Is Donald Trump like Ronald Reagan?
Oct 25, 2016 15:08:53 #
slatten49
Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
Nancy Reagan was a fierce defender of her husband's legacy. What would she make of the Trump-Reagan comparisons?
By Josh Zeitz
March 07, 2016
It’s tempting to observe historical similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. Great public performers, each demonstrated ideological flexibility in his public career and an uncanny ability to channel the social anxieties of evangelical voters with whom he shared little religious affinity. Both knowingly tapped a reserve of base racial antipathy. And both spoke of world affairs in terms so simple that a child could understand them—an attribute that horrified critics then and now.
But the similarities pretty much end there. Donald Trump speaks to voters in a fourth-grade vernacular; in public appearances and private correspondence, Reagan was powerfully articulate. Reagan was an experienced union president and two-term governor of a major industrial state; Trump boasts no public experience and a checkered private-sector career. Above all, Trump’s rhetoric is animated by fear and resentment. Reagan infused conservatism with hope and optimism.
It was this sunny optimism that Nancy Reagan, who died at 94 on Sunday, most wanted her husband to be remembered for. When she spoke at the 1996 convention, two years after Reagan announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, she told the crowd, “I can tell you with certainty that he still sees the shining city on the hill, a place full of hope and promise for us all.” And she repeated words he had spoken just four years before: “Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will report that I appeal to your best hopes not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts, and may all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never, never lose your natural, God-given optimism.”
It’s doubtful Nancy would have found much to recognize in the divisive and fear-mongering rhetoric of the current GOP front-runner.
For those who still snicker at the idea of President Donald J. Trump (he of “Apprentice” fame and eponymous line of Macy’s menswear), it’s worth remembering that, in 1965, the political satirist Tom Lehrer recorded a song about George Murphy, the song-and-dance man whom Californians sent to the U.S. Senate the year earlier. “Hollywood often tries to mix show-business with politics,” Lehrer crooned, “from Helen Gahagan/ To, Ronald Reagan?” Of course, Ronald Reagan enjoyed the last laugh. The following year, he unseated Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown in California’s gubernatorial election.
Like Trump, Reagan was a former Democrat turned conservative Republican. As president of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1940s, he opposed the union-weakening Taft-Hartley Act and right-to-work laws, campaigned for Democratic President Harry Truman, and supported Democrat Hubert Humphrey in his successful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1950, he even backed Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (with whom he would later share billings in Leher’s song), the left-wing actress-turned-congresswoman, in her doomed Senate campaign against Richard Nixon.
Even after his political conversion, Reagan proved more moderate and consensus-oriented than his latter-day reputation. In his eight years as a Republican governor, he increased state taxes (and made them more progressive), refused to veto an anti-abortion bill, helped kill legislation that would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools and racked up a respectable record on the environment. Though he sharply cut state spending, and though he famously cracked down on student protesters, Reagan funded California’s university system generously. Were he a candidate in today’s GOP primary, Reagan undoubtedly would have been faced with super-PAC ads, decrying his affinity for Barack Obama’s America.
Like Trump—arguably, more than Trump—Reagan knew how to command an audience. His rousing appeal for Barry Goldwater in 1964, formally entitled “A Time for Choosing” but known popularly as “The Speech,” launched an improbable political career. His performance in presidential primary debates against George H.W. Bush and one general election debate against Jimmy Carter in 1980 were nothing short of masterful.
Like Trump, Reagan appreciated the utility of the racial dog whistle (though, in Trump’s case, the whistle is audible to almost everyone, and thus not technically a dog whistle). He opposed the Voting Rights Act both in 1965, when it was first enacted, and in the early 1980s, when it was renewed, and he campaigned against California’s controversial open housing law that banned racial exclusion in residential sales and rentals. Fresh off his convention victory in 1980, Reagan visited Philadelphia, Mississippi, a backwater town famous only for having been the staging ground of the famous murder of three civil rights activists roughly a decade-and-a-half earlier. There, he told attendees at the Neshoba County Fair that he believed “in state’s rights. … I believe in people doing as much as they can at the private level.” To thunderous applause, the presidential candidate pledged to “restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them.”
