Matt Lewis has lost his mind. I know Matt, and he’s a good guy, but Donald Trump broke him. Lewis has never been comfortable with Trump and the populist America First movement. He has a distinct distaste for Trump’s Cult-of-Personality brand of politics. But Lewis’ latest piece in The Hill is myopic Trump-hate at its worst, claiming that somehow Kamala Harris and the DNC represent a more faithful recreation of Ronald Reagan Republicanism than Trump and the Republican Party do.
Absolute garbage.
As proof, Lewis cites a few examples like Democrat support for ongoing Ukraine war funding, Amber Rose appearing on stage at the RNC, Trump’s unwillingness to fight a losing battle on abortion, and his personal boasting and character flaws. On the other side, Lewis swallows whole the utter fabrication of patriotism and middle-American values showcased at the DNC. He even quotes Republican grifter turned anti-Trump grifter Bill Kristol. (Matt, when you start quoting Bill Kristol, you need to rethink your life).
But let’s look at the actual Republican and Democrat positions on current issues vis-à-vis Reaganism:
Taxes & Economy
Harris has proposed the most radical tax increase in U.S. history, including an entirely new tax on “unrealized gains” that would devastate startups and crush economic growth. Harris has likewise proposed a massive increase in the death tax that would devastate family farms.
Trump has proposed an extension and expansion of his historic tax cuts – cuts that generated strong economic growth AND increased federal revenues.
Bureaucracy & Regulation
Harris has supported every bureaucratic expansion and power grab. She’s from the government, and she’s here to “help.”
Trump required his administration to remove a regulation for every new one added.
Foreign Policy
Harris has pledged funding for Ukraine, yes, but anyone who believes her newly professed support for Israel should check out the housing deals in Gaza. Harris was “deeply involved” in the deadly debacle of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and aligns most closely with the Hamas Wing of the Democrat Party alongside Ilhan Omar, AOC, and Rashida Tlaib. Harris has never demonstrated anything resembling foreign policy chops.
On Trump, Lewis cites his “fondness” for Vladimir Putin, but ignores the fact that for four years of the Trump administration, Putin didn’t invade anyone (unlike what he did under both Barack Obama and Biden / Harris), North Korea’s Rocket Boy stopped firing rockets, China wasn’t making moves on Taiwan, Iran didn’t have any money to send to Hamas…Ukraine is literally the only major area of policy disagreement between GOP Hawks and Populists on the right.
Border Security & Immigration
Harris has spent a career backing open borders policies, and was quite happy to be Biden’s “Border Czar” in charge of throwing the gates open until it became politically expedient to reverse her talking points overnight.
Trump took strong steps to secure the border, for the first time making Mexico a partner rather than adversary on stopping illegal border crossings. Trump has also supported increases in H1B visas, and other work-specific entrants.
Abortion
Harris is for unlimited abortion up to birth.
Trump nominated judges who overturned Roe v Wade, delivering on a promise every other GOP Presidential candidate had made but failed to deliver. Trump’s insistence that this is now a states-rights issue is EXACTLY in line with what Reagan and virtually every other pro-life Republican said for decades. The losses in those states aren’t Trump’s fault – the pro-life movement owns those failures.
Moral Values
Harris supports allowing unaltered biological males to compete with females in sports, and share their locker and bathrooms. She supports the right of schools to transition children without parental notification, much less approval.
Trump cavorts with porn stars and Hulk Hogan.
I could keep going, because there is not one single policy area where modern Democrats are even remotely Reaganesque, but you get the point. Lewis is engaging in the self-deception of the “cool kids” set of DC elite circles where opposition to Trump – no matter how falsified – is rewarded. Trump’s shortcomings, and those of the broader America First movement, are not policy failures. Even Trump’s harshest critics on the right will generally admit that the policy outcomes of his first term were excellent. Trump’s platform, Ukraine aside, is entirely in line with traditional GOP values.
It’s not Donald Trump tearing down the last barriers of civility, societal, and governing norms: Democrats are doing that. Democrats have weaponized U.S. Intel and Law Enforcement and are engaging in blatant lawfare, not Trump. Democrats are conspiring with Big Tech to censor opposing views, not Trump. Democrats are threatening to pack the Supreme Court, not Trump.
But perhaps the biggest irony of Matt’s latest piece is that the same establishment-brand Republicans thought the Party was crazy to nominate Reagan over Bush in 1980, and said he had no chance of winning. They also said the Cold War was unwinnable, and derided Reagan’s outreach to Mikhael Gorbachev. Now, history repeats.
Matt, if you want to come back on the show and talk about this, we’ll happily give you the platform, but I think you’re gonna have a hard time convincing people that the Democrat platform of open borders, terrorist appeasement, censorship, massive tax increases, government expansion, perverts with penises in the girls’ room, and packing the Supreme Court is what Ronald Reagan would have done.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
