Ronald Reagan died 15 years ago, but the adage “never speak ill of the dead” is wasted upon progressives. That’s because The Atlantic published a “racist conversation” that Reagan — then the governor of California — had with President Nixon in 1971.

Well, then let’s rip down his statues too, right? Close the Reagan library, and strike his name from history.

However, Reagan’s comments say more about how the Gipper hated communism than it says about his beliefs about race.

In October, 1971, the United Nations had voted to recognize that representatives of the Peoples Republic of China — Communist China — as the “only lawful representatives of China to the United Nations.” The UN also voted to make China one of five permanent members of the Security Council. They also kicked out representatives of Taiwan, saying they “unlawfully occupy” their seats at the UN.

After the UN gave China this victory through Resolution 2758, members of the Tanzanian delegation began literally dancing in the General Assembly.

This so angered Reagan that he called Nixon to vent his frustration:

“Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did.”

Nixon responded affirmatively, and then Reagan said this:

“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”

Here’s the recently released audio of Reagan’s remarks:

If you know anything about Ronald Reagan, you know that he was a stalwart anti-Communist. Remember how he called the Soviet Union the “evil empire,” and the “focus of evil in the modern world”? Remember, too, how he would not bend the knee for the Soviet Union at the Reykjavik Summit?

That’s undoubtedly why Reagan reacted so vehemently to Communist China’s huge victory in the United Nations, especially since he already referred to the UN as a “kangaroo court” with “bums.” He lost his temper, and for him the Tanzanian representatives dancing was a bridge too far. As Nixon told his Secretary of State, William Rogers, about Reagan:

“He practically got sick at his stomach, and that’s why he called. And he said, ‘It was a terrible scene.’”

Reagan hated to see communists prevail over America at anytime, anywhere.

Credit: wl/flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

However, while The Atlantic continues by exposing more of Richard Nixon’s racial offenses, they admit that the only evidence of Reagan’s “racism” is on that Nixon tape. Moreover, he never expressed racist attitudes in his diaries.

Yet The Atlantic trumpets the alleged racism of Reagan with its clickbait title: “Ronald Reagan’s Long-Hidden Racist Conversation with Richard Nixon.” Now why would they focus on Reagan?

It’s because Ronald Reagan is the most beloved President in recent history amongst Republicans, and progressives would love to take him down a notch or two. Even destroy his legacy, if they can.

Never mind that two of Reagan’s contemporaries in the Democratic Party were more racist than progressives claim Reagan was. Never mind that Pres. Lyndon Johnson loved using the N-word a lot — he was a “civil rights hero,” according to MSNBC. Then there was Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who had been a Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan. But Democrats let that pass, since he pumped tons of money into West Virginia and evolved into a “beloved, white-haired elder statesman.”

Blasting Reagan for a single angry comment from nearly 50 years ago, however, serves the progressive narrative, which says that all Republicans are racist. Conservatives are racist. Trump supporters are racist. And if you’re white and all those things, you’re an über-racist.

In Christian theology, the unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. However, since elite media dwell in a post-Christian society in which leftism has become the new religion, the unpardonable sin is now the sin of racism. There is no forgiveness from progressives.  So now they’re eager to condemn Reagan’s legacy with that sin in order to beat conservatives into submission.

Featured image: wikimedia commons/public domain/cropped.