Who was right? Karl Marx or Ronald Reagan?

You’re the only one I see right, put your pp in my mouth

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Karl Marx

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Marx" redirects here. For other uses, see Marx (disambiguation) and Karl Marx (disambiguation).
Karl Marx
FRSA
Karl Marx 001.jpg
Photograph by John Mayall, 1875
Born Karl Heinrich Marx
5 May 1818
Trier, Kingdom of Prussia
Died 14 March 1883 (aged 64)
London, England
Burial place Tomb of Karl Marx, Highgate Cemetery
Nationality
Prussian (1818–1845)
Stateless (after 1845)
Education
University of Bonn
University of Berlin
University of Jena (PhD, 1841)[1]
Spouse Jenny von Westphalen

(m. 1843; died 1881)
Children At least 7,[2] including Jenny, Laura and Eleanor
Parents
Heinrich Marx (father)
Henriette Pressburg (mother)
Relatives
Louise Juta (sister)
Edgar Longuet (grandson)
Jean Longuet (grandson)
Henry Juta (nephew)
Philosophy career
Era 19th-century philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School
Continental philosophyMarxism
Thesis The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature (1841)
Doctoral advisor Bruno Bauer
Main interests
Philosophyeconomicshistorypolitics
Notable ideas
Marxist terminology
Value form
Contributions to dialectics and the marxian critique of political economy
Class conflict
Alienation and exploitation of the worker
Materialist conception of history
Influences
Influenced
Signature
Karl Marx Signature.svg
Karl Heinrich Marx FRSA[3] (German: [maʁks]; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German-born philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto and the four-volume Das Kapital (1867–1883). Marx's political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic, and political history. His name has been used as an adjective, a noun, and a school of social theory.

Born in Trier, Germany, Marx studied law and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. He married German theatre critic and political activist Jenny von Westphalen in 1843. Due to his political publications, Marx became stateless and lived in exile with his wife and children in London for decades, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German philosopher Friedrich Engels and publish his writings, researching in the British Museum Reading Room.

Marx's critical theories about society, economics, and politics, collectively understood as Marxism, hold that human societies develop through class conflict. In the capitalist mode of production, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labour-power in return for wages.[4] Employing a critical approach known as historical materialism, Marx predicted that capitalism produced internal tensions like previous socioeconomic systems and that these tensions would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system known as the socialist mode of production. For Marx, class antagonisms under capitalism—owing in part to its instability and crisis-prone nature—would eventuate the working class's development of class consciousness, leading to their conquest of political power and eventually the establishment of a classless, communist society constituted by a free association of producers.[5] Marx actively pressed for its implementation, arguing that the working class should carry out organised proletarian revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic emancipation.[6]

Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and his work has been both lauded and criticised.[7] His work in economics laid the basis for some current theories about labour and its relation to capital.[8][9][10] Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists, and political parties worldwide have been influenced by Marx's work, often modifying or adapting his ideas. Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science.[11][12]

Biography
Childhood and early education: 1818–1836

Marx's birthplace, now Brückenstraße 10, in Trier. The family occupied two rooms on the ground floor and three on the first floor.[13] Purchased by the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1928, it now houses a museum devoted to him.[14]
Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 to Heinrich Marx (1777–1838) and Henriette Pressburg (1788–1863). He was born at Brückengasse 664 in Trier, an ancient city then part of the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of the Lower Rhine.[15] Marx's family was originally non-religious Jewish, but had converted formally to Christianity before his birth. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch rabbi, while his paternal line had supplied Trier's rabbis since 1723, a role taken by his grandfather Meier Halevi Marx.[16] His father, as a child known as Herschel, was the first in the line to receive a secular education. He became a lawyer with a comfortably upper middle class income and the family owned a number of Moselle vineyards, in addition to his income as an attorney. Prior to his son's birth and after the abrogation of Jewish emancipation in the Rhineland,[17] Herschel converted from Judaism to join the state Evangelical Church of Prussia, taking on the German forename Heinrich over the Yiddish Herschel.[18]

