The agenda to tarnish my dad's legacy

In the spring of 2001, my sister Maureen was in St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, undergoing treatment for advanced melanoma. My wife, Colleen, and I went to visit Maureen, along with our son, Cameron, and daughter, Ashley.

As we visited, it became obvious that Maureen was growing tired. Finally, she said, "Everybody out." We all began to leave.

"Not you, Michael," Maureen said. "Close the door."

I closed the door and sat down.

"I need you to do the work I can't do anymore," she said. "Promise me, Michael, that when I'm gone, you'll take up our father's legacy."

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"What do you want me to do?"

"Let me put it this way. You can either carry on Dad's legacy – or you can leave it to Ron and Patti."

I laughed. I love Ron and Patti, but they have never exactly been what you'd call "Reagan Republicans." I nodded. "Merm," I said, using the nickname she'd had since childhood, "I promise I'll do all I can to carry on the legacy of our father."

She died a few months later, on Aug. 8, 2001. Every day since then, I've tried to keep that promise. I want the world to know that the principles Ronald Reagan lived by, the principles that changed the world in the 1980s, are still the answers to our global challenges today.

In recent years, my father's legacy has come under attack. One of the most disturbing examples is Eugene Jarecki's film "Reagan," now airing on HBO. Jarecki uses an ingenious ploy, pretending to pay tribute to Ronald Reagan while serving up a clever hit piece. The film opens with emotional scenes from Dad's funeral and flashbacks to his youth in Dixon, Ill. But when Jarecki zooms in on Ronald Reagan's political career, his malicious intent becomes clear.

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Jarecki uses misleading images to bury the truth about Reaganomics. He makes no mention of the 96 consecutive months of continuous economic growth (1983 to 1990) my father's economic policies produced, nor the fact that Reaganomics cut the misery index from a Carter-era high of 21.98 to a 1986 low of 7.7. The film falsely claims that Reaganomics transferred wealth from the poor to the rich and that the Reagan tax cuts caused today's deficits. The film downplays Ronald Reagan's role in collapsing the Evil Empire.

Eugene Jarecki is equally deceptive about his own motives, calling himself an "Eisenhower Republican." He founded The Eisenhower Project – but he's no Republican. The Eisenhower Project takes its name from a phrase in Ike's 1961 farewell address: "We must guard against ... the military-industrial complex." The Project is an outgrowth of Jarecki's 2006 film "Why We Fight," a blood-for-oil screed against the War on Terror. Jarecki co-opts World War II's greatest general to promote a "National Peace Service." Picture Cindy Sheehan waving an "I Like Ike" sign.

In an interview with the far-left blogsite Mediaite, Jarecki reveals his hidden agenda: "America really needed the kind of tough love that Jimmy Carter ... tried to show." Ronald Reagan's policies, he added, "deepened the problems" Jimmy Carter tried so valiantly to solve. Jarecki views Barack Obama as a communicator with Reagan's style and Carter's substance – a president who can revive Carter's "message about sacrifice" and sell Carter's leftist vision of a post-prosperity America.

One of the most personally hurtful aspects of the HBO film is its use of my brother, Ron, to deconstruct the Reagan legacy, just as Maureen foresaw. I had harsh things to say about Ron after his remarks about my father and Alzheimer's, but I love my brother and I pray for him. I know Ron loves Dad, but he has always rejected the principles Ronald Reagan stood for. So he resolves that inner conflict by praising Ronald Reagan the father while undermining Ronald Reagan's legacy as president.

Jarecki also relied heavily on Edmund Morris, author of "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan." Morris was handpicked by Nancy to write the official Reagan biography, but the result was a disaster. Morris fabricated much of the book, creating a fictional narrator and fictional characters who interacted with real events and people. Morris even fabricated footnotes. And this was Jarecki's go-to "expert" on Reagan!

In the film, a befuddled Morris says that Ronald Reagan would "take refuge behind anecdotes and jokes." I can explain that. In my book "The New Reagan Revolution," I relate something one of Dad's closest friends, Judge William P. Clark, told me, "Your dad was not just a storyteller. He spoke in parables." That's a profound insight.

Dinesh D'Souza tells of a time when former President Nixon visited the White House. Nixon tried to engage Dad in a conversation about the Soviet Union. Dad responded with jokes about Soviet farmers who could not be productive under the Communist system. Nixon was frustrated by Dad's seeming lack of seriousness, and he later wrote that Ronald Reagan didn't take the Soviet challenge seriously. But after the Berlin Wall fell, Nixon admitted, "History has justified his leadership."

Dad's jokes about Soviet farmers were his way of telling Nixon, "I know what I'm doing. I'm going to collapse the Evil Empire." My father's attitude was, "He who has ears, let him hear." In other words, it was up to you to understand the meaning of the story. He wouldn't spell it out for you. He wouldn't do your thinking for you.

Nixon eventually figured it out. Morris and Jarecki never will. They're blinded by their leftist ideology. I just hope my brother, Ron, learns to appreciate and embrace this side of his father – my father – someday.

Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan and a political consultant. He is the founder and chairman of The Reagan Group and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his website at reagan.com. Portions of this column are adapted from his book "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press).