Just Say No

Just Say No

If DumbOld Trump is Elected in November There Will Be Mourning in America 

If someone tells you they are voting for Trump because he is like Ronald Reagan, they are demonstrating a profound lack of knowledge about who Reagan really was, and what Reagan really stood for. Reagan signed a bill in California limiting the public carrying of guns, he signed a bill prohibiting California municipalities from punishing doctors for performing an abortion. Having been the president of the Screen Actors Union, he was certainly not anti-union.

Reagan was a practical conservative who’s rhetoric is often over simplified. There is absolutely no doubt  that Ronald Reagan would not vote for DumbOld. Want evidence? Read Chris Christie’s book, What Would Reagan Do: Life Lessons from the Last Great President

Reagan was a practical, flexible politician who could bend on minor issues while staying true to a larger objective. At bottom, he was for compassion but against big government. He wanted to slow down the nation’s momentum towards big government, but that didn’t mean he was opposed to using the tools of the federal government to create a gentler, fairer, more compassionate society.

Don’t like Obamacare? Reagan is its father because as president Reagan signed the anti-patient dumping act. In simple language, that bill forced hospitals to serve emergency patients who could not show evidence of insurance. Put simply, the bill said if a doctor or hospital accepted Medicare or Medicaid patients but refused to take an uninsured patient, the government could refuse to give them Medicare and Medicaid business. In other words, “If you won’t treat these uninsured people, we will take away a huge share of your business.” Just think about that. Medicine is a business. Like all businesses, it cannot afford to serve customers who do not pay yet Reagan forced (you might even say bribed) these businesses to accept non-paying customers. Humane? Yes! Good business? No! Ultimate result, national healthcare called Obamacare.

Before becoming president, Reagan met with Mexico’s president hoping to find ways to resolve the boarder challenge. Do you really think the man who told Mr.Gorbachev to ”Tear down this wall” would support building a wall on our southern boarder? Of course not!

Reagan provided Amnesty 2000s of illegal aliens. Ultimately, he provided them with a path to citizenship. He insisted that they obey our laws, earn their keep, and learn our language, but he did not appreciate the tendency of employers to mistreat them because of their illegal status. He resolved the problem that existed in the late 1980s, but ultimately he didn’t solve it. I am confident he would not want to see this population scapegoated. It would be fascinating for a media outlet to investigate Trump resorts; my guess is you would find thousands and thousands of undocumented aliens working illegally on his properties. Reagan would never approve!

Reagan would want a president who could stand up to Vladimir Putin; that’s not Trump, we saw that for sure in his debate with Kamala Harris. Talk about undisciplined, impulsive, emotional, and dangerous! Can you imagine Reagan agreeing with the notion that we should give up on Ukraine just to have peace with the Russians. If you can, you didn’t really know Reagan!

Undoubtedly, Reagan wouldn’t have agreed with Harris on the size of the federal government, but he would have been horrified by Trump’s flirtation with autocrats and dictators. He certainly would have been practical enough to say no to DumbOld while arguing the smaller issues. He never would have said, “I don’t always agree with Donald Trump” as Nikki Haley did (link to banana’s republicans) rather he would have said you must be able to trust your president even when you disagree with her. And speaking of her, remember, Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court and even though he and his wife were a very traditional couple, I have no doubt that he would have celebrated the first woman president as another example of American exceptionalism.

As a conservative pragmatist, Reagan would have recognized that our option as voters in 2024 is binary. In other words, you may have to accept things you do not like in service of a larger objective. He was great at compromise and would have understood the 2024 election as a choice; I’m confident he would have compromised his conservative values and voted for the better woman.

On September 14th, 1986, Ronald and Nancy Reagan gave an iconic talk to the nation. The subject was drugs. The famous line from that talk was, “Just say no to drugs.” Well, when you think about it, Trump’s rhetoric is a drug. It’s energizing because it focuses on grievance, hatred, anger, cynicism, and a blatant disregard for the organizing principles of society. When something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault.  When the bill comes, always avoid your responsibility. Never admit you’re wrong, never apologize, and never back down. If you don’t want mourning in America on November 8, 2024, don’t take the drug; just say no to DumbOld Trump!