Largely non-religious, Heinrich was a man of the Enlightenment, interested in the ideas of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire. A classical liberal, he took part in agitation for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, which was then an absolute monarchy.[19] In 1815, Heinrich Marx began working as an attorney and in 1819 moved his family to a ten-room property near the Porta Nigra.[20] His wife, Henriette Pressburg, was a Dutch Jew from a prosperous business family that later founded the company Philips Electronics. Her sister Sophie Pressburg (1797–1854) married Lion Philips (1794–1866) and was the grandmother of both Gerard and Anton Philips and great-grandmother to Frits Philips. Lion Philips was a wealthy Dutch tobacco manufacturer and industrialist, upon whom Karl and Jenny Marx would later often come to rely for loans while they were exiled in London.[21]

Little is known of Marx's childhood.[22] The third of nine children, he became the eldest son when his brother Moritz died in 1819.[23] Marx and his surviving siblings, Sophie, Hermann, Henriette, Louise, Emilie, and Caroline, were baptised into the Lutheran Church in August 1824, and their mother in November 1825.[24] Marx was privately educated by his father until 1830 when he entered Trier High School (Gymnasium zu Trier [de]), whose headmaster, Hugo Wyttenbach, was a friend of his father. By employing many liberal humanists as teachers, Wyttenbach incurred the anger of the local conservative government. Subsequently, police raided the school in 1832 and discovered that literature espousing political liberalism was being distributed among the students. Considering the distribution of such material a seditious act, the authorities instituted reforms and replaced several staff during Marx's attendance.[25]

In October 1835 at the age of 16, Marx travelled to the University of Bonn wishing to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted on law as a more practical field.[26] Due to a condition referred to as a "weak chest",[27] Marx was excused from military duty when he turned 18. While at the University at Bonn, Marx joined the Poets' Club, a group containing political radicals that were monitored by the police.[28] Marx also joined the Trier Tavern Club drinking society (German: Landsmannschaft der Treveraner) where many ideas were discussed and at one point he served as the club's co-president.[29][30] Additionally, Marx was involved in certain disputes, some of which became serious: in August 1836 he took part in a duel with a member of the university's Borussian Korps.[31] Although his grades in the first term were good, they soon deteriorated, leading his father to force a transfer to the more serious and academic University of Berlin.[32]

Hegelianism and early journalism: 1836–1843
Portrait of Hegel by an unidentified artist
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Hegelianism
Forerunners
AristotleBöhmeSpinozaRousseauKantGoetheFichteHölderlinSchelling
Successors
FeuerbachMarxStirnerGentileMcTaggartLukácsKojèveHyppoliteAdornoHabermasHenrichFindlayBeiserPippinHoulgateHonnethMcDowellBrandomTaylorBuck-MorssRosePinkardRödl
Principal works
The Phenomenology of SpiritScience of LogicEncyclopedia of the Philosophical SciencesLectures on AestheticsElements of the Philosophy of RightLectures on the Philosophy of ReligionLectures on the Philosophy of HistoryLectures on the History of Philosophy
Schools
Absolute idealismHegelianism (dialectics)British idealismGerman idealism
Related topics
Right HegeliansYoung Hegelians
Related categories
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
vte

Jenny von Westphalen in the 1830s
Spending summer and autumn 1836 in Trier, Marx became more serious about his studies and his life. He became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, an educated member of the petty nobility who had known Marx since childhood. As she had broken off her engagement with a young aristocrat to be with Marx, their relationship was socially controversial owing to the differences between their religious and class origins, but Marx befriended her father Ludwig von Westphalen (a liberal aristocrat) and later dedicated his doctoral thesis to him.[33] Seven years after their engagement, on 19 June 1843, they married in a Protestant church in Kreuznach.[34]