Reagan and Trump also shared unlikely support from conservative evangelical voters. A divorced man who rarely attended church, as governor, Reagan signed a law permitting therapeutic abortions. In 1978, he opposed attempts by Christian activists to bar gays and lesbians from teaching in California’s public schools. Though he made early attempts to woo evangelicals, declaring himself “born again,” when pressed, he disappointed many on the religious right by admitting that he had been baptized as a child, but not since—hardly evidence of a born-again experience. “Reagan was not the best Christian who ever walked the face of the earth,” conceded Richard Zone, the executive director of the Christian Voice. “But we really didn’t have a choice.”
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Josh Zeitz has taught American history and politics at Cambridge University and Princeton University and is the author of Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image. He is currently writing a book on the making of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Follow him @joshuamzeitz.
By Josh Zeitz
March 07, 2016
It’s tempting to observe historical similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. Great public performers, each demonstrated ideological flexibility in his public career and an uncanny ability to channel the social anxieties of evangelical voters with whom he shared little religious affinity. Both knowingly tapped a reserve of base racial antipathy. And both spoke of world affairs in terms so simple that a child could understand them—an attribute that horrified critics then and now.
But the similarities pretty much end there. Donald Trump speaks to voters in a fourth-grade vernacular; in public appearances and private correspondence, Reagan was powerfully articulate. Reagan was an experienced union president and two-term governor of a major industrial state; Trump boasts no public experience and a checkered private-sector career. Above all, Trump’s rhetoric is animated by fear and resentment. Reagan infused conservatism with hope and optimism.
It was this sunny optimism that Nancy Reagan, who died at 94 on Sunday, most wanted her husband to be remembered for. When she spoke at the 1996 convention, two years after Reagan announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis, she told the crowd, “I can tell you with certainty that he still sees the shining city on the hill, a place full of hope and promise for us all.” And she repeated words he had spoken just four years before: “Whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope it will report that I appeal to your best hopes not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts, and may all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never, never lose your natural, God-given optimism.”
It’s doubtful Nancy would have found much to recognize in the divisive and fear-mongering rhetoric of the current GOP front-runner.
For those who still snicker at the idea of President Donald J. Trump (he of “Apprentice” fame and eponymous line of Macy’s menswear), it’s worth remembering that, in 1965, the political satirist Tom Lehrer recorded a song about George Murphy, the song-and-dance man whom Californians sent to the U.S. Senate the year earlier. “Hollywood often tries to mix show-business with politics,” Lehrer crooned, “from Helen Gahagan/ To, Ronald Reagan?” Of course, Ronald Reagan enjoyed the last laugh. The following year, he unseated Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown in California’s gubernatorial election.
Like Trump, Reagan was a former Democrat turned conservative Republican. As president of the Screen Actors Guild in the late 1940s, he opposed the union-weakening Taft-Hartley Act and right-to-work laws, campaigned for Democratic President Harry Truman, and supported Democrat Hubert Humphrey in his successful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1950, he even backed Rep. Helen Gahagan Douglas (with whom he would later share billings in Leher’s song), the left-wing actress-turned-congresswoman, in her doomed Senate campaign against Richard Nixon.
Even after his political conversion, Reagan proved more moderate and consensus-oriented than his latter-day reputation. In his eight years as a Republican governor, he increased state taxes (and made them more progressive), refused to veto an anti-abortion bill, helped kill legislation that would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools and racked up a respectable record on the environment. Though he sharply cut state spending, and though he famously cracked down on student protesters, Reagan funded California’s university system generously. Were he a candidate in today’s GOP primary, Reagan undoubtedly would have been faced with super-PAC ads, decrying his affinity for Barack Obama’s America.
Like Trump—arguably, more than Trump—Reagan knew how to command an audience. His rousing appeal for Barry Goldwater in 1964, formally entitled “A Time for Choosing” but known popularly as “The Speech,” launched an improbable political career. His performance in presidential primary debates against George H.W. Bush and one general election debate against Jimmy Carter in 1980 were nothing short of masterful.
Like Trump, Reagan appreciated the utility of the racial dog whistle (though, in Trump’s case, the whistle is audible to almost everyone, and thus not technically a dog whistle). He opposed the Voting Rights Act both in 1965, when it was first enacted, and in the early 1980s, when it was renewed, and he campaigned against California’s controversial open housing law that banned racial exclusion in residential sales and rentals. Fresh off his convention victory in 1980, Reagan visited Philadelphia, Mississippi, a backwater town famous only for having been the staging ground of the famous murder of three civil rights activists roughly a decade-and-a-half earlier. There, he told attendees at the Neshoba County Fair that he believed “in state’s rights. … I believe in people doing as much as they can at the private level.” To thunderous applause, the presidential candidate pledged to “restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them.”
