Reagan Rails at Media ‘Glorification of Drugs’

President Reagan crossed the Potomac River today to campaign for gubernatorial candidate Wyatt Durrette, to rail against liberals and to deplore the media’s “glorification of drugs, violence and perversity.”

Reagan attacked the “failed and exhausted liberal ideology” that “erects walls to lock out God and keep him away from our schoolchildren but has trouble locking up drug pushers, thieves and murderers.

“Well, I just have to say . . . that the real ‘walls of separation’ we need in this country are prison walls that will keep criminals off the streets and away from our children,” Reagan said.

A poll published in today’s Washington Post shows Democrat Gerald Baliles and his running mates have a commanding lead over Republican Durrette and his ticket.

Reagan also accused opponents of his tax overhaul of attempting to pervert his plan and “turn it into a sneaky way of raising America’s taxes.”

He gave notice that he would veto such a tax hike “no matter how it’s disguised or packaged.”

“There are people in Washington . . . who still harbor a secret desire, way down deep in their hearts, to raise your taxes,” Reagan said. “Some even want to pervert our fair-share tax plan and turn it into a sneaky way of raising America’s taxes.”

The President directed those comments to Capitol Hill, where the House Ways and Means Committee has begun work on tax revision legislation.

For the second time in a week, Reagan blasted the entertainment industry, saying “the real heroes of our day are the parents, trying to raise their children in an environment that seems to have grown more and more hostile to family life.”

“Music and the media flood their children’s world with glorifications of drugs, violence and perversity--and there’s nothing they can do about it, they’re told, because of the First Amendment,” he said.

“Well, I don’t think James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights and one of Virginia’s proudest sons, ever imagined that his great document of liberty would be twisted into a pretext for license.”