In his speech at Mount Rushmore in 2020, former President Donald Trump echoed a warning the late President Ronald Reagan gave in his 1989 farewell address about the danger of losing the American spirit.
But that’s just one of several connections between the 40th and 45th presidents.
Many may not realize Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan was actually first used by Reagan.
“We came together in a national crusade to make America great again, and to make a new beginning,” Reagan said in his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican convention in 1984.
“Well, now it’s all coming together. With our beloved nation at peace, we’re in the midst of a springtime of hope for America. Greatness lies ahead of us.”
Reagan and his running mate George H.W. Bush had employed the slogan “Let’s Make America Great Again” during their 1980 campaign.
Further, Trump’s ubiquitous campaign rally walkout song — Lee Greenwood’s hit “God Bless the USA” — was featured in a tribute film to Reagan shown to the delegates at the 1984 GOP convention.
[embedded content]
Trump often says his foreign policy is guided by Reagan’s policy of “peace through strength.”
Trump made another powerful connection to Reagan, though not overtly, during his speech at Mount Rushmore on July 4, 2020. He echoed a warning Reagan communicated in his farewell address in January 1989, 35 years ago.
In those remarks from the Oval Office, Reagan said, “There is a great tradition of warnings in presidential farewells, and I’ve got one that’s been on my mind for some time.”
“But, oddly enough, it starts with one of the things I’m proudest of in the past eight years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism,” he added.
Do you think patriotism is on the decline in America?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
Reagan argued that all that had been gained in renewing the American spirit while he was in office “won’t count for much, and it won’t last, unless it’s grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge. An informed patriotism is what we want.”
“Are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?” he asked.
[embedded content]
Reagan recounted that patriotism was pretty much a given for most Americans until the mid-1960s or so.
“We absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions,” Reagan said. It was inculcated in homes, neighborhoods and communities.
“And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special,” he said.
But, Reagan contended, as the U.S. prepared to enter the 1990s, such was no longer the case.
“Younger parents aren’t sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style,” he said.
“Our spirit is back, but we haven’t reinstitutionalized it. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile,” the Republican exhorted.
“If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result ultimately in an erosion of the American spirit,” Reagan said.
Twenty-two years previously, in his first inaugural address as California governor, he had observed, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.” In other words, if the value of liberty is not taught to young people, it will be lost.
Trump used the occasion of his Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore to warn, as Reagan did, of a decline in American patriotism brought about by a failure to teach the younger generation what makes the U.S. the greatest country on earth.
“There could be no better place to celebrate America’s independence than beneath this magnificent, incredible, majestic mountain and monument to the greatest Americans who have ever lived,” Trump said.
“Today, we pay tribute to the exceptional lives and extraordinary legacies of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt,” he continued, referring to the four presidents whose faces are carved into Mount Rushmore.
Trump characterized July 4, 1776, as “the most important day in the history of nations.”
“Our Founders launched not only a revolution in government, but a revolution in the pursuit of justice, equality, liberty and prosperity. No nation has done more to advance the human condition than the United States of America,” Trump said.
“It was all made possible by the courage of 56 patriots who gathered in Philadelphia 244 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence. They enshrined a divine truth that changed the world forever when they said, ‘All men are created equal.’”
[embedded content]
Trump then switched into warning mode, mirroring Reagan’s concern about an eradication of the American memory, and thereby the spirit that binds the country together.
“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children,” the 45th president said.
“One of their political weapons is cancel culture — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees,” Trump continued. “This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and to our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America.”
He argued that “this left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.”
Trump noted that statues of Washington, Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and abolitionists like Frederick Douglass had all been torn down or defaced during the summer of 2020.
“The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions,” he said.
“Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that [they] were villains,” Trump argued.
“The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition,” he said.
‘The radical view of American history is a web of lies; all perspective is removed, every virtue obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, every flaw is magnified, until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition’#MtRushmoreSpeech pic.twitter.com/4D1QOX2njU
— Heather Champion (@winningatmylife) July 4, 2020
“We will not be silenced” in continuing to celebrate America’s heritage of greatness, Trump pledged, prompting members of the audience to break out into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
“We will state the truth in full, without apology: We declare that the United States of America is the most just and exceptional nation ever to exist on Earth,” he said.
“We believe that our children should be taught to love their country, honor their history, and respect our great American flag,” Trump stated. “We stand tall, we stand proud, and we only kneel to Almighty God.
“This is who we are. This is what we believe. And these are the values that will guide us as we strive to build an even better and greater future.”
Trump, like Reagan, recognized the importance of passing on the lessons of what has made America great.
There is no better example of this than his Mount Rushmore speech.
