How Trump is Similar to Reagan

Memory of Reagan is sort of hazy. Stuff that appears about him today highlights his off and on peace efforts with Gorbachev. The New Yorker this week reviewed yet another book about him. His evolution into right wing thinking had a force that affected Trump also. It is the world of art that surrounds the screen: movies and TV.

Reagan was always interested in politics. As a young actor he was deeply liberal. Government could not be big enough, regulation was good. He was a staunch union member. His first "acting" job was broadcasting baseball. He was not at the game but received balls and strikes by teletype and filled in fake observations about what the players were doing. He went to California and got parts in several low budget and insignificant films. 

Reagan then went to television by being hired to do commentary. He was paid to travel constantly giving speeches about the coming wonders of electricity. His audiences were mostly business people. He learned what they liked to hear. The TV and speech work, always honing his message, changed him. Reagan became the character he was playing. 

During Reagan's Presidency he could only grasp issues by placing them into scripts. There had to be good facing down bad. Reality played no role, only the theater was important. At one point, he got into his head some of the tiny countries in Central America harbored forces that could invade and conquer the U.S. Aids told him this was nuts. There were leftists but tiny groups of no threat to us. He could never get out of his head the perfect theatrical story was not reality. 

Trump, we know, became a celebrity by being part of a "reality" TV show that was really theater creating its own reality. He drifted into the same pattern as Reagan. If a theatrical reality is created, it becomes the prevailing reality. For example, Trump sees all Mexicans as wanting to sneak into the U.S. They are all "bad people." It was these villains that attacked and ate family pets. The theatrical qualities, bad people attacking good people, is so appealing it, in his mind, became a current policy reality.

The administrations of both Reagan and Trump saw staff scrambling to keep the theatrical versions of reality both held in check. To believe staff can always stop crazy things from happening is a risky proposition.