If Hillary Clinton delivers the speech I think she will tonight, then she will have officially decimated the big tent that Ronald Reagan so carefully built for Republicans thirty years ago.
Like many in Generation X, my first vote for president was for Reagan — the year he won 49 states. In 1984 he won 61 percent of the 18-24 vote, all of us inspired by his idealism, optimism, sunny personality and self-deprecating humor.
The previous generation had dealt with the political and social turmoil of the 1960’s and 70’s. War, assassinations, segregation, recessions and high crimes and misdemeanors in the Oval Office. But for our generation it was all about being proud to be an American.
The Statue of Liberty, which the Reagan’s rededicated exactly thirty years ago, still shined brightly for our nation of immigrants. That same year Reagan signed an immigration bill saying, “I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and have lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally.”
Reagan didn’t turn the undocumented person into a criminal, drug dealer or rapist. Instead he blamed big corporations, golf courses and resorts who were luring them into the country and paying them “starvation wages” with no benefits that “we think are normal and natural in our country.”
That’s exactly what Donald Trump has done at his exclusive Mar-A-Lago eating club in Palm Beach. He has gamed the U.S. visa system so he can hire temporary foreign workers at low wages. He is the type of guy Reagan blamed for our illegal immigration problem in the first place.
Reagan wanted a political party big enough to include everybody. Sure, the 80’s weren’t perfect. But my generation believed with all our hearts that America’s best days were still ahead.
That idealism, confidence and pride left Democrats scrambling, a once dominating party had been broken into small, often warring tribes with no clear message or leader.
Senator Barry Goldwater, the conservative icon, told me at the height of the Reagan era that in “about twenty years the wheel will go around” and the Republican tent would collapse. He said he had lived long enough to have seen it happen before. I remember thinking to myself “the old man is nuts.”
Turns out Goldwater was perfectly sane.
What we witnessed last week at the Republican convention in Cleveland would have made even the kindhearted Reagan angry. The dark and dreary rhetoric, the small tent message, the petty chants of “lock her up,” and the billionaire reality TV host nominee suggesting only he, the supreme ruler, could fix it all.
Compare the words of Reagan in 1980:
“Trust me” government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what’s best for us. My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs–in the people.”
To the words of Trump in 2016:
“I have joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people that cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
Reagan:
“Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans from all economic conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They are disturbed, but not dismayed.”
Trump:
“Our Convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation. The attacks on our police, and the terrorism in our cities, threaten our very way of life. Any politician who does not grasp this danger is not fit to lead our country.”
Reagan:
“I ask you to trust that American spirit which knows no ethnic, religious, social, political, regional, or economic boundaries; the spirit that burned with zeal in the hearts of millions of immigrants from every corner of the Earth who came here in search of freedom.”
Trump:
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration… We must immediately suspend immigration from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.”
What an amazing contrast of tone.
Trump also mentions “I” over sixty times in his acceptance speech. Reagan less than half of that, emphasizing instead what “we” are going to do.
In Reagan’s final convention speech in 1992 he said this:
“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.”
In his final letter to the American people, after revealing he had Alzheimer’s Disease, Reagan wrote:
“I leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”
From start to finish Reagan united his party and nation with hope and optimism.
But nothing lasts forever.
President Ronald Reagan with Gov. Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Thirty years later, Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated by a major party for president, can now be the that messenger of hope and optimism.
While Republicans have turned to fears and doubts, Clinton can claim the torch of hope and confidence. Democrats may not appreciate the comparison to Reagan, but if the party of Hillary Clinton is truly going to be a big, national party she must win not just Democrats and progressives, but also the political middle while stealing away a chunk of dismayed Reaganites.
Back in 2008 I asked well known pollster John Zogby about a survey he had conducted which showed Hillary Clinton’s leadership style most closely resembled Reagan’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s.
“One could argue it’s surprising because it’s a credible female candidate, so we really have no frame of reference,” said Zogby. “On the other hand, Hillary is known for saying what she means and meaning what she says, and being aggressive in terms of the federal role in our lives. So in that sense, even though you have two diametrically opposed presidents ideologically, in terms of force of personality, Hillary is right up there with them.”
When I later interviewed Clinton and asked her about the comparison to FDR and Reagan she said, “Well, that’s very flattering, but this is the beginning of a very long journey.”
Tonight, by reassuring Americans we have nothing to fear but fear itself, and promising America’s best days are still ahead, Hillary Clinton can take a giant step forward in her journey by inspiring a nation hungry for a little optimism.
If she does, the sunny and optimistic Reagan era of the Republican Party will officially be over.