“History repeats itself,” said the father of Communism, “first as tragedy, then as farce.” He foresaw what’s going on now in a disoriented GOP that still hates his guts.
If Donald Trump stops tripping over himself to win the nomination, the party line would hail him as the Second Coming of Reagan, but the parallels are not the ones they would be selling.
Both candidates were created by TV, Reagan as a pitchman for General Electric (a global corporation that now pays no taxes) and Trump as the fictional business giant who, in real life, keeps losing other people’s money and going bankrupt.
Unlike Trump, Reagan’s ratings went south. As a former not-quite-movie star and one-time Democrat, he turned to conservative politics the way washed-up contemporaries now flock to celebrity reality shows and roasts, delivering a canned speech about free enterprise with such sincerity that he found himself Governor of California.
But in today’s souped-up media-ocracy, no experience is required as presidential apprenticeship: Trump is poised to go directly from what David Brooks calls “Blowhardia” to a White House run with none of Reagan’s experience in the government trenches.
Political incorrectness might not stand in the way. Just as Reagan became the first divorced president ever, conservatives may overlook Trump’s flamboyant personal life the way many backed a multi-married, cross-dressing, pro-choice Rudy Giuliani the last time around. Desperation for a winner breeds tolerance.