Friday, March 29, AD 2024 8:45am

Trump, the Anti-Reagan

 

 

In all my voting life there is only one candidate I have voted for, rather than as the lesser of two evils:  Ronald Wilson Reagan.  Reagan biographer Paul Kengor explains why Trump is the anti-Reagan:

I have published six major books on Reagan, several of them bestsellers, ranging from (the first) God and Ronald Reagan (HarperCollins, 2004) to Reagan’s Legacy in a World Transformed (Harvard University Press, 2015). Some of those in between include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (2006) and 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative (2014). Two of these books are the basis for the Reagan/film bio-pic, Reagan: The Movie. That film, like my books, are positive affirmations of Reagan. I am and have long been a Reagan conservative. I am hardly an “establishment RINO.” In fact, I literally wrote the book on Reagan conservatism. And my next book, scheduled for release next spring, is a 1,000-page-plus Cold War work on Reagan.

I have done thousands of articles, speeches, and radio and TV and print interviews on Ronald Reagan. I have personally interviewed hundreds of people who lived with or knew or worked with the man and I’ve spent endless days in the Reagan Library, at the Reagan Ranch, at Reagan’s Eureka College, in his hometown, at the river where he lifeguarded, in nursing homes talking to elderly women who were baptized with Reagan in the summer of 1922, etc., etc., etc. I have read countless letters written by Reagan, and still far more pages of words scribbled by others. It’s quite possible that I’ve read more by or about Ronald Reagan than any living person on the planet. I assure you I’m in the top 10.

This is very much a short list (two paragraphs) of my (embarrassing) amount of life activities dedicated to illuminating the person, life, and mind of Ronald Reagan.

My point in presenting this isn’t to toot my own horn. (Quite the contrary — all of this Reagan focus makes me seem rather strange, I think.) The point is that this is what I study. I have some credibility on the matter of Ronald Reagan. If someone wants to try to compare Donald Trump to Ronald Reagan, my opinion ought to have at least some degree of informed merit.

So, with that said, let me state unequivocally and undeniably that not only is Donald Trump not the “next Reagan,” but he is the anti-Reagan. Really, I find not only that the two men have preciously little in common, from their policies to their person, but I think there may be no two men more glaringly different. Donald Trump is a polar opposite of Ronald Reagan.

Generally, in terms of policy/ideological preferences, there is not much that Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan have in common, from domestic to foreign policy, which is quite odd given two Republican nominees for the presidency not too many years apart. Sure, policywise, I suppose there are some things, like favoring a strong military and — maybe, at one point — perhaps possibly cutting income-tax rates. But even then, as I write, Trump’s favoring of lower taxes is something on which he is already reneging. Indeed, between my first draft of this article last week and my final version this week, he has flip-flopped on taxes. In a matter of minutes on Sunday, from NBC to ABC, he soared all over on taxes, and on the minimum wage.

Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, is legendary for his refusal to reverse himself on income-tax cuts throughout his entire presidency. Trump is reversing himself even before the Republican convention. Reagan’s refusal was because Reagan was principled. Trump’s reversal is because Trump is not principled. Reagan was a complete conservative. Trump is momentarily pretending to be a conservative, and is getting away with it because of followers who back him no matter he says or does — just as he boasted they would. (Click here for Trump’s woefully embarrassing attempt to define conservatism, a problem Reagan never had. Trump’s definition is that of someone attempting to hijack conservatism merely in order to get elected.)

Reagan opposed high taxes because federal income taxes were (among other things) the mother’s milk that sustained and grew big government. I see no evidence that Donald Trump believes in small, limited government the way Reagan did. The way Trump speaks of what he would do as chief executive is not small-government at all, and is actually quite stunning in its remarkable lack of Constitutional comprehension. He talks as if the president can just magically cancel trade agreements and enact massive changes unilaterally. The Founders carefully never devised such a system. I’m reminded of Harry Truman’s warning to his Oval Office successor, Dwight Eisenhower (I’m paraphrasing): “Poor Ike. He’ll come here and say ‘do this, do that, do this, do that,’ and nothing will happen. It won’t be anything like the military.”

Precisely. Our system was designed so the chief executive cannot stomp in and do whatever he pleases. That’s how banana republics operate. If Trump’s advocates are frustrated with the inaction of the federal government now (by the way, federal-government inaction is not a bad thing to a conservative), just wait until they see Trump’s inability to kick and scream and get what he wants from behind the Oval Office desk. The federal government is not a business, and the president is not a CEO. The Founders did not want the president to be a CEO. Conservatism and genuine conservatives grasp this. Reagan did. Trump doesn’t, or at least he speaks on the campaign trail like he doesn’t.

But easily the starkest difference between Trump and Reagan relates to temperament and personality. Ronald Reagan was always universally liked, even by nasty critics on the left. You would have never seen Ronald Reagan hampered by 60-70% unlikability ratings like those earned by Donald Trump. It was precisely Reagan’s likability that made him so electable. It is precisely Trump’s unlikability that makes him so unelectable.

When Reagan left office in 1989, Gallup rated him with the highest favorability/likability of any president since Eisenhower. Ironically, his likability, typically in the 60-70% range, is nearly identically matched by Trump’s unlikability.

