Political positions of Ronald Reagan Political positions of Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). Reagan served as President during the later part of the Cold War, an era of political and ideological disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" that would be consigned to the "ash heap of history" and he later predicted that communism would collapse. He reversed the policy of détente and massively built up the United States military. Through it, Reagan ordered production of the MX missile, the
Ronald Reagan in music America toward a fascist theocracy. And everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe." Several songs on Zappa's 1988 album "Broadway the Hard Way" ridicule Reagan, notably "Promiscuous," which jabs at the Reagans' attempts to reduce sex education in public schools and replace it with abstinence-only propaganda as well as his slow response to the AIDS pandemic. On his 1989 album, "Big Daddy", John Mellencamp's song "Country Gentleman" is "a scathing indictment on Ronald Reagan". Written and recorded during Reagan's final year in office, the song's last line thanks God that "he went back