In October 1836, Marx arrived in Berlin, matriculating in the university's faculty of law and renting a room in the Mittelstrasse.[35] During the first term, Marx attended lectures of Eduard Gans (who represented the progressive Hegelian standpoint, elaborated on rational development in history by emphasising particularly its libertarian aspects, and the importance of social question) and of Karl von Savigny (who represented the Historical School of Law).[36] Although studying law, he was fascinated by philosophy and looked for a way to combine the two, believing that "without philosophy nothing could be accomplished".[37] Marx became interested in the recently deceased German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose ideas were then widely debated among European philosophical circles.[38] During a convalescence in Stralau, he joined the Doctor's Club (Doktorklub), a student group which discussed Hegelian ideas, and through them became involved with a group of radical thinkers known as the Young Hegelians in 1837. They gathered around Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer, with Marx developing a particularly close friendship with Adolf Rutenberg. Like Marx, the Young Hegelians were critical of Hegel's metaphysical assumptions, but adopted his dialectical method to criticise established society, politics and religion from a left-wing perspective.[39] Marx's father died in May 1838, resulting in a diminished income for the family.[40] Marx had been emotionally close to his father and treasured his memory after his death.[41]

By 1837, Marx was writing both fiction and non-fiction, having completed a short novel, Scorpion and Felix; a drama, Oulanem; as well as a number of love poems dedicated to his wife. None of this early work was published during his lifetime.[42] The love poems were published posthumously in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 1.[43] Marx soon abandoned fiction for other pursuits, including the study of both English and Italian, art history and the translation of Latin classics.[44] He began co-operating with Bruno Bauer on editing Hegel's Philosophy of Religion in 1840. Marx was also engaged in writing his doctoral thesis, The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature,[45] which he completed in 1841. It was described as "a daring and original piece of work in which Marx set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom of philosophy".[46] The essay was controversial, particularly among the conservative professors at the University of Berlin. Marx decided instead to submit his thesis to the more liberal University of Jena, whose faculty awarded him his Ph.D. in April 1841.[1][47] As Marx and Bauer were both atheists, in March 1841 they began plans for a journal entitled Archiv des Atheismus (Atheistic Archives), but it never came to fruition. In July, Marx and Bauer took a trip to Bonn from Berlin. There they scandalised their class by getting drunk, laughing in church and galloping through the streets on donkeys.[48]

Marx was considering an academic career, but this path was barred by the government's growing opposition to classical liberalism and the Young Hegelians.[49] Marx moved to Cologne in 1842, where he became a journalist, writing for the radical newspaper Rheinische Zeitung (Rhineland News), expressing his early views on socialism and his developing interest in economics. Marx criticised right-wing European governments as well as figures in the liberal and socialist movements, whom he thought ineffective or counter-productive.[50] The newspaper attracted the attention of the Prussian government censors, who checked every issue for seditious material before printing, which Marx lamented: "Our newspaper has to be presented to the police to be sniffed at, and if the police nose smells anything un-Christian or un-Prussian, the newspaper is not allowed to appear".[51] After the Rheinische Zeitung published an article strongly criticising the Russian monarchy, Tsar Nicholas I requested it be banned and Prussia's government complied in 1843.[52]

Paris: 1843–1845
In 1843, Marx became co-editor of a new, radical left-wing Parisian newspaper, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (German-French Annals), then being set up by the German activist Arnold Ruge to bring together German and French radicals.[53] Therefore Marx and his wife moved to Paris in October 1843. Initially living with Ruge and his wife communally at 23 Rue Vaneau, they found the living conditions difficult, so moved out following the birth of their daughter Jenny in 1844.[54] Although intended to attract writers from both France and the German states, the Jahrbücher was dominated by the latter and the only non-German writer was the exiled Russian anarchist collectivist Mikhail Bakunin.[55] Marx contributed two essays to the paper, "Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right"[56] and "On the Jewish Question",[57] the latter introducing his belief that the proletariat were a revolutionary force and marking his embrace of communism.[58] Only one issue was published, but it was relatively successful, largely owing to the inclusion of Heinrich Heine's satirical odes on King Ludwig of Bavaria, leading the German states to ban it and seize imported copies (Ruge nevertheless refused to fund the publication of further issues and his friendship with Marx broke down).[59] After the paper's collapse, Marx began writing for the only uncensored German-language radical newspaper left, Vorwärts! (Forward!). Based in Paris, the paper was connected to the League of the Just, a utopian socialist secret society of workers and artisans. Marx attended some of their meetings but did not join.[60] In Vorwärts!, Marx refined his views on socialism based upon Hegelian and Feuerbachian ideas of dialectical materialism, at the same time criticising liberals and other socialists operating in Europe.[61]