Reagan was liked by people because he liked them and treated them kindly. I never encountered one episode, ever, from Dixon, Illinois to Hollywood to Sacramento to Washington all the way to his tomb in Simi Valley, California, of Ronald Reagan speaking to anyone even once with the crudeness, rudeness, bombast, vitriol, vulgarity, and insults as Donald Trump does daily. Trump does not just lash out when someone criticizes him, or when he loses — he explodes, he ascribes sinister motives, he threatens lawsuits, he maligns. (As I write, his newest victim is Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention, a kind Christian leader whose sin was that he dared to criticize Trump. Moore is suddenly a “nasty guy with no heart.”) Trump does this without restraint toward fellow Republicans. Reagan had an “11th Commandment” — thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican. Trump effectively seems to have one, too — thou shalt always speak ill of fellow Republicans. Or, that is, of fellow Republicans who do not praise him.

Think about it. Consider the leading Republicans that Trump has lit up: Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, George Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Carly Fiorina, and on and on. They are “liars,” “losers,” “morons,” “chokers,” and (for the women) “ugly.” Donald Trump has spent the last six months torching the best and brightest of the future of the conservative movement and Republican Party that dared to stand in his way. He is only happy when he is winning. Anytime that Trump lost a state in the primary to Ted Cruz, all hell was guaranteed to break loose the next morning.

Reagan did not do this. In fact, Ronald Reagan was the most humble person of his power and position that I have observed in my study of the presidency. His charitable nature was extraordinary. Bill Clark, one of his closest aides and friends, used to tell me often of Reagan (I was Clark’s biographer): “There was no pride there, Paul. No pride at all.” Donald Trump, to the contrary, is one of the most prideful human beings we’ve witnessed in American politics. He is a narcissist without question.

Bill Clark would further add of Reagan: “The man had no ego, Paul. No ego at all.” Donald Trump is all-ego. His ability to brag about himself is alarming, and I fear potentially dangerous. Psychologists will study Donald Trump for years to come.

Reagan was a man of great grace. Trump is tremendously lacking in grace.

Reagan was exceptionally kind to people. He went out of his way to give people the benefit of the doubt. Trump goes out of his way to insult people. Trump is a bully who openly encourages his supporters to “knock the hell” and “knock the crap out” of dissenters at his rallies. It is plainly unimaginable to picture Ronald Reagan speaking that way.

Reagan spoke eloquently of the dignity and sanctity of each human being, saying that “every person is a ressacra” (Latin for “sacred reality”). This was intrinsic to Reagan’s conservatism (and his faith).

Reagan was the consummate gentleman, especially toward women, to whom he was shy and gentle. Women have told me with tears in their eyes about his deference toward them. Trump’s boorish sexual references toward women and his high-schoolish rips at their physical appearance would have horrified Ronald Reagan. I can honestly say that Donald Trump’s digs at the face of Carly Fiorina and Heidi Cruz alone would have caused Ronald Reagan to reject the man because of an obvious character deficiency.

In all, these traits reflect on each man’s temperament, stability, and suitability for the office of the presidency. Few men in the history of the presidency were as emotionally well-suited as Ronald Reagan, whereas few are as emotionally ill-suited as Donald Trump.
Go here to read the rest.  Reagan was a statesman for the ages, Trump is a petty man, whose only virtue is that he is not Hillary Clinton.  That may well be enough to get him elected, it is not enough to make him a good President once he is elected.

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Father of Seven
Father of Seven
Tuesday, May 17, AD 2016 5:09am

Like Donald, Reagan is the only candidate for president I actually voted for. Everyone else, I simply held my nose. I am becoming more and more concerned that I will never get to actually vote for someone again. People really do get the leadership they deserve. Our culture has become infinitely more crass in the short time, historically speaking, since Reagan. Culturally, the decline of the last 30 years seems impossible in that short span of time. I can’t even imagine what the left will have accomplished in the next 30.

Elaine Krewer
Admin
Tuesday, May 17, AD 2016 6:02am

“The federal government is not a business, and the president is not a CEO. The Founders did not want the president to be a CEO.”

Which is why I am always wary of candidates who promise to “run government like a business”, because that’s something which can’t be done without effectively trashing the Constitution and the separation of powers. Every private business is in essence a (hopefully) benevolent dictatorship. This is not to say that government officials cannot LEARN important things from business people, or “borrow” some of their ideas or techniques for improving efficiency.

While no one wants, or should want, government to be gratuitously wasteful or unresponsive, it helps to remember that the Founders designed our government to be “inefficient” up to a point. You want a totally “efficient” government that always does exactly what it sets out to do with no delay and no obstacles? Get yourself a king/queen or a dictator.

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Tuesday, May 17, AD 2016 9:45am

Of course, one of Paul Kengor’s other outstanding books is “The Communist”, the story of Frank Marshall Davis and Barack Obama (and for that, all the Chicago communist tribe, such as David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, et al). Here is Kengor, with great juxtaposed graphics and photos, that should chill a patriotic American:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIFptTnd1Ug
,,,
“The Communist”, in my opinion a must-read to understand how serious things are, coupled with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew G. Hodge’s work (“The Obama Confession: Secret Fear, Secret Fury”), that Obama is not done with America. He is also not going to stand by and let a Trump, nor a Cruz, nor anyone other than someone he can control like HIllary Clinton, take over in November. Fait-accompli.

c matt
c matt
Tuesday, May 17, AD 2016 1:44pm

That’s all well and true, but either The Donald or Hildebeast will be the next president. Pick your poison. We get the leaders our culture creates.

.Anzlyne
.Anzlyne
Tuesday, May 17, AD 2016 7:29pm

I know practically speaking it looks it’s either Trump Trump or Clinton but still think maybe the Lord has some surprise in store.

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Friday, May 20, AD 2016 2:29pm

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
–Rudyard Kipling

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