Donald Trump for president?

This is from The Wall Street Journal’s “Journal Community,”
which I take it is a blog. What I think is
interesting/relevant/thoughtful about this brief commentary, “Donald
Trump for President,” is the way in which it compares Donald Trump with
Ronald Reagan:

Donald Trump has thrown his
hat, so to speak, into the 2012 Presidential Race ring; and he remains,
still, without one hair out of place. But is he serious or this he
playing U.S.? I think The Donald is very serious, and I definitely do
not think he should be taken lightly. In the context of the current
political and entertainment atmosphere that now permeates the country,
Trump actually makes a lot of sense as a candidate; even more so, and
this is a big IMO, than Reagan did when he ran. Donald Trump is a
multidimensional businessman / newly minted entertainment mogul, who has
a very strong personality, is very pro USA, and once he unleashes
himself into a project becomes a bare knuckles formidable opponent. And
for these reasons he appeals, at least currently, to the Tea Party
movement, whose roots lie in the hope that we can get this country back
to its roots.

The writer talks about the “context of the current political and entertainment atmosphere that now permeates the country.” Trump makes sense, even more so “[t]han Reagan did when he ran.” This correctly understands Reagan’s popularity: He was not a popular president “in spite of” the fact that he made movies like “Bedtime for Bonzo,” but BECAUSE he made such movies. He was the heartbeat of post-war, populist America, and Donald Trump might be as well, as a purely populist figure. If we wanted it to be different we should not have passed the 17th Amendment in 1913.

That liberal America has become entranced by figures like Bill Clinton, who was a Rhodes scholar, or by Barack Obama, who was editor of the Harvard Law Review, is a symptom of decline. It is what used to be called “lace curtain.” Let the Canadians elect a liberal PM because he taught at Harvard. America is yet the robin-egg blue ’52 Cadillac convertible, chopped and channeled, rolled and pleated, with lakers and moon disks that Neal Cassady drove the Dharma Bums across America in or that Hank Williams died in the backseat of seeking Jesus. And it is the better place to be.