Americans have waited for nearly 18 months for this tense nightmare to come to an end. While the Democrat primaries revealed tension between Clinton and Sanders, it did not compare to the GOP show that had Trump taking out his sixteen challengers one at a time. The tone was set for the most bizarre election in our lifetime. People on both sides of the aisle could not wait for this election cycle to come to an end. Well, that time has come…here is what we know.
Nationally voters rejected Hillary Clinton, establishment politics-as-usual and the good-old-boy way of “getting things done.” Voters elected to try something different – a businessman/reality TV star with a huge ego who had turned millions of dollars into billions of dollars. What did this businessman/reality TV star have in common with Ronald Reagan?
They both campaigned as “outsiders.” While Reagan was California State Governor for two terms, he was far removed from the inner workings of Washington, D.C. While Trump worked business dealings with people associated at the various levels of government, he, too was far removed from the inner workings of Washington D.C.
Reagan had a propensity of using various advisers to help guide him through the maze of political jungles and, no doubt Trump will attempt to use advisors in a similar vein.
Reagan did not attempt to pass himself off as an intellectual. His speeches reached down deep into the passion that Americans yearned for after the long diaspora of patriotism that was compromised by the confusion of the Vietnam War and the malaise that followed during the Carter administration.
Trump, similarly, has not attempted to pass himself off as an intellectual. He has sought to touch the patriotic passion that Americans have yearned for after nearly eight years of Obama’s apologies to middle-eastern Sultans, repeated mantras that America has come from a troubled background and charges that we continue to maintain a moral imbalance that eludes true equality.
People are yearning for that moment when President Reagan walked down the steps of Air Force One and gave a smart salute to the soldier at the bottom of the ramp. People have been yearning for an opportunity to return to a time when the concept of “American Pride” gave us goosebumps and unabashedly brought tears to our eyes. People have cast their votes in the hope that Trump is the source that will truly “Make America Great Again.”
