{"id":2013202,"date":"2023-08-26T17:19:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T21:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism-2\/"},"modified":"2023-08-26T17:21:30","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T21:21:30","slug":"in-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism-2\/","title":{"rendered":"First Debate: Establishment Reaganism vs. Insurgent Trumpism"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism-2%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2013202&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<h2>Why Republicans Still Admire\u2064 Ronald Reagan<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s not hard \u200cto understand \u200dwhy \u200bso many Republicans admire Ronald \u2062Reagan. &#8220;The Great Communicator&#8221; sparked a conservative\u200d revival that fractured the \u200cremnants of the left-wing New \u200bDeal coalition.\u2062 As president, he helped end the Soviet Union, winning the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>Forty-three \u2063years after the Reagan Revolution, and eight years\u2063 after former President \u200dDonald \u2063J. Trump changed the game again, none of the \u200cRepublicans who convened for \u200dthe first presidential primary debate on Aug. 23\u200b repudiated President Reagan. Even President Trump \u2063cited a\u2064 move by President Reagan as precedent for his decision to skip the debate.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>Related \u2062Stories<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/trump-skipping-republican-debate-didnt-affect-his-support-according-to-poll-5480921\">Trump Skipping Republican \u2062Debate Didn&#8217;t\u200d Affect His Support, \u2062According to Poll<\/a><br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">8\/25\/2023<\/span>\n      <\/li>\n<li>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/haley-ramaswamy-desantis-gain-support-following-first-gop-debate-poll-5480685\">Haley, Ramaswamy, DeSantis Gain Support\u200c Following First GOP Debate:\u200d Poll<\/a><br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-comp-caption\">8\/25\/2023<\/span>\n      <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Neither Fox News nor the Republican National Committee, cohosts of the media-heavy event, \u2063seem to have lost any love for the icon of \u20641980s America.<\/p>\n<p>Moderator Brett\u2064 Baier&#8217;s final question to the candidates\u2062 referenced President\u2064 Reagan&#8217;s\u200b frequent declaration that the United States is a &#8220;shining city on a hill&#8221;\u2013an image \u2062from \u200cthe Book of Matthew, first \u200dused to evoke American exceptionalism\u2062 during Puritan times.<\/p>\n<p>The use\u2064 of a quotation\u2064 from President\u200d Reagan rather than, say, \u200dPresident Trump could \u2063signal \u2064the GOP&#8217;s hopes of achieving a little distance from their last and now embattled standard-bearer.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Morning in\u200d America&#8217;\u200c or &#8216;American Carnage&#8217;?<\/h2>\n<p>In one memorable exchange,\u2064 Mr.\u200d Ramaswamy referenced President Reagan&#8217;s &#8220;Morning in\u200c America&#8221; 1984 reelection ad\u200c in order \u200dto \u200bcriticize Vice President Pence. The former vice president had challenged his opponent&#8217;s frequent\u200c &#8220;national identity crisis&#8221; rhetoric, arguing that Americans are &#8220;not looking for a new national identity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The American people are \u2064the most faith-filled, freedom-loving, \u2062idealistic, hard-working people the world has ever known. We just need government as good as our people,&#8221; Vice \u200cPresident Pence said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is not &#8216;Morning in \u2062America.&#8217; We live in a dark moment, and we have to confront the fact that we&#8217;re \u2064in an internal, sort of cold cultural civil war,&#8221; Mr. Ramaswamy retorted.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"aligncenter\"><figcaption>Former Vice President Mike Pence \u2064waves after addressing the GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in\u2064 Manchester,\u2062 N.H., on June 3, 2021. (Scott Eisen\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>That back-and-forth reflected a deeper conflict between residual Reaganism and Trumpism; Mr. Ramaswamy and, to a lesser extent, Florida \u2064Gov. Ron DeSantis served as proxies for the latter in Milwaukee, with Mr. DeSantis also\u2063 not shying away \u2063from \u200ddark rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8216;Morning in America&#8217; conjures optimism and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism\/\" title=\"First Debate: Establishment Reaganism vs Insurgent Trumpism\">525 electoral college vote consensus<\/a>. Conversely, \u2062Trump\u2019s &#8216;American carnage&#8217; makes them wince\u2062 because it demands a reckoning \u200dwith American decline and confirms that we are slogging through a divisive and \u200cprofoundly dark time,&#8221; Mr. Wold told The Epoch Times, referring to the much-discussed &#8220;American carnage&#8221;\u2063 line in Mr. Trump&#8217;s\u2064 2017 inauguration speech.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ingrassia said \u200cthat, aside from Mr.