The Inherent Unfairness in Comparing Trump and Reagan

The times are so different one might as well compare either man to Lincoln.

by Rod D. Martin
August 1, 2018

I keep hearing Trump supporters say that "Trump is doing as much good as Reagan" or even "Trump is doing better than Reagan". But as enthusiastic as I am about the President's (multiple daily) accomplishments, let me offer some perspective.

Reagan won the Cold War, victoriously ending a half-century global conflict, all-too-often hot, which virtually no one except him believed to be winnable, which most observers thought would continue far beyond our lifetimes, and if it did not, would end in our destruction, in whole or in part. What's more, it became clear afterward, as we gained access to the Soviet archives and to former Soviet officials, that we had been far closer to that world-ending (or at best, freedom-ending) war when Reagan was elected than we realized. The Soviets were coming for us. When Reagan finished, the Soviets were gone.

At home, Reagan overcame a universal dogma that Keynesianism was the only legitimate approach to "free market" economic…