Trumpism and Reaganism

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by ROGER STONE AND PAUL NAGY
15 Feb 2016

Nearly fifty years ago, former Vice President Spiro Agnew said, “A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”

That perfectly sums up today’s self-delegated protectors of American conservatism as, in their desperation to stop Donald Trump at all cost, hurl every pseudo intellectual invective their tiny little brains can conjure up.

Their attempt to define American conservativism is equivalent to the federal government shoving Common Core down the throats of states.

The essence of their criticism is that Trump is no Ronald Reagan because Reagan spent nearly forty years refining his political views. They say, Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t have any philosophical underpinnings except self-promotion and changes his positions on a whim.

Reagan revisionism is quite prevalent as the “impudent snobs” create their own narrative of the Gipper that is at odds with reality.

Ronald Reagan understood the most fundamental lesson of politics — winning. Yes, he had strong policy views, but acted with a strong sense of pragmatism. Growing up in Dixon, Illinois, and surviving the depression tends to put priorities in focus at the expense of useless rhetoric.

Tip O’Neill understood that when he declared, after Reagan took over the presidency, “We will cooperate with him in every way.” And the Democratic Congress did work with Ronald Reagan, most notably passing the 1983 Social Security Reform Act and 1986 Tax Reform Law.

The impudent snobs forget that Reagan raised taxes as governor of California to balance the budget. He also was not a life-long supply sider, but rather adopted the economic model at the behest of Jack Kemp in the 1970s — arguably his most important policy decision since it was the basis for the Kemp-Roth tax cuts of 1981, which in combination with Volcker’s Fed policies, broke the back of inflation and got America working again.

Interestingly, it is these same impudent snobs who castigated and minimized Kemp by saying that he was not really a pure enough conservative since he wanted to help rebuild the inner cities and appeal to blacks.

Another inconvenient truth is that Ronald Reagan had the support of the Teamsters Union. While he had his differences with unions on many issues, he also worked with them which should be no surprise since he had been head of the Screen Actors Guild in Hollywood (when he was a Democrat). And what is underreported is the role the unions played in his foreign policy vis a vis the Soviet Union.

And make no mistake, Reagan’s pragmatism could be construed as calculation. He took on Gerry Ford in 1976 — a sitting president of his own party. The case can be made that he was partly responsible for Ford’s defeat to Carter as he softened up the president in a very bruising primary campaign.

There are important similarities when you juxtapose this Ronald Reagan with Donald Trump.

Leader — sense of purpose — outsider — winner.

At their core, Reagan and Trump are men who know who they are. They were both successful before they entered politics and had an identity outside of politics. Ronald Reagan was purported to have said, in his self-deprecating way, “You know, it takes a little ego to run for president.”

And there is a certain transparency about both of them. They don’t pull any punches. Reagan did it with humor and humility interwoven with toughness. Trump does it with a caustic, in your face New York “state of mind.” And the voters get it — it resonates with them.

This is diametrically opposite those impudent snobs — Rich Lowry, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol et al — who sit in their K Street offices and Fifth Avenue media towers critiquing others. Clearly the impudent snobs don’t get it as evidenced by the slew of cancellations the National Review has gotten since its blind side of Trump.

And what exactly is “American Conservatism” these snobs are supposedly protecting?

The conservatism of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who just passed an outrageous federal budget that Barack Obama and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were proud to support?

The conservatism of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who will jeopardize national security by not protecting our borders from illegal immigration and Muslim refugees all in the name of political correctness?

The conservatism of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who pursued disastrous foreign policies that led to the unraveling of the Middle East — begun under their watch and finished with abandon by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, with a maniacal efficiency or stupidity, depending upon your perspective?

The conservatism of the corporate elites who use the mantra of “free trade” as a battering ram to sell out American workers and small business with adoption of multi-lateral trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership to enhance corporate profits?

The impudent snobs condemn Donald Trump for philosophical inconsistency and yet their notion of conservatism in 2016 is a mystery to many serious conservatives.

The allegations that Trump lacks a philosophy are a smokescreen to hide the real threat that Trump poses to those snobs and the political elite — access and money.

Simply put, Trump doesn’t need them — they have no leverage over the Donald.

