Looking for President Tomorrow

One would think that the New York Times would be delighted with the results of its latest poll. Two weeks ahead of the start of the GOP debates, the Gray Lady finds that Republicans are no longer the party of President Reagan. President Trump, it reckons, has thrown the party off its Reaganite trajectory. The Times ought to be delirious. It hated the Gipper. Instead, it endorsed President Carter in 1980, calling Mr. Reagan “President Yesterday.”The Times, of course, turned out to be spectacularly wrong. Reagan was Mr. Future. He carried the 1980 election by 44 states — including the Times’ own New York State. When he ran for reelection, he carried 49 of the 50 states. It turned out that not only was Mr. Reagan a man of the future. He was one of the most unifying figures in American history. It’s a reminder to take with a grain of salt these negative interpretations of the Times.The Times might assert that Reagan’s “coalition of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and national security hawks” no longer prevails. Yet it’s hard to avoid thinking that the wish is father of the thought. The GOP seems to us as dedicated as ever to the core tenets that drew Reagan to abandon the Democratic Party in the first place — low taxes, military supremacy, and the liberty principles that go with limited government.Yet looking at one poll from 2005 — the year after Reagan died — and another from last month, the Times marks three points in particular in which the GOP has grown less enthusiastic. It reckons that half as many Republicans now oppose gay marriage. GOP support has fallen by half for prioritizing “reducing debt” over “protecting entitlements.” Enthusiasm has slipped for America being “active abroad.”Then again, too, Reagan won the Cold War. His strategy — a military buildup to deter Soviet aggression, along with a shield against missile attacks — was more a matter of self-defense than being “active abroad.” As for “protecting entitlements,” neither Social Security or Medicare faced a funding shortfall under Reagan. He was prepared to take on debt to protect his tax cuts, which he understood would create growth and boost revenues.So the Times might be a little ahead of its skis when it says its survey “suggests” that the GOP has been “redefined by the rise of Donald J. Trump’s conservative populism.” This overlooks the extent to which Mr. Trump’s agenda dovetails with Reagan’s — and with the historical themes of the GOP, which was founded as an anti-slavery, pro-free enterprise party. In foreign policy, too, Reagan’s anti-communism and defense of freedom obtain.After all, Reagan was, in Isaiah Berlin’s formulation, a hedgehog, intent on “one big thing.” The focus of his career was defeating what he called the “evil empire,” the Soviet Union. Absent victory, he saw, American freedom was imperiled. Mr. Trump similarly sees Communist China’s threat to American global leadership and has sought to meet it head-on. This is a challenge that unites the GOP, and is surely to be reflected on the upcoming debate stage.In his farewell address in 1989, Reagan recounted a story from the days of the “boat people,” who were fleeing the communist tyranny of Vietnam. A sailor aboard United States Ship Midway “spied on the horizon a leaky little boat,” Reagan said, “crammed” with refugees “hoping to get to America.” They were picked up by Navy personnel, and one of the refugees, Reagan recalled, shouted out “Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.”Reagan described that as “a small moment with a big meaning.” As he explained it, “that’s what it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom.” Reagan added that “I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again — and in a way, we ourselves — rediscovered it.” As the 2024 campaign takes shape, we doubt that Republicans have forgotten that legacy. Even the New York Times itself might, some day, rediscover it.

Looking for President Tomorrow

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

More from the New York Sun

Israel and Lebanon Coordinate Aid Convoy to Christian Villages in Combat Zone

Emerging Claim That Targeting Civilian Infrastructure Is a War Crime Proves a Bridge Too Far

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

South Florida GOP Congresswoman’s Immigration Reform Bill Sparks Backlash From Colleagues, Conservative Commentariat

Middle-Class Americans Prove the Biggest Winners From Trump’s Tax Cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill

In a Funeral for Economic Liberty, the Casket Cartel Seeks To Bury the Competition

The Double Tragedy of the Jewish Bund

Borrowing a Page From El Salvador’s Bukele, Ecuadoran President Welcomes American Troops To Assist With His Drug Gang Crackdown