09/14/2024
For many anti-Trump Republicans, the lodestar remains Ronald Reagan. But was Reagan Trump’s opposite, or his forerunner? The conservative writer Max Boot grew up idolizing Reagan. He once felt “incredulous that anyone could possibly compare Reagan to Trump”—but he now sees “startling similarities.” In a new biography, Boot asks, “Did Reaganism contain the seeds of Trumpism?” Usually, that’s a question about each man’s beliefs. Looking at Reagan’s life through Boot’s eyes, though, one wonders about their styles, too. Was there something about Reagan’s way of operating that got us here?
“Presidents had lied before, some egregiously. Reagan, however, fabricated an alternate reality,” Daniel Immerwahr writes. “The country no longer expected truth from the world’s most powerful individual. It no longer expected comprehension, even.” Read his reflections on Reagan’s legacy: https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/uuT7_j