Reagan and Trump also shared unlikely support from conservative evangelical voters. A divorced man who rarely attended church, as governor, Reagan signed a law permitting therapeutic abortions. In 1978, he opposed attempts by Christian activists to bar gays and lesbians from teaching in California’s public schools. Though he made early attempts to woo evangelicals, declaring himself “born again,” when pressed, he disappointed many on the religious right by admitting that he had been baptized as a child, but not since—hardly evidence of a born-again experience. “Reagan was not the best Christian who ever walked the face of the earth,” conceded Richard Zone, the executive director of the Christian Voice. “But we really didn’t have a choice.”
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Josh Zeitz has taught American history and politics at Cambridge University and Princeton University and is the author of Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image. He is currently writing a book on the making of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. Follow him @joshuamzeitz.
Oct 25, 2016 15:52:56 #
robmull
Loc: florida
slatten49 wrote:
Nancy Reagan was a fierce defender of her husband'... (show quote)
Some modern-day Prophets {and an Indian Guru} are beginning to relate Mr. Trump to Cyrus the Great, the "anointed {by God} Good Shepherd." This election will certainly show whether God is still pulling for Babylon {America}, or {God forbid} has "washed His Hands" of "US." Let "US" pray. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUMP!!!
Oct 25, 2016 17:00:24 #
lpnmajor
Loc: Arkansas
slatten49 wrote:
Nancy Reagan was a fierce defender of her husband'... (show quote)
It is interesting how time can change perspectives. In Reagans day, the only thing he did that ultra right folks approved of, was deregulation, which is essentially a "make money however you wish without regard for consequences" business model. He emptied institutions that dealt with the mentally ill - and put them on the streets where they remain today, those that survived that is.
Reagan did substantially increase defense spending, however, the majority of the increase was for research into his "strategic defense initiative" or "star wars" effort. It can be argued that this contributed to the demise of the USSR, but who knows for sure? He also engineered the deaths of 200 some odd Marines and Sailors in Lebanon, with his ridiculous Rules of engagement, yet the current crop of Reaganites are more concerned about the 3 deaths in Libya.
The only true similarity between Trump and Reagan, is that they are both old dudes with questionable mental status.
Oct 25, 2016 18:51:05 #
lpnmajor wrote:
It is interesting how time can change perspectives... (show quote)
I liked Reagan's hair more!
Oct 25, 2016 19:39:37 #
slatten49
Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas
archie bunker wrote:
I liked Reagan's hair more!
I would'a guessed as much, Arch....it ain't even close.
Oct 25, 2016 19:51:31 #
slatten49 wrote:
I would'a guessed as much, Arch....it ain't even close.
If this is about milestones......when are we gonna have a bald President? A bald, female, midget with a lazy eye, hairlip, clubfoot, and a severe cognitive disfunction would be the greatest of all!!
Might be better than what we are looking at now!!
Oct 25, 2016 20:43:10 #
archie bunker wrote:
If this is about milestones......when are we gonna have a bald President? A bald, female, midget with a lazy eye, hairlip, clubfoot, and a severe cognitive disfunction would be the greatest of all!!
Might be better than what we are looking at now!!
Might be better than what we are looking at now!!
Maybe Trump could hire one and keep her on a leash
just kidding !! Oct 25, 2016 21:26:17 #
U
I believe you qualify as an old dude with questionable mental status as you can't even count to four. Maybe this will jog your memory old timer.
lpnmajor wrote:
It is interesting how time can change perspectives... (show quote)
I believe you qualify as an old dude with questionable mental status as you can't even count to four. Maybe this will jog your memory old timer.
Oct 25, 2016 21:28:17 #
archie bunker wrote:
If this is about milestones......when are we gonna have a bald President? A bald, female, midget with a lazy eye, hairlip, clubfoot, and a severe cognitive disfunction would be the greatest of all!!
Might be better than what we are looking at now!!
Might be better than what we are looking at now!!
Dwarf may work better Archie.
Oct 25, 2016 21:30:27 #
Oct 25, 2016 22:30:13 #
archie bunker wrote:
I'm not politically correct.
That's good Archie nor am I it is back doors censorship keep the faith.
Oct 26, 2016 23:38:04 #
slatten49 wrote:
Nancy Reagan was a fierce defender of her husband'... (show quote)
Except in the unforeseen upset potential...only a little.
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