For Whom Would Reagan Vote?

The idea that Ronald Reagan would be “appalled” by the Trump era is being advanced by the 40th president’s daughter, Patti Davis. Her father, she writes in the Washington Post, would also be “heartbroken.” Not at President Trump per se, she reckons, but “at a Congress that refuses to stand up to a president who not only seems ignorant of the Constitution but who also attempts at every turn to dismantle and mock our system of checks and balances.”Hmmmm. Certainly Ms. Davis is entitled to her opinion but it strikes us as jejune. We bow to no one in our admiration for her father and his leadership of America during the triumphant years of the Cold War. We’ve worn out our share of typewriters pounding out President Reagan’s praises. We, too, yearn for the cheerful, self-deprecating persona of a politician who was underestimated by his adversaries right up to the point where the Soviet Union was about to collapse.Yet for whom would Reagan have voted in the 2016 election? We, for one, have a hard time imagining that it would have been Hillary Clinton. She classed a quarter of the country as “deplorables” and ran a bitter, demagogic campaign designed to undo the tax reforms that Reagan used to ignite the era of growth that was once called “morning in America.” He would have noted that his savviest advisers joined Mr. Trump in Reaganite tax and regulatory reforms for our time.It is hard to imagine Reagan talking about immigration in the terms — or tone of voice — that Mr. Trump has used. He’d have understood, though, the President’s fury at the ilk of M-13. It’s not hard to imagine that Reagan would have seen Trump- and Reagan-style economic growth as the best way to create a hospitable, welcoming America. Reagan would also have comprehended why Mr. Trump campaigned for a military buildup, just as Reagan himself had once done.We tend to forget how Reagan talked about our enemies — and how shocked the Left was, say, when he called the Iranian camarilla “barbarians” and spoke of the Soviet Union as a “focus of evil.” Reagan made the same kind of alliance with fundamentalist Christian conservatives as Trump has made and defended religious rights. Reagan began the realignment that made the GOP the more pro-Israel of the two political parties.Reagan, incidentally, was similar to Mr. Trump in his wariness of multilateral agreements that managed to impose the benefits on others and the costs on us. In our time, the archetype is the Paris climate accord. In Reagan’s time, it was a world government contraption known as the Law of the Sea Treaty, which, thanks in large part to Reagan’s early opposition, America has, despite decades of agitation on the Left, never ratified.As for the Constitution, Reagan’s most famous nominee to the Supreme Court was, in Judge Robert Bork, defeated with a cataract of calumny launched by Senator Edward Kennedy. The Democrats couldn’t get over the fact that Judge Bork, when solicitor general, had carried out President Nixon’s order to fire the special prosecutor at the time, Archibald Cox. That Nixon had clear constitutional authority to do so may yet be underlined in our own time.Reagan himself was pursued by a special prosecutor, Judge Walsh, without success. Walsh kept at it under Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, and, in 1992, sought to throw the election to William Clinton by indicting Secretary of Defense Weinberger less than a week before the vote (Mr. Bush pardoned Weinberger). Reagan understood the temptation to political mischief incentivized by the power of special or independent prosecutors.How sad that Ms. Davis would issue her attack on President Trump in the pages of the Washington Post. It opposed the election of her father in both of his campaigns. Yet Reagan proceeded to win 44 states in the first election and 49 states in the second. He had an ability to connect with Americans that the Democrats just couldn’t comprehend. Trump may not be his match, but it’s hard to see for whom else Reagan would have voted on November 8, 2016.

For Whom Would Reagan Vote?

For Whom Would Reagan Vote?

More from the New York Sun

Is Agatha Christie Being Adapted to Death?

The Audacity of ‘Hope’

Trump Argues Letitia James’s Gargantuan Fraud Case Against Him Was Built on Coerced Testimony From Michael Cohen

Houthis Capture Key Island and Tighten Grip on Red Sea Chokepoint

NFL Rivals Hope To Learn From Rams Disastrous Performance After Last-Minute International Travel

The West, 25 Years After 9/11, Has Failed To Defeat Islamic Terrorism

9/11: A Generation Later

With Communications Down on 9/11, Americans Turned to Radio, Which Fixes the Day’s Horrors in Time

More from the New York Sun

Is Agatha Christie Being Adapted to Death?

The Audacity of ‘Hope’

Trump Argues Letitia James’s Gargantuan Fraud Case Against Him Was Built on Coerced Testimony From Michael Cohen

Houthis Capture Key Island and Tighten Grip on Red Sea Chokepoint

NFL Rivals Hope To Learn From Rams Disastrous Performance After Last-Minute International Travel

The West, 25 Years After 9/11, Has Failed To Defeat Islamic Terrorism

9/11: A Generation Later

With Communications Down on 9/11, Americans Turned to Radio, Which Fixes the Day’s Horrors in Time