How the GOP Went From Reagan to Trump
The 40th president inadvertently prepared the ground for the 45th in multiple ways.
Donald Trump’s far-right worldview has a lot of critics, many of them Republicans, who argue that Ronald Reagan would “roll over” or “turn over” in his grave if he could see what is happening to his old party. The Trump-dominated, populist-nationalist GOP is certainly very different from the conservative party that Reagan led in the 1980s, and Trump is a very different figure, in both outlook and personality, from Reagan. But it’s also true that, however much Trump has changed the Republican Party since 2016 (and the changes have been enormous), the roots of Trumpism can be traced back to Reagan—and, before him, to Barry Goldwater and even earlier figures on the American right. Uncomfortable as it is for many Reagan fans to admit, the 40th president inadvertently prepared the ground for the 45th in multiple ways. These similarities are a reminder that Trump did not emerge from nowhere, and that ridding the Republican Party of his influence won’t be easy.
Despite their many differences, however, the only two presidents who have hosted a nationally televised show before taking office (General Electric Theater for Reagan, The Apprentice for Trump) also share some significant similarities. Reagan was a populist who reviled the government he led, even if he did not call it the “deep state,” and belittled expertise. He often quipped, “I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.” Reagan’s attacks on the federal government were wittier and tamer than Trump’s, but they intensified the anti-government mood that Trump has exploited in recent years. Reagan’s policies, tilted toward the wealthy, exacerbated income inequality, thus also contributing to the populist backlash that Trump now harnesses.
Although Reagan, like Trump, did not see combat, he, unlike Trump, venerated U.S. troops and staunchly supported U.S. alliances such as NATO.
Reagan would never have denounced veterans as “suckers” and “losers,”denigrated Medal of Honor recipients, or told the Russians that they can do “whatever the hell they want” to U.S. allies who don’t pay more for their defense.
We should not exaggerate the similarities between Reagan and Trump. If Reagan were alive today, he undoubtedly would be criticized by Trump supporters as a RINO (“Republican in name only”). But Reagan, like other Republican politicians of earlier eras, helped set the GOP—and the country—on the path that led it to embrace Trump. The question for the Republican Party now is: What comes next? Will the party continue moving ever further to the right, toward a Viktor Orbán–style authoritarian movement that would presumably have Reagan (an avid believer in democracy) doing more spinning in his grave? Or will it revert to being a more center-right party in the Reagan mold? In the 1980s, “Reaganism” represented a right turn for the GOP. Today it would represent a left turn—a restoration of a more moderate, if still conservative, outlook. That may still happen. But only if Trump loses decisively in November—and even then, it won’t be easy.
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