Dear Republicans: Stop using my father, Ronald Reagan, to justify your silence on Trump

[CatWoman]

Dear Republican Party,

I have never been part of you, but you have been part of my family for decades. I was 10 years old when my father decided to stop being a Democrat and instead become a Republican. From that point on, you were a frequent guest at our dinner table — and an unwelcome one to me. I wanted to talk about my science project on the human heart, or the mean girls at school who teased me for being too tall and for wearing glasses. Instead, much of the conversation was about how the government was taking too much out of people’s paychecks for taxes and how it was up to the Republicans to keep government from getting too big.

You went from an annoying presence at the dinner table to a powerful tornado, lifting up my family and depositing us in the world of politics, which no one ever escapes. I know it’s not completely your fault. My father’s passion for America, his commitment to try to make a difference in the country and the world, and his gentle yet powerful command over crowds that gathered to hear him speak made his ascent to the presidency all but inevitable. He would have gotten there one way or another; it just happened to be as a Republican.

You have claimed his legacy, exalted him as an icon of conservatism and used the quotes of his that serve your purpose at any given moment. Yet at this moment in America’s history when the democracy to which my father pledged himself and the Constitution that he swore to uphold, and did faithfully uphold, are being degraded and chipped away at by a sneering, irreverent man who traffics in bullying and dishonesty, you stay silent.

You stay silent when President Trump speaks of immigrants as if they are trash, rips children from the arms of their parents and puts them in cages. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that my father said America was home “for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness.”

You stayed silent when this president fawned over Kim Jong Un and took Vladimir Putin’s word over America’s security experts. You stood mutely by when one of his spokesmen, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said there is nothing wrong with getting information from Russians. And now you do not act when Trump openly defies legitimate requests from Congress, showing his utter contempt for one of the branches of our government.

Most egregiously, you remained silent when Trump said there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis who marched through an American city with tiki torches, chanting, “Jews will not replace us.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dear-republicans-stop-using-my-father-ronald-reagan-to-justify-your-silence-on-trump/2019/04/30/ed61c6de-6b50-11e9-8f44-e8d8bb1df986_story.html?utm_term=.434348cfa09b&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. Genial hatemonger Ronald Reagan paved the way for nongenial hatemonger Trump.

That's why Republicans don't give a shit about Reagan anymore. Trump fulfills all their needs now.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Exactly

And Goldwater paved the way for Reagan. I hate the attempt to rehabilitate both of those men.

[IronLionZion]

5. They keep getting worse each time

there was a time when W. Bush was considered the dumbest and Nixon the most crooked. Trump has them both beat.

[True Blue American]

9. So do I

Ron Reagan is a Democrat. Has nothing good to say about Republicans or Trump. But acting like Reagan did not begin to destroy Unions, hurt the middle class with his huge tax cuts is not so!

[DownriverDem]

4. And those needs

are to pack the courts and overturn Roe v Wade.

[DownriverDem]

3. Behind Pay Wall

Too bad. I would have loved to read it.

[CatWoman]

13. Here's the rest

Those of us who are not Republicans still have a right to expect you to act in a principled, moral and, yes, even noble way. Our democracy is in trouble, and everyone who has been elected to office has an obligation to save it. Maybe you’re frightened of Trump — that idea has been floated. I don’t quite understand what’s frightening about an overgrown child who resorts to name-calling, but if that is the case, then my response is: You are grown men and women. Get over it.

My father called America “the shining city on a hill.” Trump sees America as another of his possessions that he can slap his name on. A president is not supposed to own America. He or she is supposed to serve the American people.

In their book “How Democracies Die,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt warned: “How do elected authoritarians shatter the democratic institutions that are supposed to constrain them? Some do it in one fell swoop. But more often the assault on democracy begins slowly.”


Trump has been wounding our democracy for the past two years. If he is reelected for another term, it’s almost a given that America will not survive — at least not as the country the Founding Fathers envisioned, and not as the idealistic experiment they built using a Constitution designed to protect democracy and withstand tyranny.

My father knew we were fragile. He said: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same.”

So, to the Republican Party that holds tightly to my father’s legacy — if you are going to stand silent as America is dismantled and dismembered, as democracy is thrown onto the ash heap of yesterday, shame on you. But don’t use my father’s name on the way down.

[Demobrat]

6. As if there's a Republican alive

who cares what she thinks.

[erlewyne]

7. I will never click on Washingtonpost again

Gave me a pop-up about my adblocker, had to restart my computer
to get back.

My curiosity was "is that Ron Reagan Jr. who posted this opinion?". He
is an idol of mine. I did not like President Reagan and am a Jimmy
Carter fan,

[True Blue American]

10. Same here, but it was Patty Davis.

She does not even use the Reagan name. Ron has been outraged for years. I like and admire him.

With Patty and her whitewash, much too late!

[erlewyne]

14. I would like to thank you ... all.

I did not know who Patty Davis was. I feel more comfortable now
that I realize I am not alone. Your effort in setting me straight
is very much appreciated.

This ad stuff is upsetting. My income is Social Security which I
paid for I cannot afford my internet, it is a gift. Oh, I am not
poor ... the safety net has me covered ... I remember being p.o.'d
when I was drafted for Viet Nam and was paid pennies and had
to pay Social Security ... but I knew deep down inside that it
was a good thing.

[True Blue American]

12. You get 5 free articles a month. After that, forget it.

[karin_sj]

8. I found a full version of the letter

https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2019/05/washington-post-opinion-dear-gop-stop-using-my-father-ronald-reagan-to-justify-silence-on-trump.html

I thought at first that it was Ron Reagan too, but it was Patti Reagan. Her points are valid (even though her father was an awful president).

[True Blue American]

11. Patty Davis

Her Mothers maiden name.

[Martin Eden]

15. Reagan was worse than Nixon in my book

He draped horrible rightwing policies in the flag and a sunny dispotion which belied the damage done to those fooled into voting for him.

Reagan was instrumental in lowering the living standards of the working class and widening the chasm between the rich and everyone else -- while raping the environment for short term profits.

Nixon was a despicable red baiter and dirty trickster, but the EPA was crated under his watch and in the long dun his deep character flaws were his own downfall.