No, Trump is not like Reagan.
Reagan was a conservative long before he was a Republican.
Trump was a liberal (by his own admission) even when he was registered as a Republican.
Reagan committed to the Republican party and conservatism over 20 years before he ran for President.
Trump changed his party several times just in the last 10 years or so.
Reagan actually worked to elect conservatives and support conservative principles long before he decided to run for office.
Trump worked to elect Democrats and help them control Congress before he decided to run for office.
Reagan treated his opponents with respect and won by persuading large segments of the population that conservative governance would make their lives better and restore America to greatness and prosperity.
Trump is trying to win by attacking and insulting everyone with whom he disagrees, and promising to “make America great” simply because he says he will - trust him!
I am so tired of people trying to compare Trump to Reagan. I knew Ronald Reagan. I worked to elect Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was my governor and my President. I actually met Ronald Reagan. And while Reagan was not perfect, Trump is surely no Ronald Reagan.
I am going to repost a comment that I made on another thread on this very topic.
What kills me is that so many ‘conservatives’ here on FR opine for the days of Reagan. They tout Cruz as the next Reagan - a “real†conservative. “Trump’s no conservative!†they say.
Let’s just look at Reagan again, shall we?
- The man went through a string of women and was divorced before he met Nancy. (More than 50 women definitely puts him in the ‘slut’ category.)
- He was a major proponent of gay rights, spent a ton of government money on AIDS research, and preached tolerance for the homosexual lifestyle. He taught his own children that homosexuality was normal and had close homosexual and lesbian friends. For the Religious Right, all of this is sacrilege.
- He was a ‘big government’ conservative - mostly military - and expanded government spending by almost 200%. (We all agree that this is nothing compared to Obama, but - at the time - these numbers were historic.)
- He was *not* an isolationist as far as the world stage went and build the US up to be the world’s greatest superpower.
- Iran Contra... Remember that? That disaster was as bad (if not worse) than Fast and Furious.
- He expanded Nixon’s War on Drugs into the monster that it is today and we are now paying the price for that in many ways.
- Yes. He lowered the marginal income tax rate significantly, but that was followed by another ten tax increases, including the (horror!) capital gains tax.
- He actually DID grant amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants who were currently residing in the US. In today’s political climate, this is heresy.
- He supported the Brady Bill and gun control.
In many ways, Trump is more Reagan than Cruz will ever be. If you say that Trump is not a conservative, then you have to deny Reagan.
All-in-all, we measure Reagan’s greatness by the result and nobody can argue with the, overall, fantastic results of most of his policies.
We keep pushing for the candidates that are further and further right, hoping to find *someone* who will accomplish *something* for us, but those candidates can’t get anything accomplished at all.
Trump may actually have the strength to get a few things going in our direction.
If he can turn around the economy, stop the flood of illegals, prevent us from becoming Europe and being overwhelmed by the Muslim hoard, restore our military strength, and end the Department of Education’s stranglehold on our children, he’ll have done more than the hundreds of ‘conservatives’ that we’ve already elected.
I’m not looking for a president to ‘save us’. We have to save ourselves socially and morally. (It would be nice to have a president who backs us up, though.)
Believe it or not, it will begin with the economy. There are *many* young people who are dying to start a traditional family and simply *cannot* do it in this economic climate. Women can’t afford to stay home and men cannot provide for a family by themselves.
Cruz will spend his entire presidency fighting with a recalcitrant Congress. Our nation will continue to flounder in our Great Malaise. I promise you, the only way that he’ll be able to win the general is if people hate Clinton enough to vote against her. That has never worked well. Cruz will not be able to gather enough of the general public’s support to win on his merits. It’ll be 2012 all over again because people simply won’t have the passion to show up and freaking *vote* for this man on election day.
Trump scares the heck out of other politicians and Congress will have to cooperate because he has the public’s support. Again, if he does just 10% of what he aspires to do, he’ll do much more than the rest combined.
So keep looking for your perfect conservative, forget that one of our greatest presidents was not a perfect conservative, and keep pushing for a candidate that will be ineffective - but might give us long, boring, fire-side lectures on the greatness of conservationism that nobody will actually listen to.
Just keep in mind that our nation is desperate for a powerful leader who’s all action and less talk. We need a hard kickstart and Cruz will NOT be able to give us that.