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Ronald Reagan would have appreciated Donald Trump’s moxie. Stylistically, they are different but all men are different in this regard. Ideologically however, there are many similarities.
Reagan spoke out often against the political establishment. Reagan was himself anti-status quo. He was of the conservative/populist Goldwater wing of the GOP. Don’t forget, he ran against the establishment candidate, incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976, almost beating him for the presidential nomination.
He ran again in 1980 against the establishment candidates Amb. George H.W. Bush and former Texas Gov. John Connolly, defeated them, and in so doing remade the GOP.
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For men like Reagan and Trump, it’s always been the same: Outsiders versus insiders. British versus the Colonists. Jefferson versus Adams. Goldwater versus Rockefeller. The conservative movement versus the GOP establishment. Delta House versus Omega House. The Jedi versus the Evil Empire.
Bill Clinton once said, “Democrats want to fall in love; Republicans want to fall in line.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Democrats love power and all its abuses and fall in line behind anyone with perceived power; Republicans fall in love with ideas centered on the individual.
Republicans cherished Reagan and now Trump, because both these men have acted on their conservative ideas.
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One stark example, Reagan wanted to destroy the Soviet Union which he called an “Evil Empire.” He wanted to consign it to the “ash heap” of history. Meanwhile the political establishment supported “Détente” which was co-existence, even as the Soviets were gobbling up the rest of the world, Reagan was challenging this way of thinking.
The Berlin Wall fell as a result of Reagan’s conservative actions.
He wanted to eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy seeing them as fraudulent and wasteful. Just as Trump is now doing. The entrenched establishment supported them even as they were worthless, counter-productive and costly.
Reagan supported gay rights long before it was fashionable or accepted by the political establishment because it was about the individual.
Later, as president, Reagan was never comfortable in the trappings of Washington, often leaving for the weekend to go the Camp David or for longer trips to his ranch in Santa Barbara.
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When he left Washington in January 1989, he only returned once to accept the Medal of Freedom award from President George W. Bush 43.
Reagan was wildly popular with blue-collar voters, just as Trump now is. And yes, both men had and have a tremendous sense of humor. Joe Biden? He is the butt of jokes.
The Republican Party has changed its positions on many issues over the years, whereas the Democratic Party has remained more or less constant as the pro-government party, since 1932. The GOP used to be the balanced budget, Green eyeshade party before Ronald Reagan introduced tax cuts as a canon of the party, to liberate the individual.
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The party has switched back and forth on trade and other matters over the years. But in 1980, Reagan brought a cluster of issues to the party which it still embraces and Trump pursues today.
Tax cuts, federalism, strong national defense, pro-life, all centered on the importance of the individual. Reagan often said, “Our party must be the party of the individual.” All these issues Donald Trump has heartily embraced.
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The only issue with separates them may be trade, but Reagan also used tariffs to save Harley-Davidson from cheap Japanese imports, thus saving a cherished company.
Everything Reagan did must be judged in the shadow of the Cold War. He supported NAFTA and the Caribbean Basin Initiative as they strengthened the trading, cultural and political ties between these Western Hemisphere countries. And, for Reagan, they were a restatement of the Monroe Doctrine.
There is a small group of rabble-rouser Republicans who oppose Trump just as Reagan had his cranks and critics.
Just as all revolutionaries do.
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