Time to break Reagan’s 11th Commandment

You’ve heard it before: Donald Trump is Ronald Reagan 2.0.

Elites, the media and the GOP establishment — Trump apologists proclaim — dug in early and dug in hard against The Donald, just as they did against The Gipper.

Fair enough. 

{mosads}The pair certainly have that much in common. But their differences are myriad — and far more instructive. 

For those who need a refresher, the Grammy Award-winning music video for Genesis’ 1986 song “Land of Confusion” provides a crash course in retro Reagan-bashing. It features the late president in puppet form, triggering a nuclear explosion and taking the world down the path of mutually assured destruction.

Of course, Phil Collins and company were hardly alone in their hostility to America’s 40th chief executive; casting the man who would ultimately hasten the peaceful end of the Cold War as the harbinger of a nuclear holocaust. They simply stand out in exemplifying the supreme irony of such hostility in hindsight. 

Today, mindful of the reflexively antagonistic reception which Republicans have come to expect from the celebrity class and its auxiliaries, supporters of Donald Trump are quick to invoke Reagan in defending their candidate from the barrage of criticisms being leveled at him. Even former Reagan administration officials — like the seemingly ever-present, pro-Trump talking head Jeffrey Lord — have sought to equate the two.

They should know better.

To wit: The Great Communicator is in no danger of having to forfeit his well-deserved moniker anytime soon to Trump, whose trademark word salads manage to convey even less and confound even more when committed to paper than they do when tossed together on the stump. 

Deconstruct them nonetheless, and an increasingly troubling feature of Trump’s language is not reflected in the words he uses, exactly, as much as it is in the revealing ways he so often chooses to deploy them. 

Reagan famously prized English for its ability to elevate and inspire; Trump wields words primarily as cudgels with which to debase and intimidate. During an election year in which the Democrats appear poised to nominate Hillary Clinton, the uniquely coarse and demeaning language Trump reserves for women throws his staggering crudeness into particularly stark relief.

Worst of all is the meat of Trump’s remarks on policy, today and throughout the length of his career, compared to which the rest of his deficiencies can start to resemble small potatoes.

When the Communist government of China slaughtered pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square in June of 1989, Reagan responded as a spokesman for America should: “You cannot massacre an idea. You cannot run tanks over hope. You cannot riddle a people’s yearning with bullets.”

Trump had a markedly different take, which he offered up in a Playboy interview the following year: “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it…. But they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak….”

Fast forward to the present, and it is fitting that a figure as chillingly opposed to American values as Trump would seek to begin dismantling the Bill of Rights from the top down, promising to prevent people of faith in one of the world’s largest religions from entering the first country on Earth founded upon religious freedom. 

It follows that the same man has threatened to execute entire families for the acts of terrorism of a single family member — an order worthy of a North Korean supreme leader which retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA and NSA alike, has noted “would be in violation of all the international laws of armed conflict.” Our servicemen and women, Hayden added, would be duty-bound to refuse it.

Reagan helped make the GOP the party of the big tent, popularizing what he called the 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” But Reagan, once a Democrat, was always an American above all, and demonstrated in his own life the importance of putting country before party.

Presidents swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States; every four years, it is up to voters to discern if those hoping to take that oath are both willing and able to keep it. In the extraordinary case of the election of 2016, Republicans must openly and unequivocally oppose Donald Trump, a candidate who endangers the future — and the fabric — of our country as well as our party. 

Coombs is the outgoing vice chair for the Alexandria Republican City Committee, as well as a former co-director of Precinct Operations for the Arlington County Republican Committee and a former grassroots chair for the Young Republicans of Arlington and Falls Church.