Roe vs. Wade: How Trump Succeeded Where Reagan Failed

American Thinker ^ | 07/04/2022 | Twilight Patriot

[SeekAndFind]

Question: Before Donald Trump, who was the last Republican president who didn't appoint at least one pro-choice Supreme Court justice?

Answer: Herbert Hoover.

This article will mainly be about how Donald Trump broke an almost-50-year trend of Republican leaders using and discarding their pro-life base. But first, let me briefly comment on a different issue that came to the fore early in Trump's presidency.

Back in December of 2017, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. embassy in Israel would be moving to Jerusalem. This made a lot of people angry. The press and the political establishment condemned it as a hostile gesture that would make diplomacy with "Palestine" harder. The U.N. Security Council voted to denounce it. The Palestinians rioted.

Trump went through with the move anyway, because to him, the thing that mattered most was that, during the 2016 election, he had promised that he would do it.

Curiously enough, several previous presidents had all made the same promise during their presidential campaigns.  But once in office, they never followed through.  In the eyes of the establishment, this was a sign of caution, prudence, and maturity — by not acting on their promise, these presidents were showing themselves to be above politics and all that.

But I see things a bit differently.  As I see it, if those men had told their voters that they were against moving the embassy to Jerusalem, and explained why, then they could have made a plausible claim to be motivated by caution, prudence, etc.  But in my book, what they actually did — fooling their base into thinking that they planned on doing something they did not really want to do — isn't called "being prudent."  It's just called "lying."

[SeekAndFind]

Before Trump, most Republican politicians saw lying to their base — or at least to a certain part of their base — as a necessary and proper part of their job.  Consider, for instance, this representative quote from Mac Stipanovich, chief of staff to Bob Martinez, the moderate Florida governor who later served in the first Bush administration:

There was always an element of the Republican Party that was bats--- crazy. They had lots of different names — they were John Birchers, they were 'movement conservatives,' they were the religious right. And we did what every other Republican candidate did: we exploited them. We got them to the polls. We talked about abortion. We promised — and we did nothing. They could grumble, but their choices were limited.

The tawdry history of how the pre-Trump Republican Party has used and discarded the religious right — especially the pro-life movement — is rather long.  Even so, I think it's important for conservatives to know it.

[SeekAndFind]

Prior to Trump, the last Republican president who did not appoint at least one pro-choice Supreme Court justice was Herbert Hoover, who left office in 1933. Hoover appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, but they had all retired or died by the time the next Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was elected in 1952.

Eisenhower appointed five justices, two of whom — William J. Brennan and Potter Stewart — were still on the Court when it decided Roe v. Wade in 1973. Both voted with the liberals to create a constitutional right to abortion.

Eisenhower, a general with no former political experience, was notoriously bad at choosing judges. He even admitted, in private, that some of his Supreme Court nominations were the worst mistakes he had ever made. Perhaps he can be forgiven for picking the justices that he did...but the rest of the country would still have to suffer for it.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Trump was the first President since Eisenhower to attempt to stop the illegal alien inundation.

That made both parties so mad they hobbled his term and cheated him out of office.

[TexasGator]

“Roe vs. Wade: How Trump Succeeded Where Reagan Failed”

Reagan didn’t have three nominees and a republican senate!

[rintintin]

“ Back in December of 2017, Donald Trump announced that the U.S. embassy in Israel would be moving to Jerusalem. This made a lot of people angry. The press and the political establishment condemned it as a hostile gesture that would make diplomacy with “Palestine” harder. The U.N. Security Council voted to denounce it. The Palestinians rioted.

Trump went through with the move anyway,”

Trump promised to build a wall all along the southern border of the US. He didn’t deliver. The fact he moved an embassy on the other side of the world doesn’t make up for his failure to fulfill his wall promise here at home. Being America First should mean fulfilling your American promises before turning to issues half a world away.

[marktwain]

Being America First should mean fulfilling your American promises before turning to issues half a world away.

Trump was not a dictator.

He did everything he could to get the wall built, and was 75% successful.

[rintintin]

“ He did everything he could to get the wall built”

Wrong. He’s commander in chief. Building information a wall is a military project. Just like Biden is now sending more troops to Europe - on his own presidential order, without asking Congress permission

[PghBaldy]

At least Trump didn’t lose California like Reagan did with his amnesty.

