Ronald
Prescott Reagan (born May 20, 1958), usually known as Ron Reagan
Jr., is currently a liberal political commentator for the cable
television network MSNBC.
Reagan
grew up in Los Angeles and then Sacramento, while his father was
Governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He attended Yale University
but dropped out in 1976 after one semester. At that time, his
father was running in the Republican Presidential primary against
incumbent Gerald Ford, and Reagan disliked the attention he received
at Yale. He joined the Joffrey Ballet in pursuit of a lifelong
dream to become a ballet dancer. In a widely published photograph,
Ron is shown after a performance wearing tights and full stage
make-up, getting a congratulatory kiss from his mother, as his
father, a few feet away, smiles as an observer. Senior visited
Junior backstage, then emerged to tell reporters, "He's all
boy."
Reagan now lives in Seattle with his wife, Doria, a psychologist
whom he married in 1980 after much public speculation as to his
sexuality. He has worked in recent years as a magazine journalist,
and has hosted talk shows on cable TV networks such as the Animal
Planet network. Reagan serves on the board of the Creative Coalition,
an organization founded in 1989 by a group including Susan Sarandon
and Christopher Reeve to politically mobilize entertainers and
artists, generally for liberal causes such as First Amendment
rights, arts advocacy and public education.
From February 15 to December 9, 2005, Reagan co-hosted the talk
show Connected: Coast to Coast with Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley
on MSNBC.
Unlike his late father, Ron Reagan has always been a political
liberal, although he has never considered a political career.
Asked in a June 2004 New York Times interview if he would like
to be President of the United States, he responded, "I would
be unelectable. I'm an atheist. As we all know, that is something
people won't accept."
On
July 28, 2004, Reagan spoke at the Democratic National Convention
about his support for lifting Bush's restrictions on federally-funded
Embryonic stem cell research, a form of research which some scientists
believe could lead to a cure or new treatments for Alzheimer's
Disease, which slowly killed President Reagan.
"There are those who would stand in the way of this remarkable
future, who would deny the federal funding so crucial to basic
research. A few of these folks, needless to say, are just grinding
a political axe and they should be ashamed of themselves,"
Ron Reagan said of the restrictions. "We can choose between
the future and the past, between reason and ignorance, between
true compassion and mere ideology."
Reagan was quoted as saying that he would vote for Democratic
candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Weeks
later, Reagan wrote an essay entitled "The Case Against George
W. Bush by Ron Reagan" for Esquire Magazine.
Read
Ronal Prescott Reagan's eulogy here.
