Makes Up for It by Being ‘Genuinely Kind’ : Reagan’s Not a Perfect Father, Ron Says

Ron Reagan, the President’s son, says his dad isn’t naturally equipped to be a perfect father, but makes up for it by being kind, understanding and a good friend.

President Reagan’s father suffered from alcoholism and was often absent, providing no role model for fathering, the younger Reagan writes in “Fathers,” a new Washington-based magazine beginning publication this month.

“So he’s (President Reagan) not the most naturally equipped to be everybody’s idea of a perfect father.

“He makes up for it by being a genuinely kind and nice person. He’s almost more of a good friend than a father, in a lot of ways,” Ron Reagan said in an interview in the magazine.

But in addition to being warm and kind, the senior Reagan is difficult to get to know well, young Reagan said.

“I know him as well as anybody, outside my mother. But still, you know, there is something that he holds back. You get just so far, and then the curtain drops, and you don’t go any farther.”

Reagan, youngest of the President’s four children, said his father can be a “soft touch” at times and rarely loses his temper.

“He’s got a real long, long fuse. I’ve rarely seem him very mad,” he said.

Ron Reagan said his father’s political alliances, such as support from fundamentalist religious groups who strongly oppose homosexuality, make him “uncomfortable.”

“It’s a political alliance, clearly, and it’s pandering to an extent to the far right. It won’t do me much good to tell him I don’t want him to do it. He fortunately doesn’t seem to spend a lot of energy, political or otherwise, on actually campaigning for their platform once he’s in office.”