As we watched the Super Tuesday speeches of Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Nikki Haley earlier this week, we couldn’t help thinking of Ronald Reagan and how his candidacy might be perceived today.
Reagan was clear where he stood on the issues, but he had a sunny optimism that made voters believe in his vision even if they might not have been able to see it yet. He had a disarming smile, a self-deprecating sense of humor, and a heartfelt depth of patriotism and love of country.
The man who became the nation’s 40th president in 1980 never would have given the speech Trump did on a night when he became practically assured of being the Republican nominee for president in November.
On a night when a candidate might have used soaring rhetoric, themes around the future of a country that can do anything and invitational words that reach out to the Democrats and independents that he will need to be re-elected, the nation’s 45th president talked about a country that’s a “joke,” one that’s “sad in so many ways,” one at which the world was laughing and “taking advantage of us,” one that is “very divided,” and, in several ways, a “Third World country.”
Oh, we know. A polished address that offers an optimistic vision is not Trump’s style. He prefers to jab, to hit, to talk off script.