Friedrich Engels, whom Marx met in 1844; the two became lifelong friends and collaborators.
On 28 August 1844, Marx met the German socialist Friedrich Engels at the Café de la Régence, beginning a lifelong friendship.[62] Engels showed Marx his recently published The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844,[63][64] convincing Marx that the working class would be the agent and instrument of the final revolution in history.[65][66] Soon, Marx and Engels were collaborating on a criticism of the philosophical ideas of Marx's former friend, Bruno Bauer. This work was published in 1845 as The Holy Family.[67][68] Although critical of Bauer, Marx was increasingly influenced by the ideas of the Young Hegelians Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach, but eventually Marx and Engels abandoned Feuerbachian materialism as well.[69]

During the time that he lived at 38 Rue Vaneau in Paris (from October 1843 until January 1845),[70] Marx engaged in an intensive study of political economy (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Mill, etc.),[71] the French socialists (especially Claude Henri St. Simon and Charles Fourier)[72] and the history of France.[73] The study of, and critique, of political economy is a project that Marx would pursue for the rest of his life[74] and would result in his major economic work—the three-volume series called Das Kapital.[75] Marxism is based in large part on three influences: Hegel's dialectics, French utopian socialism and British political economy. Together with his earlier study of Hegel's dialectics, the studying that Marx did during this time in Paris meant that all major components of "Marxism" were in place by the autumn of 1844.[76] Marx was constantly being pulled away from his critique of political economy—not only by the usual daily demands of the time, but additionally by editing a radical newspaper and later by organising and directing the efforts of a political party during years of potentially revolutionary popular uprisings of the citizenry. Still, Marx was always drawn back to his studies where he sought "to understand the inner workings of capitalism".[73]

An outline of "Marxism" had definitely formed in the mind of Karl Marx by late 1844. Indeed, many features of the Marxist view of the world had been worked out in great detail, but Marx needed to write down all of the details of his world view to further clarify the new critique of political economy in his own mind.[77] Accordingly, Marx wrote The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.[78] These manuscripts covered numerous topics, detailing Marx's concept of alienated labour.[79] By the spring of 1845, his continued study of political economy, capital and capitalism had led Marx to the belief that the new critique of political economy he was espousing—that of scientific socialism—needed to be built on the base of a thoroughly developed materialistic view of the world.[80]

The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 had been written between April and August 1844, but soon Marx recognised that the Manuscripts had been influenced by some inconsistent ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach. Accordingly, Marx recognised the need to break with Feuerbach's philosophy in favour of historical materialism, thus a year later (in April 1845) after moving from Paris to Brussels, Marx wrote his eleven "Theses on Feuerbach".[81] The "Theses on Feuerbach" are best known for Thesis 11, which states that "philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it".[79][82] This work contains Marx's criticism of materialism (for being contemplative), idealism (for reducing practice to theory), and, overall, philosophy (for putting abs

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Ronald Reagan

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Reagan" redirects here. For other uses, see Reagan (disambiguation) and Ronald Reagan (disambiguation).
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan's presidential portrait, 1981
Official portrait, 1981
40th President of the United States
In office
January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
Vice President George H. W. Bush
Preceded by Jimmy Carter
Succeeded by George H. W. Bush
33rd Governor of California
In office
January 2, 1967 – January 6, 1975[1]
Lieutenant
Robert Finch (1967–1969)[2]
Edwin Reinecke (1969–1974)[3]
John L. Harmer (1974–1975)[4]
Preceded by Pat Brown
Succeeded by Jerry Brown
9th and 13th President of the Screen Actors Guild
In office
November 16, 1959 – June 7, 1960
Preceded by Howard Keel
Succeeded by George Chandler
In office
March 10, 1947 – November 10, 1952
Preceded by Robert Montgomery
Succeeded by Walter Pidgeon
Personal details
Born Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911
Tampico, Illinois, U.S.
Died June 5, 2004 (aged 93)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Political party Republican (from 1962)
Other political
affiliations Democratic (until 1962)
Spouses
Jane Wyman

