The age of Trump induces Reagan nostalgia
Finally, about Reagan and optimism, a theme that pervades the museum's displays, and is made manifest with the famous "Morning in America" re-election commercial playing on a monitor. It was possible to disagree with Reagan without finding him disagreeable. If Reagan was, in Democratic super-lawyer Clark Clifford's memorable phrase, an "amiable dunce," his strength was that very amiability, and the way in which that genial optimism spilled over into his vision of America.
Now we have gone from Reagan's "shining city on a hill," as he proclaimed in his farewell address in 1989, to Trump's "American carnage" inaugural.
Reagan told a story in that address that encapsulates the fundamental difference between the 40th president and the 45th. He described the USS Midway, patrolling the South China Sea, when a sailor "spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America."
The Midway sent a launch to pick them up, Reagan continued, and "as the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man."
Reagan's America sent a boat. Trump's builds a wall.
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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.
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