Chavez: Happy Birthday President Reagan

Linda Chavez

Townhall - Feb. 6 marks the centennial of Ronald Reagan's birth, but the day had meaning for me even before I went to work for President Reagan in 1983. My father, Rudy, who died at age 60 in a car wreck in 1978, shared Reagan's birthday, and I often wondered what he would have thought had he lived to see his daughter working in the White House -- and for a Republican president. Rudy was a staunch Democrat of the New Deal variety. He'd grown up destitute during the Depression and dropped out of school in ninth grade. He joined FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps to help put food on the table for his mother and siblings, while his father served more than 10 years in Fort Leavenworth prison for selling bootleg whiskey during Prohibition.

But I think if he had lived a few more years, Rudy would have become as big a fan of Reagan as I was. Like many Democrats of his era, Rudy was staunchly anti-communist, believed anyone who was physically able should work and not take government handouts, and loved the United States with every fiber of his being. The proudest moments of his life were serving his country in World War II as a tail gunner in the Army Air Corps over New Guinea, where he was shot down. He believed we were the greatest nation in the history of the world. If my father had lived until 1980, I can't help but believe he'd have voted for Reagan, as I did, even though at the time, I was still a registered Democrat. Read full column here:

Chavez: Happy Birthday President Reagan