Trump is operating totally outside the nexus of party insiders, the media, and corporate funders. He is truly independent unlike Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who likes to foster that perception, but in reality is owned lock stock and barrel by Goldman Sachs and the Bushes.

As Yogi Berra said, “It is déjà vu all over again.”

The 2016 campaign is becoming more and more reminiscent of the 1980 campaign when the establishment threw everything it had at Ronald Reagan. Reagan was characterized as a crackpot, b-grade movie actor whose foreign policy would cause World War III; his economic policies were “madness” and the tax cut proposal was “voodoo economics.”

Trump is in the same situation as Reagan was in 1976 and throughout the 1980 campaign until the convention in Detroit. And then, inexplicably to some conservatives, Reagan decided to put George H. W. Bush on the ticket as his vice president instead of Kemp.

Thus the political elites, inclusive of the impudent snobs, were able to salvage what would have been a near catastrophic situation — not having access and leverage on the presidency and the business of Washington.

Needless to say, politics is a very big business and, as the New York Times recently reported, Donald Trump is a nightmare for the political consulting business. The digital media buy alone for 2016 is estimated to be nearly $1 billion. Jeb Bush has paid one firm over $40 million for advertising through December. Additionally, $3 billion is spent annually to lobby Capitol Hill and the White House.

Donald Trump, like Ronald Reagan, has interjected a positive dynamic into the U.S. political lexicon — an anti-political correctness that resonates with voters. It is healthy for our country and severely needed within the Republican Party.

Americans are embracing Trump’s vison of making America great again, just as they embraced Reagan’s vision of America as that shinning city on the hill. Trump is very much a disciple of Ronald Reagan, contrary to what the impudent snobs say.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...nd-reagan-ism/

Trump is actually much better than Ronald Reagan because of Trump's strong positions on immigration and trade, which are issues Reagan was very weak on.

This is a very good piece. I feel like the writers took the words right out of my mouth. Thanks for posting it!

Trump and Reagan are very much alike in that they both value appearance over substance. Reagan was our first Reality Television elected official.

Trump might be an idiot, but we have to get over the idea that everyone who makes it to the presidency has to be an Abraham Lincoln. Trump has said he wants to do certain things, like with immigration, that suggest sensibility that the other candidates lack.

He is also a citizen whereas the other candidates, Cruz and Rubio are bogus citizens.

Michael Reagan to Trump: You’re No Reagan Republican

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 6:00pm
Michael Reagan: “You can’t be a Trump Republican and a Reagan Republican.”

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Many conservatives opine that what we need after Obama’s disastrous presidency is the same cure we had after Jimmy Carter’s disastrous presidency: a Ronald Reagan.

This desire isn’t lost on the Republican candidates for president. Many are comparing themselves to President Reagan in the hopes of stoking, even fulfilling, that hope. One such comparison to President Reagan was recently made by Donald Trump who compared his very recent Democrat background to that of President Reagan.

The Hill reported at the time:

In response to questions about the business mogul’s previous status as a card-carrying Democrat, Trump said that he was in good company.

“If you look at Ronald Reagan, and he was a Democrat, he was actually, Don, he was a Democrat with a very liberal, or at least a pretty liberal bent, and he became a Republican with a somewhat conservative — I wouldn’t say very, but he was a conservative Republican,” Trump said.

Watch:

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Michael Reagan takes issue with this comparison and penned a powerful response in The New Hampshire Union-Leader that begins: “Mr. Trump, I knew Ronald Reagan. And you’re no Ronald Reagan! Of course, I am stealing that line — with a twist.”

Reagan continues:

Donald Trump shouldn’t mind. He’s been stealing my dad for his own purposes. Trump frequently invokes Ronald Reagan’s name to defend his sudden, 180-degree switch from being a life-long, pro-Clinton Democrat to a Reagan Republican.
Both men did make a switch, but almost all the similarities between the two end there. Ronald Reagan’s odyssey from Hollywood liberal to conservative backer took place over almost two decades.

