Say what you want about Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan, but nobody would question their love of country and patriotism. People on the Left have been critical of both men on both fronts, accusing them of excessive patriotism, of jingoism. Trump is more broadly accused of a crude nationalism, of protectionism, of nativism — and not without merit. Reagan was never seen as a nativist (or protectionist), but his expressive if not effusive love for America — for a country he saw as no less than a mystical Shining City Upon a Hill — was ripped by the Left as corny and sentimental at best and idiotic and infantile at worst.
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But back to Trump vs. Reagan: I will not scoff at Donald Trump’s flag-waving. Trump can wave it, big-time. I do, however, see another significant difference between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan in all of this, prompted by musings this July 4th weekend — namely: Whereas Trump certainly loves America, he lacks the powerful, inspired, and informed understanding of the nation, its exceptionalism, and its founding that we all felt and learned from Reagan. To be sure, this isn’t something lacking in Trump alone; it certainly doesn’t exist in Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Nonetheless, Ronald Reagan’s quintessentially “American” understanding was significant; it was not just powerful and inspirational but teachable. It was something he deliberately taught to his countrymen. I think it’s worth sharing with people here today, so we can see just how much our current politics and civil and civic discourse has descended to the gutter. I’ll here note three things: Reagan’s invocation of the American Founders, his warning that Americans not misunderstand freedom, and his insistence of an “informed patriotism.”
Reagan placed great faith in the American Founders, pointing back to them constantly throughout his presidency. He was without peer among modern presidents in that regard. I can say that as a matter of statistical fact. I actually did the research, scouring the official Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, comparing Reagan’s citing of the Founders to presidents back to John F. Kennedy. The most prolific among them quoted the Founders 100-200 times. Reagan, by contrast, cited the Founders some 850 times.
A further comparison: no recent president cited the Founders as infrequently as Jimmy Carter — until Barack Obama. No president invokes them as rarely as Obama. When Obama has referred to them, he has at times done so disparagingly as (for example) “men of property and wealth.”
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To Reagan, the American Founding was not just about a group of people, a group of men of property and wealth. The American Founding was about the establishment and institutionalization of ideas: a vision and understanding of America and the very essence of constitutional government, a representative republic, and the powerful concept of being endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.
One of my favorite Reagan quotes is this one, which he said way back in a speech in June 1952: “America is less a place than an idea.”
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Unfortunately, this elegant grasp of America is as absent from Donald Trump’s rhetoric as it is Obama’s. It is absent from Trump’s because Trump is not intellectually grounded in it, and could not articulate it even if he wanted to. His “great” America is reduced to rah-rah slogans at campaign rallies where he energizes the crowd with promises to “Make America Great Again” (this was also Reagan’s campaign slogan) by building a “big, beautiful” border wall.
Thus, do not be surprised, Trump supporters, when your guy is accused of nativism. His Americanism is an America-first-ism, a protectionism, a borders-ism.
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- Discussion
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The key difference between Trump and Reagan?
American exceptionalism https://t.co/czro9GTpSF
— Conservative Review (@CR) July 3, 2016
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