Ronald Reagan: the turning point?
Trump is the culmination of the Reagan revolution
It’s quite the rage right now for liberals to look back fondly on the two Bush and the Reagan Presidencies. The line goes something like “Reagan would be outraged over Trump’s latest behavior.” This narrative has been fueled, in part, by George W. Bush’s full-throated disdain of our current President.
But memories tend to sugar-coat the past, forgetting our disappointments, anger and frustration of the time and replacing them with nostalgia. As so many people ask on Quora, were the good old days really that good?
The George W. Bush Presidency should be recent enough in our memory to realize that things weren’t so great then. After all, it was his administration that launched us into two unending wars, one of which was started based upon a lie because Iraq’s leader “tried to kill my dad.” He lowered taxes for the rich, exacerbating income inequality, and he left the economy in its worst recession since the Great Depression. These are just a few of the highlights.
Even that conservative lion Ronald Reagan has come to see his reputation among liberals restored, especially in comparison to Trump. But is this just false nostalgia again? One wonders considering the fact that the hardest of hard-line conservatives today revere him.
