One year into Trump 2.0, it’s time for Republicans to behave like Ronald Reagan | Opinion

When Ronald Reagan looked at America, he saw a country rooted in liberty, anchored in the rule of law and sustained by a faith in unlimited potential and boundless opportunity. At the heart of conservatism was Reagan’s simple truth: “The greatness of America doesn’t begin in Washington; it begins with each of you — in the mighty spirit of free people under God.”

One year into Trump’s second act, it is clear that he sees a very different America. Trump doesn’t see a free people; he sees enemies. He doesn’t see dissent; Trump sees disloyalty. He doesn’t see a republic to serve; Trump sees a country to command.

That is why Trump has turned the Justice Department into a political weapon — raiding reporters’ homes, investigating governors, and bullying an independent Federal Reserve.

And when intimidation fails, the next step is force. Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act while masked ICE agents roam neighborhoods, confronting Americans on their own streets and demanding identification — treating citizens like suspects in their own country.

Joe Rogan was 100% correct when he said: “You don’t want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people.” A government that uses fear to silence voices is not restoring order — it is dismantling freedom.

And, where the hell is Congress?

Instead of acting like a co-equal branch, it has become a protection racket for the president — cheering what it should be stopping and excusing what it should be condemning. This is not oversight. It is surrender.

And that complicity is as much the story of Trump’s first year back in office as anything he has done.

Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders have been gutless, behaving like palace staff that’s terrified of offending the man they are supposed to restrain.

When Trump issued a flood of executive orders — a clear abuse of power that sets a dangerous precedent for future presidents to bypass Congress and rule by decree — Republicans did nothing.

When Trump bypassed Congress and imposed sweeping tariffs — a massive tax on the American people that replaces competition with political favoritism — Republicans did nothing, despite claiming that high taxes crush growth and free markets create prosperity.

And now, When Trump threatens new tariffs on NATO allies to force Denmark to surrender Greenland, Republicans offer only condemnations while the President uses economic coercion to claim an independent country.

A Congress that refuses to check a president’s power becomes his accomplice. If you find yourself defending any of these actions or finding ways to justify them, you are not a Republican.

At the Republican retreat a few weeks ago, Trump joked that “If we don’t win, they’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.” That single line explains Trump’s first year of his second term.

For him, governing is not about ideology or conservative principles. It’s not about the country or the Constitution. It is about Trump — his protection, his power, his survival.

Trump understands that if he loses control, the legal and political reckoning he fears becomes real. So, he governs like a man building a fortress, not a president serving a republic.

Perhaps that’s why, on the eve of our 250th birthday, we find ourselves arguing not about policies, but about power — and whether one man should wield it like a king.

America has faced moments like this before — through civil war and depression, through world wars and cold wars — and we have always found our way home. We have endured because we are a free people governed by consent, not by force. We are a nation ruled by laws, not by men, and a Republic built to restrain power so liberty can flourish.

It is time for Republican members of Congress to rediscover the courage and conviction of Reagan — to trust the people, to defend liberty, and to remember that their first loyalty is to the Constitution and to the country it protects. America is strongest when freedom is unleashed and government answers to the people.

Matt Wylie is a South Carolina-based Republican political strategist and analyst with more than 25 years of experience working on federal, state and local campaigns.