Ronald Reagan scholar Dr Paul Kengor to Glenn Beck: Trump is the ‘anti-Reagan’
Dr. Paul Kengor finally took up the Trump-Reagan comparisons, appearing on the Glenn Beck Show detailing why he’s the “anti-Reagan.”
“There aren’t two men who are more different,” Kengor began after explaining the movement comparing the 2016 GOP candidate to the former President. “Donald Trump is the anti-Reagan,” he added, saying he could a few links before repeating the statement.
Kengor wrote an op-ed on the topic: “…let me state unequivocally and undeniably that not only is Donald Trump not the ‘next Reagan,’ but he is the anti-Reagan. Really, I find not only that the two men have preciously little in common, from their policies to their person, but I think there may be no two men more glaringly different. Donald Trump is a polar opposite of Ronald Reagan.”
Kengor listed his credentials as a Reagan scholar: six major books on Reagan, several of them bestsellers, ranging from (the first) God and Ronald Reagan (HarperCollins, 2004) to Reagan’s Legacy in a World Transformed (Harvard University Press, 2015). Some of those in between include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism (2006) and 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative (2014). Two of these books are the basis for the Reagan/film bio-pic, Reagan: The Movie.
Kengor then details why he believes that Trump is a “lightweight” on policy, pointing to how Trump bounces around on countries should be allowed to be beocme nuclear powers: “…that kind of policy knowledge is something you need to know going into the presidency. You don’t learn that on the job…You need to have at least rudimentary understanding of these basic policy specifics. Reagan had that. Trump doesn’t.
The articles details the outrage towards Trump and how he’s rocked the political landscape – give it a read HERE
Some quotes worth noting:
“Reagan was a man of great grace. Trump is tremendously lacking in grace.”
“Reagan was liked by people because he liked them and treated them kindly. I never encountered one episode, ever, from Dixon, Illinois to Hollywood to Sacramento to Washington all the way to his tomb in Simi Valley, California, of Ronald Reagan speaking to anyone even once with the crudeness, rudeness, bombast, vitriol, vulgarity, and insults as Donald Trump does daily. Trump does not just lash out when someone criticizes him, or when he loses — he explodes, he ascribes sinister motives, he threatens lawsuits, he maligns. ”
“Ronald Reagan spoke of being a conservative, and anchored his policy preferences in conservative roots, it stemmed from years of devouring conservative books and publications and attending and speaking at conservative conferences….Trump has done none of that intellectual heavy-lifting, nor does it seem to interest him.”