Reminds me of '82 and '83

Bereft of any productive ideas of their own, Democrats have begun attacking Trump in the same way they attacked Reagan in ’82 and ’83.

It was inevitable that we would see a repeat of some aspects of the first Reagan term. Reagan’s 1980 election came on the heels of a disastrous Carter presidency. Both of the Trump election victories came on the heels of disastrous presidencies, first the Obama years, then the Obama third term debacle commonly known as the Biden presidency.

The hapless Carter took the oath as an unknown Democrat governor from the increasingly Republican South. Billed as a moderate, he blinded the public with a disarming toothy grin then brought iffy associates from the governor’s mansion in Atlanta to serve as advisors and cabinet secretaries in Washington. His incompetence quickly revealed he was trying to punch above his weight. In the last year of his one term even the adoring media turned against him. 

He ended his administration bewildered and isolated with low poll numbers. A series of policy blunders destroyed any hope for a positive legacy. He left the incoming president a terrible hostage dilemma in Iran, a hollow military, serious inflation, gas shortages, and what he called a ‘malaise’ in the country that could not be helped.

Reagan took the oath of office on January 20, 1981 and immediately set about changing things. He acted to break the oil supply impasse, welcomed the hostages home from Iran, brought jelly beans to the White House, and began to solve the ‘malaise’ problem that had so baffled Carter.

Many of the problems Reagan faced had not begun under the Carter Administration. Economic and oil problems went back to the 1960s and even back to the 1950s. Military decline set in during the Korean War and grew worse during the Vietnam era. Inflation had been a problem since the early 1970s. These things took time to resolve, but the Democrat opposition and the media wasted no time in attacking Reagan for the problems created in previous administrations.

Reagan acted quickly to pressure the congress to enact sweeping tax cuts to spur the economy. The traditional way to boost economic growth had been to increase government spending. Mainstream economists and Democrat leaders argued that cutting taxes would reduce tax revenues and make everything worse. Reagan pushed the tax cuts through in August, 1981, but tax cuts take time to show results.

The Democrat opposition and the entrenched media quickly adopted an attack strategy. They seized on the tax cuts as a terrible move that would hurt poor people make budget deficits worse, and benefit only the rich. This is when ‘trickle down economics’ began to circulate as a counter argument to the tax cuts. They pushed the argument relentlessly, hammering at Reagan and blaming every leftover problem from the Carter years on tax cuts.

Even now, forty-five years later, the argument is still the same. Hillary Clinton used it frequently. It’s repeated in most textbooks and here in February, 2025, in Assist:

The Reagan tax cuts of 1981, primarily through the Economic Recovery Tax Act, significantly reduced federal income tax rates, lowering the top rate from 70% to 50%. These cuts aimed to stimulate economic growth but also contributed to increased federal budget deficits and income inequality over the following decades.

That’s a total lie. The Reagan tax cuts did no such thing. They stimulated the economy, doubled tax revenues over the next few years, and freed Americans to work harder. The rising tide actually lifted all boats, just as Reagan said it would.

My point is that beneficial actions taken in the first months of the Reagan administration were used to argue that they were causing the problems left over from the Carter years. For more than two years the argument was that the Reagan tax cuts and other reckless policies had brought on a brutal recession. In congress and on the streets naysayers blamed it all on Reagan as though there had been no previous four years of Carter ineptitude.

It’s the identical tactic in use today. Just one month into the second Trump term the shouting and wailing is getting louder. Inflation is surging! Egg prices are going up and up! DOGE is making unemployment worse. They ignore the four years of Biden’s disastrous occupation of the White House. Why isn’t Trump doing something about egg prices? He just wants tax cuts for his rich friends! Poor families are being harmed by draconian deportation raids on innocent American citizens. He’s cutting aid to our friends! Thirty days into his second term, they can’t understand why Trump isn’t doing everything the old way. Go figure.

In some ways everything is much better now. In 1981 Rush Limbaugh was in sales with the Kansas City Royals. There was Paul Harvey on his midday radio show for a few minutes. There were a few publications like National Review and some intrepid reporters and commentators, but the chorus of opposition was loud and determined.

Sam Donaldson became their cheerleader for shouting ignorant questions at Reagan from a distance. Reagan’s supporters leaned into the attack storm and kept working at making lives better, but seemed like opposition to Reagan was much stronger than the support. Four years later in 1984 he was reelected in a landslide. That election showed there was more support than we thought.

These days the legacy media is widely discounted and known for its bias and for being unfair, but hundreds of alternate media sites have emerged offering different and often better sources of information to the public. We have easier access to better news on our laptops and phones allowing us to consume ever more news and opinion. In the first month of Trump’s second term there are hundreds of stories worth reading every day of the week that crowd our in boxes.

The chorus of opposition and blame against Trump will continue and increase in volume and in ferocity. In the early ‘80s the opposition didn’t like what Reagan was doing, but now the opposition sees a real possibility that Trump could wreck their entire perpetual slush fund scheme and scandalous way of life.

The Trump supporters are legion this time. He won a stunning electoral victory and the popular vote as well. The citizens are awake and furious, growing ever more incensed and outraged as each new revelation of hidden spending emerges. This time we have Tucker Carlson, Clay and Buck, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, Joe Rogan, hundreds of bloggers and podcasters, Elon Musk, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, a slugger lineup of cabinet officials and appointees, strong lawyers, a fired-up public, and an inspiring president who is far wiser in the ways of Washington that he was in 2017.

Perhaps most importantly we have the dedicated pilots of Canada Free Press/Americas Free Press still on our side and fighting the good fight to bring righteousness and integrity back to Canada and the United States. For these good people and for their support of the cause of human freedom, we humbly thank God for His mercy.

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