Memo to Dems: Ronald Reagan Is Not Your Friend
Why waste a second mentioning a man whose wildest dreams are being fulfilled by Trump and Musk today?
Arming and supporting war criminals. Ramping up the war on drugs. Deregulating the government and economy. Slashing union power and unlocking corporate power. Enabling mass suffering towards LGBTQ people. Standing up for apartheid South Africa.
All things Democrats supposedly oppose in Donald Trump. All things Ronald Reagan is famously well known for.
So, why do Democrats keep invoking him?
After a disorganized and neutered-by-leadership attempt to display opposition to Trump (matching outfits, auction paddles, and all), Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic response.
The Democratic Party’s choice to elevate Slotkin was eyebrow-raising: her resume includes being the first Democrat ever endorsed by Liz Cheney; voting for the Laken Riley Act, thus empowering Trump to detain and deport undocumented immigrants without due process; and being among the top of the pack of Senate Democrats voting for Trump’s Cabinet picks.
To be fair, Slotkin delivered a speech that was not aesthetically off-putting. No spilled water. No disconcerting eye contact. Assured, to the point, and clear. But what was the point?
Throughout, Slotkin delivered some ingredients for a good speech — saying that “Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends,” and “on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America” and highlighting that despite her father being a Republican, and her mother being a Democrat, her family shared values beyond partisanship.
But the final product was tainted by overdone and under-ordered material, resulting in an otherwise familiar, and losing, recipe.
“Reagan must be rolling over in his grave,” Slotkin said of Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s public blowup at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “As a Cold War kid, I'm thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War.”
Who is this for? Democrats don’t care for Reagan. Republicans venerate Reagan, sure, but trying to contrast Reagan with Reagan 2.0 might only affirm voters’ reverence for the updated version! And as far as general Cold War nostalgia goes – who has a deep, activating connection to that time? No one below the age of 45.
Moreover, while people support Ukrainians against Russia’s invasion, support for funding or extending the war is flagging. Millions question US support for Israel’s genocidal war on Palestine, to the point of hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets to protest. Interventionism is a dud, so much so that it helped bring Trump back to the White House. Why allow one of the most memorable parts of your response to him to be centered around it?
If nothing else, why spend an ounce of your speech hailing a man whose wildest dreams are being fulfilled by your opponents today?