The 24-hour news cycle and the media's unending quest for huge and profitable ratings have destroyed the ability of Republican and Democrats to sit down and negotiate compromises, veteran political commentator Michael Reagan, the son of Ronald Reagan, told Newsmax TV.
"It's a lot different time now," Reagan told host Bill Tucker on Monday's "America Talks Live." "The fact of the matter is my father was able to reach across the aisle, work with [Democratic House Speaker] Tip O'Neill and give us the largest tax cut in American history, signed at the Reagan Ranch on Aug. 13 of 1981.
"Those are the days when you could actually talk to each other, even though you disagreed with each other. You found areas of agreement and moved forward. That's not happening today."
The reason is the media explosion that has news being carried round-the-clock on cable news stations and social media, according to Reagan.
"We have too much media out there," he said. "There's too many people in the media. There's 24-hour news cycle, and you don't turn on the news to find good news. You listen to Fox, or what have you, to be ticked off at the left, to MSNBC to be ticked off at the right.
"The moral of that story is everybody's ticked off, and nothing is getting accomplished. That just wasn't the case back then, even though the media was not in Ronald Reagan's corner.
"My father didn't respond to the media every time they said something like Donald Trump does. My father used to laugh at the media, and he ultimately made the media in some ways his friend."
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Reagan says it is unlikely things will change back to the way they once were.
"We're not going to get back to that because you don't get ratings getting back to that time – that was a different time and a different place," Reagan told Tucker. "Ronald Reagan today, and John Kennedy, neither one of them would be nominated by their parties this time around.
"Republicans would not renominate Ronald Reagan. He'd be too liberal. Democrats would not renominate John F. Kennedy. He'd be too conservative. That's the world we live in today."
He added: "Think about it. Would the Democrats nominate someone who's pro-military? Would they nominate someone who's for tax reform? No. Would the Republicans nominate someone who as governor had signed an abortion bill, raised taxes, signed no-fault divorce, and was a union leader? Would that person even see the nomination?"
Regan said he believes President Donald Trump must temper his round-the-clock, off-the-cuff outbursts.
"The president doesn't need to keep on feeding fire and giving them more stuff to throw back at him," Reagan said. "He needs to get on with leading the country, giving his tax reform, giving his healthcare reform.
"But there are so many issues that are out there like immigration that are never going to be solved. The reason is there's too many people who make a living by being for or against. Abortion, never going to be solved. Why? There's too many groups who make a living by being for or against abortion.
"That's the world we live in. Nobody wants to get together, because there's too much money made by those who were apart."
Reagan is the author of author of "Lessons My Father Taught Me: The Strength, Integrity, and Faith of Ronald Reagan," published by Humanix, a publishing arm of Newsmax Media.
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