2024-03-13
6 分钟I'm David French, and I'm an opinion columnist for 'The New York Times.'
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Shortly after Donald Trump clinched the GOP nomination on Super Tuesday,
Joe Biden issued an invitation to, about, the 30 percent of Republican primary voters who had voted for Nikki Haley.
The message was very simple, “Donald Trump doesn’t want you, but we do.”
Trump, by contrast, had told Haley supporters that anyone who’d made, quote, “a contribution to Haley” would be, quote, “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”
And the reality is that Haley voters need to understand that the Republican Party is sprinting away from them.
It’s sprinting away from the Reagan conservative heritage, and from the ideologies and beliefs of Haley Republicans.
And it’s doing so in a way that’s often scornful and hateful.
If there is a bedrock, a hallmark of Reagan conservatism,
it was strong national security in connection with strong international alliances.
In that time to confront Soviet aggression,
but now you have Russian aggression, from a Russian leader, Vladimir Putin,
who, in many ways, is imitating the tsars of old.
And so here, you have the most important issue is one that should resonate most clearly with Reagan conservatives.
And in these circumstances, it is the Republican, Donald Trump,
who is much weaker than the Democrat, Joe Biden.
Joe Biden at the State of the Union very effectively highlighted this difference.
It wasn't long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'
Now my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, quote, “Do whatever the hell you want.”