(m. 1940; div. 1949)
Nancy Davis (m. 1952)
Children
MaureenChristineMichaelPattiRon
Parents
Jack Reagan
Nelle Wilson
Relatives Neil Reagan (brother)
Alma mater Eureka College (BA)
Occupation
Politicianunion leaderactorsports broadcaster
Awards List of awards and honors
Signature Cursive signature in ink
Military service
Service
United States Army Reserve
United States Air Forces
Years of service
1937–1942 (reserve)
1942–1945 (regular)
Rank Captain
Unit
322nd Cavalry Regiment
323rd Cavalry Regiment
18th AAF Base Unit
Wars
World War II
Ronald Reagan's voice
4:12
Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster
Recorded January 28, 1986
Other offices
Ronald Wilson Reagan (/ˈreɪɡən/ RAY-gən; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He previously served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 until 1960.

Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, Reagan moved to California, where he became a film actor. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. In the 1950s, he worked in television and spoke for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as the Screen Actors Guild's president. In 1964, "A Time for Choosing" gave Reagan attention as a new conservative figure. He was elected governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and cracked down harshly on university protests. After challenging and nearly defeating incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican nomination and then a landslide victory over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 United States presidential election.

In his first term, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from détente with the Soviet Union; he also ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, which began early in his presidency. In the 1984 presidential election, Reagan defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the federal debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities rapidly deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004. His presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered a prominent conservative figure in the United States. Historians and scholars have ranked Reagan among the middle to upper tier of American presidents, and he is often viewed favorably among the general public.

Early life
Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois, as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan.[7] Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ,[8] which believed in the Social Gospel.[9] She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when the pastor was out of town.[8] Reagan credited her spiritual influence[10] and he became a Christian.[11] According to Stephen Vaughn, Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan".[12] Jack focused on making money to take care of the family,[7] but this was complicated by his alcoholism.[13] Neil Reagan was Reagan's older brother.[14] Together, they lived in Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth before returning to Tampico. In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois,[15] living in a house near the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building.[16]

Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in drama and football.[17] His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park.[18] In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College[19] at Nelle's approval on religious grounds.[20] He was a mediocre student[21] that participated in sports, drama, and campus politics. He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation.[22] Reagan recalled a time when two black football teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them. At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions were unusually progressive in Dixon.[23] Reagan himself had grown up with very few black Americans there and was unaware of a race problem.[24]

Entertainment career
Further information: Ronald Reagan filmography
Radio and film
A frame of Ronald Reagan in the 1939 film Dark Victory
Dark Victory (1939)
A frame of Reagan in the 1941 film The Bad Man
The Bad Man (1941)
After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932,[25][26] Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa, as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference.[27] He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress.[28] Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism.[29] In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros.[30]

Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937).[31] Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions,[32] Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service in April 1942.[33] He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president of the United States.[34] Afterward, Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee, asking, "Where's the rest of me?"[35] His performance was considered his best by many critics.[36] Reagan became a star,[37] with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942.[36]

World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again[37] as Warner Bros. became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales. Reagan, who had a limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received. As a result, Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures as a freelancer. With this, Reagan appeared in multiple western films, something that had been denied him working at Warner Bros.[38] In 1952, he ended his relationship with Warner Bros.,[39] but went on to appear in a total of 53 films,[33] his last being The Killers (1964).[40]

Military service
Captain Reagan in the Army Air Force working for the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, between 1943 and 1944
Reagan at Fort Roach, between 1943 and 1944
In April 1937, Reagan enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. He was assigned as a private in Des Moines' 322nd Cavalry Regiment and reassigned to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps.[41] He later became a part of the 323rd Cavalry Regiment in California.[42] As relations between the United States and Japan worsened, Reagan was ordered for active duty while he was filming Kings Row. Wasserman and Warner Bros. lawyers successfully sent draft deferments to complete the film in October 1941. However, to avoid accusations of Reagan being a draft dodger, the studio let him go in April 1942.[43]

