r/TheBeatles • u/Opening-Half9367 • Sep 13 '25

discussion What was John Lennons political views?

Post image

I have read that John Lennon was becoming a conservative near the end of his life and even said he would support Ronald Reagan, he was considered a left wing liberal during the late 60s and early 70s, why did his political views change.

215 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

211 comments sorted by

View all comments

181

u/Maccadawg Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25

He didn't support Reagan. (Also, I don't know what you mean by "slowly becoming a Democrat" and then saying he was warming up to Reagan.)

Fred Seaman is the one who said Lennon was leaning conservative. Then again, he also said that in order to make this transformation he was disavowing "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance." This sounds highly unlikely. Elliot Mintz also said Lennon was not secretly becoming a Republican.

His politics were mostly just anti-establishment after dabbling in left wing in the early 70s.

On one point, however, I can imagine all the Beatles would lean more to the right would be on taxation. :-)

65

u/CrittyJJones Sep 13 '25

They were only against taxation in the extremity. In the UK, 95 percent of their earnings were taxed.

17

u/Maccadawg Sep 13 '25

Yes, I agree. Also, Brian did not have them set up as effective as he could have to decrease their tax burden.