Prior to my analysis of conservative America’s most renowned of champions, there should be an understanding that they will go down in history for their infringements upon the world’s conscience. With plenty of courage mustered to brave the depths of the political rabbit hole in America, it would only make sense that I attempt to shed light on a phenomena that has stumped political analysts decade after decade, generation after generation. Linda Blair Syndrome.  

Reagan’s rise to prominence was in a time unlike any other in modern American history where things were relatively peaceful. War was cold with a burgeoning domestic workforce that indicated a desire for a conservative representative that was a champion of America always being first. With an atomic Soviet Union across the pond, people looked for a prospective hero, by guise of his presidential garb and charismatic quick-wittedness to make it seem as though society could finally revert to the carefree manner in which it had once conducted its affairs.

Where there was tumultuousness of the times and disavowal toward the government; protest, unrest, and angst, there is today, also a conflict-weary portion of the American public who yearns for guidance, a return to simpler times, and someone to cling to like a Messiah. Someone who say, was perhaps proven to encapsulate the unwavering resolve of the American attitude and go against the grain. Or perhaps in this era of ridiculously complicated political correctness, frank, belligerent, and proven to finish the job. To that point is where the comparisons may officially begin.

Where Reagan and Trump both found themselves in the limelight prior to executive service, their tentative stays in Washington began when the country was in dire financial straits and social circumstance. Or so they would have the public believe. If the public isn’t getting shellacked by China and opioids, or by the Soviet Union and crack cocaine, a sizable portion of them are and were in every sense of the words, displaced, unemployed, and dissociated. Dissociated from what exactly? The fabric of a nation who had up until two separate recessions in different eras pit them at the forefront of importance. The majority of America’s middle class in key regions in Trump’s era, is as in much fearful tatters as the middle-class was during Reagan’s era prior to his inauguration when Vietnam was still traumatizing. One era they feared the proclamation of nuclear war, this next, crime and securing a job amidst a recession and immigration stemming from interconnectivity.

Where Reagan’s economic policy, Reaganomics called for widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets, Donald Trump’s policies whistle to a reminiscent tune. Today, things are relatively peaceful as blowing one country to smithereens entails the financial ruin of all others so war is somewhat frowned upon. So, rather than make the weapons free on other nations, we have the newfound time to target our very own country’s traditions, imperfections, and perceived inadequacies. Those, or rather, the majority of overzealous patriots and hardline conservatives who favored a time when the American government actually knew what it was doing prior to distraction in the middle east, now have a more than a capable platform to vent. It pays to know, that in the decade preceding Reagan’s tenure, in Vietnam, everybody was drafted (except our president now I might surmise), and the angst of the generational fear that Reagan capitalized upon was the angst of a middle class who all felt under-appreciated. Under-appreciated by a public who paid them no respect like those who fit the bill of being today’s “deplorables,” who were once down for the count until every odd man out then banded together suddenly, with a voice fit for yelling for fear of not being heard.

Fast forward some years later, and here we are in a similar state with similar tactics being employed. Some of the “same differences” being that war is cold with virtually every country we had once been on amicable terms with, the age of technology is upon us, and we are in the midst of what the scientific community may or may not refer to as the sixth mass extinction. In fact, we’re not really even sure of what extinction this might be anymore just like so many things in this era. It’s the perfect climate for once again inciting fear with hypothetical scenarios and fake news that can’t immediately be disproven. While Reagan made the war-weary and disavowed of America question safety in their homes, Trump makes them question security in their workplaces. It can be said that perhaps the only difference between Reagan and Trump is the fact that Trump as a dysfunctional commander in chief couldn’t support Contra cept if he (contraceptive) was indulging in foreign affairs or doing away with his incessant hate for planned parenthood. With wars to be waged against a range of abstract concepts from drugs to terror, it’s about time we ask whether or not we as a public suffer from Linda Blair Syndrome? As a public it seems that our heads are too far turned with attention paid to the wrong things for us to at least begin on trying to remedy the incomprehensible.

If I had to guess on how things will play out from here according to history, there are a couple of predictions for the remainder of Donald Trump’s remaining time in office that can be made according to how Ronald Reagan’s tenure of office unfolded. Similar to how Reagan revitalized the GOP, and is accredited with winning the cold war, Trump’s tenure of office will result in a couple of far fetched feats for better or worse. There are four things I adamantly feel will emerge as prominent events from the presidency of Donald Trump.

The weaponization of outer space.

The weaponization of online consumer media data.

The emergence of a pseudo conservative/political anarchist internet subculture that actively threatens America.

Diplomacy in the form of some sort of resolution with North Korea.