Reagan reported for duty with severe near-sightedness. His first assignment was at Fort Mason as a liaison officer, a role that allowed him to transfer to the United States Army Air Forces (AAF). Reagan became an AAF public relations officer and was subsequently assigned to the 18th AAF Base Unit in Culver City[44] where he felt that it was "impossible to remove an incompetent or lazy worker" due to what he felt was "the incompetence, the delays, and inefficiencies" of the federal bureaucracy.[45] Despite this, Reagan participated in the Provisional Task Force Show Unit in Burbank[46] and continued to make theatrical films.[47] He was also ordered to temporary duty in New York City to participate in the sixth War Loan Drive before being reassigned to Fort MacArthur until his discharge on December 9, 1945, as a captain. Throughout his military service, Reagan produced over 400 training films.[46]

Screen Actors Guild presidency
When Robert Montgomery resigned as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on March 10, 1947, Reagan was elected to that position, in a special election.[48] Reagan's first tenure saw various labor-management disputes,[49] the Hollywood blacklist,[50] and the Taft–Hartley Act's implementation.[51] On April 10, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) interviewed Reagan and he provided them with the names of actors whom he believed to be communist sympathizers.[52] During a House Un-American Activities Committee hearing, Reagan testified that some guild members were associated with the Communist Party[53] and that he was well-informed on a "jurisdictional strike".[54] When asked if he was aware of communist efforts within the Screen Writers Guild, he called the efforts "hearsay".[55] Reagan would remain SAG president until he resigned on November 10, 1952;[56] Walter Pidgeon succeeded him, but Reagan stayed on the board.[57]

The SAG fought with film producers over residual payments[58] and on November 16, 1959, the board installed Reagan as SAG president,[59] replacing the resigned Howard Keel. In his second stint, Reagan managed to secure the payments for actors whose theatrical films were released from 1948 to 1959 were televised. The producers were initially required to pay the actors fees, but they ultimately settled for pensions instead. However, they were still required to pay residuals for films after 1959. Reagan resigned from the SAG presidency on June 7, 1960, and also left the board;[60] George Chandler succeeded him as SAG president.[61]

Marriages and children
Actors Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan at a Los Angeles premiere for the 1942 film Tales of Manhattan
Reagan and Jane Wyman, 1942
The Reagans at The Stork Club in New York City, 1952
Ronald and Nancy Reagan, 1952
Reagan married Brother Rat (1938) co-star Jane Wyman[62] in January 1940.[63] Together, they had two biological daughters: Maureen in 1941,[64] and Christine,[65] born prematurely and dead the next day in 1947.[66] They adopted one son, Michael, in 1945.[45] Wyman filed to divorce Reagan in June 1948. She was uninterested in politics, and occasionally recriminated, reconciled and separated with him. Although Reagan was unprepared,[66] the divorce was finalized in July 1949. Reagan would also remain close to his children.[67] Later that year, Reagan met Nancy Davis after she contacted him in his capacity as the SAG president about her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood; she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis.[68] They married in March 1952[69] and had two children, Patti in 1952, and Ron in 1958.[70]

Television
Reagan became the host of MCA Inc. television production General Electric Theater[39] at Wasserman's recommendation. It featured multiple guest stars,[71] and Ronald and Nancy Reagan, continuing to use her stage name Nancy Davis, acted together in three episodes.[72] When asked how Reagan was able to recruit such stars to appear on the show during television's infancy, he replied, "Good stories, top direction, production quality."[73] However, the viewership declined in the 1960s and the show was canceled in 1962.[74] In 1965, Reagan became the host[75] of another MCA production, Death Valley Days.[76]

