Ronald Reagan Make America Great Again Reddit
Dearest America,
HEY! How you guys doing? Longtime British Americanophile "reaching out" beyond the Atlantic. I'grand here to heart you, USA. I'yard like "hope the hurting stops presently" (stiff-arm mid-tone emoji).
I guess you're all making a listing of The Worst Things Trump Did, then checking it twice considering actually, who'd believe it. And I know he'due south primarily your monstrous problem. But even Brits are citizens of what we used to call "the free earth". Your president was once the leader of it. And one of the very worst things Trump'due south washed is to make Ronald Reagan expect like an intellectual behemothic. Merely by comparison, Trump has humanised Reagan and elevated his memory to sainthood.
I'thousand currently researching the Gipper for a project and honestly, side by side to Trump he genuinely seems like … not the skilful guy, exactly? Just definitely presidential. "Let'south make America great again" was Reagan'south slogan, of class. It was about "American values", making America great in the globe again. Trump'southward slogan initially stood for rebuilding economic power. Now it'south shorthand for "let's win the culture war I relentlessly inflame and sure, bring on an bodily armed civil war if I lose the election".
Of grade, Trump'south humanity is at such undetectable levels he makes literally anyone else look like St Francis of Assisi. Infuriatingly, even deadweight predecessors like the Bush dynasty look competent. Simply Reagan? Along with millions of others in the 1980s, I was there at marches and demonstrations, noisily railing against hated neoliberal Raygun, his nuclear missiles, his utterly insane infinite force. Oh how we disdained him, this doddery warmonger, this huckleberry clown of a pol. It never occurred to us that 40 years on we'd be contemplating someone so much more clueless, and so very much stupider, than Reagan.
None of my business, dear Americans, I know. Y'all're absolutely correct. It's not my country, it's yours. Yous're the ones pledging allegiance from sea to shining body of water. I should butt out. And yet. All this used to be my business, dorsum in the day when Potus was de facto leader of "the west" and led the forces of laissez-faire commercialism confronting the Evil Empire of Communism. "Ideology", nosotros used to call information technology. Homo, we idea Reagan was the devil incarnate xl years ago. At present the news is basically "Cocky-Satirising Human Cronut Yesterday On Twitter Said …"
As I write this letter of solidarity, I'm watching the televised presidential fence for election 1980, 40 years ago. Jimmy Carter the bruised defender, looking for a second term. Reagan the interloper, the disrupter, landing blow after blow on Carter – the failing economy, the Tehran hostages, the correct pronunciation of "nuclear". Reagan was the older human but he sounded younger. What is frankly astonishing is the nobility of the debate itself. Here were political enemies – diametrically opposed on every issue – politely disagreeing, listening, yielding when fourth dimension ran out. Basic homo respect. And you stop and think – how is this normal, being cornball for normality itself?
Trump oftentimes invokes Ronald Reagan as an inspiration, and yous can see how the analogy crosses his mind, similar tumbleweed. Reagan too arrived at the White House from the earth of amusement. But Reagan had been governor of California for two terms. And president of a powerful union, the Screen Actors Guild. And served in the armed forces. Reagan's primary domestic objective of "getting government off the backs of the people" undoubtedly helped Trump the young shark-eyed entrepreneur – greedy to build, greedy for turn a profit, greedy for tax credits.
Reagan consistently said that a costless press was a prerequisite for a free country, and that it should hold presidents to account. Imagine that: a president inviting scrutiny. Trump dismisses any story he doesn't like equally "fake news" and deals simply with Fox – his Pravda, his Tass. Unlike Trump, Reagan was self-enlightened plenty to know his limitations. He surrounded himself with smart counsel and experts. Trump lives in a bubble of sycophancy.
Some of the stuff Trump's pulling isn't new, it's just louder. You couldn't imagine whatsoever of the other presidents not wanting America First. And like Trump, Reagan was an disciplinarian who sent armed police in to interruption up ceremonious protest. Reagan was indifferent to Aids; Trump is indifferent to Covid-19. More than than 89,000 people died of Aids over seven years under Reagan administrations. Covid deaths in the Usa over seven months under Trump are 225,000 and rising …
In his foreign policy dealings, Reagan believed in statecraft, that ancient art of diplomacy at present apparently lost in the murk of history. He saw his primary chore equally leading the earth to peace and was prepared to sit down with common cold state of war adversaries to thrash out a disarmament plan. Does Trump even have a foreign policy, also "spiral you lot"? A resurrected Reagan would be aghast at Trump meeting Commie-in-Principal Kim Jong-un iii times to discuss nuclear weapons with no tangible results.
Reagan's statecraft did not hinge on whether the particular head of state "liked him". Reagan's preoccupation wasn't self-aggrandisement. He sought world peace, and found gratification in good deeds. When his mind had gone, his memories lost, all knowledge of beingness president entirely faded, he remembered this: he had saved 77 people from drowning as a young lifeguard. That, in his shattered mind, was his legacy. In Trump's bizarro earth, drowners are losers.
Anyway, I'll sign off. You lot take of import stuff to practice, like choosing a president. I wish you good luck; we're all aware Kamala Harris is a result and a heartbeat from becoming America's start female Potus. Things could be worse, no incertitude. Only they could also be better. The best to you lot and yours, my brothers and sisters.
I remain your well-nigh agog gentleman,
A Brit, Esq
Ian Martin is a comedy author. His credits include Veep, The Death of Stalin, Avenue 5, The Thick of it and more
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/27/ronald-reagan-vs-donald-trump