At Saturday night’s Democratic debate, I was surprised to hear Martin O’Malley say Ronald Reagan’s name.
Not that his name hasn’t been mentioned in this election cycle before — predictably, he’s come up at least 128 times in the course of the four Republican debates. For those keeping track, that’s an average of one mention of Reagan every eight-and-a-half minutes (including commercial breaks). However, this was the first time to my memory in this election that he’d been name-dropped in any way that did not involve how his policies set the speaker’s heart aflutter.
This deviation is relevant because it means the nation is finally growing out of its 30-year infatuation with its 40th
A former entertainer and political newcomer in comparison with his opponent, incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Reagan was largely laughed at by his opponents until the ballots came rushing in. He went on to be one of this country’s most popular presidents, largely due to his stage presence — a quality that Donald Trump appears to have in spades.
In fact, no candidate fits Ronald Reagan’s mold quite as well as Donald Trump, who is essentially running against the will of the Republican party at large. This goes largely unacknowledged by the other candidates, who are less than enthused about The Donald, but still seem to be under the impression that we need another Reagan.
But while the GOP establishment may view likeness to The Gipper as a positive quality, as demonstrated by their veneration of his memory onstage, Reagan was, in actuality, one of the worst presidents in living memory.
Trickle-down economics, one of Reagan’s most memorable contributions to policy in this country, was and is a complete joke. It is demonstrably nonfunctional and largely responsible for creating that gap between the rich and the poor that Bernie Sanders is incapable of not mentioning every third word. A 43 percent increase in military spending, another one of his greatest hits, is a trap we still have yet to get out of. Most would argue that ending the Cold War, at least, is an accomplishment no one can disparage, but Reagan and his military buildup arguably had very little to do with that.
In other words, we elected a populist, ultraconservative charmer with a relative dearth of political experience, and he dropped the ball spectacularly.
Does the middle part of that sentence sound like any "immigrant-bashing carnival barker" we know?
O’Malley’s comment — which went largely unnoticed, the same way most things he says tend to — shows that the country is growing out of that mindless adoration of Reagan and all things Reaganesque. It shows that we have some chance of not falling for it again.
That gives me significantly more hope for this country than Donald Trump’s promise to make it great again.