John Lennon Goes Conservative?

Was John Lennon a closet political conservative late in life?

This is apparently the testimony of one of his assistants. Here are some excerpts from the article:

He says, “John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.”
 
“He’d met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event… Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that… He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me."

“I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who’s an old-time communist… He enjoyed really provoking my uncle… Maybe he was being provocative… but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism."

“He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he’d been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy’s naiveté.”

Go here for a link to the entire article.

With at least a couple of biographies noting that Lennon had a short season of embracing Christianity, I’m personally of the view that Lennon didn’t know what he truly held to and spent his life searching all the way up to the tragic end (for testimony about his “Christian” season see “Lennon in America” by Geoffrey Giuliano pp. 131-132 – note also the same book bears witness to his abusive tendencies pp. 19-21, as well as documenting his racist – including anti-semitic – rants while drunk – see pp.132-133, 143).

Here are some other excerpts from the book based on the 1979 period:

“But as the days grew shorter and an autumn chill descended upon Manhattan, Lennon fell once again into a dark hole of desperation. He was shooting heroin with alarming regularity, whether to ease the pain of a sore tooth or simply ward off boredom…”

“The substance abuse, however, wasn’t limited to John, who grew concerned that Yoko was heavily indulging herself. Alarmed, John begged her to stop, but couldn’t very well preach what he himself didn’t practice…”

“‘At first I thought Yoko was ill, but then I realized she was simply strung out on smack.’ The fact that both John and Yoko had relapsed make it virtually impossible for them to kick their habits. Someone would tun up with some quality cocaine, and the pair would invariably succumb to temptation, even as an exasperated John secretly prayed for divine intervention.”

“One evening Lennon, examining a life that seemed worthless and directionless, confessed in his audio diary that he had been looking out the window and contemplating whether to leap. But even suicide, it seemed, would have required more passion than Lennon had at his disposal” (pp. 199-200)

John Lennon was a very gifted songwriter, but I find the trajectory of his life to be very sad.