, people go up there and think they're gonna see this great mansion.
		His ranch house would probably fit in your studio.
		I mean, really, it's a ranch house.
		You don't go in there and see pictures of him with famous people.
		You go in there and see paintings of horses.
		It's a ranch house.
		That's what it is.
		And that's where he loved to be.
		And when you walk in the door of the ranch house, you see a big magazine from Montgomery Ward.
		And the reason he has that there is, first job he ever tried to get was with Montgomery Ward in Iowa.
		Turn him down!
		And that's how he got into radio.
		He turned him down for a Montgomery Ward job.
		You'll never make it, kid.
		Goes over to WHO or WOC radio.
		Ends up getting a job as a sportscaster at WOC and moves right along.
		He never lets someone else... My wife told me this and my dad lived it.
		And greatest thing that Colleen ever told me.
		Don't let somebody else's attitude determine your attitude for the remainder of the day.
		And my dad lived it, and until I started to learn to live that, I was a train wreck.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		So the ideas, the ideas that he believed in, the cornerstone things you've talked about here, about freedom and that he basically saved capitalism and saved the West and all of these things, when you see these days that there's this idea out there that socialism is cool for young people, you hear this now, I mean, I see you on Twitter, you talk about this stuff.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Scary.
		It is scary.
		Because our education system's scary.
		Think about the state of California I'm born and raised in.
		People don't know they used to be number one in education.
		It's now 46th in education.
		I mean, we're not educating our kids.
		We've become politically correct in the education system.
		I remember when I went to Arizona State, which would disallow me from ever running for Supreme Court justice, because we were on social probation, Arizona State.
		Everybody's on social probation.
		We earned it the old-fashioned way.
		But, you know, when I went to school, you know, we heard from many different philosophers, different beliefs.
		You heard them all, and you know, every week you said, that sounds really good, I think I'll be that this week, and the next week you're another.
		But you learn things.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		You had the breadth of knowledge.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, you did.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Today, it's completely different when you have schools who, if you walk into some schools and you have a Reagan hat.
unidentified		Yeah.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		You know, they get upset with you.
		You're so polarized.
		Nobody's conversing.
		Nobody's talking.
		Nobody's sitting down just, let's have a conversation.
		Let's find things that we agree on.
		It's always, you go to dinner.
		You're afraid if there's somebody sitting next to you, afraid of saying anything for fear these people on this side or that side may get upset with what you're saying and start yelling and screaming at you.
		And that's sad.
		You have husbands and wives sitting down, won't talk to each other.
		And it never used to be like that.
		We used to be able to communicate, just sit down and talk.
		I remember my dad saying to me one day, his dad told him, he said, you know, when the government starts paying you not to work, why work?
		His dad taught him that, my dad taught me that.
		You know, you try to teach your kids that.
		But now you try to teach them, and everybody's got their handout.
		It's really interesting.
		We support a little school in the middle of a slum.
		Not the Foundation, it's Colleen and I. Middle of a slum in Africa, in Nairobi.
		800,000 in the slum.
		School in the middle of it.
		They wear uniforms.
		They teach them English, they sing, and they're smiling.
		And they tell you, as you're going through this slum, they say, if you see somebody with their handout, please don't put anything in it.
		Why?
		Because it will keep them in the slum.
		You want to help the people in the slum?
		Give them educational material.
		Education is the only way out of this slum.
		And I'm thinking to myself, why do they get it?
		Why do they understand it in a slum of 800,000 in the middle of Nairobi?
		And if I talk about it here, I'm ridiculed.
		How can you do that?
		How can you say that?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, maybe we've become fat on some of the success that's because of a guy like your dad, you know?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		And it really is sad to look at.
		I love traveling around the world.
		You travel around the world, and there's too many people here talking what they think they know, and they don't know anything, because they've never been across their own border, but they know more than you do.
		Don't you find that amazing yourself?
		You go, like, really?
		You go, I've been there.
		How do you know that?
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, well, all the time now you hear all the progressives say, well, we should just be more like Sweden.
		Sweden's a tiny socialist country that's basically homogenous until the last couple of years, where it no longer is.
		And now they have all sorts of problems.
		And it's like, have you guys been there?
		Have you seen what's going on?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		No, they've never been there.
		But I know more about it than you do.
		You just didn't see it when you were there, you know.
		You didn't understand it.
		You go, mm-hmm, okay.
		And so you do.
		You find yourself, unfortunately, in a world today where people are afraid of dialogue.
		They don't want to dialogue and find that commonality.
		Like my father and Tip O'Neill had to find a common ground to give you the largest tax break in American history.
		They just had to find it.
		Whatever it was and there's the people elected Ronald Reagan to talk about the Reagan Democrats didn't necessarily agree with him But they liked it They liked him.
		And because they liked him, they supported him and voted for him.
		And it's getting to a point, I wanna see us be likable again.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, all right, so I don't wanna end on that note, so let's end on, if your dad was here, what would he be telling us in this strange, polarizing time that we're talking about right now?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Grow up.
		Just grow up.
		I mean, really, just, like he said, there they go again.
		Grow up, and find a way to work together.
		That's what he said.
		Very short and very sweet.
		Grow up.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		You do a pretty good impression of your dad, by the way.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I only heard it for a second there, but we had lunch once, and you were busting it out.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I did on my radio show one time, too.
		I did an interview with my dad doing both sides, and the office called me.
		And they said, how'd you get your dad on the air?
		I said, what are you talking about?
		Yesterday.
		What are you talking about?
		ABC, NBC, all these people called, and there's a blackout on your dad because of Alzheimer's.
		How'd you get him on the air?
		All of a sudden I realized, oh my God.
unidentified		Wow.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		I said, well, I called, and he answered the phone.
		Well, he's not supposed to answer the phone.
		I said, well, somebody should tell him.
		And they said, well, Nancy's supposed to answer the phone.
		I said, well, that's not my problem.
unidentified		I called.
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		He picked up the phone and said, well, you can't have him on your show anymore.
		And I said, well, why don't you let me ask my dad?
		I said, Dad, do you want to be in my show again?
		I went, well, yes, I do.
		And all of a sudden, the office goes, oh, my God.
		I said, if I can fool ABC, NBC, and CBS and my dad's office, I'm doing pretty good.
dave rubin ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to tell the people to go to reaganlegacyfoundation.org, but would you prefer to do that as your dad?
michael reagan ▲ ● ▼		Well, yes.
		If you could go to reaganlegacyfoundation.org or walkwaytovictory.com and really help remember those who truly did save the world back in the day in France.
		And this is a way you can do it.
		As I said, if you don't know someone who served Then you can donate to the Foundation.
		And we have plenty of people and names that will put a name on a brick and put it out there.
		And what we do is we'll send you a video.
		We have a 50-minute video that we did, Heroes of World War II, that we give to people who purchase a brick.
		And you'll get a photo of the brick in the ground there at St.
		Mary Glees, Normandy, France.
		And when you visit Normandy, go to St.
		Mary Glees.
		Well, it's been a pleasure chatting with you, and I sense your dad's legacy is in good hands, and I will tell them where to go, but I'm not going to do the impression.

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