WHAT WOULD REAGAN DO?

A long, revealing, and sometimes sort-of-correct stump speech in honor of “the last great president.”

The title seems a neat twist on the fundamentalist what-would-Jesus-do trope, but in his way, Christie is just as much a true believer, one who longs to be seated at the right hand of Reagan. His hero isn’t just the Great Communicator; he’s also the great uniter (who inarguably pulled a lot of white supremacists and government haters), the great statesman, the great friend to all people everywhere. Christie cuts to the chase: “His version of conservatism very much included achieving stuff.” Stuff? Though he had to be dragged to it kicking and screaming, he actually pushed through a little funding for AIDS research, “despite his generational misunderstandings about the origins of the virus.” He may even have saved us from being obliterated by nuclear war. Christie does acknowledge the disaster of the Iran-Contra affair, which “provoked bipartisan uproar, launched televised congressional hearings, and…delivered federal felony indictments to a wide swath of Reagan’s foreign policy team.” Apart from that, “by the usual standards of twentieth-century America, Reagan had had a remarkably scandal-free administration.” There’s the rub and the point, for Christie unapologetically contrasts the presidency of Reagan with the sordidly corrupt presidency of Donald Trump, who at every turn the author presents as the anti-Reagan. Where Reagan saw hope in America and a beacon on every hill, Trump’s “squinting eyes conjured up the exact opposite.” Where Reagan sought to serve the people, Trump sought to help himself to the public trough. As on the campaign trail, Christie is snide, indignant, and excoriating, and his lashings of vituperation are the best and most convincing part of this otherwise undistinguished book.

One doesn’t have to admire Reagan to concur with Christie’s disdain for the “blustery loser” in today’s headlines.