Reagan Couldn't Win the Presidential Primary Today

Many Democrats, as well as more than a few moderate Republicans, like to say that Reagan wouldn’t be able to win a modern GOP primary—the thinking being that the party has moved so far to the right that even Reagan would no longer be conservative enough for many primary voters. And those Democrats and moderates are right, but not for the reason they think. Ronald Reagan would apparently be too conservative and principled for today’s Republican Party.

How else to explain the success of Donald Trump, now the party’s presumptive nominee, which by extension signifies the abandonment of many principles and policy ideals which many believed Reagan had in effect made mandatory for GOP presidential nominees. An ironclad commitment to pro-life values; a strong and outward-looking foreign policy; a dedication to cutting spending and the size of government, and pursuing meaningful entitlement reform—all these and more Trump has either abandoned since clinching the nomination or never claimed to support in the first place.

And, judging by his success, a plurality of primary voters hold no meaningful commitment to these issues either. Voters were given a clear contrast in Ted Cruz, the embodiment of virtually every Reaganite principle across the board, and more chose the man who ridiculed a female opponent’s looks and engaged in 9/11 trutherism.

Some of Trump’s most ardent Republican defenders attempt to draw parallels between him and Reagan, such as both men’s distrust of the party establishment and pre-political careers on television. But where Reagan was private and thoughtful, Trump is loud, careless, and conceited, to say the least. While touring GE plants as part of his GE Theater hosting contract, Reagan would spend time discussing important policy issues and the virtues of limited government. On The Apprentice, Trump would say of a female contestant, “[It] must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees,” and discussed having a season in which teams would be segregated by skin color. Can you imagine Reagan standing on the stage of a televised presidential debate discussing penis sizes?

Reagan would have been mortified and embarrassed for his party by the antics of its current standard-bearer. But many of the voters of 2016 would have sided with Trump against Reagan, because a plurality just sided against the man who is essentially Reagan’s ideological twin.