Trump, not Lincoln or Reagan, is running
The two names being uttered the most these days by Republican Party leaders and their operatives are Lincoln and Reagan.
And who can blame them? Republicans are in full-bore damage control thanks to their party’s presidential nominee who has offended just about every constituency group in America — except white males.
It was already bad enough that Donald Trump has mercilessly disparaged women, Muslims and African-Americans. Now, practically everyone — who is not on Trump’s payroll or part of his inner campaign circle — agrees that his unprovoked diatribes against a federal judge presiding over a civil fraud case against the defunct Trump University were racist.
Even the party’s current highest-ranking leader, House Speaker Paul Ryan, called Trump’s comments the “textbook definition of racism.”
But since Trump refuses to back down and party leaders are too afraid of alienating his millions of supporters, many have chosen instead to talk about two Republicans from the past that virtually everyone in this country can appreciate — Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, and Ronald Reagan, the 40th president.
On talk show after talk show, GOP and Trump mouthpieces continue to harp about being the party of Lincoln and Reagan in citing the need to defeat Hillary Clinton and undo eight years of policies forced on America by President Barack Obama.
The strategy seems to be convincing enough voters who may be turned off by Trump’s tone to still vote for the party that gave us Lincoln, who courageously ended slavery, and Reagan, who is credited with courageously dismantling the Soviet Union.
“The party of Lincoln wants to win the White House,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on “Meet the Press” last week.
The first problem is, there is only so much you can say about two dead presidents, as respected as they might be. Trump is in the here and now, and he has the Grand Ole Party reeling in discord.
Most Republican officeholders for obvious reasons have not been hesitant to condemn Trump for saying that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot be fair because of his Mexican heritage.
“Those statements are indefensible,” Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam told a reporter last week. “Words matter, and the things you say have a lot broader impact.”
Haslam, however, is one of the few top GOP leaders in the Mid-South who have not endorsed Trump’s candidacy. He’s still hoping to meet personally with Trump soon and is hoping the nominee can sway him.
But every time Haslam is asked about Trump, he seems to be drifting further away from his party’s presumptive nominee.
Even Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who has tried to stay in Trump’s corner
despite the candidate’s many gaffes and insults, is running out excuses — and now says Trump is running out of time.
“He’s obviously stepped in it,” Corker told Yahoo News last week, referring to Trump attacks on Judge Curiel’s ethnicity. “He’s made statements that are inappropriate. He’s got this defining period that’s over the next two or three weeks where he could pivot, can pivot, hopefully will pivot to a place where he becomes a true general election candidate.”
Sorry, senator. I just don’t see that happening. Trump’s ego and his selfserving, defiant nature won’t allow it. Which brings up the second problem for Republicans. The more they tout the legacies of Lincoln and Reagan, the more voters will see how shallow, petty and mean-spirited Trump is by comparison.
But the biggest problem for the Republican Party is one that is too late to fix. It started well before Trump announced for the presidency. Most Republican-leaning voters have abandoned any moderate political thinking. They want an extreme makeover of the party and of government.
Trump answered their call. And before the GOP establishment — which encouraged this insurrection in 2010, 2012 and 2014 — could react, it had been flattened by the Trump express that has hijacked the party.
Ronald Reagan’s oldest son, Michael, perhaps said it best in a Twitter posting last month. “The Republican Party is no longer the party of Reagan. It is now the party of Trump. Good luck.” Otis Sanford holds the Hardin Chair of Excellence in Journalism at the University of Memphis. Contact him at 901-678-3669 or at o.sanford@ memphis.edu.