"It would be difficult to imagine a worse message either in strategic terms or on its merits. Ronald Reagan was, by any sane reckoning, a poisonous figure. He illegally armed contra death squads in Nicaragua and bloodthirsty Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan. He invaded Grenada for the crime of building an airport. On the home front, he crushed labor unions and demonized “welfare queens” to further his austerity agenda. He presided over the “Greed Is Good” era of Wall Street hedonism. American politics is still deeply disfigured by his legacy.

And Trump has massively benefited from the widespread belief that he’s a different kind of Republican, one who wouldn’t cater to Wall Street or start bloody wars to assert America’s right to “lead the world.” It’s impossible to understand the Trump phenomenon without understanding the profound backlash, even among Republican voters, against George W. Bush’s seemingly endless wars in the Middle East (which were continued by Barack Obama). After years of working-class Americans coming home in flag-draped coffins, Trump benefited precisely from the impression that he didn’t believe America has some special mystical destiny to “lead the world.”

What the Democrats Should Have Said

A better response to Trump’s address would have been to point out that the political substance of what he was offering was little more than warmed-over Reaganism"

https://jacobin.com/2025/03/trump-congress-address-reagan-democrats

#USA #Trump #DemocraticParty #Reagan