Monday, March 05, 2012

Reagan vs the Hollywood Commies

Very interesting look back at Ronald Reagan's early days as a union leader and how he fought the communists in Hollywood.

This was before my time but growing up I never really understood the mythology surrounding the so-called member of the Hollywood blacklist. The way I understood it the blacklisted members weren't denying they were communists or went to a few meetings. At some point they thought communism was a good idea - such a good idea they they couldn't bring themselves to publicly condemn it. Yet they still wanted their work bought in a capitalist manner for very good prices. I could never understand if these were smart people with no common sense or just plain willfully ignorant.

Oh I know that someone will chirp that I'm the one who is ignorant and that I don't know my history regarding this episode of Hollywood lore. And maybe they would be right. I do now that the article I linked to is worth the read and I know that Ronald Reagan started out as a very liberal union leader but first hand dealings with communists turned him into what would become the biggest Conservative icon of the 20th century.

I guess we should thank those Hollywood communists for that.