I think the Canadians may have struck an oil geyster for us. Whether it was inadvertent or intentional would be interesting to know and maybe we will find out about that in the due course of time. Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, ran a clip of Ronald Reagan talking about tariffs a few weeks ago. It made a small yet significant ripple at the time — but then two nights ago Donald Trump went batshit and began claiming that it was “out of context” and all kinds of tomfoolery, and he threatened the Canadians, raised tariffs, his usual childish overreaction to something that was basically benign on its face.
That incident, in turn, led Patti Davis, Reagan’s daughter, to speak up on her views about the demolition of the East Wing, now merely a memory. And now we have seen the unearthing of yet another video from the past. This is from 1980. This is George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan talking about illegal immigration. They would never last five minutes in today’s hate mongering GOP. Step in a time capsule here and be amazed at where American politics has gone and how GOP politics has gone off the deep end.
Want to see how far right the Republican Party has gone?
Watch George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan answer a question about illegal immigration during a 1980 debate.
They wouldn’t even be allowed in today’s Republican Party. pic.twitter.com/p1yKo6nMGW
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) October 26, 2025
Is your jaw still on the floor? What gets me most of all here is that both Reagan and Bush go out of their way to make a humanitarian plea about the basic theme of illegal immigration. That is 180 degrees removed from today’s attitude, which is that illegal aliens are inhuman, period, end of discussion.
Between Reagan and Bush, Reagan is the better orator, always was, I believe. (Although Bush could rise to the occasion. I gained a lot of respect for him the night he gave his concession speech and asked the country to unite behind Bill Clinton. That speech was characterized as “Patrician” and while I had plenty against Bush then and now, at least he handled the concession speech and later on the transition of power admirably. He was the president who started the tradition of a letter from the outgoing to the incoming president.)
But both Bush and Reagan conduct themselves with decency and grace on this occasion. Where are the frat boy MAGA uglies that we know today? Where is J.D. Vance cracking wise? Where for that matter is Trump, crowing like a lunatic about building a wall?
You didn’t hear that nonsense in 1980. You didn’t hear it prior to then.
It’s been said for quite some time now that Dwight D. Eisenhower would have no place in today’s Republican party. That’s pretty much an opinion which is accepted as fact. But looking at this clip from a time capsule, neither H.W. nor Reagan would fit in today’s GOP either.
Now that is sobering. That is something to contemplate. Because the GOP of today doesn’t have statesmen like this, defining the word as “somebody who addresses affairs of state.” The Republican statesmen are all dead and gone. Today’s GOP has frat boys with ugly mouths telling non stop lies and doing the DARVO disco — Deny, Attack, Reverse the Victim and Offender. There are no senior statesmen in today’s GOP and there are no junior statesmen.
Dubya is still amongst us and I have wondered in recent days, particularly tonight with Patti Davis speaking out, if the former president might make a comment about Trump destroying the East Wing.
Dubya was the last of the junior statesmen and inadequate to do the job of president. John McCain and Bob Dole were the last of the senior statesmen. I said back in the day that Dubya should not have been nominated, ever, that John McCain should have gotten the nomination. Our country could have survived eight years of McCain far far better than it survived eight years of George W. Bush.
And when McCain passed on a few years ago, it was said that there is no place in today’s GOP for him, either. I believed that then and I certainly believe that now.
The GOP took one hell of a wrong turn when it went off the far-right deep end with Donald Trump. It will be interesting to see where the party goes now and if it will ever recover its bearings. God knows it can’t be that hard to find a morally superior man to Trump. Just find somebody who hasn’t been convicted of 34 felonies, confiscated classified documents, consorted with incarcerated (then murdered) pedophiles, and you’re there. Doesn’t seem like a tall order, right?
I think the way to fight Trump is to compare him to his predecessors. Because the more insane he behaves and the more vitriolic his rhetoric gets, the more irrational today’s GOP becomes as compared to none other than themselves. I think that these videos will stop the Republicans dead in their tracks. At least I know I’m going to go searching for more of this. We may have found Trump’s kryptonite. Thank you, Doug Ford.
