Trump abandons Ronald Reagan’s legacy

On foreign policy, Reagan believed in the importance of a strong, American-led West and recognized the value of our NATO allies. He was resolutely anti-communist, determined to do whatever he reasonably could not just to win the war of ideas with collectivism but to roll back communist rule.

No moment better crystallized than Reagan’s June 1987 speech at Brandenburg Gate, where he inspired freedom-loving people everywhere by intoning: “Mr. “Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In similar manner, when Poland declared martial law in December 1981, Reagan imposed economic sanctions in response.

Domestically, although Reagan pushed Japanese automakers to agree to voluntary limits on their auto exports to this country, he was in the main a staunch believer in a free-market economy and in free trade.

“Our trade policy rests firmly on the foundation of free and open markets,” he noted in 1985, adding that history had taught that “the freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides of human progress and peace among nations.”

Under Reagan and for decades thereafter, the Republican Party professed a deep belief in the importance of presidential character and the essentiality of the rule of law.

And although Reagan honored the party’s supposed commitment to fiscal discipline mostly in the breach, he did work with Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill on an agreement that put Social Security on secure footing for decades.

That commitment-across-the-aisle ethic speaks to a larger truth about our 40th president: He was able to disagree sharply without demonizing or even disliking his opponents. They battled each other on public issues, but Reagan was on friendly terms with O’Neill. And although Reagan would resort to big speeches to make Congress feel the heat when they wouldn’t see the light, he did not aim to divide the nation in deep and enduring ways. Rather, he hoped to unite the country around his ideas and ideals.

Now consider Donald Trump and his GOP. Trump openly admires and praises autocrats such as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Chinese martinet Xi Jinping, and Russian czar Vladimir Putin. Last week, I praised Xi as “a brilliant guy,” noting, admiringly, that “he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.” He has praised Putin’s military and propaganda maneuvers to invade and dismember Ukraine as “genius” and “savvy.”

Trump has made it clear that he sees little if any intrinsic value to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Indeed, he has said Putin and Russia could “do whatever the hell they want” to members that fail to meet their NATO spending commitments.

On trade, Trump has become an enthusiastic protectionist, an ardent advocate of tariffs. In this campaign, he has voted to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese goods plus baseline tariffs of up to 20 percent on all other imports, trade duties that the Tax Policy Center estimates would cost American households an average of $3,000 on a yearly basis. Further, with his repeated threats to punish American companies that shift production out of this country, he can’t be said to respect free markets. Rather, he envisions himself as controlling the levers of a system of politically coerced crony capitalism.

After his previous attempts to get government agencies to go after his political rivals and critics and his repeated suggestions he may do so again, Trump obviously has scant regard for the rule of law. His recent labeling of political adversaries as “the enemy from within” adds an exclamation point to that reality.

Unlike Reagan, Trump makes little pretense of being a unifying figure. A demagogic conservative populist, he uses resentment and division as his favored political tools.

Where Trump can claim to resemble Reagan is on abortion. However, although Reagan opposed abortion rights, he didn’t make that a litmus test for his Supreme Court nominees. Trump did — and by so doing, delivered on his promise to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Trump’s political movement, then, is radically different from Reagan’s GOP. The name on the rust-riddled hull may be the USS Republican Party, but this is a ghost ship operating under a flag of convenience. Its destination isn’t the shining “City on a Hill” Reagan liked to celebrate but the dark, resentment-riven dystopia of MAGA-land.

Arriving there would be tragic for America.

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Scot Lehigh is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. follow him @GlobeScotLehigh.