[Jacquerie]

Candidate Trump devoted most of his June 2015 escalator speech to reversing awful trade agreements in general, and screwing China in particular.

Too many people in DC, far beyond the Bidens, made embarrassing $ off trade and illegal deals with the CCP.

Trump so much as painted a target on himself.

Yet somehow, he managed to fulfill most of his goals.

[TexasGator]

“At least Trump didn’t lose California like Reagan did with his amnesty.”

California was lost before Reagan.

[Republican Wildcat]

Reagan did have 3 nominees - O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy. Also appointed Rehnquist as Chief Justice though that didn’t change membership or shift ideology of the Court.

[rintintin]

“ He did everything he could to get the wall built”

Wrong. He didn’t pressure McConnell and Paul Ryan to give him the wall. They wanted tax cuts for big woke corporations. Trump gave them their tax cuts - without demanding funding for his wall as a quid pro quo.

Then, after Mitch spent years not giving Trump the wall, Trump endorsed Mitch, Lindsee, Romney and other RINOs for re-election.

Sorry, moving an embassy that’s on the other side of the world hardly makes up for failing to fulfill his No.1 campaign promise here at home. Unless you’re America 2d, not America First

[Republican Wildcat]

Ordering an embassy being moved hardly required “turning” his attention away from home. And the wall was in fact being built and he put every effort and pulled every string to make it possible. And it was effective where it had been completed.

[rintintin]

“ Reagan did have 3 nominees - O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy. Also appointed Rehnquist as Chief Justice though that didn’t change membership or shift ideology of the Court.”

Only one of Reagan’s nominees - Scalia - voted to overturn Roe. Kennedy turned out to be a monumental disaster, who struck down the nations marriage laws. We’re reaping the reward now with all the chaos and confusion in sex roles.

[thirst4truth]

Reagan didn’t have three nominees and a republican senate!

We might thank Harry Reid for part of RoevWade being overturned. He and Obama decided for power over the DC courts, they would end the 60 vote majority for judges, but not for the Supremes. Remember, they voted mass super lefty judges to the DC courts. Those judges are responsible for the treatment of Trump, his friends, family, associates and also his J6 supporters, during the last 5 years.

So Mitch McConnell with the help of a simple majority, changed the 60 vote majority for the Supremes. In reality, it was the only way to get the 3 Trump judges confirmed, thank you Harry Reid, McConnel warned him.

[Republican Wildcat]

Wrong. He didn’t pressure McConnell and Paul Ryan to give him the wall. They wanted tax cuts for big woke corporations. Trump gave them their tax cuts - without demanding funding for his wall as a quid pro quo.

This makes absolutely no sense. Zero.

Just stop.

[rintintin]

The wall was unfinished. So we have an unprecedented number of migrants crossing in. Huge numbers that will transform the country and that the Dems hope to use for a permanent national majority like in California. Thanks Trump, for leaving your top promise unfulfilled. And for bragging instead about an embassy half a world away. Talk about not making America first.

[rintintin]

“ Just stop. ”

Famous last words of somebody without an argument.

[BlackAdderess]

There is another way of looking at this, and that is that rather than legislating a solution agreeable to the majority of voters by legalizing first trimester abortion (that is where the voters were in the 1970’s, and where they still are today), both sides decided to politicize the issue and fundraise off of it for 49 years. Today we have both the NOW and NARAL taken over by BIPOC and the alphabet people, neither of whom has anything approaching the electoral clout to push through their agenda, but by keeping abortion in play for 49 years, legislators who are not interested in doing their jobs by representing the will of their constituents have created this social justice mess by keeping a majority of voters unsettled for a prolonged period of time by normalizing the idea that a precedent can stand for decades so long as the other two branches of government can be controlled and prevented from upsetting the apple cart.

[Hieronymus]

He also had a Republican Senate for, I believe, the first six years. I think you are responding to sarcasm.

That said, the three best nominees in forever have been Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy.

Trump hit three singles, but without a double from each of the previous Republican presidents, no matter how many strike-outs they may also have had, the winning run wouldn’t have crossed the plate.