Starting with his 1964 “Time for Choosing” speech that galvanized Americans for Barry Goldwater, dad began a 16-year effort of crisscrossing America to support conservative candidates for office. My dad also served eight years as California’s governor. When he ran for President, he had a proven conservative track record.
Donald Trump doesn’t have one. In fact, Trump still can’t explain his sudden change from being a liberal Democrat. When dad ran in 1980, Trump donated the maximum amount to Jimmy Carter. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Trump also donated to a PAC for Walter Mondale, who ran against dad in 1984.Trump has criticized some candidates for their indiscretions made during their childhood. But what can you say for a grown adult who supported both Carter and Mondale over Ronald Reagan?

Reagan then goes on to share a lesson that he learned from his dad about judging people by their actions, not their words.

One of my dad’s most important lessons to me was how to uncover a phony. He told me not to judge people by what they say; judge them by what they actually do. As President, dad used this “trust but verify” principle on the Soviets and it worked. Voters today should apply Reagan’s verify principle on Trump.

During the 2008 election, Trump told CNN that he wanted President George W. Bush impeached. Then, during Obama’s first year in the White House, after he rammed through Congress a $800 billion stimulus and proposed a radical health care takeover, Trump praised the President, saying he was “amazing” and “truly phenomenal.”

Obama’s then chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel was a player in passing Obamacare. Rahm eventually left the White House to run for Chicago’s mayor. In 2010, Trump actually donated $50,000 to Rahm’s mayoral campaign! Just last year Trump told “60 Minutes” he wants single-payer health care like they have in Canada and Britain. It’s nothing less than socialized medicine.

For most of his life Trump had been a Democrat, backing strong gun control and abortion rights. Today he says he’s for the Second Amendment and pro-life. But when asked who he’d like for the Supreme Court, he suggested his sister, a sitting federal judge. It turns out she’s liberal and pro-choice.

Trump also donated to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2012, after she had served almost four years as Secretary of State, Trump had nothing but praise for her. He told CNN: “I think she does a good job … The record of Hillary Clinton and how did she do as Secretary of State, probably above and beyond everybody else.” Folks, this was in 2012.

Reagan also notes that Trump, who now supports a “touch-back” amnesty program, lambasted Mitt Romney in 2012 for his, in Trump’s words, “crazy policy of self-deportation which was maniacal,” Trump said. . . . “It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote,” Trump said. “He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country.”

In short, Reagan states, “You can’t be a Trump Republican and a Reagan Republican. It’s time to choose.”

In an interview with NewsMax, Reagan had more to say:

Reagan also argued his father would be “absolutely appalled” if Trump wins the GOP presidential nomination.

. . . . “I get so tired of people coming to me saying ‘he reminds me of your father’ and I just go, ‘how?'” Reagan said. “Donald Trump never supported Ronald Reagan. He supported [Walter] Mondale, he supported [Jimmy] Carter. Those are the people he supported against the nomination and election of Ronald Reagan.”

“And If you look at what he has said and you look at what he’s done over the years, it has nothing to do with conservatism and everything to do with liberalism,” Reagan added.

In light of Trump’s attempt to invoke President Reagan and of Michael Reagan’s response, it’s worth watching clips of both men during their respective debates and thinking about whether or not they are alike.

First up, Donald Trump:

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And next, then-Governor Ronald Reagan:

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http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/01...an-republican/

Trump Supporters weren't really all that hot on Reagan. Reagan signed the largest amnesty bill in the history of the United States. Reagan beat up on unions who didn't deserve it. Reagan vetoed the tariff on textile imports in 1985 that resulted in the US losing its entire textile industry, something people in North Carolina should know the effects of first-hand.

Let Reagan Rest in a past best forgotten. It's time to fix our country, not honor those who broke it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pkskyali

Trump might be an idiot, . . .

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I don't think anyone who can amass a multi-billion dollar fortune, graduate from Wharton Business School, write best-selling books among other things should be characterized as an idiot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by patbrunz

I don't think anyone who can amass a multi-billion dollar fortune, graduate from Wharton Business School, write best-selling books among other things should be characterized as an idiot.

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I agree. Unfortunately, stranger things have happened. All kinds of people wind up as idiots. Fools come in all shapes, sizes and backgrounds.

Among other things, Trump had a "Reality Television" program, "The Apprentice".

He's got my vote. Maybe I'm the idiot.

At least Trump is a citizen.