\u2062 Ramaswamy, &#8220;the other \u200bcandidates appeared pigheadedly stuck \u200din\u200b the 1980s, particularly Mike Pence, \u200dwho seems\u200c congenitally incapable \u200cof\u200d coming to terms with \u200dthe present crisis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Mike Pence saying that we&#8217;re coming upon another Reagan-esque era is just totally wrong,&#8221;\u2063 said Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian \u2063National Committee, \u2064in an \u2064interview \u2064with The\u200b Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would\u2063 love to see a return to\u2062 the optimism and excitement of the &#8217;80s and economic prosperity. I don&#8217;t \u200cthink we&#8217;re there,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<h2>Foreign Policy a Big Differentiator<\/h2>\n<p>While Mr. Ramaswamy&#8217;s Trump-like rhetoric set him\u200b apart\u200d from some others at the debate, it was on foreign policy that\u200c his departure from Reaganism,\u2062 if not all of\u2063 President Reagan&#8217;s actual policies, became most apparent.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to Mr. Ramaswamy&#8217;s opposition to continued\u200c support \u200cfor\u200c Ukraine, a view in line with President Trump&#8217;s stance, Mr. \u2062Pence declared that &#8220;the Reagan Doctrine \u200bmade it clear\u2014we said, \u2063if you&#8217;re willing to fight the communists on your soil, we&#8217;ll give you the means to fight \u200dthem.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vice President\u2064 Pence, I have a newsflash: the USSR does not\u200c exist anymore,&#8221; Mr. \u2062Ramaswamy shot back.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ramaswamy also sparred with former \u2062South Carolina Gov. \u2062Nikki\u200c Haley regarding \u200bAmerica&#8217;s place in the world.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"aligncenter\"><figcaption>Republican\u2063 presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and former \u2064U.N. Ambassador\u200c Nikki Haley participate in the first debate of \u2062the GOP primary season hosted by FOX News at the Fiserv Forum in\u200c Milwaukee,\u200d Wis., on Aug. 23, 2023. (Win McNamee \/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;You have no foreign \u200cpolicy experience,&#8221; said Ms. Haley, \u200dwho served\u2063 as United \u200bNations \u2064ambassador under President Trump.<\/p>\n<p>She said\u200d Mr. Ramaswamy &#8220;wants to hand Ukraine to Russia,&#8221; &#8220;wants to let \u2063China eat Taiwan,&#8221; and &#8220;wants to go and stop funding Israel.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not \u200cthat Israel needs America, \u200bAmerica needs Israel,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ramaswamy\u2063 said \u2062he&#8217;d work\u200c with Israel \u2063to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear \u200dweapons.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You\u2064 know what\u200d I love about Israel? I love their\u2063 border\u200c policies. I love their tough-on-crime policies. I love that they have a national identity and an Iron Dome to protect their homeland,&#8221; he told the former Trump administration \u2064official.<\/p>\n<p>Libertarian Ms. McArdle said \u200cIsrael &#8220;is a \u2063country that seems to be doing just fine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know why they\u200d need foreign aid,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>She\u200c also questioned why the United States \u2062might have a stake in\u2064 the current Ukraine\u2064 conflict.\u2064 Advocates of continued intervention say it threatens \u2063European allies and implicates other \u2063key American interests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To the extent that we do have any interest over there, it&#8217;s probably something along the \u2062lines of covering up some\u2063 embarrassing gaffes that happened there \u2062over the last 10 years,&#8221; Ms. McArdle added, noting the \u200bBidens&#8217; Burisma connections, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alex-murdaugh-disgraced-attorney-indicted-for-allegedly-killing-wife-son\/\" title=\"Alex Murdaugh, Disgraced Attorney, Indicted For Allegedly Killing Wife, Son\">alleged money laundering<\/a>, and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-depth-in-first-debate-a-shadow-war-between-establishment-reaganism-and-insurgent-trumpism-2\/\" title=\"First Debate: Establishment Reaganism vs. Insurgent Trumpism\">alleged biological weapons programs\u200d run<\/a> by the United States.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Maidan Revolution and regime change\u2014I think we&#8217;re going to find the United States&#8217; fingerprints all\u200d over a lot of \u2062it,&#8221; she\u2063 added.<\/p>\n<p>She contrasted Mr. Ramaswamy\u2064 with\u2064 the more\u2064 hawkish Vice President Pence and Ms. Haley: &#8220;These guys seem like they&#8217;re running for global dictator, not President of the United States.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vivek stood out most of all on foreign \u2062policy: a zero-tolerance stance on further aiding the Ukraine, which is \u200bbut the latest installment in the Globalist\u200d American Empire\u2019s \u2018perpetual wars for perpetual peace\u2019 credo that it has been marching along to ever since the advent of the national security state \u2062and creation\u2064 of\u200d the modern intelligence agencies\u2064 in the late 1940s,&#8221; Mr. Ingrassia said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ingrassia claimed that Vice President Pence imagines &#8220;the world can\u2063 be bi-partitioned between a United States that stands for good and a communist Russia that embodies evil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact\u2063 that \u200cPence\u2014and several others on the stage, like Nikki Haley\u2014retains this infantilized worldview is extraordinarily dangerous, and it\u2062 is the reason why, \u2064in large part, the Washington \u2062establishment has driven this country closer to\u200d World \u2064War III\u2014or,\u200c at the very\u200d least, nuclear warfare\u2014than any time since\u200d the start of the Cold War,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>In\u200d contrast to Vice \u200dPresident Pence \u2062and his\u2063 other rivals, \u200cMr. Ramaswamy has sought to link himself with \u200ba GOP\u200d president from California that Republicans seem less eager to \u2064embrace, particularly \u2062now\u2014Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"aligncenter\"><figcaption>Former President Richard \u200bNixon (1913-1994) gives the thumbs up \u2063as he addresses the \u200cWhite House staff upon his resignation as\u200c 37th President of the United States, Washington,\u2063 Aug. 9, 1974. His son-in-law, David Eisenhower, is \u2062with him on the left.