Numerous Democrats have quoted Ronald Reagan, trying to show how far the Republican Party has fallen under Trump, yet there is much in Reagan’s approach that Trump has taken and elaborated on: specifically, the tough guy presidential persona. It is easy to look at Ronald Reagan and ask what has happened to the Republican Party, but there is a clear line of descent, and it started in 1980, during Reagan’s first election, when the Republicans attempted to rewrite the desirable traits of a president to focus less on policy and more on masculine presentation.
Numerous Democrats have quoted Ronald Reagan, trying to show how far the Republican Party has fallen under Trump, yet there is much in Reagan’s approach that Trump has taken and elaborated on: specifically, the tough guy presidential persona. It is easy to look at Ronald Reagan and ask what has happened to the Republican Party, but there is a clear line of descent, and it started in 1980, during Reagan’s first election, when the Republicans attempted to rewrite the desirable traits of a president to focus less on policy and more on masculine presentation. Continue reading “Trump represents the GOP’s warped view of masculinity — and what comes next could be even worse”