Early political activities
Reagan speaking for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in Los Angeles, 1964
Reagan campaigning with Barry Goldwater, 1964
Reagan began as a Democrat, viewing Franklin D. Roosevelt as "a true hero".[77] He joined the American Veterans Committee and Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP), worked with the AFL–CIO to fight right-to-work laws,[78] and continued to speak out against racism when he was in Hollywood.[79] In 1945, Reagan planned to lead an HICCASP anti-nuclear rally, but Warner Bros. prevented him from going.[80] In 1946, he appeared in a radio program called Operation Terror to speak out against rising Ku Klux Klan activity in the country, citing the attacks as a "capably organized systematic campaign of fascist violence and intimidation and horror".[81] Reagan also supported Harry S. Truman in the 1948 presidential election[82] and Helen Gahagan Douglas for the United States Senate in 1950. It was Reagan's belief that communism was a powerful backstage influence in Hollywood that led him to rally his friends against them.[78]

Reagan began shifting to the right when he supported the presidential campaigns of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960.[83] When Reagan was contracted by General Electric (GE), he gave speeches to their employees. His speeches had a positive take on free markets.[84] Under anti-communist[85] Lemuel Boulware, the employees were encouraged to vote for business-friendly officials.[86] In 1961, Reagan adapted his speeches into another speech to criticize Medicare.[87] In his view, its legislation would have meant "the end of individual freedom in the United States".[88] In 1962, Reagan was dropped by GE,[89] and he formally registered as a Republican.[83]

In 1964, Reagan gave a speech for presidential contender Barry Goldwater[90] that was eventually referred to as "A Time for Choosing".[91] Reagan argued that the Founding Fathers "knew that governments don't control things. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose"[92] and that "We've been told increasingly that we must choose between left or right."[93] Even though the speech was not enough to turn around the faltering Goldwater campaign, it increased Reagan's profile among conservatives. David S. Broder and Stephen H. Hess called it "the most successful national political debut since William Jennings Bryan electrified the 1896 Democratic convention with his famous 'Cross of Gold' address".[90]

1966 California gubernatorial election
Further information: 1966 California gubernatorial election
The Reagans celebrating Ronald's victory in the 1966 California gubernatorial election at The Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles
Ronald and Nancy Reagan celebrating his gubernatorial election victory, 1966
In January 1966, Reagan announced his candidacy for the California governorship,[94] repeating his stances on individual freedom and big government.[95] When he met with black Republicans in March,[96] he was criticized for opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Certain in his own lack of prejudice, Reagan responded resentfully that bigotry was not in his nature[97] and later argued that certain provisions of the act infringed upon the rights of property owners.[98] After the Supreme Court of California ruled that the initiative that repealed the Rumford Act was unconstitutional in May, he voiced his support for the act's repeal,[99] but later preferred amending it.[100] In the Republican primary, Reagan defeated George Christopher,[101] a moderate[102] who William F. Buckley Jr. thought had painted Reagan as extreme.[95]

Reagan's general election opponent, incumbent governor Pat Brown, attempted to label Reagan as an extremist and tout his own accomplishments.[103] Reagan portrayed himself as a political outsider,[104] and charged Brown as responsible for the Watts riots and lenient on crime.[103] In numerous speeches, Reagan "hit the Brown administration about high taxes, uncontrolled spending, the radicals at the University of California, Berkeley, and the need for accountability in government".[105] Meanwhile, many in the press perceived Reagan as "monumentally ignorant of state issues", though Lou Cannon said that Reagan benefited from an appearance he and Brown made on Meet the Press in September.[106] Ultimately, Reagan won the governorship with 57 percent of the vote compared to Brown's 42 percent.[107]

1967–1975: California governorship
Main article: Governorship of Ronald Reagan
The Reagans at an airport, 1972
The Reagans in 1972
Brown had spent much of California's funds on new programs, prompting them to use accrual accounting to avoid raising taxes. Consequently, it generated a larger deficit,[108] and Reagan would call for reduced government spending and tax hikes to balance the budget.[109

I’ll go with Marx and Lennon.

both were undereducated, seeing the world in far too simple terms

They were both in favour of gun ownership.

One wanted to arm the Proletariat, the other wanted to arm cosplay minutemen and high-school shooters.

In a Street fight Reagan would kick Marx's ass. I'm just throwing that out there.

Context goes a long way in these cases

I chose Karl Marx, though I know this was awhile ago.

Both were opinions of their time.

Source?

Although no fan, I’d take Reagan any day.

Both.