\u2064 (Keystone\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He outlined his foreign policy vision during a recent speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential\u2062 Library. He\u200d said President Nixon&#8217;s\u2064 diplomacy with China to break up its relationship with the USSR \u200bis a \u200cmodel for\u200d his own proposed outreach to \u2064Russia to sever its alliance \u200cwith China.<\/p>\n<p>President \u200dNixon resigned with the threat of\u200b criminal prosecution\u200c hanging over his\u2062 head. When his former vice president, Gerald Ford,\u2062 ascended to the Oval Office, he granted \u200bPresident Nixon &#8220;a full, \u2062free, and absolute pardon&#8221; for any offenses he may\u2064 have committed\u200b as president. President Nixon was neither impeached nor found guilty of any crimes.<\/p>\n<p>In Milwaukee, Mr. Ramaswamy called \u200dupon \u2064his competitors to \u2063&#8221;make a commitment that on day one, you would pardon Donald Trump.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the \u2062difference between you and me. I&#8217;ve actually given pardons,&#8221; \u200cVice President Pence responded, \u2063saying that &#8220;it usually follows a finding of guilt and contrition by the individual that&#8217;s been convicted.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I&#8217;m president of the \u200cUnited States, we&#8217;ll give fair consideration \u200dto any pardon request,&#8221; President Trump&#8217;s\u200b former vice president continued before meandering back\u2062 down to less challenging terrain\u2013another \u2062Reagan reference.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I put my left\u200b hand on Ronald Reagan&#8217;s Bible, I raised my right hand, and I \u2063took \u2064an \u2062oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Zombie Reaganism&#8217; in \u2063Milwaukee<\/h2>\n<p>The spectacle of Republicans,\u2062 even after \u2064President Trump, &#8220;wabbling back&#8221; to\u2064 the winning formulas of decades past even has a name: &#8220;zombie \u200cReaganism.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While\u200b conservative writers such\u2064 as Rod Dreher have frequently\u2063 invoked the term in recent years,\u2063 it may have first gained popularity through a satirical video from The Onion in \u20622009, &#8220;Zombie Reagan Raised from Grave to Lead GOP.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A regurgitation of Reaganism is no better than any number of the 80s cover bands that frequent dive bars: it satisfies a certain nostalgic yearning, but there\u2019s something static about the\u2063 sound and pathetically artificial about the presentation,&#8221; Mr. Wold said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today\u2019s candidates need to offer policies \u200bfor today\u2019s challenges. Part of \u200cdoing that\u2063 is accepting the mistakes \u2063of the Reagan Revolution in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Among President Reagan&#8217;s &#8220;mistakes,&#8221; he cited the \u200bamnesty bill for \u200bseveral million immigrants he signed in\u200c 1986. He\u2063 also\u2062 characterized \u200bPresident Reagan&#8217;s choice of Sandra Day O&#8217;Connor as Supreme Court Justice\u2014the first female to wear \u2064the robe\u2014as reflective\u200b of his &#8220;emphasis on identity politics&#8221; in crucial appointments.<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"aligncenter\"><figcaption>Justice Sandra Day O&#8217;Connor \u200bat the Seneca Women\u2063 Global Leadership Forum at the National\u200c Museum of Women in the\u200b Arts in Washington on April 15, 2015. (Kevin Wolf\/Seneca Women \u2064via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;2016 should have been the death\u200b knell for the Reagan school, which\u200c enjoyed a \u2062nearly four-decade reign over the\u200b conservative movement. However, \u2062as we\u2063 have seen\u2064 in \u200blast\u200d night\u2019s debate, this is an ideology that won\u2019t go down easily,&#8221; Mr. Ingrassia \u2062said.<\/p>\n<p>While \u200dmany on the right,\u200b particularly in its younger ranks, have come to oppose &#8220;zombie Reaganism,&#8221; the idea has no\u2064 shortage \u200bof adherents on the left.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, their characterizations of President Reagan are uncharitable.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009, for example, education professor Henry R.\u2064 Giroux wrote that the &#8220;zombie doctrine<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no wonder why Republicans admire Ronald Reagan. As &#8220;The Great Communicator,&#8221; he ignited a conservative resurgence, shattering the remnants of the left-wing New Deal coalition. His presidency played a pivotal role in dismantling the Soviet Union and triumphing in the Cold War. Even after 43 years, and with Donald J. Trump&#8217;s tenure, Reagan&#8217;s legacy endures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":2013203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}