Reagan envisioned a ‘shining city upon a hill.’ What would he say about MAGAworld? | Opinion

In his 1989 farewell address, President Ronald Reagan described his vision for the future of the United States as a “shining city upon a hill” … “teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace.”

Thirty five years later, is this what you see in Donald Trump, today’s leader and standard bearer of the Republican Party?

A man who disrespects the American electoral process by resurrecting the language of Adolf Hitler, describing his political opponents as “vermin?” “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” he told a New Hampshire crowd.

A man who disrespects the Constitution, who does not believe in the peaceful transfer of power and — following the Jan. 6 insurrection he fomented in order to overturn a free and fair election — continually lies that the 2020 election was, without proof, rigged and stolen.

A man exhibits little to no empathy, the key trait that historian Doris Kearns Goodwin insists all good presidents have, one shocking example being his avoidance of an American cemetery in France, saying, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers” and then calling “the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood “suckers” for getting killed”?

A man who disregards of the rule of law, saying that if reelected he will release the Jan. 6 prisoners, including the ones convicted for assaulting police officers? And what of those recent 34 felony convictions of his own?

A man who insists securing our southern border is his top priority, while saying falsely and appallingly about immigrants, “They’re coming in as terrorists. Many, many terrorists are coming in, and people are coming in with very contagious disease,” and they are “poisoning the blood of our country” and then scuttling the first bipartisan deal in years in order to keep the borders open because it helps him politically.

A man who disrespects the the First Amendment and the free press, a hallmark of American democracy, by spending the last decade calling experienced, credentialed journalists “enemy of the people” and “fake news.”

A man who appears to have chosen his vice president in the same manner in which he chose his secretary of state in 2016 — because he looks like the definition of masculinity. Rex Tillerson, who Trump later fired via tweet, had no diplomatic experience to be secretary of state, but Trump “liked the outsized, Texan, can-do swagger” and was particularly pleased with reports of Tillerson’s good relationship, via Exxon Oil, with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

A man who dismisses the value of NATO and our allies while bragging about his personal friendships with leaders of authoritarian regimes in Russia, China, Hungary and North Korea.

A man who revels in calling accomplished women derogatory, playground nicknames like Laffin’ Kamala, Crooked Hillary, Crazy Nancy, Coco Chow, Pocahontas, Ditzy DeVos, etc…

A man who lies about his Black female opponent — in the same manner in which he spread birtherism lies about Obama —saying she only recently decided to identify as a Black woman and someone should check into that. And doing so after calling his Black female interviewer, Rachel Scott of ABC news, nasty and rude.

What would Reagan think of Trump?

As Heath Mayo, conservative founder of Principles First, wrote on Aug. 5, “Reagan wouldn’t be caught within a 400-mile radius of a MAGA rally. They’d boo him off the stage—but, more importantly, he would never want to be there.”

On Aug. 3, Mr. Trump posted several long, rambling, venomous rants on social media, one of which began, “Kamala Harris doesn’t have the mental capacity to do a REAL Debate against me…” and ended with “The combination of these two Low IQ individuals [Harris and Biden] have destroyed our Country, but we will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

You can feel his smallness, his bursts of fear, his waning energy, his rage.

Does Mr. Trump embody the vision of Reagan’s shining city on a hill, teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace?

He does not.

Why would anyone want four more years of this?

Teri Carter is a writer living in Anderson County.