Former GOP and Dem prez advisor: Trump naming "radical Islam" is like Reagan calling USSR an "Evil Empire"

Berlin Wall segment,
Reagan Peace Garden,
Eureka College

On CNN yesterday David Gergen, a former advisor to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, defended presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for his insistence that we call our enemy "radical Islam."

Says Gergen:

On the second point, radical Islam if I may be permitted a quick story. Back in the early 1980s, President Reagan was trying to decide whether to call the Soviet Union an evil empire. I was among those who urged him not to do that on his staff. I thought it was wrong. I thought it would upset the Soviets. I think in retrospect I was wrong. He used the term. I think it worked well. Tony Dolan who was a speechwriter was the one who persuaded him. He had the better argument and that is rhetorically confronting, telling, having plain-spoken truth about what you’re facing helps to clarify and helps to strengthen your hand.

And we know that Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.

That's the kind of America we need to strive to return to.