I like a good discussion. Whether you agree with the author or not, it should open your thoughts to what government is about, should be about and how, whether it is Trump or Reagan, either are better than the inflation causing, national security risk, Chinese Communist Party owned Biden Crime Family.
This article allows you to think about the proper role of government and the best way to protect ourselves.
TRUMP VS. REAGAN
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 11/30/23 www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com
“Morning in America”: That was President Ronald Reagan’s key slogan when he ran for re-election in 1984. The slogan apparently worked. Reagan won 49 of 50 states in 1984.
Reagan only lost Minnesota, the home state of his opponent, Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential nominee, a former vice president, and a former U.S. Senator.
Republicans need a winner like Reagan. Currently, for the 2024 presidential election, the leading Republican candidate, according to opinion polls, is former President Donald Trump, a man who has had trouble winning votes. Both Reagan and Trump were or are Republicans.
Reagan versus Trump: What a difference!
Reagan, as a candidate for election (in 1980) and re-election (in 1984), talked optimistically about America’s future. Reagan was amiable, had a plan to keep America’s defenses strong, and helped end ruinous inflation.
In his 1980 campaign, Reagan talked about America being like a “shining city on a hill.” In his 1980 debate with President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, Reagan asked voters if they were better off than four years earlier. Reagan often said that government was America’s problem -– not the solution.
Trump has been a drag on Republican politics. In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College vote but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, a former First Lady, a former U.S. Senator, and a former secretary of state.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, was a flawed candidate, putting herself in trouble because of a special e-mail account and other activities that gave her a reputation for sleaze.
In 2018, while president, Trump’s party lost control of the House of Representatives.
In 2020, Trump lost his bid for re-election. And, in 2022, Republican candidates — many of whom were backed by Trump — for federal office did much worse than expected.
A main problem with Trump is that he is a whiner. He consistently claims that he won his 2020 re-election campaign, saying that the election was rigged. No American court has supported Trump’s claim.
When Reagan lost the 1976 Republican presidential nomination to President Gerald Ford, Reagan quietly accepted his (Reagan’s) defeat.
Trump has had other problems. As a candidate and as president, Trump consistently insulted his opponents, Republican and Democratic. He also offended foreign leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump also had a strong dislike for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Winston Churchill once quipped: “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.” Was Trump familiar with Churchill’s thinking?
With Reagan, there was no doubt that he supported America’s allies in Europe and Asia.
When Trump was president, there were constant complaints about America’s allies not paying enough for mutual defense. Trump wanted restrictions on immigration (and travel) regarding residents of Muslim-majority nations.
Trump said he wanted to build a wall along America’s southern border to keep out illegal aliens. Despite Republican control of Congress during Trump’s first two years as president, no wall was ever built. Trump may have had, concerning the wall, a good argument. So where is the wall?
Reagan was a supporter of free trade. In 1988, Reagan said, “Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win the other side must lose. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helped strengthen the free world.”
Trump is a protectionist. He wants, if he wins a second term, to put a 10% tariff on all imports into America. Other nations will retaliate, producing a trade war. Trump’s policies will produce a depression.
In the 1930’s, when Herbert Hoover, a Republican, was president, Congress passed and Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff, which put a tariff on goods coming into the U.S. The goal of the Smoot-Hawley tariff was to protect American jobs. Instead, world trade shrank, aggravating the Great Depression, which began in late 1920’s and continued into the 1930’s. Under the tariff, American unemployment and underemployment increased drastically, reaching about half of the American workforce. The tariff forced other nations to retaliate against American protectionism.
In the 1932 election, the Republicans, overwhelmingly, lost Congress and the presidency to the Democrats. The new Democratic president was Franklin Roosevelt, who won by a landslide.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump has used some very harsh language.
On Nov, 11, 2023, Trump, speaking in New Hampshire, said: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
On Nov. 17, 2023, Trump put out a statement saying that General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump should be “tried for treason.”
Reagan did not use such harsh language.
No one knows if Trump will be the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2024 or if Trump, if nominated, will win the 2024 presidential election.
It’s time that Republicans veered more in the direction of Reagan and not in the direction of Trump.
One thing is clear: Trump cannot be expected to use the slogan, “Morning in America.”
And Trump’s opponent in 2024 might say something like this: “If Trump is elected, Americans will be “Mourning for America.”
Big difference between the two. Regan only had to fight the Democrats. Trump had to fight both the Democrats and the Republicans.
Has trouble winning votes? Per Newsweek, “Donald Trump’s 73.6 Million Popular Votes Is Over 7 Million More Than Any Sitting President in History” but TDS is a pernicious disease.