In the early 1980s, Patti Davis was passionately opposed to the buildup of nuclear weapons. She constantly spoke at rallies criticizing the nuclear arms policies of the Reagan administration. The main difference between Patti and the other demonstrators was that Ronald Reagan was her father.

Her mother was appalled at Patti's actions because she felt they were a personal attack on her father. But as long as she was respectful and civil, her father didn't mind Patti publicly expressing her views. Writing about her father in the January, 2012, issue of Town & Country, Patti admits she chose the more militant, "in your face" approach instead. She frequently told the media it wasn't personal, but today she realizes that her actions spoke louder than her words. While Patti was demonstrating for world peace, she now admits that she was also "a child railing against a parent, nothing more …. I was at war with my father."

One of her biggest regrets was turning her father down every time he wanted to sit down and talk with her about life. She would always tell him: "I already know your side." She admits her refusals to talk wounded him.

She also expressed regret for participating in an anti-nuclear rally in 1982 at the Rose Bowl with 100,000 people in attendance. Just before she came to the podium to speak, the entire audience was chanting: "Get a new president!" Every fiber of her being told her to walk away, but she gave the speech anyway. Looking back, she admits no one remembered her speech, only that she came onstage when 100,000 people were calling for her father to resign.

Later in life, after her father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she said, "I would look into my father's eyes and try to reach past the murkiness of Alzheimer's with my words, my apology, hoping that in his heart he heard me and understood."

Patti Davis concludes her article: "I wish that now, all those years ago, I had led with kindness, not with ideological stridency. We are, after all, remembered in the end for how we treat others. Sometimes the political has to be tempered by the personal."