“Generational Figure”

“GROTESQUE STUPIDITY… Hegseth accused by historians of desecrating the memory of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy after he sought to link immigration to D-day, saying Europe was facing a different ‘invasion’.” https://t.co/DhNArssUPr pic.twitter.com/dQ28cAoOoY

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) June 9, 2026

Trump is the first generational figure our party has produced since Ronald Reagan—the first Republican in 40 years with the standing to redefine what the party is, not merely win an election. Reagan did exactly that, and the movement he built outlasted him by a generation. The opening is real. What Trump does with it is the whole question.

I get the GOP desperation for a “generational figure.” In the 20th century, the Democrats had FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, just in terms of governmental accomplishments, and then the first black President (no, not Clinton) in the 21st century.

While the GOP had Eisenhower (“military industrial complex,” which became a rallying cry of the anti-war movement); Nixon (Watergate); Reagan (Iran-Contra); Shrub (9/11; “WMD;” Katrina). Their last generational figure was Lincoln, and now the GOP is the party of white racism (Reagan kicked off his first presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, and ran on eliminating “welfare queens, “  black women he described as driving Cadillacs.) Which is the problem with Hegseth’s speech.

 BTW: Hegseth is not a Boomer. He’s 46.